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Where is the update to iWork? [Merged]

skaertus

skaertus

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 23, 2009
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Apple last updated the iWork suite in January 2009, more than three years ago. Since then, it has released versions of every other piece of software it produces. Three versions of OS X (Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion). One version of iLife (in 2010). A new version of Aperture, which has been updated several times. And two versions of Final Cut Pro. But no new iWork!

Meanwhile, Microsoft has released Office 2010 for Windows, which is a fantastic piece of software. Office 2011 for Mac was also released too, but it's a memory hog and doesn't hold a candle to Office 2010.

Then, I finally tried the Consumer Preview of Microsoft Office 2013 the past week. It's awesome! When I type a text in Microsoft Word, it just feels so smooth! Never used a word processor like that. And Microsoft has not yet announced a Mac version of this office suite - perhaps there is none and Mac users will have to use the web apps if they want to.

While people who rely on office suites are left in the dark, Apple keeps updating its lines of consumer products. Is it ever going to release a new version of iWork? Will it be a real update, to take on Office 2013 as a real contender? Otherwise, I will have to go back to Windows.
 
Mal

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,252
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Orlando
Apple actually has made updates to iWork, just not major feature-packed releases. I don't know that we should really expect much in that department anymore, although they'll likely continue to trickle features in. We'll see, I'm still hoping for some nice Keynote improvements (there's some graphics power they could utilize with Core Video that they're not really putting to good use yet), but it may not really happen at all. It's just a nice simple suite that's not really meant to compete directly with Office, but instead be the 'Office' for people who don't want to buy Office.

jW
 
skaertus

skaertus

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 23, 2009
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Mal said:
Apple actually has made updates to iWork, just not major feature-packed releases. I don't know that we should really expect much in that department anymore, although they'll likely continue to trickle features in. We'll see, I'm still hoping for some nice Keynote improvements (there's some graphics power they could utilize with Core Video that they're not really putting to good use yet), but it may not really happen at all. It's just a nice simple suite that's not really meant to compete directly with Office, but instead be the 'Office' for people who don't want to buy Office.

jW
Click to expand...

I know that, but there is just no counterpart to Microsoft Office in the Mac.

All I see are pieces of software which are called "simple", "just works", "distraction free", "not bloated", and so on. They may well be just excuses for not having the hard work of incorporating several features into it. And nobody is really working on a piece of software which has all the features a heavy user would expect.

I am really, really disappointed at Apple. Microsoft Office is the best-selling piece of software for Macs, and it's a crap piece of software. The fact that Apple just won't do anything to make the experience of these users any better just makes me want to give up the Mac in favor of Windows.
 
Mal

Mal

macrumors 603
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skaertus said:
I know that, but there is just no counterpart to Microsoft Office in the Mac.

All I see are pieces of software which are called "simple", "just works", "distraction free", "not bloated", and so on. They may well be just excuses for not having the hard work of incorporating several features into it. And nobody is really working on a piece of software which has all the features a heavy user would expect.

I am really, really disappointed at Apple. Microsoft Office is the best-selling piece of software for Macs, and it's a crap piece of software. The fact that Apple just won't do anything to make the experience of these users any better just makes me want to give up the Mac in favor of Windows.
Click to expand...

The closest competitor to Office on the Mac is OpenOffice/LibreOffice. The current versions don't feel particularly clunky to me, but the rendering certainly isn't up to par. Part of the trick is that there's so much involved in a program like that, and Apple had no interest in competing feature-for-feature with the bloated Microsoft Office. Microsoft also has an entirely separate team doing their Mac software, and historically the Mac release has been separated by about a year from the Windows version, but as you noted, the next version has not been announced. I can't personally comprehend switching to Windows just for Office, but I can understand wanting a piece of software to work well. I've always found Pages to work beautifully, but if you're trading documents with others who are using Office it's understandably going to be an issue. There's really nothing anyone can do about that, due to Microsoft's choice of a proprietary document format that makes it impossible to get really good compatibility, as well as the sheer magnitude of the project. You have to decide the pro's and con's for yourself.

Of note, running Office with CrossOver or Wine might be a good halfway point. Not entirely sure if Office 2013 is compatible (being that it's a prerelease, I doubt a lot of effort has been made yet to get it functioning, but I think previous versions usually worked fairly well).

jW
 
Chundles

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
Apple have long since retired the "'09" part of the iWork branding, same with iLife.

Looks like they're just going to keep rolling the updates out - works for me. They keep adding features and nothing more to pay.
 
W

WesCole

macrumors 6502a
Jul 1, 2010
756
14
Texas
I just want iWork to be able to save documents in Office formats. Open Office can do this, so surely Apple can...whether they want to or not is a different story.
 
BittenApple

BittenApple

macrumors 65816
Nov 29, 2008
1,030
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WesCole said:
I just want iWork to be able to save documents in Office formats. Open Office can do this, so surely Apple can...whether they want to or not is a different story.
Click to expand...

You can export to .doc format from within Pages.
 
C

cmdrmac

macrumors regular
Jun 24, 2012
134
4
IA, USA
I feel that the inherent philosophy behind iWork is substantially different than Microsoft's Office suite. iWork seems to be more focused on giving a non-tech savvy user an easy way to create different types of documents with ease. If you look at the basic interfaces of Pages and Word for Mac, you can clearly see that Pages has far fewer features and, in my opinion, seems much less intimidating than Office.

I agree that there can be enhancements made to iWork to make it more versatile, but I don't want Pages to become as bloated as Office. Office is definitely more powerful, but not necessarily intuitive for the beginner. This aligns with Apple's policy that Macs are easier to use and 'just work'.
 
G

ggmissmolly

macrumors regular
Sep 20, 2011
214
0
Lexington, KY
I just don't see Apple settling for having a simple minded version of Office for low end users. It is not very Apple--ly if you get my drift.

However I have to admit that iWork, and especially Numbers, suck by comparison. I like Keynote and use it a lot, but it could be better. Pages is just so-so and adequate for occasional use. I use LibreOffice when necessary and always for a spreadsheet.

All that disappoints me a lot and I am surprised that Apple stands for it. Do they really think the personal computer is disappearing and the tablets and phones will take over completely? Do they just not care because the money is in the personal consumer products, not personal computers? Their reputation came from personal computers and leaving them behind is not a smart idea.

Since switching to Apple products 4 years ago I have resisted buying Office, but it is becoming very tempting as Apple lags behind.

rMBP, 27 iMac, iPhone 4s, iPad2, Time Capsule....and soon MS OFFICE..aaargh!!
 
skaertus

skaertus

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 23, 2009
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Chundles said:
Apple have long since retired the "'09" part of the iWork branding, same with iLife.

Looks like they're just going to keep rolling the updates out - works for me. They keep adding features and nothing more to pay.
Click to expand...

But these updates are coming in a very slow pace. iWork is getting well behind.
 
Blackberryroid

Blackberryroid

macrumors 6502a
Aug 8, 2012
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iWork 09 is a wonderful software suite. It totally blows Office out of the water.

All I'm waiting for is some new templates for Pages and Keynotes, plus some new transitions on Keynote. Everything else is perfect.
 
skaertus

skaertus

macrumors 601
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Feb 23, 2009
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cmdrmac said:
I feel that the inherent philosophy behind iWork is substantially different than Microsoft's Office suite. iWork seems to be more focused on giving a non-tech savvy user an easy way to create different types of documents with ease. If you look at the basic interfaces of Pages and Word for Mac, you can clearly see that Pages has far fewer features and, in my opinion, seems much less intimidating than Office.

I agree that there can be enhancements made to iWork to make it more versatile, but I don't want Pages to become as bloated as Office. Office is definitely more powerful, but not necessarily intuitive for the beginner. This aligns with Apple's policy that Macs are easier to use and 'just work'.
Click to expand...

Well, Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac is a bad piece of software. It is buggy and a memory hog. But have you used Office 2010 for Windows? It has lots of features, but beginners don't have to use them all. The most basic features are at hand, and it's very easy to use them. Very intuitive for anybody. And, still, it's very responsive and not a memory hog. Word 2010 uses about 50 MB of RAM with a large and complex document opened - it's less than Pages uses. Not bloated at all. People keep calling Office 2011 for Mac bloated and all - but, IMHO, they either don't see that the real thing here is Office 2010 for Windows or they are just finding excuses to justify their move to the Mac.
 
maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,478
43,399
Blackberryroid said:
iWork 09 is a wonderful software suite. It totally blows Office out of the water..
Click to expand...
really? because numbers fails to have the number of functions that excel has. It does not have the ease of operation for inputting numbers easily (we're talking large spreadsheets).

