Apple updates iWork for iOS and Mac, brings tighter integration with Microsoft products
Apple on Tuesday refreshed the iOS versions of its productivity suite, with Pages, Numbers and Keynote, all of which boast improved compatibility with their Windows counterparts.
It marks the second major update of Apple's first-party iOS apps in less than a week, following Thursday?s refresh of the iOS Remote app.
From the release notes:
Version 1.7 of the Pages app also offers preservation of tracked changes in documents exported to Microsoft Word or Pages for Mac.
From the release notes:
From the release notes:
From the release notes:
iWork
The latest version 9.3 of iWork Mac lends support to the concurrently released iOS updates, including improved compatibility for Pages, Numbers and Keynote with their Microsoft Office counterparts.It marks the second major update of Apple's first-party iOS apps in less than a week, following Thursday?s refresh of the iOS Remote app.
From the release notes:
The download comes in at 316.7 MB, identical to the previous update, which coincided with the release of Mountain Lion in in July.About iWork 9.3
iWork Update 9.3 adds support for iWork for iOS 1.7 apps.
This update is recommended for users of iWork 9.0 and later.
Pages for iOS
Apple's Pages for iOS update was most substantial, and along with the "improved compatibility with Microsoft Word and Pages for Mac," the iPhone and iPad app adds Change Tracking to entire text documents. The feature was previously an exclusive to the desktop version of Pages, which allows users to collaborate and make changes to a document, with those edits being viewable to all contributors.Version 1.7 of the Pages app also offers preservation of tracked changes in documents exported to Microsoft Word or Pages for Mac.
From the release notes:
Pages for iOS version 1.7 is available now from the iOS App Store as a 245 MB download.What's New in Version 1.7
In this release Pages for iOS is updated for improved compatibility with Microsoft Word and Pages for Mac.
- Use Change Tracking to track changes to body text in a document
- Accept and reject individual changes as you review a document
- Import Pages and Microsoft Word documents with change tracking and continue to track changes to body text
- Preserve tracked changes in documents exported in Microsoft Word or Pages format
- Preserve calculations in tables when importing from and exporting to Pages for Mac
- Add reflections to shapes
- Lock and unlock objects
Numbers for iOS
Numbers for iOS also hits version 1.7 with Tuesday's update, bringing extended support for importing and exporting files with filters and rich text retention. The app now offers improved compatibility with Microsoft Excel and Numbers for Mac.From the release notes:
The iOS iteration of Numbers weighs in at 244 MB and can be downloaded via the iOS App Store.What's New in Version 1.7
In this release Numbers for iOS is updated for improved compatibility with Microsoft Excel and Numbers for Mac.
- Hide and unhide rows and columns
- Import and export Numbers for Mac spreadsheets with filters, and turn filters on and off
- Preserve rich text in tables when importing and exporting
- Add reflections to shapes
- Lock and unlock objects
Keynote for iOS
Behind Pages, it appears that Apple spent the most time on adding new features to Keynote for iOS, which offers improved functionality with Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote for Mac. New slide transitions have been built in, while the app can now import and export all Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote for Mac slide sizes and presentation themes. Just as in Numbers, table calculations are preserved during import from and export to the software's desktop counterpart.From the release notes:
Keynote comes in at 304 MB and can be downloaded via the App Store.What's New in Version 1.7
In this release Keynote for iOS is updated for improved compatibility with Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote for Mac.
- Import and export all Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote for Mac slide sizes
- Import and export presentation themes, complete with master slides and preset styles
- Play back all Keynote action builds including Move, Rotate, Scale, and Opacity
- Add new slide transitions including Shimmer and Sparkle
- Preserve calculations in tables when importing from and exporting to Keynote for Mac
- Add reflections to shapes
- New print layouts include options to print with presenter notes, with builds, and without backgrounds
- Lock and unlock objects
Comments
Apple updates iWork for iOS and Mac…
HECK YEA—
…brings tighter integration with Microsoft products
—WHAT.
At least that's not all they added. Good to see some nice new feature additions. Now how about iWork '13?!
College students rejoice! Everyone else is out in the cold again.
