Apple Announces Upcoming Features for iWork Mac Apps Following Criticism

[IJ Reilly]

Per Apple's webpage: "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."

If you read their release more closely - it indicates that the next sixth months will see multiple releases. As I said before on the other thread on this issue - by refactoring the code base to be common across all platforms and offering iWork free with automatic updates - they will stop delivering monolithic upgrades but will do what Google does and issue rolling updates when the new functionality is ready for release.

Apple has created a platform (64 bit and software foundation) that will allow across the board feature updates that will work as native client and web based applications. I go back to MS's odd backlash against the iWork updates. They were not reacting to iWork in its current form - but in what it could become down the road.

MS Office while more feature rich - does not have that commonality across their native client and cloud apps that Apple has developed now. iWork will look very different a year down the road.

They already look very different. They look much worse -- that is, to the people who adopted them years ago, as opposed to having only discovered them once Apple started delivering them for free. As one of the former, I am only slightly more encouraged by Apple's recent clarifications on the direction of these apps. The point of comparison is to highly discouraged, which I have been with complete justification based on the debacle of this recent release.

 

[JayCee842]

Scrivener is a fantastic writing tool.

Is it really that good?

How is it better than word and others?

 

[Marc-SP]

Yes, it's good. But to be honest I think they planned this procedure (first complete rewrite and feature parity between OS X and iOS and then add back missing features step by step) anyway.

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.

If they were really planing this from the start, why did they hide the important fact that these new apps will have a reduced feature set until some undisclosed point of time in the future? I mean, at least put a "Beta" warning or something!
By default people expect a new version of a software to be better in every aspect than the old one. If that is not the case you must explain it carefully.

 

[TrashCanBin]

When you demonstrate you can finally learn something, you might find that people stop repeating the same thing over and over to you.

Adding more manpower to the project doesn't automatically mean it will slow down developement and even if it does it sure as hell doesn't mean the final product will suck ass, because guess what THIS PRODUCT sucks ass. So maybe they didn't put enough manpower for this project to begin with.


You know what i hate most? When people use some out of the context sentence not knowing the details of specific project and state it as a fact.

So yeah same old broken record.

 

[Marc-SP]

Generalizing massive quantities of people sure is fun.

Actually, I see plenty of people on the internet (specifically, these forums) who really let Apple have it with some of their commentary. Furthermore, what backtracks of Microsoft (actual backtracks, not just something they screw up while Ballmer obliviously acts like they're still dominating the industry) have you specifically seen that has received that sort of overall response?

It should also be noted that Microsoft and Apple are not identical. While Microsoft consistently puts out half-hearted attempts at new products these days, the glass-half-full Mac users are generally happier with their software and a little less on edge when a screw-up happens.

Well, the part of my post before "Seriously " was a sort of parody (exaggeration) of a few users on the Internet. They still have the idea or feeling that Apple is a "good guy with a small hardware shop on the next corner" and Microsoft is an "evil, soulless and huge corporation". Thus, that double standard. Anyway, just a joke, but remember the recent issue with Windows 8 and the dissapearance of the Start button and menu. Half the internet, not just Apple fans, complained like crazy (for such a small thing!), until MS, I think we can say it here, backtracked and took it back with 8.1.


Btw, I don't personally think that Windows 8.1 or Surface 2 (just two recent launches of MS) are "half-hearted". I think they did a pretty good job. If they are, what are the (still buggy, slow and with no big improvements such as on screen multiapp support or user accounts) iOS7 and the (lighter and slightly faster but otherwise identical, usability wise, to the previous versions) iPad Air? :-/

 

[aussie_geek]

This sux

Seriously, Apple has gone to crap lately.

Releasing half finished productivity software. If Steve was here it would not have happened. He would have got the whip out and made them finish it or just not release it at all.

On another note - as for Mavericks, it has made my rMBP a blow torch.

I have been a Mac user since the 80's.

Times like this remind me of the early to mid 90's for Apple.

Too many products for sale

Many of them over priced and not working as advertised.

Stormy weather ahead people....

 

[knightlie]

i swear if apple doesn't fix this crap where i have to manually capitalize every sentence and "I", i will move to Microsoft office. Nothing could possibly piss me off more than this, apple.

Wow. Do you need it to help you in the bathroom, too?

