Apple Updates Pages, Numbers and Keynote for Mac and iOS

iHacker0390 said:

Whats the evidence that the majority hate it? I bet the "average" user really doesn't care....

I like the ribbon and I love Windows 8 and Office 2013.

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So you have ****** taste. What's the point ?

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Rockoar said:

When I first got my MPB I bought the iWork suit but after a month of using it ditched it and got MS Office for Mac. iWork sucks big time, is in't even half of what Office is. It's a pity Apple doesn't care more, they could really offer a game changer but they rather sit there doing next to nothing to improve the iWork applications...

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Yes I agree, it's not even half of Office: Apple should add a lot more bugs to iWork to reach Office level.

I'd like them to add, Dropbox, google drive and sky drive support.

New icon

This is really disappointing that there still isn't full feature parity between the iOS and OS X versions, so that iCloud actually works properly. At this rate maybe we will have that by 2015.

Anyone know which useful, but not used by everyone, features they removed to make it more iOS like (ala iTunes, Airport Utility, FCPx, etc...)?

Track Changes

The implementation of Track Changes in the iOS version of Pages is huge for lawyers and others who work collaboratively on text documents. This is the first implementation of this critical feature on the iPad, and will singularly make it a much more used tool for this market segment.

anyone had this :
keynote 5.3 adds support for iOS 1.7 ???

Tastic Bycrom said:

Different teams work on different things & software software doesn't magically appears out of thin air.

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1 person could have coded an entire re-write in the past 4 years.... Software doesn't appear magically out of thin air, but stupid fanboy comments do.

iWork has always been half baked. It doesn't even support the latest office formats, and it was never stellar at exporting or importing to the old ones.

Pages and Keynote are the best parts, but numbers is lipstick on a pig. It makes pretty print outs... but it's not at all a viable spread sheet. And while I always thought Keynote put Power Point to shame.... its lack of updates has blasted it into obsolescence at this point.

Simple features like auto save have never been implemented. And no, don't say 'oh but lion added that os-wide' because not everyone is using lion, and that feature was not so great in practice. Many of us don't want 300 versions of our document... we just want to know that if the power goes out, we lost at most a paragraph.

In so many ways, Apple Works was superior to iWork.... and it was part of the package when you bought a mac. It also seemed to work better with office docs... and that's going back to power pc days... wait, those are still the same office formats iWork doesn't choke on.

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iHacker0390 said:

Whats the evidence that the majority hate it? I bet the "average" user really doesn't care....

I like the ribbon and I love Windows 8 and Office 2013.

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I agree... once you use the ribbon, and then ever have to use an old version of office, it's dreadful. Learning to navigate anything new takes time.

Honestly, the inspector in iWork in kind of like the ribbon in a box, just not nearly as inclusive or intuitive. The ribbon predicts certain tasks and changes for you... and I work has so few features, it doesn't need a ribbon.

One thing they really need to fix is iCloud sharing, if they're going to continue forcing us to use iCloud for the mobile versions of these apps. It's great that my documents can seamlessly sync between my computer, my phone, and my iPad - but I need to be able to easily share stuff with my wife, my kid, and sometimes my coworkers! Most other cloud storage handles this easily; iCloud doesn't handle it at all.

It'll be embarrassing if MS Office for iOS comes out in spring, offering better cloud support than Apple's office apps.

P.S. On a completely different topic - I hate the Office ribbon.

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notyourattorney said:

The implementation of Track Changes in the iOS version of Pages is huge for lawyers and others who work collaboratively on text documents. This is the first implementation of this critical feature on the iPad, and will singularly make it a much more used tool for this market segment.

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Yeah, it'd be great if they'd implement a good way to collaboratively work on a document rather than force us to email copies around like it's 1996...

I am a guy who uses Apple everything! Except....iWork! M$ Office is soooooo much better than iWork it's not even comparable. Why Apple is still on '09 is a mystery and a joke. If Apple was smart they would have put some resources to get iWork up to speed because when Office for the iPad hits the market, no one will want to use iWork. As t stands right now, I would pay just about anything for Office to be on the iPad.

2ndchancephones said:

because when Office for the iPad hits the market, no one will want to use iWork.

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Based on reviews I've read of the touch-driven Office on Surface, iWork for iOS has nothing to worry about.

LagunaSol said:

Based on reviews I've read of the touch-driven Office on Surface, iWork for iOS has nothing to worry about.

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I'm not really talking about the OS...but the apps. Pages and Numbers are terrible.

Where the hell did Speak Selection go in Pages? I use it all the time and now after the update it is gone!

How about adding the a simple SEARCH feature inside Pages? I have several hundred docs with no way to search for the one I need. iBooks has it. Why wouldn't a program made to create files not have it?

Has Pages a good hyphenation now? Otherwise same old same old.

Tastic Bycrom said:

software doesn't magically appears out of thin air.

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Oh really?

Are you sure?

Darn, so much for my understanding of things

2ndchancephones said:

I am a guy who uses Apple everything! Except....iWork! M$ Office is soooooo much better than iWork it's not even comparable. Why Apple is still on '09 is a mystery and a joke. If Apple was smart they would have put some resources to get iWork up to speed because when Office for the iPad hits the market, no one will want to use iWork. As t stands right now, I would pay just about anything for Office to be on the iPad.

