A word processor that works in XML would, I suspect, be the first real do-able office app that is truly write once read anywhere. A super text editing browser! Perfect. Doesn't matter if you're using Windows, OSX, linux, palm, whatever. The app opens correctly formatted in every singal platform, because the environment is identical.
I agree with most of what has been written above. A basic application which can be expanded through plug-ins is a great idea. XML is an ideal format (Speaking of which, I hope it's on the cards for OmniWeb?). Apple needs to pay whatever Microsoft asks for Office compatibility.
What Apple has now is a incredibly rushed Carbon version of an Application that could be great.
If they implement, as many have said above, some basic UI guideliens. Employ sheets, customizable windows/toolbars.
One thing that my mother likes about MS Office is that it has buitl in Avery Standard Templates for printing labels and other stuff like that. However, it was still hell trying to do that in Office
Back to AppleWorks, Apple has all these great built in technologies that could be used. Maybe have it save a PDF file wiht the regular file becuase not all Windows users can open a AppleWorks File.
Use that elongated aqua button in the top right. Hit it and you have all your ready to use icons for Bold, Underline, text indentaion, size, font, colour. Hit it agin, you just get a regular window.
Apple has a ready Find and Replace thing in Cocoa. All they have to do it employ it, along with the Font Panel and Spell checker. Also, the builtin ruler of TextEdit
Just imagineTextEdit with impressive menu icons. It would be an AW6 and TextEdit hyprid, hopefully.\\
Is AppleWorks really so bad? I wrote a lot of papers and lab reports in Claris Works 5, and AW 6 on OS X seems pretty much the same app. It might be decidedly mid-90s in style and features, but hey, Word 5.0 was probably the best word processor ever, and it's at least 12 years old..
Some apps need constant updating, and some don't.
That said, i'd be happy to see improvements in AW. It's just that i really don't think it's so horrible as to justify all the bitching going on here. It's just a simple, basic-yet-flexible 'works' app.
<strong>Is AppleWorks really so bad? I wrote a lot of papers and lab reports in Claris Works 5, and AW 6 on OS X seems pretty much the same app. It might be decidedly mid-90s in style and features, but hey, Word 5.0 was probably the best word processor ever, and it's at least 12 years old..
Some apps need constant updating, and some don't.
That said, i'd be happy to see improvements in AW. It's just that i really don't think it's so horrible as to justify all the bitching going on here. It's just a simple, basic-yet-flexible 'works' app.
-robo</strong><hr></blockquote>
it is a crappy application that is bloated and takes no advantage of OS X other than running natively. It's an eyesore and should be trashed and started from scratch.
Greatly improve the database feature to rival Microsoft Access and the ability to import Access databases.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Lets do that and kill FileMaker... Or better yet, why not make the new AppleWorks, give it out for free and include the full version of FileMaker, won't all those people at the AppleInsider boards be happy...
And for those saying $150 is too much, for MS Office Applicaitons thats still a great price considering Word stand-alone is $399. I'm sure its still more appealing than AppleWorks to most people, considering they can use what the rest of the world uses but still have a great Mac like app.
Personally I think Apple should consider including the Word + Entourage bundle in their iMacs and iBooks instead of AppleWorks. Then they can also stop spending money on developing AppleWorks.
Greatly improve the database feature to rival Microsoft Access and the ability to import Access databases.
(Notice how MS doesnt port Access to the Mac)
<hr></blockquote>
How about: Toss Appleworks out, speed up openoffice port to OSX, including aqua widgets et al, (BTW, Openoffice/staroffice are same sh*t, different pile)
To me, AW 6 and 5 can hold their own against much more expensive solutions, but while its price makes some people think it's a toy, others simply don't realize this becuase its default setup is kind of poor. The toolbars are slapped togbether and a bunch of preferences are off by default which greatly improve its usefulness (fractional character widths for example). Inserting or linking objects always defaults toAW file types in the dialog, which is nothing short of annoying!
Here are a few more specific improvements I could use:
1. Larger presentation slide layouts. Up to 1024 x 768 at least.
2. Take advantage of Quartz both with its rendering (some fonts look terrible with Quickdraw doing the work -- not very WSIWIG at all), plus its PDF output.
More control over PDF output would cinch it for me (i.e., bitmap resolution and compression), but also RTF, XML and other more portable and standard formats would be great.
