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

[talmy]

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.

Yes I have tried it. My history is that a Mavericks system's update saw I had a copy of iWork '09 (DVD distributed) and added ownership to the apps in the App store. From that point I was able to download the '09 versions on a Mountain Lion system. Earlier systems might cause a problem (I didn't have any to test) since iWorks has been updated every year to the new OSes.

Agreed this is a PITA, but maintaining software backups is a necessity. I was burned a couple years ago when the iMovie I bought under Snow Leopard became unavailable six months later when Lion came out and the newer version was not backwards compatible. Apple support basically said "tough luck" but it is my understanding that they now maintain older versions just for such circumstances.

Why anyone persists in excusing Apple for this mess is a mystery to me.

I certainly don't! Because the "upgrade" is basically forced and the new version is used by default, I consider this a far worse deed than the Final Cut Pro and iMovie "upgrade" disasters in years past.

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...

But the problem with this is that you don't get updates for other programs unless you carefully select the ones to install.

Other apps, just not these, you can tell the App Store to ignore the updates.

 

[IJ Reilly]

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

Some people did delete their old versions without understanding the implications, and others report that the installer overwrote them. No matter, it is far from a "perfect" arrangement for reasons that have been explained ad infinitum.

 

[moderately]

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.

I agree that saying Apple has lost its way is stretching it. I would go further to suggest that if it is not trolling it is certainly histrionic.

IMHO a Numbers power user is not going to be only on their iPad or iPhone. Being able to run scripts in OSX does not discomfit the vast majority of iOS users.

If you want to make a complaint like this it might be better to talk about conditional highlighting, filters or even not being able to relock a sheet in iOS. These are all features that are available on my Mac but limited in iOS. I hope for improvements but really, not a big deal.

I did expect more hosannas over the landscape view. This has been such an obvious upgrade it is good to see it finally here.

 

[tubular]

Great news about AppleScript.

Peculiar as its syntax is, it's still one of the hidden gems of the OS - so hidden that even Apple forgets about it from time to time.

A good solid scriptable interface all through iWork would be good news indeed.

 

[curmudgeon32]

I'm a longtime Keynote user, and use it in a professional capacity. Keynote 6.0 has been a disaster. The lastest update (6.1), removed one of the most important features, which is the ability to copy/paste vector objects freely between Keynote and Illustrator while keeping them in vector format in both applications. It's a dealbreaker, and I'm not even getting into the corruption bug that's affected Keynote 5 presentations which have been converted into Keynote 6 format.

Anyway, I really wish Apple would create a "pro" version of Keynote (something that would be to Keynote what FCP X is to iMovie, or what Logic is to GarageBand, or Aperture is to iPhoto, etc.). Even better? A cross-platform "reader" app so you could deliver a read-only presentation to a PC-based client. I know my company would be happy to pay for it if it offered support and stability.

 

[wwchris]

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.

Go under spotlight preferences and add the old versions of pages, keynote and numbers to indexing exceptions and it will stop asking you to upgrade

 

[notarysojac]

Is XML Import/Export ever coming to NUMBERS?

For whatever reason, it has not been the case that XML import/export support has been a feature in NUMBERS.

As simply complaining in a forum has no effect on Apple application development and feature-sets, I filed a bug with Apple to this effect.

I have also taken the time to mention it here with the thought that, if this feature is important to you, that you please file a bug with *Apple's BugReporter, as well.

Thanks much!

* Bugreporter postings require being a registered Apple Developer. (which is FREE)
Visit: https://developer.apple.com/devcenter/mac/index.action

 

[Photoshopper]

Yeah, they lost the power user features-- like being able to put a header/title at the top of your spreadsheet.

 

[nubero]

I'm a longtime Keynote user, and use it in a professional capacity. Keynote 6.0 has been a disaster. The lastest update (6.1), removed one of the most important features, which is the ability to copy/paste vector objects freely between Keynote and Illustrator while keeping them in vector format in both applications. It's a dealbreaker, and I'm not even getting into the corruption bug that's affected Keynote 5 presentations which have been converted into Keynote 6 format.

Anyway, I really wish Apple would create a "pro" version of Keynote (something that would be to Keynote what FCP X is to iMovie, or what Logic is to GarageBand, or Aperture is to iPhoto, etc.). Even better? A cross-platform "reader" app so you could deliver a read-only presentation to a PC-based client. I know my company would be happy to pay for it if it offered support and stability.

Wow you just scared me with the Illustrator copy and paste… I still use the old version for most stuff so I didn't test this out until now. For me though it works with AI CS6 and Keynote 6.1…

I'm with you on the Pro version of Keynote. Though the comparison with Apple's Pro Apps is not so great: We switched to Premiere from FCPX since the latter isn't really pro anymore… ;-)

 

[talmy]

Go under spotlight preferences and add the old versions of pages, keynote and numbers to indexing exceptions and it will stop asking you to upgrade

Thanks! Finally a solution.

 

[moderately]

Yeah, they lost the power user features-- like being able to put a header/title at the top of your spreadsheet.

Are you seriously unable to to this? Or just mocking someone who doesn't know how? 'Cause it is easy to do.

 

[curmudgeon32]

Wow you just scared me with the Illustrator copy and paste… I still use the old version for most stuff so I didn't test this out until now. For me though it works with AI CS6 and Keynote 6.1…

Hmm, really? Interesting —*mine is definitely broken, same versions of both AI and Keynote. Basically anything I copy from Illustrator comes in as generic text. I found a few threads on Apple Support Communities saying the same thing so I assumed it was broken for everyone.

Just to be clear, you're able to copy and paste vector objects freely between AI and Keynote 6.1 and they stay intact as vectors?

 

[curmudgeon32]

Apple took nothing away. (Old versions remain.)

Right, OLD VERSIONS. That's the key there, isn't it? How long before a system update kills off the ability to run the previous, more fully-featured iWork apps? 10.10? 10.11? It's going to happen at some point.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Go under spotlight preferences and add the old versions of pages, keynote and numbers to indexing exceptions and it will stop asking you to upgrade

But won't that also cause the documents created by these apps to not be indexed by Spotlight?

 

[talmy]

But won't that also cause the documents created by these apps to not be indexed by Spotlight?

I just checked this out. Documents are still indexed, but Spotlight won't find the apps.

I use Alfred, and it sees both the apps and documents. So I've got no downside to doing this.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I just checked this out. Documents are still indexed, but Spotlight won't find the apps.

I use Alfred, and it sees both the apps and documents. So I've got no downside to doing this.

This is puzzling. The reason you add apps to the exceptions list is so that Spotlight doesn't index those documents.

What's Alfred?

 

[talmy]

This is puzzling. The reason you add apps to the exceptions list is so that Spotlight doesn't index those documents.

What's Alfred?

Apps add extensions to Spotlight to allow indexing the contents of their documents. Apparently the exception list doesn't affect that. The exception list (AFAIK) is just used to list folders that Spotlight won't search into. Apps are folders.

Link to Alfred

 

[Chazz08]

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.

Hahaha. I guess I should act surprised too if I don't want to seem gullible.