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Keynote for ipad is a godsend for when I need to quickly put together simple yet effective presentations. I am not sure if Powerpoint that replicate that intuitive touch interface.

Also, office has such a stranglehold on computer that I am not sure iworks can make a dent, even if a new version is released. It would be an uphill task to convince user to switch over from office to iworks. Much less I am able to purchase Office for $15 thanks to education discount, compared to $78 for iworks.

As such, I believe Apple simply feels it is not worth investing the resources to upgrade iworks.

From all the whining here, you would never know that all 3 iWork apps are consistently in the top 10 paid apps in the App Store. iWork for Mac offers a solid option for those wanting a less bloated alternative to Office and not needing power user features that 95% of people don't use. iWork is not Office and never wanted to be.

Documents in the Cloud aims to radically simplify file management, and Apple is wisely taking this in baby steps. It still has a ways to go, but is already the most seamless option for iOS users - just open the app and your files are there. It doesn't cover every use case yet, but it's quickly expanding. (It's almost certain that Apple is already working on sharing features. Just look at how they started with Photo Streams and added Shared Photo Streams months later.)

This update significantly improves compatibility of the Mac and iOS versions. Track changes for Pages will make a lot of people very happy and expand business usage. I like where Apple is headed with iWork and am saddened by all the negative comments.

Speak selection has been removed from pages and keynote!!!!

iWork on iOS is great

I really enjoy using iWork on the iPad. These apps are easy and fun to use. I have used the apps countless times to draft proposals and reports, build simple spreadsheets, and create short presentations. Primarily, I use Pages. When we are on family trips, my kids have used it to write college applications, develop study notes, and draft papers. Sometimes I bring along the wireless keyboard, but I have been surprised at how much can be accomplished using touch and the virtual keyboard. Really, iWork is one of the big reasons the iPad is not just a big iPhone, since there is no way I would attempt doing this stuff on my iPhone.

The key attribute of iWork is that it is simple and functions effectively with touch. I have tried using the MS Office ribbon on a tablet (windows 8 tablet at big chain store)....it is not a pleasant experience.

zin said:

The iWork apps for Mac need a complete overhaul, in my opinion. I think that Microsoft did a great job with the ribbon interface; it really fits well for productivity.

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You're kidding, right? The ribbon interface is total CRAP. I've been using it for 2 years now and STILL can't figure out where everything is!

But I'm with you -- iWork NEEDS a complete overhaul. Just some examples:

• Numbers NEEDS to be able to lay down text in columns VERTICALLY. How retarded is it that it can't do this... even the update doesn't fix this problem!! I regularly use vertical-oriented text in grading sheets.

• Numbers needs to be more "user friendly". I LOVE how Pages and Keynote were so easy to pick up and learn! HOWEVER, I didn't have the same experience with Numbers. MS Powerpoint was always crap, Word was always too bulky... but Excel seemed to strike the right balance, and you always knew what was going on. Numbers seems clunky compared to Excel.

• Pages' templates are CRAP. Yes, they look BEAUTIFUL on screen, but when you print it out, you get 72dpi quality stock graphics. NOT PROFESSIONAL AT ALL, APPLE. This NEEDS to be fixed!

• Pages needs an EQUATION EDITOR for us maths teachers and nerds who... oh I don't know... need to write EQUATIONS for test papers? They should make it an add-on... maybe an in-app purchase even, since we're going that way, so that people who DON'T need it, don't need to have it get in their way. I don't use it by the way, but I'm being constantly pestered by the maths teacher in the faculty who does!!

• Keynote needs to display presenter notes PROPERLY on the presenter screen. As it is you have a HUGE screen filled with uselessly large info but your presenter notes are still fuggin' 12 point text.... that doesn't automatically scroll!! How hard is it to get a mini-teleprompter in there?? HUH??? REALLY?? (Even MS doesn't have it ... so Apple better get in there QUICK!!)

• Apple needs to re-think the whole auto-save thing. I've actually wasted MORE time un-doing and restoring documents I've used as a 'template' because I forgot to duplicate them first. It's so God-d---n simple: If the user makes HUGE changes, then it should NOT auto-save. Simple user behaviour patterns. We don't usually make huge immediate changes to documents that we want to write over.

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Redneck1089 said:

Speak selection has been removed from pages and keynote!!!!

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NO!!!!! REALLY!?! How stupid is THAT??

SPEECH IS STILL THERE.

I just upgraded and I can still get it to speak my selection by using OS X Lion's universal SPEECH thingy. What's there to fuss over?

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Dionte said:

I'd like them to add, Dropbox, google drive and sky drive support.

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It's called iCloud and you only need one.

theanimaster said:

NO!!!!! REALLY!?! How stupid is THAT??

SPEECH IS STILL THERE.

I just upgraded and I can still get it to speak my selection by using OS X Lion's universal SPEECH thingy. What's there to fuss over?

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Not in the iPad App of Pages.

teknikal90 said:

No dropbox support.
Not ideal to Apple's integrated approach. but not practical either.
almost noone does real work in a closed apple environment.

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Mmm like most of the costumers i see everyday?

No comments in track changes.

Makes this a useless feature for me. (Teacher/PhD student.)