Keynote, Pages, Numbers 11.2 updates with new collaboration options

Posted:
in Mac Software
Apple has released updates for its iWork suite, with version 11.2 of each on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS including a number of changes, with some features limited to devices upgraded to macOS Monterey, iOS 15, or iPadOS 15.




Updated on Tuesday, the App Store listings for Keynote, Numbers, and Pages on macOS, iPadOS, and iOS show there's quite a few changes inbound for each app, as they all move over to version 11.2.

Keynote

Keynote 11.2 chiefly adds in live video support for the presentation tool, with a live camera feed able to be inserted into slides as part of a window or in fullscreen mode. Multiple cameras can be connected, to provide different live video angles, including a live feed from a connected iPhone or iPad display.

Multi-presenter slideshows will allow participants to take turns in controlling the same shared presentation from their own hardware. There are also new slideshow controls that provide access to the slide navigator, keyboard shortcuts, live video sources, and multi-presenter controls.

Improved flexible collaboration options now allow participants to add others to the shared presentation in macOS Monterey or iOS 15. Similarly, an instant translation feature will automatically translate selected text into up to 11 languages and add the translated version to the presentation, though again it requires the newer operating systems.

New radar charts allow users to visually compare multiple variables simultaneously, to highlight similarities and differences in data.

In platform-specific changes, an audio graph for iOS and iPadOS will help make charts accessible to people with visual impairments, by playing audio tones that change pitch to represent different values. On macOS, users will be able to create new presentations directly from the Dock's app icon.

Keynote 11.2 requires macOS 11.0 and is 345MB in size. On iPhone and iPad, Keynote 11.2 is 506.6MB and requires iOS or iPadOS 14.0.

Pages

For Pages, there's improvements to book publishing, with two-page spreads, optimized images, and more flexible document versioning. Radar charts make an introduction in the app as well for data comparisons.

For the newer operating systems, there's collaboration by participants being able to add others to a shared document, and the same instant translation feature as in Keynote. It is also possible for macOS users to create new documents from the Dock.

Pages is compatible with iOS 14.0 and iPadOS 14.o or later, and weighs in at 498.6MB. On Mac, it needs macOS 11.0 and is 287.3MB.

Numbers

Numbers introduces pivot tables, which can be used to view and analyze data, produceable with a few clicks. This includes being able to import and export Excel spreadsheets with pivot tables, and the ability to add pivot charts to worksheets.

Radar charts are, once again, able to be added to a document. Quick filters can be used to quickly select values to show or hide, as well as to find duplicate or unique values.

The ability for participants to add others to a shared spreadsheet is also available, along with instant translation, but that requires the iOS 15, iPadOS 15, or macOS Monterey to function properly.

In macOS, it is also possible to create a new spreadsheet from the Dock icon. Over on iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, it adds the accessible audio graph.

On Mac, Numbers 11.2 needs macOS 11.0 and is 255.9MB. On iPhone and iPad, it requires iOS 14.0 or later, and is 532.4MB.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    Pivot tables are a great addition. 15 years late, but still, great news. Good to see Apple improving these apps. 
    williamlondonpairof9dewmeboboliciouselijahgwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 7
    Still can’t work with Numbers on the Mac using Shortcuts app. 
    williamlondon
  • Reply 3 of 7
    Could they work on getting Notes sharing to work too? It works about 10% of notes I'm trying to share with the family?
    williamlondon
  • Reply 4 of 7
    Still no glossary in Pages? Takes ages for Apple to implement  the same functionality as authors had already back in iBook Author….
    williamlondonpatchythepirate
  • Reply 5 of 7
    Pivot tables are a great addition. 15 years late, but still, great news. Good to see Apple improving these apps. 
    Indeed this would seem a great help.
    Category sorting and summing was greatly missed by this user in the early iCloud sync desktop feature restrictions.
    It would be even better if this addition was macOS independent...
  • Reply 6 of 7
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,753member
    Pivot tables are a great addition. 15 years late, but still, great news. Good to see Apple improving these apps. 
    Indeed this would seem a great help.
    Category sorting and summing was greatly missed by this user in the early iCloud sync desktop feature restrictions.
    It would be even better if this addition was macOS independent...
    Apple removed tons of iWork features when they made an iPad version of each app, some features still haven't returned unfortunately. Which sort of proves that iPad isn't the laptop replacement Apple says it is.

    I wrote my dissertation in Pages, and through that found quite a number of pretty serious issues. It looked really nice, but it was hard work. A small subset of issues being things like it being impossible to create an index of figures, you have to manually add a reference to each image and remember to update all of them if you insert an extra one somewhere... And worse, you can't link figures with associated text; so you have to manually update each reference in the text. Though at least now you can caption images, at last. Citations and mathematical notation are a real kludge too. Even more basic things like images not staying put (which I thought was a Word problem) with an anchor in the text. The number of times an image jumped to a page by itself when I added extra text, and refused to move anywhere but its own page almost drove me to follow my Mac-owning coursemates and use Word...
    edited September 2021 muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 7 of 7
    rcfarcfa Posts: 1,124member
    It’s nice Apple keeps adding features…

    …it would be nice if they would fix the fundamentals:

    - Numbers still can’t lock individual cells or cell ranges. One can only lock entire sheets, which prevents data input, or allow data input, and at the same time enabling the option of accidentally messing up the entire sheet.

    - Pages still can’t do mail merge
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