I have been able to do all my writing work on the iPad using Pages. All my documents are coming out great whether I started or finished them off using the iPad, Mac or on rare occasions the iPhone.
I've read a LOT of reviews criticizing the update to Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Before this update everyone complained that the MS Office apps were bloated, which in my opinion they were. What Apple has done with iWork is rebuilt it from the ground up so that it is seamless across platforms. As a result some features were eliminated. Now, I am sure they just didn't willy nilly delete features for the sake of deletion. They deleted that were obscure to the larger user base and kept the features that a vast majority of people used. What has happened, and it happens on ALL forum sites, the complainers are the ones that post their complaints the loudest. Therefore it, in turn, makes the problem seem larger than it really is.
Now that Apple has laid the groundwork on a new iWork, new features can be built into that groundwork. You also have to remember that when you add too many obscure little features the program will become, like MS Office, bloated. Apple is correct in keeping it simple. It falls back on one of their old slogans proclaiming that the Mac - and now the iPad and iPhone - is the computer for the rest of us. In addition, this change also falls back on something that Steve Jobs said during one of the product keynotes in that "it simply works" In my opinion iWork "simply works" between all four of my devices - Mac, iPad 4, iPad mini and iPhone 5.
I am totally happy with the new iWork. It does EVERYTHING that I have tried to do since the date it was released. I have opened Excel and Word files, some were complex, and I have easily created new spreadsheets and documents. The old interface was cluttered and hard to find things in. The new one is streamlined and intuitive. Some comments on these forums said people deleted the app in 30 minutes or less, one person said 10 minutes. Really, 10 minutes, or 30 is all the time you gave it? That just tells me that those people thought they were downloading a game and it took them that long to realize that it was not an arcade game.
Sorry for the rant, but I agree with the OP, the new version of Pages, and Numbers too are great.