3. Real page guides, not just margins.
4. Make sure it can open Word documents (including spreadhseets) the first time, not like the long wait for translators we had with AW6. same with outher file formats within reason.
OK.. i have to admit i was put off when i first saw AW 6 with the kiddie style huge button bars and other such crap. But if you just close those windows (and leave them off as the default setting), it's a lot cleaner. Also, turn on fractional widths, and turn off autogrid in the drawing app.
Sure, sheets, and long file names (to name a few) would be nice, but who really cares? I'm just happy this 'classic' Macintosh app runs (and runs well, IMHO) in Mac OS X.
Comments
A grammar check would be nice. Not a full-out update-on-the-fly check like Office uses, but a check under a menu somewhere.
If they implement, as many have said above, some basic UI guideliens. Employ sheets, customizable windows/toolbars.
One thing that my mother likes about MS Office is that it has buitl in Avery Standard Templates for printing labels and other stuff like that. However, it was still hell trying to do that in Office
Back to AppleWorks, Apple has all these great built in technologies that could be used. Maybe have it save a PDF file wiht the regular file becuase not all Windows users can open a AppleWorks File.
Use that elongated aqua button in the top right. Hit it and you have all your ready to use icons for Bold, Underline, text indentaion, size, font, colour. Hit it agin, you just get a regular window.
Apple has a ready Find and Replace thing in Cocoa. All they have to do it employ it, along with the Font Panel and Spell checker. Also, the builtin ruler of TextEdit
Just imagine TextEdit with impressive menu icons. It would be an AW6 and TextEdit hyprid, hopefully.\\
Some apps need constant updating, and some don't.
That said, i'd be happy to see improvements in AW. It's just that i really don't think it's so horrible as to justify all the bitching going on here. It's just a simple, basic-yet-flexible 'works' app.
-robo
<strong>Is AppleWorks really so bad? I wrote a lot of papers and lab reports in Claris Works 5, and AW 6 on OS X seems pretty much the same app. It might be decidedly mid-90s in style and features, but hey, Word 5.0 was probably the best word processor ever, and it's at least 12 years old..
Some apps need constant updating, and some don't.
That said, i'd be happy to see improvements in AW. It's just that i really don't think it's so horrible as to justify all the bitching going on here. It's just a simple, basic-yet-flexible 'works' app.
-robo</strong><hr></blockquote>
it is a crappy application that is bloated and takes no advantage of OS X other than running natively. It's an eyesore and should be trashed and started from scratch.
I would like to see:
Good database part, ability to import access document
Better pagelayout abilities (think so?)
<strong>
Greatly improve the database feature to rival Microsoft Access and the ability to import Access databases.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Lets do that and kill FileMaker... Or better yet, why not make the new AppleWorks, give it out for free and include the full version of FileMaker, won't all those people at the AppleInsider boards be happy...
And for those saying $150 is too much, for MS Office Applicaitons thats still a great price considering Word stand-alone is $399. I'm sure its still more appealing than AppleWorks to most people, considering they can use what the rest of the world uses but still have a great Mac like app.
Personally I think Apple should consider including the Word + Entourage bundle in their iMacs and iBooks instead of AppleWorks. Then they can also stop spending money on developing AppleWorks.
[quote]How about this:
Greatly improve the database feature to rival Microsoft Access and the ability to import Access databases.
(Notice how MS doesnt port Access to the Mac)
<hr></blockquote>
How about: Toss Appleworks out, speed up openoffice port to OSX, including aqua widgets et al, (BTW, Openoffice/staroffice are same sh*t, different pile)
and use postgresql or MySQL for the database?
Here are a few more specific improvements I could use:
1. Larger presentation slide layouts. Up to 1024 x 768 at least.
2. Take advantage of Quartz both with its rendering (some fonts look terrible with Quickdraw doing the work -- not very WSIWIG at all), plus its PDF output.
More control over PDF output would cinch it for me (i.e., bitmap resolution and compression), but also RTF, XML and other more portable and standard formats would be great.
3. Real page guides, not just margins.
4. Make sure it can open Word documents (including spreadhseets) the first time, not like the long wait for translators we had with AW6. same with outher file formats within reason.
Sure, sheets, and long file names (to name a few) would be nice, but who really cares? I'm just happy this 'classic' Macintosh app runs (and runs well, IMHO) in Mac OS X.
-robo
Make an app to compete with PageMaker M$Office <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />