AppleScript Support Comes Back to Numbers, Could Signal a Return of Power User Features

Good to hear! Hopefully AppleScript support will be improved in all iWork apps. There are a few obvious uses for better support in pages too, such as automatic document generation. Thought about scripting something along those lines recently, but I was shocked to find negligible AppleScript support in Pages.

Were any missing features returned?

MrSmith said:

Were any missing features returned?

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AppleScript in Numbers? I'm sure that matters to some people.

A lot more than "some" features didn't make it into the new version. More like dozens were deleted from Pages.

Focus on Pages please Apple. It isn't as if it was the best before you totally stripped it of features. But it had great potential and it would be a shame to have it all thrown away.

Will the option to have a single or multiple inspectors servicing multiple documents return so that muscle memory and screen real estate actually count for something?

Or will it remain like Office where buttons are always on the move and duplicated in every document being edited?

Even before you consider all the lost features, this smack in the face to power users upsets me the most.

An ability to control Numbers page margins would be a good start.

Are people surprised?

Apple took nothing away. (Old versions remain.) New versions have gained a new mix of features on a schedule some people don't like, but which makes good sense from a software development perspective. I wish more companies had the guts to "start fresh" more often. (Adobe: YOU!)

nagromme said:

Apple took nothing away. (Old versions remain.) New versions have gained a new mix of features on a schedule some people don't like, but which makes good sense from a software development perspective. I wish more companies had the guts to "start fresh" more often. (Adobe: YOU!)

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The problem is people don't understand the goodness of software rewrites. Specially something like IWork which is a very old code base. Or was, this rewrite obviously is an attempt at a modern code base.

My concern is full support in IOS. If AppleScript support is only for the Mac versions Apple has already lost its way. We need feature parity across platforms.

IJ Reilly said:

AppleScript in Numbers? I'm sure that matters to some people.

A lot more than "some" features didn't make it into the new version. More like dozens were deleted from Pages.

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They weren't deleted, they just weren't re-added yet. They did a rewrite.

wizard said:

The problem is people don't understand the goodness of software rewrites. Specially something like IWork which is a very old code base. Or was, this rewrite obviously is an attempt at a modern code base.

My concern is full support in IOS. If AppleScript support is only for the Mac versions Apple has already lost its way. We need feature parity across platforms.

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AppleScript will never be on iOS. I don't think iOS even has support for AppleEvents... That would be a prerequisite.

HOW ABOUT BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY??

I paid for the new pages, having skipped '09, and now I'm screwed. Yes, I deleted the old pages and no, do not have a backup or the cd.

Apple should take advantage of the time that Microsoft is taking to release Office for the iPad and lock and attract users to the iWorks family by making Pages, numbers and keynote the "goto" programs as it should have always been...

Understand that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates had an agreement about MS Office (remember that Bill Gates "worked for" Apple (kind of) in the beginning, writing software programs for Apple (and I too used them years ago). Well, MS Office was Gates "baby" though they did not develop it first, but "inquired it.." (remember Lotus 123 for all of us "old cats").

Now...it is a new era. Pages, Numbers and Keynote have the opportunity to become the main "goto" "IF" Apple decides to invest in its development since many are crossing over from the PC world into the Apple ecosystem, especially with the iPad.

Again, great opportunity to attract frustrated MS Office users. Office for iPad will probably not come out until 2015...Apple has yet "another opportunity" "IF" Apple wants to put the death blow finally to Microsoft....- one year to get this right to dominate...if they desire...

ZOZO said:

They weren't deleted, they just weren't re-added yet. They did a rewrite..

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Oh, I see. They didn't go away, they just went out for a stroll and will return before dinner.

nagromme said:

Apple took nothing away. (Old versions remain.)

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Just don't try to download those older versions from the Mac App Store if you dare to purchase a new computer, etc.

wizard said:

My concern is full support in IOS. If AppleScript support is only for the Mac versions Apple has already lost its way. We need feature parity across platforms.

Click to expand...

I don't quite get that concern, if you choose to automate some tedious task on the Mac in Numbers, that will still result in a Numbers document you can open on iOS regardless if it was produced by hand or automated. Automation is a strength of the desktop, I say they should take advantage of that. As long as the end result is a valid iWork document, then that will be compatible with iOS regardless if it's machine or human made.

I wish tey would let me change vertical margins already on pages for icloud. It is stupid auch a basic feature is missing. That and allow me to input a plain text table like Word does.

I miss the inspector windows in all iWork apps. That way I can bring the inspector settings beside the content I want to edit. In Pages I want the ability to duplicate pages in a document back.

wizard said:

My concern is full support in IOS. If AppleScript support is only for the Mac versions Apple has already lost its way. We need feature parity across platforms.

Click to expand...

subsonix said:

I don't quite get that concern, if you choose to automate some tedious task on the Mac in Numbers, that will still result in a Numbers document you can open on iOS regardless if it was produced by hand or automated. Automation is a strength of the desktop, I say they should take advantage of that. As long as the end result is a valid iWork document, then that will be compatible with iOS regardless if it's machine or human made.

