Stone software is hideous. 1999 called, it wants it's Public Beta interface back.
1999 called. They want their joke back!
It's more Mac-like than anything Adobe, MS or Macromedia ship. It's using all the latest Cocoa UI elements that Pages and the like use, the icons have been updated, etc. If you think there are particular things that don't look nice, let me and Andrew know.
My only critique of Create right now is that its been gaining so many features recently that its palettes are starting to get too numerous. There probably has to be some new thought towards cleaning up the UI in that respect. Notice that, like Page sand Keynote, its user experience centers around a multi-pane inspector and a resource library. The other important aspect is the exporting features, the Image Well (super-handy), its partnership with the PStill distillery for print publishing and the web page creation feature.
I think some of Stone's artwork on that page isn't great, and much of the given resources could be much better. That's at least partly my fault, since I was supposed to come up with some new stuff, but got sidetracked for a long time now with my day job, moving and whatnot. I have to get back on that. There has been some new gains in these places recently though. Still, the idea with Create is that you create your own content. It's not theme-driven or meant to be a color-by-numbers tool. I save my own resources to the library and reuse them all the time.
Besides, Andrew Stone is arguably the most responsive developer out there, so if there's some aspect that doesn't look or feel professional, just bring it up with him or the community.
I do like the range and depth of the Stone software.
And let's face it, even Apple has only recently cleaned up it's Aqua and layout to a decent level of refinement. But I'd love to see a Create on Tiger feeling and looking like a true Tiger app. It'd sell a lot more I think.
The thing I like about Create (and other cocoa apps, I guess) is how well it plays with Keynote (and presumably, Pages as well). Just dragging pdf's from the ink well into Keynote produces lovely scalable graphics with all the transparency set automatically. All you then have to do is add a drop shadow and it looks fantastic.
I see a lot of UI consistency between Pages and Create. For example, the Pages web site talks about using Masks to crop images in a non destructive manner. Create works in the same way, and it is really powerful!
Also, the copying and pasting of effects is the same in Keynote and Create.
Getting back to pages, it was nice to see that subscript and superscript buttons are available in the toolbar options. It remains to be seen whether the line spacing problems have been sorted though...
Re:Keynote 2, I'd like to know if it can finally set up to run an automatic slideshow, ex. setting timings for each slide and being able to let it run.
Steve Jobs mentioned "Kiosk mode" in his keynote speech. Maybe that's what he meant?
This is the main reason keeping me from buying Keynote.
Do you guys remember about a year or so ago.. someone shot some pictures of what was rumored to be a new Apple product.. it had a similar green layout and style as the new iLife logo...
Which site was that? I *think* it was macosrumors, but not sure.
Whoever it was lashed pretty badly when the materials didn't surface, but I remember the whole lightbulb thing and green scheme that is now present with iLife and iWork.
Thanks.
That was "Pal," some sort of Internet synching service for Mac OS X.
Looks pretty different once you compare the images.
Re:Keynote 2, I'd like to know if it can finally set up to run an automatic slideshow, ex. setting timings for each slide and being able to let it run.
Steve Jobs mentioned "Kiosk mode" in his keynote speech. Maybe that's what he meant?
This is the main reason keeping me from buying Keynote.
I can't answer your exact question, but I'm guessing you may be happy with the new version. I was looking over someone's shoulder during a demo of the kiosk mode and it seemed quite powerful. I beleive that the actions for graphics and text can be timed by any choosen number of seconds. I don't remember seeing that the whole page could be timed, but it makes sense that it would.
From Apple's site:
"When you?re transporting your audience from one slide to another, you use transitions, and Keynote 2 offers you plenty of options here, too. In addition to offering you nearly two dozen transitions to choose from, Keynote 2 also lets you control the direction and duration of the transitions and whether they occur automatically or with a mouse click."
Video up showing more images of Pages and Keynote. Scroll down the page and its on the right side of the page.
Nice find. Anyone else find it odd they had a navigation bar with arrows at the bottom but wasn't clickable. You can do those things with QuickTime and Flash so I thought maybe they did.
Looks like a QuickTime export of a presentation on iWork. Safari Web view looks very good for me, giving presentations on web design stuffs.
