Apple iWork - Now in 3D?

[Mac2004]

Bring back AppleWorks.....

I agree with the earlier poster about AppleWorks..... That was such a nice application and I have no idea why they didn't keep it and make it better.

I have been waiting for months upon months for the new IWork 07 and the new ILife and nothing is announced.

It's all been Apple IPhone, IPhone, IPhone...... I wouldn't buy the first version of IPhone if you paid me. That thing is going to have so many bugs and issues when it first comes out. They say you should never buy a first version of anything (cars, software, computers, etc.). I'm so sick of hearing about IPhone. Personally I don't want to browse the internet on a tiny screen like that anyway and there are times I am out I don't want to be bothered with phone calls or email.

I wish Apple would spend more time on developing a good word processing program and other applications. .Mac hasn't been updated in a long time.

 

[gwest]

Possibiities for iWork

I believe that iWork is going to be Leopard-dependent, thus the delay and lack of information thus far. Here are some thoughts/hopes- please comment.

1. Many Mac users, and virtually all Switchers, have no idea what Pages or Keynote are. "PowerPoint" is synonomus with a computer-generated presentation, and Word is simply what we use to type information for printing. To truly develop not only platform but also "Office"-switchers, Apple could bundle it with Leopard at no added cost. And just as Intuit did with Quicken for many years, depend on people updating older versions as a way of generating income from the product. To tell platform-switchers that they can open all of the MS Office documents at no cost using Apple's iWork, which will produce files compatible with MS Office, is a huge selling point.

2. That would require 2 new products- the elusive spreadsheet and a database program. Why not offer Filemaker (not "Pro") in iWork? Keep it simple- no realational database capabilities (upgrade tp Filemaker Pro for that), but enough functionality that it makes sense to use it for data-management that many mistakenly use Excel for now.

3. ADVERTISE! I watched the Lynda.com presentations on Pages and was blown away with the functionality that I never knw it had. iLife has some great "how-to" texts available- iWork needs an inexpensive, attractive and simple one as well. Or perhaps Apple can included a DVD-training video with the software.

4. They say that humans use only 10% of their brain power- what percent of Word power do we use? Probably significantly less than that. I doubt that Pages ever would or could become as powerful as Word, but none of us need it to. Pages replaces that capacities of both MS Word and MS Publisher in a scope that most users could utilize. Apple needs to ascertain exactly what 90% of Word/Publisher users do with those programs and develop those functions only. Let Word and Publisher continue to grow in niche functionality.

 

[BenRoethig]

I believe that iWork is going to be Leopard-dependent, thus the delay and lack of information thus far. Here are some thoughts/hopes- please comment.

1. Many Mac users, and virtually all Switchers, have no idea what Pages or Keynote are. "PowerPoint" is synonomus with a computer-generated presentation, and Word is simply what we use to type information for printing. To truly develop not only platform but also "Office"-switchers, Apple could bundle it with Leopard at no added cost. And just as Intuit did with Quicken for many years, depend on people updating older versions as a way of generating income from the product. To tell platform-switchers that they can open all of the MS Office documents at no cost using Apple's iWork, which will produce files compatible with MS Office, is a huge selling point.

And most of all, bundle it with all Macs. If users have to buy a productiviity suite, it will be office. On the PC side, most users just stick with MSworks.

2. That would require 2 new products- the elusive spreadsheet and a database program. Why not offer Filemaker (not "Pro") in iWork? Keep it simple- no realational database capabilities (upgrade tp Filemaker Pro for that), but enough functionality that it makes sense to use it for data-management that many mistakenly use Excel for now.

I agree completely. iWork is an incomplete Package.

3. ADVERTISE! I watched the Lynda.com presentations on Pages and was blown away with the functionality that I never knw it had. iLife has some great "how-to" texts available- iWork needs an inexpensive, attractive and simple one as well. Or perhaps Apple can included a DVD-training video with the software.

I agree, but they need to complete the package and bundle it with all Macs first.

4. They say that humans use only 10% of their brain power- what percent of Word power do we use? Probably significantly less than that. I doubt that Pages ever would or could become as powerful as Word, but none of us need it to. Pages replaces that capacities of both MS Word and MS Publisher in a scope that most users could utilize. Apple needs to ascertain exactly what 90% of Word/Publisher users do with those programs and develop those functions only. Let Word and Publisher continue to grow in niche functionality.

