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Apple today updated its line of iWork apps for iOS and macOS, bringing new features to Pages, Keynote, and Numbers on both iOS devices and Macs.

All of the apps have a new feature designed to let you style text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles. Images, shapes, and equations can be placed inline in text boxes so they move with text, and using face detection features, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.

iworkiosapp.jpg

In Pages, Apple added new templates for novels, and the option to reapply text to a master page so text and placeholders return to their default style and position. Release notes for Pages are below:

iOS Version:
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Customize lists by choosing from new bullet types, changing the size and color of bullets, creating custom bullets, adjusting indentation levels, and more.
- Choose Learn Spelling to add a word to the spelling dictionary.
- Create links from text to other pages in a page layout document.
- Copy and paste pages or sections between documents.
- Use new chart editing capabilities to change the style of individual series, adjust spacing between columns, add trendlines, and more.
- Adjust the appearance of cell borders in tables.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Choose whether Apple Pencil is used to start drawing or to select and scroll -- or toggle between these options via double-tap using a supported Apple Pencil.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
- Reapply a master page so text and media placeholders return to their default style and position.
- Create books using new templates for novels (available in English only).
macOS Version:
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Create links from text to other pages in a page layout document.
- Copy and paste pages or sections between documents.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
- Reapply a master page so text and media placeholders return to their default style and position.
- Create books using new templates for novels (available in English only).
Keynote for iOS and macOS has a new feature for editing master slides while collaborating on a presentation, while Keynote for iOS specifically has options like customizing lists with new bullet types, selecting what the Apple Pencil can do, and more. Release notes for Keynote are below:

iOS Version:
- Edit master slides while collaborating on a presentation.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Use new chart editing capabilities to change the style of individual series, adjust spacing between columns, add trendlines, and more.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
- Adjust the appearance of cell borders in tables.
- Choose whether Apple Pencil is used to start drawing or to select and scroll -- or toggle between these options via double-tap using a supported Apple Pencil.
- Customize lists by choosing from new bullet types, changing the size and color of bullets, creating custom bullets, adjusting indentation levels, and more.
- Choose Learn Spelling to add a word to the spelling dictionary.
macOS Version:
- Edit master slides while collaborating on a presentation.
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
Numbers for Mac and iOS offers improved performance while editing and sorting tables and the option to add rows to filtered tables. For iOS, there are Apple Pencil options and customizable lists. Release notes for Numbers are below:

iOS Version:
- Greatly improved accuracy using the enhanced 128-bit calculation engine.
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Create links from text to other sheets in a spreadsheet.
- Add rows to filtered tables.
- Use new chart editing capabilities to change the style of individual series, adjust spacing between columns, add trendlines, and more.
- Adjust the appearance of cell borders in tables.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
- Choose whether Apple Pencil is used to start drawing or to select and scroll -- or toggle between these options via double-tap using a supported Apple Pencil.
- Customize lists by choosing from new bullet types, changing the size and color of bullets, creating custom bullets, adjusting indentation levels, and more.
- Choose Learn Spelling to add a word to the spelling dictionary.
macOS Version:
- Greatly improved accuracy using the enhanced 128-bit calculation engine.
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Create links from text to other sheets in a spreadsheet.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
- Improved performance while editing and sorting tables.
- Add rows to filtered tables.
All of the new updates are available from the iOS App Store and macOS App Store as of this morning.

[*]Pages for iOS [Direct Link]
[*]Keynote for iOS [Direct Link]
[*]Numbers for iOS [Direct Link]
[*]Pages for macOS [Direct Link]
[*]Keynote for macOS [Direct Link]
[*]Numbers for macOS [Direct Link]

Apple's iWork apps are free downloads for everyone.

Article Link: Apple's iWork Apps for Mac and iOS Gain Text Styles, Apple Pencil Customization Options and More
 

Konigi

macrumors 6502
Jan 24, 2017
439
762
Montréal, Québec
But I never have come across people who actually use these. At work, my shopping life , my friends and family always either use Office or Google Docs.

