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Apple Announces Upcoming Features for iWork Mac Apps Following Criticism

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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iwork.jpg
Following the release of updated iWork apps for the Mac and iOS, many power users were upset with the loss of several important features within Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Multiple threads on Apple's Support forums lambasted the changes, and one blogger called the removal of features within Pages an "unmitigated disaster." Apple has now responded to user outrage with a new support page detailing upcoming updates that it plans to add to all three apps within the next six months, which will see the return of many lost features.
The new iWork applications--Pages, Numbers, and Keynote--were released for Mac on October 22nd. These applications were rewritten from the ground up to be fully 64-bit and to support a unified file format between OS X and iOS 7 versions, as well as iWork for iCloud beta.

These apps feature an all-new design with an intelligent format panel and many new features such as easy ways to share documents, Apple-designed styles for objects, interactive charts, new templates, and new animations in Keynote.

In rewriting these applications, some features from iWork '09 were not available for the initial release. We plan to reintroduce some of these features in the next few releases and will continue to add brand new features on an ongoing basis.
Click to expand...
Pages updates will include a customizable toolbar, a vertical ruler, and improved alignment guides, object placement, and word counts. Importing cells with images will also be possible, pages and sections will be manageable from the thumbnail view, and keyboard shortcuts for styles will also return.

Numbers will also gain a customizable toolbar, improvements to zoom and window placement, auto-complete text in cells, page headers and footers, and improvements to AppleScript support, which was a major complaint.

Along with a customizable toolbar, Keynote will see the return of old transitions and builds, improvements to presenter display, and improvements to AppleScript support.

As Apple works to return features to its suite of iWork apps, the company recommends that users who want to use these missing features can access previous versions of iWork applications, which are found in Applications > iWork '09. Apple also details how to revert documents to old formats to retain compatibility with its older apps.

On October 22, Apple began offering free copies of the updated iWork apps to all users who owned a previous version. The company is also supplying free copies of the apps, which are normally priced at $19.99, to any customer who purchases a new Mac.

Article Link: Apple Announces Upcoming Features for iWork Mac Apps Following Criticism
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/11/06/apple-announces-upcoming-features-for-iwork-mac-apps/
zen

zen

macrumors 68000
Jun 26, 2003
1,713
472
Wait, the new Pages had WORD COUNT removed? Seriously?
 
FatMax

FatMax

macrumors 6502
Jun 28, 2007
399
107
Norway
Very good!

To not be able to put an image inside a cell is seriously annoying me.

I am not beeing sarcastic.
 
C

chrisrodney

macrumors newbie
Sep 16, 2012
4
0
Good

Looks like they are giving iWork the Final Cut Pro X treatment.

But this helpful webpage should have been available on release day, not weeks later.
 
Chobit

Chobit

macrumors member
Jan 4, 2003
97
0
NY
zen said:
Wait, the new Pages had WORD COUNT removed? Seriously?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it means improved word count. I just used the Pages word count feature today, and it's this annoying overlay on top of the document.

Edit: Here's a pic
mvxdbSQ.png

Clicking the word count will let you change it to character or paragraph count.
 
AppleGuesser

AppleGuesser

macrumors regular
May 1, 2012
240
102
Macon, GA
Like with Final Cut a few years back, Apple will slowly add features back when they align on all devices. This is just my opinion, but I would think Apple stripped features from the Mac iWork to match the iCloud and iOS versions until all three versions were on equal footing and then slowly add features back as they become better implemented on iOS and iCloud to keep the experience the same on all devices. :apple:
 
W

Wilson1313

macrumors regular
Nov 29, 2008
127
327
Is there a reason the software is never ready for release?? First Final Cut X (and look what happened there) and now this. Really Apple?!? :rolleyes:
 
S

SalsaShark

macrumors member
Jul 5, 2000
36
0
I don't think it's about being wrong or even necessarily listening to customers. I think they had a deadline and the apps weren't exactly finished products. Nothing too surprising going on here, other than people overreacting. I guess that's not really surprising either.
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,560
6,059
Most of the list of features that will be re-added are so vital that I wonder why Apple bothered releasing what seems to me is a half-assed suite. Apple waited 4 years... surely they could have deferred another 6 months and actually released an upgrade rather than a downgrade.

Also - I'm curious, has anyone tried these apps on all 4 platforms that they're available? (iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch, Web, and OS X?) Do they have feature parity or are some missing?

I wonder how much they rely on a shared code base and if they use a single build process for all the platforms. If so, I wonder if Apple might at some point let developers easily make applications that target all 4 platforms?
 
N

numlock

macrumors 68000
Mar 13, 2006
1,590
88
if all this is happening in 6 months why release the apps as they were at that time?
 
spiderman0616

spiderman0616

Suspended
Aug 1, 2010
5,670
7,490
AustinIllini said:
At least this Tim Cook version of Apple is willing to admit they are wrong.
Click to expand...

This has nothing to do with listening to customers, and everything to do with the fact that they were going to add that stuff back in all along. They're tearing these apps down and building them back up again so that integration between iOS and OSX is seamless.
 
Knosis

Knosis

macrumors newbie
Nov 6, 2013
4
1
Earth
I had a print button on my Pages tool bar. After the update it was gone. I couldn't figure out how to add it back. I called apple care. They removed the option to put a print button on a word processor and they call it and update.
 
J

Jayse

macrumors regular
Jun 29, 2010
131
1
Sydney, Australia
I use iWork daily, and I for one, am very happy Apple has plans to implement these lost features. Kudos to Apple for acknowledging their users!
 
appleguy123

appleguy123

macrumors 604
Apr 1, 2009
6,863
2,541
15 minutes in the future
I'm glad that they're reinstating some of the features, but releasing the new software and not telling us everything that was missing was a bad move.

----------
zen said:
Wait, the new Pages had WORD COUNT removed? Seriously?
Click to expand...

You just have to select it in the view menu. It's a bit more intrusive in the new version though.
 
HobeSoundDarryl

HobeSoundDarryl

macrumors G5
Feb 8, 2004
12,245
15,624
Hobe Sound, FL (20 miles north of Palm Beach)
How does this even happen? It's not like Apple is still in 1996 and barely holding it all together. Biggest company in the world (at times). Massive cash hoard that could make it easy to throw a thousand programmers at a "from scratch" rewrite. And yet, Apple keeps doing this: rolling out the new without a bunch of features of the old. Then, there's backlash. Then, a pseudo-apology with a promise that features that used to be there will come again. Why keep recycling this approach?

As smart as they are, you'd think they'd learn from- say- rolling out FCP X without core features important to users of the prior version, getting fierce backlash, then apologizing and promising to resurrect features. How long did they have to build this version of the iWork apps? 4 years?

I use these apps just about daily and have turned others onto Macs because of these kinds of apps. What a disappointment to have brand new versions come out stripped of many popular (or even fundamental features). Vertical ruler? Really?

Edit: Due to too many missing the point and taking one bit of the above literally, please see post #209 before pointing out the flaw in my non-literal thinking about "throwing a 1000 programmers at it". I'm not suggesting that's what they should have done- just that they could have done ANYTHING that would have yielded a fuller & feature-complete result. If one thinks one programmer is THE way, they could hire the best (ONE) programmer in the world. If one thinks X number of programmers on the team is optimal, they could hire X number of programmers in assembling the best such team in the world. Pick your own number of programmers and Apple could both afford them and assemble the top people to be on that team. Instead, we get "new version available today", "where'd the good features go?" backlash, "we're sorry, we'll build those same features back in in future 'upgrades'" over and over and over again. Make's no sense to me.
 
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