 

[Khedron]

In order to write reports and academic papers, I need automatically numbered figure captions and cross references. I was surprised when this feature wasn't in the new Pages. By leaving these features out, it appears to me that Apple is ceding a large professional and academic market to MS Word.

Only fake academics such as the social sciences. Real academics use TeX anyway.

 

[Philsy]

I'm a professional writer and I want something to process words, not a wannabe DTP programme, which Word and Pages try to be.

That said, I've long used Word because of its universal compatibility. However, I have been working with the new Pages, on the Mac and iPad and am enjoying it. I like the clean appearance and lack of fuss, compared to Word (not to mention the lack of bloated security updates every few weeks).

My only gripes are:

1, Putting the word count (who suggested there wasn't one?) over the page is plain silly - it should be on the tool bar.

2, The tool bar needs to be customisable in the same way Mail is. Nothing over the top like Word, just the option to put things like a spell check button there and get rid of buttons that aren't required (in my case the graphics ones).

3, The lack of compatibility with the previous Pages is inexcusable. My daughter's MacBook won't run the new Pages so we have a problem when sharing documents.

As an aside, the Pages iOS7 icon is a thing of beauty!

Phil

 

[Gudi]

As an aside, the Pages iOS7 icon is a thing of beauty!

NOOOOOOOOO!

It's just a damn pictogram.

 

[cgsnipinva]

ARM Chip? OK. Can an ARM chip dismiss all the usability problems a touch interface offers versus a keyboard and a mouse? It is not a chip problem, it is two fold:

1. The user interface problem. The Mac UI simply allows a user to do more than what you can do with an iOS device. Bigger screen, keyboard and mouse = more capable to do advanced stuff. Think of the full fledged FCP X running on an iPhone 4S. It can't be done? Why usability.

2. The market problem. iOS users will not demand power features. It is a mostly an OS and a device made for content consumption over content creation.

I wrote a whole article about this here, in case you are interested

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I read your article and you start with a decent premise but make some assumption with which I do not agree. I can link my wireless Apple Key board with my iPad and use that as an input tool instead of my fingers for typing. The input options that you say are impossible on iOS and a touch interface can be addressed with shortcuts. That is the current situation. Additionally, you ignore the fact that iOS will continually be developed. It is possible input from a wireless mouse could address additional requirements.

I just do not think the refactoring of the applications and the standardization across platforms will diminish the feature plan for these applications.

 

[jacg]

....
Also while they're at it, please make the new inspector detachable!

Yes please. New controls are very annoying when editing multiple documents.

 

[Michael Goff]

For a browser set of applications yes. Their spreadsheet app has multi-level filters and pivot tables. It also has VLookup and HLookup - pretty much the biggest capabilities I use.

I don't use their word processing app - so I will not speak on that. Although my kids use it for their homework and school papers/projects.

If you think that's sophisticated, use OWA.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Is it really that good?

How is it better than word and others?

It is more then a word processor. A lot of writers, who write novels and short stories, use it because of how the user is able to orangize using note cards. It has a cool layout feature where you can pin up note cards and organize them. My wife uses it and loves it. Scrivener has a demo period, check it out.

 

[Johns12]

Ah, so you're that guy.

Sorry to say, Logic X is a hot mess.

 

[milo]

Sorry to say, Logic X is a hot mess.

You're entitled to your opinion. Some people hate it but plenty of others are loving it.

 

[skaertus]

Is it really that good?

How is it better than word and others?

Depends on what you plan to do with it. It's not necessarily better, but perhaps it suits your needs better.

If you want to write business documents, and needs full compatibility and all the features, including style-related and page layout features, then Word is the way to go.

If you want to write a novel, then the structured writing provided by Scrivener may be useful.

There are plenty of software out there, that meets different needs.

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It is more then a word processor. A lot of writers, who write novels and short stories, use it because of how the user is able to orangize using note cards. It has a cool layout feature where you can pin up note cards and organize them. My wife uses it and loves it. Scrivener has a demo period, check it out.

It's not more than a word processor. It's different from a word processor.

You can't compare Scrivener to Word, or Word Perfect, or LibreOffice/OpenOffice Writer, or Nisus Writer, or Mellel, or Google Docs. No. It's not a similar software.

