Where is the update to iWork? [Merged]

[Anuba]

I bought my first iPad recently and couldn't resist buying Pages and Numbers for it. After that, I couldn't resist buying the Mac counterparts (it was peanut money, after all) to see how the iCloud integration worked. It was pretty disappointing... this whole "Open Copy" thing (due to incompatibilities) defeats the purpose, plus there are loads of bugs and differences in interpretation which results in the iPad wrecking the docs created on Mac and vice versa. It adds an unpleasant toy/proof-of-concept vibe to iWork. It's unfortunate that Apple loses interest and commitment for everything that isn't ludicrously lucrative with a billion trillion percent profit margin, it leaves little wiggle room for goodwill.

[1Azhar]

Originally Posted by ixodes

Are you kidding? iWork?

Apples got high priority lawsuits & bullying to do.

Probably. I long for a new version of iWork with real new features

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by 1Azhar

Probably. I long for a new version of iWork with real new features

Me too. Very disappointed at Apple here. I was even thinking of buying a MacBook Pro with a retina display. But then I thought again and why would I buy such an expensive computer to run an operating system that has only a sub-par office suite? I would have to buy a copy of Windows separately to run a decent version of Microsoft Office on Parallels (which I would also have to buy separately). I definitely don't want an expensive laptop to use Facebook, Messages or any of these other fancy-and-nice things Apple is adding to OS X and which I may well use on my iPhone. I don't want an über-expensive toy. I would expect a Mac to deliver the real thing: productivity software with a lot of features and full compatibility combined with a nice user experience, blowing Windows away, and Apple is not delivering it. So I guess I will wait for PC laptops with higher resolution displays before I decide...

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I wrote an email to Schiller the other day, regarding iWork, and get a reply from Susan Prescott, VP of Pro Markets at Apple. Should give a bit of hope back to some of us..

Hi David,

We are always excited to hear from users like you who are passionate about iWork, just as we are. While we can't be specific about future releases, you should know that we are definitely investing in the continued development of iWork for Mac. We appreciate your feedback on Numbers, and improved performance is a primary goal.

Thanks for your patience and rest assured that there is an exciting future ahead for iWork for Mac.

Best regards,
Susan


Begin forwarded message:

From: *******
Date: September 21, 2012, 5:59:29 AM EDT
To: schiller@apple.com
Subject: Does iWork for Mac have future planned?

Greetings from Denmark,


Congratulations on the newest iPhone release, I love the new design! I know you're a busy man, but I still hope you have time for a quick answer for my question.

Is iWork development dead in the water? We haven't seen a new release in a long time now, and being a big fan of this production suite, I would love to see it have a future still. Especially Numbers could use an overhaul, as it gets extremely slow to work with using even medium sized data sets, and it is quite cumbersome to work with graphs as it currently is right now.

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by T'hain Esh Kelch

I wrote an email to Schiller the other day, regarding iWork, and get a reply from Susan Prescott, VP of Pro Markets at Apple. Should give a bit of hope back to some of us..

Thank you. It's great to see that you were really interested in the development of iWork to send Apple an e-mail on it. And it is great to see you got an answer.

However, I must say I wouldn't expect a different answer from Apple. They would never admit that they not investing so much time, money and effort in the development of iWork. The answer is very generic and says things such as "continued development of iWork for Mac" and "exciting future ahead for iWork for Mac", which doesn't mean much of anything. Should they have something in the cards, they could have said something more specific.

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I agree with your post, but at least it is better than "We have no current plans for a major iWork update"..

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by T'hain Esh Kelch

I agree with your post, but at least it is better than "We have no current plans for a major iWork update"..

You have a point.

[steventay]

iWork dead?


so far only office mac and neooffice have updated..

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by steventay

iWork dead?


so far only office mac and neooffice have updated..

I hope not... but iWork doesn't get a real update in years...

[drewyboy]

For those knocking Pages doc export w/ opening in Word... lets make it clear that a Office for mac 2011 to office 2010 or 2013 still does the same. MS can't even get it right cross platform so you can't expect apple to get something right that ms can't do w/ their own software. I personally hate .doc files... unless specified, I always send in PDF. There needs to be an open unified file format, but of course MS will fight tooth and nail, rightfully so. I wouldn't expect anything less from them, or from any other company that has the monopoly in the business world that they do.

