Apple Updates iWork Apps for Mac for iBooks Author Transition, YouTube and Vimeo Embeds [Update: iWork for iOS Apps Updated Too]

[FourDegrees]

You would have to paste in table screen shots, as tables can’t be rotated.

That's just what I want it for. Much easier to be able to use sections as in Word to have the mix of landscape and portrait for tables that need to be rotated so that they can be amended in situ.
I have been suggesting this for a while. Perhaps I am a lone voice in the wilderness.

 

[MauiPa]

I hope it catches up with iWork ‘09 one day. XLOOKUP is nice though.

Current version is way better already IMHO

 

[imikem]

I wish Numbers would gain a way to save filter sets. Requested that years ago.

 

[Aldaris]

I hope it catches up with iWork ‘09 one day. XLOOKUP is nice though.

It’s gotten close-only took a decade to add linked text boxes to pages

 

[jwolf6589]

I hear ya on that. I was on HS until a few days ago and updated to Mojave (will not update beyond that) just so that I can pick up the new versions.

FYI, for those who are keeping score at home, linked text boxes still are not "fixed" (not to the level of the old Pages '09 functionality)

Why not upgrade to Catalina?

 

[goonie4life9]

The same thing happens with PowerPoint. Presenter View has always been designed to only work with two screens.

Here I was all excited about "Play Slideshow in Window," but when you do that, you can't see your presenter notes. Great job, Apple!

 

[macintoshmac]

Icon not being updated for Big Sur is a disappointment. The old icon looks out of place now. I have personally come to appreciate the shape of the icons in Big Sur, but do not want them to be exact, just larger copies of their iOS/ iPadOS counterparts.

 

[Manzanito]

Hey, it only took me four years to write the book. Not like there is any reason to be concerned or upset.

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I have learned not to trust apple when it comes to software since they dropped aperture. You never know what will be discontinued or dumbed down next.

 

[Cyprusian]

Is there a way to force check for App Store updates in Catalina?

In the App Store/Updates: press CMD + r

 

[MacBH928]

What was the point of iBook Author if you can do everything in Pages in the first place?

I really hate that iWork is put in the back burner, I really would like to see as a real MS office replacement. Sure it probably won't be implemented in the enterprise, but at least at home.

 

[rembert]

Current version is way better already IMHO

Really? I ditched iWork several years ago and moved back to Office-365 and LibreOffice even though I loved iWork '09. XLookup and RegEx do trigger me to look again. When will Apple learn it's easy to scare people away but damn difficult to lure them back?

 

[MacGizmo]

I tried placing over a dozen videos from YouTube in pages, only got two of them to work. You're better off downloading the videos and placing them directly into the document rather than using this new linking method. It's too unreliable.

 

[Mitochris]

So why did they not include "web videos" into keynote, but Pages and Numbers? And why can't numbers do multiple data series for donut graphs?

 

[sracer]

Current version is way better already IMHO

You don't offer any specifics as to why you hold that opinion, but I can see how the current version of iWork is better than iWork '09 for some/many. The best thing about the current version is the ability to seamlessly work on iWork documents on iOS, macOS, and web. I can start my documents in the morning on my iMac, update them during the day using my Google Pixelbook, and then tweak them in the evening on my iPad while lounging on the couch.

From a purely functional perspective, iWork '09 still had more "classic" functionality... and Numbers had pivot tables (called by a different name). Although I have the latest iWork installed, I still have the '09 version installed for those older documents that utilize features that are not available on the latest.

 

[cgsnipinva]

You don't offer any specifics as to why you hold that opinion, but I can see how the current version of iWork is better than iWork '09 for some/many. The best thing about the current version is the ability to seamlessly work on iWork documents on iOS, macOS, and web. I can start my documents in the morning on my iMac, update them during the day using my Google Pixelbook, and then tweak them in the evening on my iPad while lounging on the couch.

From a purely functional perspective, iWork '09 still had more "classic" functionality... and Numbers had pivot tables (called by a different name). Although I have the latest iWork installed, I still have the '09 version installed for those older documents that utilize features that are not available on the latest.

Well I think iWork is better as its more integrated between the applications since they reset the code base. I also think the work they did in the iWork and iLife applications was in preparation for what they are doing now to integrate all Apple environments into a single ecosystem. While they have removed functionality during the reset from iWork 09 -- they have been making regular updates to iWork -- it has not been abandoned. They introduced categories to Numbers which is like Pivot Tables and similar to what they had in iWork 09. That additional functions they added in this update are going to make it more useful.

Keynote is equal to Powerpoint. Pages is getting real interesting as they are adding desktop publishing components to it. Now that you can code for all platforms at once ---- I would expect updates to come more frequently.

 

[NMBob]

iCloud. And I have that on good authority, “little birdies”, as Gruber would say.

Ah ha. What if I promise to not sign into it? I already do that.
Thanks!

 

[4487549]

I think the iOS icons need to look like these, not the other way around.

You mean macOS?
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Not compatible with High Sierra. Mojave?

Mojave iWorks.

 

[laz232]

"- Play YouTube and Vimeo videos right in your documents."

I never felt a need for that - moreoever - sounds like a really bad idea to link to content you don't have control over (e.g. which can be removed at any time).
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Probably a low demand feature. This generally is used for images, which can be rotated. You would have to paste in table screen shots, as tables can’t be rotated. Same with graphs which would be nice

I frequently used landscape document sections to show tables (or embedded spreadsheets) in a document...