Pages may due what word/publisher can do, but it really doesn't do either. It really needs an option to quick change between publishing and traditional word processing modes. Having a little bit of experience with Pages, its interface is very foreign for word processing.

 

[ortuno2k]

At this time of the year, what are the chances that they'll release it during this year?
Maybe they'll skip a year on iLife & iWork and just ship the '08 version when it's ready.
If they ship in September or October a '07 version, it'd be kind of dumb.

 

[Tristano]

Now in 3D

Since the job posting is from June 13, I don't think "now in 3D?" should be the title of this thread. It's a bit misleading. How about "Apple iWork - Plans for a 3D upgrade?" or something like that. It's hardly worthy of a "now".

They are starting to look for a software engineer now? Sounds like this is for iWork '08 or '09.

 

[povman]

This sounds like something you would joke about. How would 3d visuals offer increased productivity in office software?

Probably in the same way as how psDooM improves system administration:

 

[Hairball]

Finally someone willing to speak out & say that Pages, even in its second version is still a weak beginning. Or is it as strong as the end will be. Maybe that's why we haven't seen a new version of iWork. Maybe it will just revert to KeyNote as it has been all along.

Bill the TaxMan.

I have to agree that Pages is not much of a start to Word Processing. I use both Pages and Word, but for two different reasons. Word for writing side of things and Pages for newsletters and fliers (the "Creative stuff"). I would love to develop an app that will allow me to do everything with one program, not bits and pieces of many.

 

[Much Ado]

I agree with the earlier poster about AppleWorks..... That was such a nice application and I have no idea why they didn't keep it and make it better.

Because it was crippled and Office is super-powerful, and if you don't want to shell out cash for Office use the open source stuff, or the soon-to-be-mainstream series of Google docs.

Personally I don't want to browse the internet on a tiny screen like that anyway and there are times I am out I don't want to be bothered with phone calls or email.

Damn, i wish Apple wouldn't bother making things that plenty of people want simply because you would not personally buy one.

 

[poochy12358]

Office:Mac 2008

Forgive if I am wrong.

If Apple is going to release iWork as an '08 version, it will have to face the strong competition of the soon to be universal Office:Mac 2008. Pages may not be good enough to compete with Word. Keynote just beats PowerPoint, but as it has been said alot of times, iWork lacks a spreadsheet app. In which, students like me with a need for spreadsheets and compactibility with your classmates (Windows users who probably never heard of OpenOffice or are too lazy to use it), will have no choice but to use Office:Mac. Unless of course we save EVERYTHING as PDF but that sucks.

Thats why I think if Apple is to release iWork next year, it better be good.

Besides, what would 3D effects in an office suite be good for casual computer users and students?

 

[MrCrowbar]

Probably in the same way as how psDooM improves system administration:

Hell yea!

 

[yagran]

Probably in the same way as how psDooM improves system administration:

:O cool!!!

 

[MacFly123]

When???

I'm sorry but I am SICK OF WAITING for iLife and iWork. They better be out before August when I have to buy my MacBook Pro for school or else I'm gunna have to buy Leopard AND iLife

 

[MacFly123]

It will probably be limited to keynote transitions, although I think certain datasets would certainly benefit from some sort of data/graph fly-throughs inside of presentations.

My question is..... Why would they have to hire someone to do that? Apple can't do that right now with their staff?? Seriously? Come on..... That seems ridiculous to me!

 

[IJ Reilly]

Pages may due what word/publisher can do, but it really doesn't do either. It really needs an option to quick change between publishing and traditional word processing modes. Having a little bit of experience with Pages, its interface is very foreign for word processing.

It's foreign to Word users, but that's a poor standard by which to judge.

 

[BenRoethig]

It's foreign to Word users, but that's a poor standard by which to judge.

User of Word, Appleworks, Word Perfect, and practically ever other word processor in the world. Just because Apple makes it does not automatically make it the perfect solution. Having used pages, it's great for light desktop publishing, but it isn't so great if you're actually trying to write something.

 

[Thomas2006]

This is somewhat of a bummer. I was looking forward to iLife and iWork 2007, but my guess is that they'll be back on track at MacWorld Jan 2008.

Since there won't be enough time to demo iLife and iWork thoroughly at one event, I think we will see one of them shown at the Apple Expo in Paris and the other at MWSF2008.