Keynote still kicks pp butt, and I think pages is much better than word. Now for those business users, I understand excel being king... but for home, I think numbers takes the cake. I showed a friend some things numbers does and he was impressed..I simply said can excel do that and he said no. I was seriously asking him... i never use excel. He may have not know.. and I don't remember what it was that I did.. it was kind of on accident. Anyways... iWork all the way for me.

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by drewyboy

For those knocking Pages doc export w/ opening in Word... lets make it clear that a Office for mac 2011 to office 2010 or 2013 still does the same. MS can't even get it right cross platform so you can't expect apple to get something right that ms can't do w/ their own software. I personally hate .doc files... unless specified, I always send in PDF. There needs to be an open unified file format, but of course MS will fight tooth and nail, rightfully so. I wouldn't expect anything less from them, or from any other company that has the monopoly in the business world that they do.

You can't expect Apple Pages to open proprietary .DOC files perfectly. But .DOCX files are Office Open XML (OOXML) files, an open standard. Although the standard is complex, it already has 5 years and companies should have decyphered it at this point. Pages should do the job perfectly.

Keynote still kicks pp butt, and I think pages is much better than word. Now for those business users, I understand excel being king... but for home, I think numbers takes the cake. I showed a friend some things numbers does and he was impressed..I simply said can excel do that and he said no. I was seriously asking him... i never use excel. He may have not know.. and I don't remember what it was that I did.. it was kind of on accident. Anyways... iWork all the way for me.

Well, Pages may be better than Word in some ways, especially in what concerns basics of desktop publishing (beautiful pages, etc.). But Pages doesn't have the real advanced word processing features Microsoft Word has. Pages doesn't have support for cross-references, and any serious word processor must have it. Word has had it for ages. LibreOffice Writer has it. Nisus Writer Pro and Mellel have it. I can't even think of writing text without making use of cross-references... and Pages doesn't have it!

As for Keynote, it may even be better than PowerPoint. But does that matter? When I make a presentation, I make a presentation for other people to see it. And, invariably, I have to open the presentation in someone else's computer. 99.9% of the times, this computer happens to be a Windows machine running PowerPoint. It won't open PowerPoint files. I may convert from Keynote to PowerPoint, but then, what's the point in doing that? I'll miss all the beauty of the transitions that PowerPoint doesn't support. It would be better to use PowerPoint from the beginning.

iWork has a lot to evolve before it can even think of competing with Microsoft Office.

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Originally Posted by skaertus

You can't expect Apple Pages to open proprietary .DOC files perfectly. But .DOCX files are Office Open XML (OOXML) files, an open standard. Although the standard is complex, it already has 5 years and companies should have decyphered it at this point. Pages should do the job perfectly.

With that you are making the assumption that the problem lies with Apples interpretation of the format, and not Microsofts.

But Pages doesn't have the real advanced word processing features Microsoft Word has. Pages doesn't have support for cross-references, and any serious word processor must have it. Word has had it for ages. LibreOffice Writer has it. Nisus Writer Pro and Mellel have it. I can't even think of writing text without making use of cross-references... and Pages doesn't have it!

There will always be features that someone will use, and most others wont. Pages aren't the gigantuan that is Word for a reason.

As for Keynote, it may even be better than PowerPoint. But does that matter?

It certainly does when I can make a presentation faster and better looking, when using Keynote over PowerPoint. Time is money.

When I make a presentation, I make a presentation for other people to see it. And, invariably, I have to open the presentation in someone else's computer. 99.9% of the times, this computer happens to be a Windows machine running PowerPoint. It won't open PowerPoint files. I may convert from Keynote to PowerPoint, but then, what's the point in doing that? I'll miss all the beauty of the transitions that PowerPoint doesn't support. It would be better to use PowerPoint from the beginning.

What a stupid argument. You must really love monopolies?

iWork has a lot to evolve before it can even think of competing with Microsoft Office.

It was *never* meant to compete with MS Office!