 

[R3k]

Beta 2, everything is so locked down already. Good catch

Thanks for the sarcasm.

The thing is, why would an OS update have anything to do with the icons for a non stock app? Thats dealt with when the app itself is updated, like in the case of this thread: An app that is updated via App Store not System Preferences.

Ive seen no precedent for this personally. It's always when the app itself is updated.

Now someone else on this is thread mentioned something and I checked out the Apple sites Big Sur preview page and do notice the iWork apps are different in the screenshots, so perhaps Apple are breaking with this behaviour. And of course haven't done it yet on the Beta.

 

[Roller]

Here I was all excited about "Play Slideshow in Window," but when you do that, you can't see your presenter notes. Great job, Apple!

This ability is very helpful for showing slides during teleconferences. You wouldn't want your presenter notes to appear in the same window that shows the presentation, but it would be helpful to have them appear in a separate window that only you could see.

The most glaring continued omission is the inability to use builds on master slides, which was there years ago. It's crazy to have to edit every slide to change a build.

 

[FilthyMuppetInnuendo]

Okay, so, started writing a book in iBooks Author a few years ago. Just about done with it now. I need to look at all my options for distribution, etc. and not just Apple. I go to the export menu and what do I see? Because I made it an iBook rather than an ePub (because iBooks Author can’t make fixed layout ePubs for whatever ungodly reason and I need a fixed layout file), I can’t export to ePub from iBook. I can only export to PDF. And if I use an ePub template, I can’t export to PDF.

Additionally, there are formatting errors when I preview the book on my iPad as an iBook. Some text renders as the wrong font. Some text renders as HALF the wrong font. Some text renders as the right font. These all happen within the same character/paragraph style, you understand. It’s one style. I set it not by hand, but by clicking it in the sidebar of iBooks Author, so there’s no confusion or extra hidden formatting. Sometimes text arbitrarily renders as a neighboring paragraph style, despite not having been selected when the edit was done. Sometimes text magically overflows its own box boundaries, cutting off characters. And other problems. But when I preview the book on my iPad as a PDF, it’s rendered perfectly. It shouldn’t be broken under its native formatting and perfect under a foreign format.

So okay, whatever. I still liked iBooks Author more than any other authoring software I’ve seen or attempted to use. And then they discontinued it. Not like it was out of the blue–they haven’t updated it for seven years or even attempted to make it better–but still “Hey, remember iWeb? Yeah, we’re doing that again. Software’s discontinued. Your loss, move to something else.” Some others here are complaining about how High Sierra can’t get the newer iWork; I’m in the same boat. Oh, sure, I can install Mojave and Catalina... but iBooks Author doesn’t render. Guess that doesn’t matter so much now, but everything else works; iBooks Author doesn’t.

Anyway, I finally managed to borrow a Catalina Mac and the new iWork to import my file and see what I can do. The new Pages lets me export my imported iBook as an ePub, where iBooks Author wouldn't! That’s genuinely great! Oh, but what’s this! Pages can’t export an ePub with justified text. Uh... what. How is that even remotely acceptable? I haven't even had a chance to look over whether the other export errors are still there because I’m so taken aback by this incomprehensible nonsense.

I’ve just about ****ing had it. And not just because of this, but because months ago when I scheduled an appointment at an Apple Store to discuss these problems (and potential solutions), they had no training in iBooks Author nor what was going on. I certainly don’t expect every store employee to know it (it is–was–fairly niche), but... appointment. Whatever.

Hopefully ANOTHER Pages update fixes this.

 

[kyjaotkb]

I tried placing over a dozen videos from YouTube in pages, only got two of them to work. You're better off downloading the videos and placing them directly into the document rather than using this new linking method. It's too unreliable.

A lot of YT videos have a "no embed" rule (including a lot of the ones belonging to major labels e.g. Vevo stuff). That's because the right holders want the video to be displayed in its context on YT, with other videos around etc, or just because they want to monetize it. These videos won't work in Pages, that's for sure...

 

[MacGizmo]

A lot of YT videos have a "no embed" rule (including a lot of the ones belonging to major labels e.g. Vevo stuff). That's because the right holders want the video to be displayed in its context on YT, with other videos around etc, or just because they want to monetize it. These videos won't work in Pages, that's for sure...

Yep. The odd thing is, I can download those same videos easily with a number of browser plug-ins and/or apps.

 

[manu chao]

Boy did this update scare the heck out of me. When opened my last used documents it appeared as if it had lost tons of data ... Then I realized it merely had opened showing Sheet 1 instead of Sheet 2 (the former essentially being a much older version of my data).

EDIT: This opening-always-the-first-sheet-even-if-one-had-another-sheet-open-when-one-had-last-worked-in-the-document thing isn’t just a first time after updating the app event, it’s permanent and I am beginning to really dislike it.

 

[kyjaotkb]

Yep. The odd thing is, I can download those same videos easily with a number of browser plug-ins and/or apps.

the RIAA and the MPAA are playing a whack a mole game with these plugins and apps and have the ability to block access to their content via the API to certain domains. It takes a few months to do, though, so there is a regular rotation of new YT downloder apps... the reality is, YouTube just doesn't seem to care and lets this happen. I don't see as many Netflix or Amazon Prime Video or Spotify downloader apps out there.