Scrivener may be compared with Rough Draft, Story Mill, Final Draft, Ulisses, yWriter, and so on. It's not exactly a word processor. It's a writing software.

 

[MellowFuzz]

The second most valuable company on the planet. A decade of development and this tripe, with these problems, is the best office software that Apple can come up with. It's like a supermodel with a massive boil on her face.

 

[Crimson Hikari]

If they could just improve the export of .doc and .docx that would be absolutely brilliant.

Pages does all I want it to, besides that. Had to manually readjust my entire design assignment at 4 this morning because the file had been chewed up during export and moved all the images and text boxes into the wrong places.

I used to have Pages '08, and while not perfect, it wasn't quite as bad as this.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

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?

I think Apple needs to get itself out of the Steve Jobs "I know better than my customers" line of thinking and start actually LISTENING to its customers BEFORE they roll out new products that wipe out features people want. I mean how hard is it to do some polling from customers about features they would want in an update? Apple could save itself some embarassment if they'd just LISTEN for a change. They still haven't put back Cover Flow in iTunes (but Mavericks forced an update to my older version of iTunes that still had it; I wasn't pleased about that). At least they put back artwork mode for music lists, but it doesn't work as well for movie lists, IMO since I want them closer together but a nice big artwork cover displayed somewhere on the screen when I click on one. I mean how hard is that to do? I sometimes think Apple employees don't actually USE their own software or they'd see how lousy the movie list is now.

Apple improved multiple displays in Mavericks, but ignored side-mounted docks for migration (It makes it bad if you have a full screen movie/show displaying on the monitor that has the dock on it and you want to start a new program....sigh). The obvious is they should have just had a dock on all monitors like with the menu bar (I mean how hard is that to figure out? Duh).

Apple also finally fixed "wake on network use" for my late 2012 Mac Mini for sleep mode. I can put it to sleep and XBMC wakes it right up and quite quickly at that! It didn't work in Mountain Lion here. The problem is my mouse now freezes (buttons work but pointer won't move even though the light is on) when it wakes from sleep and has to be plugged/unplugged to get it working again. The same mouse wakes just fine from my 2008 Macbook Pro running Mavericks (from either its USB 2.0 ports or the add-on USB 3.0 ports). It won't wake from either USB 3.0 ports or a 2.0 hub on the Mini. Go figure.

I mean to whom do I complain? I've filed bug reports before. They typically ignore them. I guess you have to be a high profile news website to get Apple's attention for these kind of bugs/issues/complaints/features.

 

[JayCee842]

It is more then a word processor. A lot of writers, who write novels and short stories, use it because of how the user is able to orangize using note cards. It has a cool layout feature where you can pin up note cards and organize them. My wife uses it and loves it. Scrivener has a demo period, check it out.

I definitely will check it out, thanks!

 

[juancarlosh]

ARM Chip? OK. Can an ARM chip dismiss all the usability problems a touch interface offers versus a keyboard and a mouse? It is not a chip problem, it is two fold:

1. The user interface problem. The Mac UI simply allows a user to do more than what you can do with an iOS device. Bigger screen, keyboard and mouse = more capable to do advanced stuff. Think of the full fledged FCP X running on an iPhone 4S. It can't be done? Why usability.

2. The market problem. iOS users will not demand power features. It is a mostly an OS and a device made for content consumption over content creation.

I wrote a whole article about this here, in case you are interested

----------



I read your article and you start with a decent premise but make some assumption with which I do not agree. I can link my wireless Apple Key board with my iPad and use that as an input tool instead of my fingers for typing. The input options that you say are impossible on iOS and a touch interface can be addressed with shortcuts. That is the current situation. Additionally, you ignore the fact that iOS will continually be developed. It is possible input from a wireless mouse could address additional requirements.

I just do not think the refactoring of the applications and the standardization across platforms will diminish the feature plan for these applications.

So basically you are saying you could try and turn your iOS device into a Mac with extra hardware. Which, of course, you really can't. The iOS version of iWork is made to be touched. Yes, you can TYPE faster with a wireless keyboard but that is as much as you will go. And we are only covering Apple Pages here. What about Keynote and Numbers?

Your argument is far from solid. And please note I am not saying the Mac version can't be smarter than what they released now. All I'm saying it will never do what an iOS device can't do. Which by usability and user type, will represent meaningful constraints for those who use the software professionally.