Feature parity with the OS-X version would be nice. If they keep this rate up, it will be at least three more years before the iOS version even edits OS X version files or has the same feature set. This is lame in the extreme.
Out of all the things that need fixing, this should be one of the *last* things on the list, not the first. I mean come on, it doesn't even do hyphenation and yet it's going for track changes? Argh!
It's pathetic how long Apple has taken to update the desktop version of iWork. It's been years since any significant update. Apple is destroying its credibility, and it's going to hurt its ability to introduce new products that aren't an iPhone, iPad or Macbook Air (ie, the products Apple actually puts some effort into).
A company with $110 billion in the bank should be able to update a suite of three apps in three years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by k2director
It's pathetic how long Apple has taken to update the desktop version of iWork. It's been years since any significant update. Apple is destroying its credibility, and it's going to hurt its ability to introduce new products that aren't an iPhone, iPad or Macbook Air (ie, the products Apple actually puts some effort into).
A company with $110 billion in the bank should be able to update a suite of three apps in three years.
Sometimes it seems to me like Apple is actually just hoping that Microsoft will make Word for iOS one day (they won't of course). It's almost as if they don't believe in their own product they way they keep iWork apps down.
Perhaps the (one) person who codes iWork apps at Apple is on stress leave or something.
I can't think of many other explanations for their horrible performance with iWork. It's almost insulting to those of us who drank the Kool-Aide and switched to iWork. We get treated like dogs when in fact we are the bleeding edge loyal customers who've actively adopted their alternative to Office.
Quote:
Originally Posted by k2director
It's pathetic how long Apple has taken to update the desktop version of iWork. It's been years since any significant update. Apple is destroying its credibility, and it's going to hurt its ability to introduce new products that aren't an iPhone, iPad or Macbook Air (ie, the products Apple actually puts some effort into).
A company with $110 billion in the bank should be able to update a suite of three apps in three years.
damn straight it could have.... ...but maybe iWork is just a "hobby"??
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
This is just sad IMO. After all this time and with all the missing features Pages for iOS has they issue this update just so that it can track changes? WTF?
College students rejoice! Everyone else is out in the cold again.
Umm... as an engineer at a medical device company that uses MS Office for everything, I have often thought, "If Pages would track changes, I could totally use my iPad at work."
For me, I can't think of a single alternative improvement that would give me greater cause to use my iPad at work. This is a big win for Apple.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brutus009
Umm... as an engineer at a medical device company that uses MS Office for everything, I have often thought, "If Pages would track changes, I could totally use my iPad at work."
For me, I can't think of a single alternative improvement that would give me greater cause to use my iPad at work. This is a big win for Apple.
I just think that adding a feature for a collaborative environment (so people can use MS Office more efficiently) should take a back seat to the basic functionality of the program itself.
For instance it's Apple's premier word processor and actually the only word processor currently available on iOS, but it doesn't do simple hyphenation or ligatures. It only recently acquired pagination. That's bad. Really, embarassingly, bad IMO.
They need to get it to a level where it can use the same file format for both the OS X version and the iOS version at the very least. They need to get the same features on the iOS version that are on the OS X version at the very least also.
There are also some really dumb-ass features they already have that need to go like the "touch the top of the screen inadvertently and be moved to the first page of the document" crap. Really f*cking annoying when working on a 4-500 page document. I don't believe any of the designers of the program have used it for much more than a single page "lost kitty" poster sometimes. It's completely annoying for anyone trying to do serious work with it a lot of the time, especially the iOS version.
The whole app is like it was designed for dilettantes by dilettantes. The promise when they introduced it was that it would be a serious app and a serious alternative to Office. Here we are many years later and it's still a million miles from that goal.
I know I'm kind of ranting a bit, but I seriously don't understand the problem here or what Apple is thinking.
They introduce a whole new computing platform (iOS), they tell us it's not a joke and that it's for "serious" computing and port all their iLife and iWork apps to it. Then they let these apps languish in some kind of hell where they never get updated and barely work at all. If Pages were a properly designed word processor (and despite my complaints I think it's better than MS Word actually), it could actually *attract* people to the platform (which is kind of why you write apps like this), but instead it's actually just a reason to stick with a laptop because Pages for iOS just isn't ready for prime time.