I was never a Framemaker user, but I'm curious of what Framemaker users will think of Pages.
as a frame user i am interested to see how pages works, but it looks like it is missing some of the things that *real* frame users make use of all the time: cross refs and access to the api/scripting engine (through MIF files etc). this is what makes frame powerful -- on the face of it there are similarities to other word processors. but being able to write custom calls for inserting types of data and x-refs etc is what makes it what it is.
if apple open up the backend of pages it could be the way forward
I agree with Heid. The more I see of Pages, the more it dawns on me that's it's a Page Layout app.
Apple's trying to get around this by making the template thing a user's first choice.
Jobs was actually funny when he spoke of Pages' templates as being an "all-new" idea. It's not new. Almost every app I've ever bought comes with templates.
Maybe I'll change my mind when I get a copy of it, but for now, it's becoming painfully obvious that we have not only lost a spreadsheet app, but also an app solely devoted to text-editing.
it's becoming painfully obvious that we have not only lost a spreadsheet app, but also an app solely devoted to text-editing.
And what text-editing app are we losing? TextEdit is still around. You still have Appleworks. And it looks like Pages will do pretty good word processing on its own by just starting out with a blank sheet.
My question is whether Pages "breaks" the traditional WP paradigm of just opening a document and starting to type, and whether a Pagemaker-like "text in boxes" metaphor is in use.
I'm not complaining about the Page Layout functionality. Do a search and you'll find me asking for a lower end DTP app on OS X from Adobe or Apple.
However, I also write for a living and there's a good reason writers avoid DTP apps.
It's clear (and interesting) that Apple found enough overlap between the features of a WP a light DTP program to blur the lines between them. And it's increasingly clear, from the demo, they've pulled off DTP element with no small amount of panache. I only hope (and wait to be convinced) they've done a equal job for the WP part.
My question is whether Pages "breaks" the traditional WP paradigm of just opening a document and starting to type, and whether a Pagemaker-like "text in boxes" metaphor is in use.
Ok, I see. Can't quite tell yet. Where'd I see non-Apple screenshots a few days ago?
Comments
Originally posted by johnq
Stone software is hideous. 1999 called, it wants it's Public Beta interface back.
1999 called. They want their joke back!
It's more Mac-like than anything Adobe, MS or Macromedia ship. It's using all the latest Cocoa UI elements that Pages and the like use, the icons have been updated, etc. If you think there are particular things that don't look nice, let me and Andrew know.
My only critique of Create right now is that its been gaining so many features recently that its palettes are starting to get too numerous. There probably has to be some new thought towards cleaning up the UI in that respect. Notice that, like Page sand Keynote, its user experience centers around a multi-pane inspector and a resource library. The other important aspect is the exporting features, the Image Well (super-handy), its partnership with the PStill distillery for print publishing and the web page creation feature.
I think some of Stone's artwork on that page isn't great, and much of the given resources could be much better. That's at least partly my fault, since I was supposed to come up with some new stuff, but got sidetracked for a long time now with my day job, moving and whatnot. I have to get back on that. There has been some new gains in these places recently though. Still, the idea with Create is that you create your own content. It's not theme-driven or meant to be a color-by-numbers tool. I save my own resources to the library and reuse them all the time.
Besides, Andrew Stone is arguably the most responsive developer out there, so if there's some aspect that doesn't look or feel professional, just bring it up with him or the community.
And let's face it, even Apple has only recently cleaned up it's Aqua and layout to a decent level of refinement. But I'd love to see a Create on Tiger feeling and looking like a true Tiger app. It'd sell a lot more I think.
I see a lot of UI consistency between Pages and Create. For example, the Pages web site talks about using Masks to crop images in a non destructive manner. Create works in the same way, and it is really powerful!
Also, the copying and pasting of effects is the same in Keynote and Create.
Getting back to pages, it was nice to see that subscript and superscript buttons are available in the toolbar options. It remains to be seen whether the line spacing problems have been sorted though...
We need more screenshots!!!!
Cheers
Rich
Steve Jobs mentioned "Kiosk mode" in his keynote speech. Maybe that's what he meant?
This is the main reason keeping me from buying Keynote.
Something along the lines of making customizable photo galleries, blogs, personal homepages, etc.
Originally posted by Phong
If a database application was added to iWork, maybe it would facilitate Pages's functionalities as a web design application?
Something along the lines of making customizable photo galleries, blogs, personal homepages, etc.
Yeah, didn't I hear about adding a blog server to Tiger?
Originally posted by deepkid
Do you guys remember about a year or so ago.. someone shot some pictures of what was rumored to be a new Apple product.. it had a similar green layout and style as the new iLife logo...
Which site was that? I *think* it was macosrumors, but not sure.
Whoever it was lashed pretty badly when the materials didn't surface, but I remember the whole lightbulb thing and green scheme that is now present with iLife and iWork.
Thanks.
That was "Pal," some sort of Internet synching service for Mac OS X.
Looks pretty different once you compare the images.
Originally posted by jabohn
Re:Keynote 2, I'd like to know if it can finally set up to run an automatic slideshow, ex. setting timings for each slide and being able to let it run.
Steve Jobs mentioned "Kiosk mode" in his keynote speech. Maybe that's what he meant?
This is the main reason keeping me from buying Keynote.
I can't answer your exact question, but I'm guessing you may be happy with the new version. I was looking over someone's shoulder during a demo of the kiosk mode and it seemed quite powerful. I beleive that the actions for graphics and text can be timed by any choosen number of seconds. I don't remember seeing that the whole page could be timed, but it makes sense that it would.
From Apple's site:
"When you?re transporting your audience from one slide to another, you use transitions, and Keynote 2 offers you plenty of options here, too. In addition to offering you nearly two dozen transitions to choose from, Keynote 2 also lets you control the direction and duration of the transitions and whether they occur automatically or with a mouse click."
That looks like a "yes" to your question.
That looks like a "yes" to your question. [/B]
Thanks for sharing that info. Now I'm excited about getting iWork and finally ditching PowerPoint!
Originally posted by kcmac
Video up showing more images of Pages and Keynote. Scroll down the page and its on the right side of the page.
Nice find. Anyone else find it odd they had a navigation bar with arrows at the bottom but wasn't clickable. You can do those things with QuickTime and Flash so I thought maybe they did.
Looks like a QuickTime export of a presentation on iWork. Safari Web view looks very good for me, giving presentations on web design stuffs.
Originally posted by Carson O'Genic
I was never a Framemaker user, but I'm curious of what Framemaker users will think of Pages.
as a frame user i am interested to see how pages works, but it looks like it is missing some of the things that *real* frame users make use of all the time: cross refs and access to the api/scripting engine (through MIF files etc). this is what makes frame powerful -- on the face of it there are similarities to other word processors. but being able to write custom calls for inserting types of data and x-refs etc is what makes it what it is.
if apple open up the backend of pages it could be the way forward
Apple's trying to get around this by making the template thing a user's first choice.
Jobs was actually funny when he spoke of Pages' templates as being an "all-new" idea. It's not new. Almost every app I've ever bought comes with templates.
Maybe I'll change my mind when I get a copy of it, but for now, it's becoming painfully obvious that we have not only lost a spreadsheet app, but also an app solely devoted to text-editing.
Originally posted by Frank777
it's becoming painfully obvious that we have not only lost a spreadsheet app, but also an app solely devoted to text-editing.
And what text-editing app are we losing? TextEdit is still around. You still have Appleworks. And it looks like Pages will do pretty good word processing on its own by just starting out with a blank sheet.
Plus, TextWrangler is now free.
Originally posted by Frank777
Apple's trying to get around this by making the template thing a user's first choice.
And, like every other app that uses themes, there is a preference to disable the themes dialog upon launch/new document.
(From Keynote 1.0):
Problem?
It's a word processor, page layout, PDf and wysiwyg webpage(potentially/in theory) app, to varying degrees. It needn't be just one thing.
Already it's looking like we'll have to wait until Pages 2.0 to see some of the more advanced WP features...
Anyway, looking forward to trying out this puppy.
My question is whether Pages "breaks" the traditional WP paradigm of just opening a document and starting to type, and whether a Pagemaker-like "text in boxes" metaphor is in use.
I'm not complaining about the Page Layout functionality. Do a search and you'll find me asking for a lower end DTP app on OS X from Adobe or Apple.
However, I also write for a living and there's a good reason writers avoid DTP apps.
It's clear (and interesting) that Apple found enough overlap between the features of a WP a light DTP program to blur the lines between them. And it's increasingly clear, from the demo, they've pulled off DTP element with no small amount of panache. I only hope (and wait to be convinced) they've done a equal job for the WP part.
Originally posted by Frank777
My question is whether Pages "breaks" the traditional WP paradigm of just opening a document and starting to type, and whether a Pagemaker-like "text in boxes" metaphor is in use.
Ok, I see. Can't quite tell yet. Where'd I see non-Apple screenshots a few days ago?