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by T'hain Esh Kelch

With that you are making the assumption that the problem lies with Apples interpretation of the format, and not Microsofts.

Kind of. I know it is unfair. But if there is a monopoly -- and I am not discussing the reasons which led to the creation of this monopoly -- everybody is in the hands of the monopolist.

Everybody relies on the filetypes created by Microsoft. If someone wants to compete, it has to dance with the music.

I am not saying that the problem is Microsoft or Apple. I -- just like every other consumer or professional -- want the solution. All I want is my presentation to work so I can give a talk; or my document to be opened by whoever I send it to.

Apple has a lot of cash and it could hire an army of engineers and developers to decypher Microsoft's file formats. But it just won't. Of course it is a business decision, and the decision of Apple seems to be not to compete with Microsoft Office. That's fine, but I won't use iWork then.

There will always be features that someone will use, and most others wont. Pages aren't the gigantuan that is Word for a reason.

OK. But then Pages is not a real competitor. It's just simple software to do homework. Not a real word processor.

It certainly does when I can make a presentation faster and better looking, when using Keynote over PowerPoint. Time is money.

If you can handle to open your Keynote presentation in front of the crowd you're going to present it, then it's fine. I can't. And several other users can't either. I'll have to manage to open my presentation in a Windows computer. Then I would have to spend countless hours handling issues in converting my Keynote presentation to PowerPoint.

What a stupid argument. You must really love monopolies?

I hate monopolies. However, the argument is far from stupid. The monopoly is an issue between Microsoft and Apple, and with whoever tries to compete with them.

I won't fight monopolies. I'm not paid for that. I don't get a single penny out of Microsoft Office or iWork. All I want is my work to be done. And I need compatibility. I have to say that having a "de facto" standard as Microsoft Office helps a lot with handling compatibility of file types. If I can have this simple solution and use Office like everybody else, why would I use iWork just to be different?

I think Office is a superior product to iWork. Apple could have updated iWork during all these years, but it didn't do that. Office is now a much better product. Have you tried Office 2013 for Windows? It is great. I see no reason to use iWork other than creating problems in the conversion of files.

It was *never* meant to compete with MS Office!

Then, I'm sorry, but I'm not using iWork...

[jamescobalt]

Originally Posted by skaertus

As for Keynote, it may even be better than PowerPoint. But does that matter? When I make a presentation, I make a presentation for other people to see it. And, invariably, I have to open the presentation in someone else's computer. 99.9% of the times, this computer happens to be a Windows machine running PowerPoint. It won't open PowerPoint files. I may convert from Keynote to PowerPoint, but then, what's the point in doing that? I'll miss all the beauty of the transitions that PowerPoint doesn't support. It would be better to use PowerPoint from the beginning

I make professional keynote presentations as part of my daily job. We have both PP and Keynote, but use Keynote 99% of the time as you can create in it faster and the animation and styling is really slick. Anyhoo, just export it to Quicktime at full resolution. It'll run in Windows exactly like it does on the Mac (transitions, sound, etc) if you play it in Quicktime for Windows. It plays a transition and then stops on your slide. Press your remote, and it plays the next transition. Easy. We do this every week from small business meetings to big trade shows- works great.

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by jamescobalt

I make professional keynote presentations as part of my daily job. We have both PP and Keynote, but use Keynote 99% of the time as you can create in it faster and the animation and styling is really slick. Anyhoo, just export it to Quicktime at full resolution. It'll run in Windows exactly like it does on the Mac (transitions, sound, etc) if you play it in Quicktime for Windows. It plays a transition and then stops on your slide. Press your remote, and it plays the next transition. Easy. We do this every week from small business meetings to big trade shows- works great.

Oh, really? I've never tried that, it could be great.

Is it necessary to have QuickTime installed on the computer I'll play the presentation, right? What if the computer doesn't have QuickTime? Everybody always expect us to bring a PPT file, and the computer will have PowerPoint installed on it, because that's how it happens at least 99.99% of the times (at least here in Brazil, Keynote virtually doesn't exist). But the computer I'll have to open the presentation will probably not have QuickTime on it, and I wouldn't be able to install it. Is there any other way? Is there a "portable" version of QuickTime that I can carry around on my pen drive and open it in a computer without having to install it?