I'd like to see Apple move aggressively on their productivity software in 2013. Microsoft Office has languished in poor useability and compatibility for over a decade.
You just have to look at the number of tech support articles published on the net for word and excel about what should be very basic and easilly accessible functions. Most people scrape by on the bare minimum and never learn how to use advanced features like mailmerge to effectively reduce their workload.
I keep invisible formatting marks on at all times. It's appalling the number of documents that float around the office with crazy formatting. Repeated spaces instead of tabs etc.
Microsoft Office only rules this space because it is "good enough" (not great) and there isn't a compelling alternative for IT departments to make the switch.
I'd like to see a new open-sourced document format. A clean slate to rid ourselves of the accumulated mistakes of the past and manage in the most effecient way. Something that could be opened and edited in multiple word processors without loss of fidelity, effectively replacing the need for proprietary formats like .word and .pages
Apple could really push Microsoft out of this space with pages in particular. They just need a few more powerful features like mailmerge, change tracking and simultaneous editing by multiple users and it would meet all the needs of most offices. It wouldn't be hard to undercut the microsoft office price gouge and suddenly macs become much more appealing to enterprise. They are already well positioned to provide a seamless experience between desktop and the iOS devices everyone already has.
My guess is Apple is trying to get feature parity of iWork on iOS and OS X, and only then can they use the same file formats and have seamless use of iCloud.
Once that's done, *then* I think we'll see iWork '13, with new features. Hopefully, it'll be a doozy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by k2director
It's pathetic how long Apple has taken to update the desktop version of iWork. It's been years since any significant update. Apple is destroying its credibility, and it's going to hurt its ability to introduce new products that aren't an iPhone, iPad or Macbook Air (ie, the products Apple actually puts some effort into).
A company with $110 billion in the bank should be able to update a suite of three apps in three years.
Why don't you provide a list of what you'd like added for iWork OSX? I've seen a ton of people bitching about the lack of an update, but not once have I seen a single bullet point or feature that they would like. What is the suit missing? Give some specifics.
Oh, and track changes is a significant feature, for those knocking it. You obviously haven't been in situations in which it's critical- and there are alot of them.
Something tells me that there won't be one. Or an iLife '13, '14 etc. Such a thing generally comes with having to pay again. Not very cx friendly when they could drop the yearly numbering, go for frequent, small updates and we never pay again.
And what change would really warrant a new version anyway. Perhaps switching the little pop up pieces for something more like iPhoto's tabbed sidebar but that's really about it. At least in the desktop version
It's been updated several times in the last three years. Just not fully rewritten with a totally done over UI etc.
If anything they need to drop the dang year from the name. It's pointless really not that its in the App Store
Well, for Pages specifically, these would be useful, and some might work in other of the iWork apps:
-64 bit.
-Hyperlinks taking you to an item and back from the item (like footnotes, endnotes, figures, tables, index items, etc.)
-Equation editor
-Much better reference/footnote system (ideally this would involve more than Pages, for instance, introduce an iBooks for OS X, and then let you directly quote from your digital library, letting the program automatically input all the citation information).
-Superior indexing
-Support for Cross-References.
-Writing style manager: for instance, say I start in Chicago but want to move to AMA, have the software automatically convert my document for me.
Since the iPhone already trounces every single phone out there,
since Apple has by a huge margin the best laptops (air, retina models) and desktops (iMac, mini),
I seriously hope they focus on software in 2013.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gazoobee
This is just sad IMO. After all this time and with all the missing features Pages for iOS has they issue this update just so that it can track changes? WTF?
College students rejoice! Everyone else is out in the cold again.
Feature parity with the OS-X version would be nice. If they keep this rate up, it will be at least three more years before the iOS version even edits OS X version files or has the same feature set. This is lame in the extreme.
Out of all the things that need fixing, this should be one of the *last* things on the list, not the first. I mean come on, it doesn't even do hyphenation and yet it's going for track changes? Argh!
Feature parity would double the size of each app.
If one wants world-class publishing you use TeXLive 2012 and XeTeX/XeLaTeX with all the power TeXLive offers.