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Some Power Users Are Unhappy With Lost Features in the New iWork

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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iwork.jpg
A number of power users of Apple's Pages application have expressed concern over what they see as a step backward in the just-released upgrade of iWork. One blogger, Pierre Igot, called the new release of Pages an "unmitigated disaster", and there is a 26-page thread on the Apple Support forums and several threads on the MacRumors forums examining features that have been removed from the various iWork applications.

From Igot's post:
Apple's engineers appear to have chosen to keep the emphasis on "simplicity" at the expense of "power". They have not just neglected to add features to bring the feature set of the application closer to that of a word processor like Microsoft Word. They have actually removed many features for no apparent reason other than to bring the application in line with its iOS counterpart, which is, inevitably, much less powerful.
Click to expand...
It appears Apple's intention was to increase both usability and cross-platform compatibility of Pages across the OS X, iOS, and iWork in iCloud, at the expense of some more powerful features.

Amongst the missing features, Pages has lost a number of templates, the ability to export to .rtf file formats, keyboard shortcuts to paragraph and character styes, and AppleScript support is not working properly.

This isn't the first time that Apple has seen criticisms from power users over an updated product release. The company was hammered by power users of Final Cut Pro X when it was released in 2011, because a number of essential features were completely missing from the software. Apple offered refunds to unhappy customers and launched a new marketing campaign to win back skeptical users after adding many of the features that were requested.

Of course, the new release is a free update to a consumer-focused software product where many of the missing features were likely never used by the majority of Apple's customers, so the concerns of power users may fall on deaf ears. Igot does note that the company -- perhaps intentionally -- set aside iWork '09 applications in a folder on computers that upgraded to the new versions, so users who prefer the older Pages app can continue to use it, albeit without the iCloud and cross-platform features in the new release.

John Gruber believes Apple may be willing to sacrifice overall functionality to create parity across the iOS, OS X and web versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote over the short-term. However, Apple has not yet given any indication as to what future versions of iWork could look like -- or if they will eventually gain some of the features missing in the new version.

Upset Pages users would be well-served to give Apple feedback on its website.

Article Link: Some Power Users Are Unhappy With Lost Features in the New iWork
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/25/some-power-users-are-unhappy-with-lost-features-in-the-new-iwork/
Sky Blue

Sky Blue

Guest
Jan 8, 2005
6,856
11
Expected really, Apple software always seems to lose more advanced functions with newer iterations. I've had a poke about in pages and numbers, haven't seen the loss of any features that I use.. yet.
 
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slrandall

macrumors 6502
Jun 15, 2011
412
0
Hopefully now that there exists some semblance of parity between the iOS, iCloud, and Mac versions, the feature set of all three will begin to expand.
 
M

Mr-Stabby

macrumors 6502
Sep 1, 2004
330
273
Remember that, like Final Cut Pro X, this was a 'from the ground up' rewrite of the software. It is never going to have all the features of the original in the first version. But (and i'm no Apple fanboy believe me) you have to say that Apple did a great job at getting Final Cut Pro X up to speed in a very short time, and I went from a FCPX hater to using it as my primary NLE. I imagine iWork will get its features back eventually. But unlike FCPX, they haven't shut out the previous version of the software for people who still need it. So callllm down everyone, everything will be ok :D
 
Aluminum213

Aluminum213

macrumors 68040
Mar 16, 2012
3,597
4,707
iWork on desktop still has a looooooong way to go before it reaches MS Office standards


I'm surprised iWork for iOS hardly updated anything but add a new coat of paint



I will patiently wait for a real version of MS Office for iOS
 
C

Cougarcat

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2003
7,766
2,553
For me, it's not so much the features that have been removed (there are some, though) it's that the interface usability is a huge step back, especially on a small screen.
 
phinsup

phinsup

macrumors 6502
Sep 19, 2008
336
38
Las vegas
I haven't had time to mess with the new version, the old version unfortunately was missing some key features necessary for me. That said I think this makes sense. Apple is giving the end user a turnkey computer, most people will have everything they need for day to day use when they leave the store with their new Mac.

Simplifying for that purpose is probably not a bad idea.
 
B

britboyj

macrumors 6502a
Apr 8, 2009
814
1,086
And for all those features that have been removed, it's still more functional and better to use than Office.

Except Excel. All power to the pivot tables.
 
B

bp1000

macrumors 65816
Jul 7, 2011
1,476
185
I know this isn't what everyone needs but still no support for spreadsheets with more than 65536 rows.

Pretty bad for a 64bit enviroment.
 
C

Chastepe

macrumors member
Aug 27, 2010
66
81
Derby, UK
We have seen the play before - I think this happens because apps might have been rewritten. They start with a clean slate and they will add those missing features again in a future update. Classic example is FCX, in each update they add a bit of those Pro missing features.
 
L

Lancer09

macrumors newbie
Oct 25, 2013
6
0
Microsoft's Office 365 is better. Sorry Apple but your software is great when its free but only because it's free.
 
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Parasprite

Parasprite

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2013
1,698
144
Chastepe said:
We have seen the play before - I think this happens because apps might have been rewritten. They start with a clean slate and they will add those missing features again in a future update. Classic example is FCX, in each update they add a bit of those Pro missing features.
Click to expand...

And then there's QuickTime.
 
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