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Subsonix your answer presupposes everyone has a Mac. There are a lot of iOS only people out there. That's where I think wizard's concerns are valid regarding feature parity. I don't think Apple has lost its way though. One thing about parity, it has to cater to the lowest common denominator. iOS is that denominator. There are things in OSX that are just not possible in iOS. Something will have to give. That's where the power users are going to be frustrated.

Chazz08 said:

Are people surprised?

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OMG yes! A big company did something it pinky promised.

Of course the only thing more gullible than expecting that is to expect MORE things to get updated. We're skeptical sheep now.

Mgkwho said:

HOW ABOUT BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY??

I paid for the new pages, having skipped '09, and now I'm screwed. Yes, I deleted the old pages and no, do not have a backup or the cd.

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You'd probably be screwed anyway. The current version of Pages '09 is 4.1. Good luck finding that version on a legacy DVD, and you won't be able to update an earlier version to 4.1 because Apple wants you to use the new, freaking bloodily useless version. The people who are so dismissive of this problem either (1) weren't heavy users of Pages before Apple made it available for free, or (2) simply don't appreciate that Apple is making longtime Pages users walk a narrow plank that may very well lead nowhere.

Maybe the sharply downgraded current version will, some day, be brought back up to where the old one was, but we have had no actual promise of this from Apple (fertile imaginations don't count). We also don't know if or when Apple and OSX will no longer support this legacy software, which is after all nearly five years old already.

A lot of people simply don't get it, or don't care to get it. They apparently believe that Apple did the right thing because (of course) they always do the right thing. Even when they do an obviously wrong thing.

IJ Reilly said:

You'd probably be screwed anyway. The current version of Pages '09 is 4.1. Good luck finding that version on a legacy DVD, and you won't be able to update an earlier version to 4.1 because Apple wants you to use the new, freaking bloodily useless version.

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Actually, all it takes is a Mac running (at least temporarily) Mountain Lion. Doesn't have to be yours. Just log into the App Store and you can download 4.1. Then just copy Pages.app to the Mavericks system. Of course, keep a copy around as a backup!

IMHO, the *real* problem is that Software Update keeps insisting that you upgrade if the new version is not installed, and if the new version is installed insists on opening it by default -- You can't change the default back to the old version! Only "cure" I've found is to have Pages/Numbers/Keynote old versions launch at login, and then never shut them down (never use Cmd-Q, always Cmd-W, a good idea anyway). As long as they are running existing documents will open in them.

nagromme said:

Apple took nothing away. (Old versions remain.) New versions have gained a new mix of features on a schedule some people don't like, but which makes good sense from a software development perspective. I wish more companies had the guts to "start fresh" more often. (Adobe: YOU!)

Click to expand...

I would shudder to think of what would happen if Adobe "started fresh". Take it from a professional, there's nothing good or easy about re-writing a program from scratch.

talmy said:

Actually, all it takes is a Mac running (at least temporarily) Mountain Lion. Doesn't have to be yours. Just log into the App Store and you can download 4.1. Then just copy Pages.app to the Mavericks system. Of course, keep a copy around as a backup!

IMHO, the *real* problem is that Software Update keeps insisting that you upgrade if the new version is not installed, and if the new version is installed insists on opening it by default -- You can't change the default back to the old version! Only "cure" I've found is to have Pages/Numbers/Keynote old versions launch at login, and then never shut them down (never use Cmd-Q, always Cmd-W, a good idea anyway). As long as they are running existing documents will open in them.

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Have you tried this? I'm not 100% certain that the old version would be available in the App Store, even to pre-Mavericks users. Assuming it is, I'd assume you'd have to pay for it. If you'd already bought iWork, that would be a drag. In any case, it's a workaround, potentially costly and time-consuming besides, and not a place we should be as Mac users.

Fortunately I read some of the discussion here from other iWork users who "upgraded" and were horrified to discover that their documents now opened in the new apps by default, and were autosaved in the new file format. Knowing that I made a copy of a document and opened it in the new version of Pages and found that the formatting was totally hosed. I felt lucky to have heard in advance that this might happen. Not that Apple warned us in any way about this disaster. Why anyone persists in excusing Apple for this mess is a mystery to me.

I turned off the update notifications, so at least I don't get pestered daily about the updates from the Message Center. I still see the "3" bubble from the App Store in my Dock but I can ignore that. Onwards we go, into the darkness...

roadbloc said:

Focus on Pages please Apple. It isn't as if it was the best before you totally stripped it of features. But it had great potential and it would be a shame to have it all thrown away.

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the previous versions are still on your mac, unless you removed them. did you remove them?

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Mgkwho said:

HOW ABOUT BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY??

I paid for the new pages, having skipped '09, and now I'm screwed. Yes, I deleted the old pages and no, do not have a backup or the cd.

Click to expand...

sounds like you screwed up by deleting them w/o backing them up first. what did you expect? do you want apple to have a fix for user error?

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IJ Reilly said:

Oh, I see. They didn't go away, they just went out for a stroll and will return before dinner.

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the previous versions continue to reside on your mac, and work perfectly. unless you removed them.