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Apple Updates iWork Apps With New iOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4 Features

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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple today updated its iWork apps Keynote, Numbers, and Pages with new features that require iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, or macOS 15.4.

iWork-macOS-Trio-Feature.jpg

For example, in the latest version of each app, you can now make text edits using Writing Tools directly in a presentation, spreadsheet, or document. This feature requires Apple Intelligence, which is available on iPhone 15 Pro models, all iPhone 16 models, any Mac or iPad model with an M1 chip or newer, or the iPad mini with the A17 Pro chip.

In addition, Apple says you can now export a presentation, spreadsheet, or document in another format using the Shortcuts app, and all three apps gained improved copy and paste integration with the Freeform app. Each app also received a few other enhancements that are not tied to the latest software updates.

The release notes for version 14.4 of each app on iOS follow.

Keynote:
• Make text edits using Writing Tools directly in your presentation (requires Apple Intelligence and iOS or iPadOS 18.4)
• Export presentations into other formats using Shortcuts (requires iOS or iPadOS 18.4)
• Improved copy and paste with Freeform (requires iOS or iPadOS 18.4)
Click to expand...
Numbers:
• Use over 30 new advanced functions including LET, LAMBDA, FILTER, SORT, and UNIQUE
• See results from a single formula across multiple cells using spilling arrays
• Make text edits using Writing Tools directly in your spreadsheet (requires Apple Intelligence and iOS or iPadOS 18.4)
• Export spreadsheets into other formats using Shortcuts (requires iOS or iPadOS 18.4)
• Improved copy and paste with Freeform (requires iOS or iPadOS 18.4)
• Improved compatibility when importing or exporting Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
Click to expand...
Pages:
• Make text edits using Writing Tools directly in your document (requires Apple Intelligence and macOS 15.4)
• Add additional pages into a word-processing document more easily
• Export documents into other formats using Shortcuts (requires macOS 15.4)
• Improved copy and paste with Freeform (requires macOS 15.4)
Click to expand...
iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4 were all released to the general public this week, following more than a month of beta testing.

The updated iWork apps are available in the App Store across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Article Link: Apple Updates iWork Apps With New iOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4 Features
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/04/03/iwork-ios-18-4-and-macos-15-4-features/
Last edited:
• Improved copy and paste with Freeform (requires iOS or iPadOS 18.4)
Click to expand...

Freeform is a bit of a sleeper. It has a very nice, intuitive UI. I haven't tried this latest update yet, but if you use Keynote or Pages a lot, it could be very helpful from a workflow perspective to park assets in Freeform for use in those other apps.
 
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I need to see if its fixed the bug I am having with recording presentations in Keynote. If I mess up on a slide and do back to start over the entire recording slider bugs out and I essentially have to delete the entire recording and start over again. If I close out of Keynote and I open it back up I get an error that the recording is corrupted/damaged. I've had to convert my past two presentations to Powerpoint dues to this bug which results in having to rebuild some animations. If it's not fixed with this update, I'll just start building all future presentations in Powerpoint (sigh).
 
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ignatius345 said:
Freeform is a bit of a sleeper. It has a very nice, intuitive UI. I haven't tried this latest update yet, but if you use Keynote or Pages a lot, it could be very helpful from a workflow perspective to park assets in Freeform for use in those other apps.
Click to expand...

iWork in general seems a little overlooked these days. Used to be a major feature of the Mac. I guess Microsoft has continued to succeed in making Office indispensable, like it or not.
 
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CarAnalogy said:
iWork in general seems a little overlooked these days. Used to be a major feature of the Mac. I guess Microsoft has continued to succeed in making Office indispensable, like it or not.
Click to expand...

It's a bit easier for Microsoft since they are on multiple platforms.

I can work in Excel at work on my PC, and then pull up excel on my Mac at home and continue. (I don't do that, because I'm not allowed to do company work on my own device).
 
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WarmWinterHat said:
It's a bit easier for Microsoft since they are on multiple platforms.

I can work in Excel at work on my PC, and then pull up excel on my Mac at home and continue. (I don't do that, because I'm not allowed to do company work on my own device).
Click to expand...

But if you were going to make a new document of your own on your own computer that has an Excel license, would you choose to use Numbers or Excel?

Genuinely asking and curious as to why.

This is how Microsoft won the desktop in the first place. People wanted the same thing at home as they had at work.
 
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CarAnalogy said:
But if you were going to make a new document of your own on your own computer that has an Excel license, would you choose to use Numbers or Excel?

Genuinely asking and curious as to why.

This is how Microsoft won the desktop in the first place. People wanted the same thing at home as they had at work.
Click to expand...

In my case, Excel, because Numbers doesn't even come close to parity. I spend 1/2 of every work day in Excel.

So, not only are iWork apps not cross-platform, they just aren't as good. I've heard they keynote is okay, but since it doesn't intergrade with excel, I have no use for it.
 
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WarmWinterHat said:
In my case, Excel, because Numbers doesn't even come close to parity. I spend 1/2 of every work day in Excel.

So, not only are iWork apps not cross-platform, they just aren't as good. I've heard they keynote is okay, but since it doesn't intergrade with excel, I have no use for it.
Click to expand...

That's what I've heard from everyone who uses Excel for anything more serious than the most basic uses. Seems to be the case with Pages vs Word as well. And PowerPoint is its own verb (we've all been PowerPointed at.) Too bad it's still not really competitive.
 
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CarAnalogy said:
iWork in general seems a little overlooked these days. Used to be a major feature of the Mac. I guess Microsoft has continued to succeed in making Office indispensable, like it or not.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I think Apple have some deal with Microsoft that they won’t develop a fully fledged competitor to Office in return for Microsoft continued development and support of Office on Mac.

That is a shame as I would happily ditch my Office subscription if iWork had a pro version with a lot more functionality.
 
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I use keynote for most of my presentations butApple should push forward on better animation and dynamic presentation features. They could push it into a great app that's ahead of the pack. I've seen so many online solutions that easily produce better and more dynamic presentations. Even without AI writing tools they could still do a lot.
 
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Pages still adds weird, not-used images to a file, when you convert a Word document into Pages own format. Could Apple please fix some bugs before adding new features? Thank you.

Screenshot 2025-04-03 at 19.31.05.png
 
So they still did not fixed the issue when a shortcut tries to enter a data to the numbers spreadsheet. It just cant in the background. But no issues with notes app.
 
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