Apple Brings ePub Export to Pages With iWork 9.0.4

Looks like Apple is taking ePub quite seriously.

Now they just need to add ePub viewing in Preview.app.

That's great! epub is very convenient in ibook.

Nice update!

So i guess we won't be seeing iWork '11 anytime soon?

AAPLGeek said:

Nice update!

So i guess we won't be seeing iWork '11 anytime soon?

Click to expand...

Dang!

Publishing

Hmmm... this would make it even easier to "publish" a piece you are working on. Could be interesting.

Could this be Apple issuing the final updates to iWork '09 before iWork '10 / '11 is introduced?

Downloading now. I hope they come out with the trackpad fix soon. They came out with a firmware update for the Mid 2010 15" and 17" MBPs too.

WHAT?! I've been hanging on for the new iWork every since I bought my iPad on the day of release.

I'm guessing this means no update anytime soon then.

Fantasy Guy said:

I'm guessing this means no update anytime soon then.

Click to expand...

No that doesn't mean anything of the sort.

I got this update, on mid 2010 macbook pro

bedakz said:

I got this update, on mid 2010 macbook pro

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Its on Page 2 of MacRumors.

You got that right.

Benjamins said:

Looks like Apple is taking ePub quite seriously.

Now they just need to add ePub viewing in Preview.app.

Click to expand...

Ideally it would work with the iTunes E-Book library as well as files located elsewhere.

I'm actually surprised that this sort of feature is being offered in a bug fix update. As you say an indication that Apple is serious about ePub. Maybe iWork 2010 really has been moved to 2011

In any event no update till tomorrow for me. I'm actually hoping that ePub performs better than PDF on iPhone.



Dave

Great, Thanks Q!

Most likely not.

Fantasy Guy said:

WHAT?! I've been hanging on for the new iWork every since I bought my iPad on the day of release.

I'm guessing this means no update anytime soon then.

Click to expand...

Frankly I would prefer it to be that way. To be more specific I'd rather pay for a major update than to get what at times are trvial updates.

At least that is the theory. As the last Mac Pro update demonstrated sometimes Apple blows the concept out of the water.

In any event what I'm looking for is a vastly beefed up Numbers, more eBook tools and a database manager.

Actually i see potential for innovation with respect to databases within Numbers. If not that a front end to SQLite would do it. Obviously I'm not asking for a lot here database wise. Complex is already taken care of, I'm looking for simple.

This update is a nice step forward, but I doubt it's a magic pill when it comes to making ePub creation a pain-free process.

My company has transformed several of our print-edition graphic novels into ePubs for sale in the iBookstore, and it was a very time-consuming process involving several pieces of software (InDesign, Photoshop, Pages and Sigil). We certainly couldn't have done it using Pages exclusively.

Doctor Q said:

Apple offers an ePub Best Practices template (click to download) that gives you a head start making a Pages document suitable to save as an ePub file. Use it as your starting point or use its paragraph styles in other documents. The instructions are in the template.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Q!!! BTW, does anyone have any thoughts of experience using a two column format for ebooks? The nice layout that Q shared is single column. I'm developing a professional (peer reviewed) journal for psychologists that will be online only. The readers can choose PDF or ebook for their iPad (perhaps Kindle too). We hope to be up and running by Q2 of next year.

TIA

AAPLGeek said:

So i guess we won't be seeing iWork '11 anytime soon?

Click to expand...

My guess is that this update comes directly out of the work being done for iWork 11. In all likelihood we will not being seeing iWork 11 next Wednesday, but this update is something Apple wanted people to have now.

Hmmm. And I'm just about to receive my Kindle. Nice to see Apple investing in tools though — the cynical part of me makes me think they want to empower the consumer at least to the extent where they start asking why commercial publishing houses consider export to ePub to incur the same costs as printing and distribution.

Table Issue!

I'm hopeful to see what this "Fix an issue with Tables" will bring, especially in Pages.

Prior to iWork 9.0.4, a single table cannot span over to the next page. A very critical annoyance, as a lot of forms (e.g. job application form, appraisal form etc.) in Word format are done using tables for you to fill in. This forces you to not use Pages at all when you're given such documents to write in.

Let's download and hope for the best!

AAPLGeek said:

Nice update!

So i guess we won't be seeing iWork '11 anytime soon?

Click to expand...

quite the contrary. Apple always releases "enhancements" to existing programs right before they come out with a new version of the software. what most don't realize is that by updating you are actually crippling your system so that you must update to the latest and greatest software. Its the Apple way. Our iwork works just fine the way it is now. update.. and for "some reason" you will need to update to the latest iwork coming soon. something in your computer wont be right unless you do. The apple way...

Let's see how it handles endnotes and embedded multimedia. If it can do these things well, it will blow every other ePub-creation app out of the water.

rumplestiltskin said:

Let's see how it handles endnotes and embedded multimedia. If it can do these things well, it will blow every other ePub-creation app out of the water.

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Endnotes, multimedia, and data tables.

aprilfools said:

what most don't realize is that by updating you are actually crippling your system so that you must update to the latest and greatest software. Its the Apple way. Our iwork works just fine the way it is now. update.. and for "some reason" you will need to update to the latest iwork coming soon. something in your computer wont be right unless you do. The apple way...

Click to expand...

do you have any examples for this conspiracy theory... because I have used old versions of numerous Apple programs with zero evidence of this.