[Micky Do]

Originally Posted by Chundles

Apple have long since retired the "'09" part of the iWork branding, same with iLife.

Looks like they're just going to keep rolling the updates out - works for me. They keep adding features and nothing more to pay.

Me too.

It might not have all the features of Office but iWork is easy to use and has all the features I need.

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by Micky Do

Me too.

It might not have all the features of Office but iWork is easy to use and has all the features I need.

Well, I just don't see any updates. Substantial updates, I mean. All I see is iWork being updated to keep up with the development of OS X. No new feature added since iWork '09 was released.

[MadDawg2020]

I feel your pain, been waiting almost as long for a MacPRO computer!

At least iWork has gotten updates so that it optimized for Lion and Snow Lion.
Mac Pro's, the machines that professionals rely on for their livelihoods are still based USB 2.o. NO USB3, NO Thunderbolt! Both USB 3 and Thunderbolt are technologies designed for PROFESSIONALS!
Yet neither is available on their PROFESSIONAL machine!

Apple is obsessed with creating its disposable ecosystem where we are compelled to replace toys every 12 months. They will get to the rest of us as soon as they finish counting their billions in revenue this quarter.

[Ish]

I'd love a new update too. I had Pages '08 and when '09 came out I decided to wait for the next release before updating …

I suppose I could update online, it's not expensive, that's all Apple are waiting for before bringing out Pages2

Don't know if you remember anything about this, but I seem to remember that when Pages / iWork first came out, it was deliberately not comprehensive as Microsoft had threatened to withdraw Mac support for their office suite if iWork competed directly.

I use InDesign when I have to, it's got every feature under the sun, but it's not as smooth as using Pages. Give me an eyedropper tool in Pages that works with styles/fonts and I'll be happy!!

[mgipe]

Originally Posted by jamescobalt

I make professional keynote presentations as part of my daily job. We have both PP and Keynote, but use Keynote 99% of the time as you can create in it faster and the animation and styling is really slick. Anyhoo, just export it to Quicktime at full resolution. It'll run in Windows exactly like it does on the Mac (transitions, sound, etc) if you play it in Quicktime for Windows. It plays a transition and then stops on your slide. Press your remote, and it plays the next transition. Easy. We do this every week from small business meetings to big trade shows- works great.

This sounds great! I will have to try it. One small step for interoperability.

[skaertus]

Originally Posted by Ish

Don't know if you remember anything about this, but I seem to remember that when Pages / iWork first came out, it was deliberately not comprehensive as Microsoft had threatened to withdraw Mac support for their office suite if iWork competed directly.

I suppose so.

[Micky Do]

Originally Posted by Chundles

Apple have long since retired the "'09" part of the iWork branding, same with iLife.

Looks like they're just going to keep rolling the updates out - works for me. They keep adding features and nothing more to pay.

I just noticed on the Apple website that, although the '09 has been dropped from iWork, it is still there with Pages '09, Numbers '09 and Keynote '09.

What's more interesting is that they no longer come as a package. They are sold individually at a cost of $19.99 each in the USA (and $24.99 in home country, NZ).

[Smileyguy]

Surely if Apple wants people to use iCloud as their principal syncing and cloud service, they'll need to either a) allow people to use iCloud to sync all documents or b) take iWork seriously enough, and make it good enough, that people don't care if iCloud can't sync docs from applications?

[nicolodean]

Hello all, indulge a newbie.

I use Works 09, but trying to use Keynote in ibooks author I am told I need keynote 5.2.

When I try to buy it I am told I already have Keynote and to check for updates.
there are no updates! Without uninstalling Keynotes and buying the latest version is there any fix you can give me?

[CylonGlitch]

Originally Posted by nicolodean

When I try to buy it I am told I already have Keynote and to check for updates.
there are no updates! Without uninstalling Keynotes and buying the latest version is there any fix you can give me?

I guess you purchased the DVD; if that is so, you'll need to update manually first. Then the updates from the store will be applied. Also, I think you'll need to be on the latest version of the OS as well.