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Apple Updates iWork for iOS and macOS With New Linking Features and More
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You can have my iWork apps when you pry them out of my cold dead hands. Normal people don’t need/use VBA macros or pivot tables. iWork is great. It’s a bad day of filling stupid institutional form templates if I have to open MS Office apps on my Mac.
I cant get used to all the buttons in the MS suite, ribbons and drop downs. Its cos I’m old and crusty
MS Office is the de facto standard since it runs on Windows. So unless Apple decides to offer a Windows version it will always be a niche product.
My experience with Keynote was the same with PowerPoint, they both weren’t very good dealing with complicated equations.
I use them daily, actually I don’t have MS office at all.
If you are a motion/graphics designer you are might appreciate what Keynote offers. I lived through high school being an expert on PowerPoint with so many presentation. But after discovered Keynote on my first iPad I was blown aways how everything was thought out through the app. Everything was so ”professiona-ready” I could make beautiful slides and animations way faster and easier than PowerPoint. (I’m not talking about templates. I‘m always creating slides from the from the scratch.) I know that PowerPoint has has some superior features like 3d object or auto layout features. But Keynote has better foundation for being “graphically beautiful“ first presentation app.
Everytime Apple releases new iPads or Macs I always check on the product page to see if there are some Keynote slides that they has designed for their show case. Apple’s Keynote slides are freaking inspiring.
Just when I think I'm finally over my sorrow over the loss of ClarisWorks/AppleWorks some knucklehead has to remind me!I miss ClarisWorks.
Obviously, I'm kidding about calling you a knucklehead.ClarisWorks/AppleWorks was an amazing piece of software. I was exclusively a Windows user at the time and owned every version produced for Windows. What I was able to do with it ran circles around those using MS Office. It was CW/AW that convinced me to finally try OSX.
If Apple would resurrect Bento and include that as part of iWork, that would be terrific IMO.
I agree. But it is a sign of being discerning to slag on iWork... after all, all the kewl kids are doing it.
The iWork suite of apps is deceptively powerful... more capable than a cursory glance of the feature list would indicate.
I heavily use iWork, Google Docs, LibreOffice, and MS Office daily, but when I have my choice, I pick iWork. But that was only after I de-programmed myself to think in terms of how MS Office does things. Once I was able to understand how iWork approaches tasks and adjust accordingly, I was able to more effective and efficient using iWork to generate documents.
Little known tidbit: the classic iWork version of Numbers had pivot tables (though called something else).
Agreed! I feel like Word makes my MacBook sound like an Airplane. Not the case with Pages.
I just use Pages and export as a Word document.
School never was an issue with iWorks.
Now dealing with Contractors, Vendors, and other Professional institutions, PDF and MSOffice is the standard. iWorks just doesn't cut it. Now if it ran on Windows... Like you stated (mike), till it runs on Windows it will be a niche product.
It sure beats WordPerfect.
To avoid a lock in and to be able to edit my documents on different operating systems I mainly use LibreOffice, although I like the Apple apps. I use them sometimes when I want to edit documents on my iPhone or iPad.
I still remember Apple abandoning Aperture, so I do not trust Apple with all of my documents.
Another lacklustre update to mediocre software.
It’s much easier to produce inspired, visually clean, good-looking slides and transitions in Keynote than PowerPoint. PowerPoint is the GeoCities of presentation software.
Keynote gives you a LaTeX-based equation editor.
I also have a Windows laptop and Chromebook so I can keep up to date with how the other 90% of the world use computers.
Office 365 works on Windows and Mac but ideally I would like a more functional pro version of iWork to replace my Office 365 subscription. I would even consider paying a monthly sub if it was a genuine fully functional pro alternative.
I am surprised Excel never copied Numbers feature to display multiple independent tables within a tab. A lot of people complain about Numbers not having Excel features but you never hear about Excel missing some pretty basic stuff that Numbers had since version 1.0.
I use multiple independent tables within a tab all the time. Amazing feature.
Maybe, but too bad the interface sucks, that ribbon ewwww! Actually I used to use Excel (I'm not a basic user), and I much prefer Numbers. The sheets allowing multiple tables, Text, graphics, etc is much more advanced, than one honking big table to try to cram your stuff like Excel. The side panel instead of the ribbon bar is generationally ahead of Excel.
I write my own Income tax reporting using Numbers, so much better than Excel. I also converted my Excel retirement planner (pretty cool - has built-in pensions, social security, regular and tax advantaged portfolios, State and federal taxes including Capital Gains. I can target ending net worth or after tax income. It is interactive allowing testing of inflation, investment returns, age of death, age of spouse death, options on pension payments and methods). It is easier to debug, maintain, write and it looks far better than Excel. It is plenty fast, and the graphics are excellent.
I'll be the first to admit that the summaries and formula-based "pivot-tables" are not as cool (but they don't crash on me like Excel used to). I also admit that Excel has more specialized functions than Numbers, but if you don't use it, its not a feature, its clutter. If you use it, it's indispensable.
And Pulease don't hit me with VBA, if you are still automating and building embedded apps, you are wasting time. Or maybe you need to because Excel is not as easy to use as it should be. Goes with that old MS mantra, "make it so complicated that once a customer learns how to use it, he will be scared to change"
So, for most people, Numbers is an awesome choice. If you are forced to use Excel at work, that is your obvious choice. If you just simply have more experience with Excel and don't mind paying for it, that is your obvious choice. For me, I switched and very glad I did. But no, I don't think Numbers will supplant Excel, but I do think more and more people will shift to free options. there is too little benefit in paying MS for what is free software
Define more competitive. Numbers is awesome, far better than Excel for most people. Excel has more "features", but if you don't use them, they are clutter. I guess by having to keep an old PC around you are saying that Excel for Mac sucks still? MS used to keep a purposely dumbed down version for MAC, because they also sold Windows licenses, so you know, steer your customers to where you make the most money. Hard to believe they are still doing that