Pages is nice but again word has more features

Then there's the compatibility. No matter what document/spreadsheet I import, it never looks like it should in excel/word. I also get lots of warnings about compatibility issues and functions were not copied over.

I like iWork, it has some nice features, but it does not blow office out of the water. MS Office more feature rich and of course is compatible with its windows counterpart
 
ScottNWDW

ScottNWDW

macrumors 65816
Jul 10, 2008
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I use both iWork and Office 2011 on the Mac as well as Office 2010 on Windows. I use them for different things, but if I had a specific preference, I would use iWork the most because it is easier and having a gazillion features doesn't always make a program better.

A year and a half ago I purchased a MacBook and have used that primarily the Mac since. When I got the Mac it came with iWork so I decided to play around with it. Many years ago I had a Mac and used AppleWorks and back then I loved the ease of use of it, so I was happy to use iWork.

At work we use MS Office and because of that we have special pricing so I bought Office for Mac 2011 for the very attractive price of $9.99. So when I have to do work at home I use Office. I have opened some items in iWork and there have been some compatibility issues, but that was mostly formatting and nothing that couldn't be worked around. Spreadsheets that I knew used features that were not in Numbers I didn't even bother to open in Numbers.

Right now, for my personal stuff I use iWork and use Office for work related stuff. If it were a perfect world I would probably use iWork all the time because I just prefer it's simplicity and ease of use. Office is just too bloated.
 
Mal

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
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Orlando
SlCKB0Y said:
Funny, I was thinking the same thing as I read your post...
Click to expand...

Ooh, yay. :rolleyes:

Seriously, if I hadn't added anything of value to the discussion here, then perhaps you might have some grief against me. Instead, you're just ignoring the fact that the post I was responding to was devoid of logic (Apple's legal team isn't developing iWork), and was needlessly anti-Apple in an unrelated discussion. I, on the other hand, was pointing out the stupidity of the post in a discussion I was actively involved in and have no interest in seeing diluted by the rapid anti-Apple brigade that is marching around here in double-time.

So you go ahead and mock me for not liking the overall drop in IQ that many of the posts on this forum have been displaying, but next time try to actually pay attention to what's going on first.

jW
 
D

dvoros

macrumors 6502
Sep 1, 2010
418
16
iWork and iLife 2012 version

There is no mention or even rumors about updates to these two software suites. :( I think thats a shame as I use them all the time but am getting tired of the same look and feel. Surely Apple has to have teams working on these?
 
R

robgendreau

macrumors 68040
Jul 13, 2008
3,465
329
Apple isn't much interested in work. While Pages might work as the only word processor for some, it's only an alternative to Word in the office environment for those who deliberately go out of their way to avoid MS products. Or got it for free. Word and Excel are the standards; everything else is like a Samsung Galaxy to an iPhone :rolleyes:

iWork as a suite is rather lame as well. The iWork cloud was a total bust, so now we've got iWork and iCloud. Another non-starter at work. I don't know why Apple bothers; AppleWorks was better for home users IMHO. If they gave the suite away for free it might be worth keeping, but not worth any money.

And if you want Access, Word or Excel alternatives that add something to the party, there are great Mac products; everything from Scrivener to Mellel to Bento and tons of others.

But iWork? I just don't see Apple ever committing to the office workers of the world. They've lost that battle, and probably won't turn back.
 
skaertus

skaertus

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 23, 2009
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Brazil
robgendreau said:
And if you want Access, Word or Excel alternatives that add something to the party, there are great Mac products; everything from Scrivener to Mellel to Bento and tons of others.
Click to expand...

Yes, there are tons of software to choose from. But, as you said, everything else is like a Samsung Galaxy to an iPhone. Scrivener and Mellel, for instance, are great word processors. But they are developed by small companies which don't have the resources to compete with Microsoft Word. Microsoft can afford to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year in developing Microsoft Office. Apple could do that, but these small companies can't.
 
M

musicpenguy

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2006
1,824
734
We are now in a new era of software for Apple. Aperture recently got a HUGE update and guess what it was a free "minor" update.

Apple is making your software purchases more and more valuable by doing rather big minor updates. This is true to iWork, Final Cut Pro X and many of their other apps.

I'm not sure if we will see an iWork '12 what we will see is that the current iWork will grow and evolve as Apple wants it to.
 
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