I never get pages or number files
Indeed. I don't think PC can use .pages (or .keynote) files, except perhaps if they login to icloud.com
That's unfortunate because I find iWork substantially superior in terms of UI, features, stability. They've done a wonderful job here and they keep upgrading them with new features.
 

4jasontv

Suspended
Jul 31, 2011
6,272
7,548
Nice that they keep updating these at regular intervals.

But I never have come across people who actually use these. At work, my shopping life , my friends and family always either use Office or Google Docs.

I never get pages or number files

I have one faculty that uses Keynote for lectures. He presents three times a year and has learned that he needs to provide a PDF. As far as I can tell even the Mac students only use the PDF.
 
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AppleMad98004

macrumors 6502a
Aug 23, 2011
617
846
Cylde Hill, WA
Nice that they keep updating these at regular intervals.

But I never have come across people who actually use these. At work, my shopping life , my friends and family always either use Office or Google Docs.

I never get pages or number files

I totally agree. Everyone I know uses MS Office. I really wonder who the end users are for these products. They are really good but what is the user base?
 

techpr

macrumors 6502a
Sep 9, 2008
658
763
San Juan, PR
Nice that they keep updating these at regular intervals.

But I never have come across people who actually use these. At work, my shopping life , my friends and family always either use Office or Google Docs.

I never get pages or number files
I use them almost everyday. Pages and Keynote specially. Keynote is far superior to PowerPoint.
 

Remy149

macrumors 6502a
Oct 20, 2016
599
1,171
I totally agree. Everyone I know uses MS Office. I really wonder who the end users are for these products. They are really good but what is the user base?
Most of the people I know that use them are students from grade school through college.
 

sracer

macrumors G4
Apr 9, 2010
10,271
12,994
where hip is spoken
I totally agree. Everyone I know uses MS Office. I really wonder who the end users are for these products. They are really good but what is the user base?
Everyone I know uses MS Office... and I use it too, but when I have a choice, i use the iWork suite. Pages allows me to easily create documents with medium to advanced layouts and formatting without getting in the way so that I can spend my time on the content of the document, not how it looks.

The greatest hurdle I've seen for people to warming up to iWork is that they take an "MS Office mindset" to these apps. One needs to "think different" about how to accomplish the final results. Once over that hurdle, there are many situations where iWork can be used more efficiently and effectively than MS Office.

Apple has done a stellar job in attempting feature parity between the web/macOS/iOS versions. So much so, that I can start work on a document on my iMac, continue on my iPad, and finish it up on my Pixelbook.

Here's the web version of Pages running on my Pixelbook (chromebook).
(click to expand)
Pages for web.png
 
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RS1999ent

macrumors member
Oct 9, 2008
41
0
Nice that they keep updating these at regular intervals.

But I never have come across people who actually use these. At work, my shopping life , my friends and family always either use Office or Google Docs.

I never get pages or number files

I use keynote all the time too. I provide PDFs when I need to share files. My experience is that in academia, at least CS, usage seems to be pretty good.

Apple has done a stellar job in attempting feature parity between the web/macOS/iOS versions. So much so, that I can start work on a document on my iMac, continue on my iPad, and finish it up on my Pixelbook.

That one can now edit master slides in iCloud is great. The only thing I can think of that’s missing is the ability to use locally-installed system fonts through iCloud.
 
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Mainsail

macrumors 68020
Sep 19, 2010
2,328
3,083
I use iWork daily. MS Office seems unnecessarily bloated....and that ribbon....gawd! I know you can customize it, but still it’s awful to me.

Pages and Keynote are on par with Word and PowerPoint....maybe better in some respects. If you are a quant, you have no choice, since Excel is the standard. I do simple spreadsheets for property management and finance of family real estate. For that stuff, Numbers is fine.

When I share documents, I almost always send as PDFs....avoids a lot of confusion and can easily be read and annotated with suggestions. Simple.
 
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JetTester

macrumors 6502
Feb 12, 2014
461
885
Like others here, I really like the iWork suite, but interacting with others, I pretty much have to use MS Office, which is horribly bloated and definitely not a delight to use.
 

MauiPa

macrumors 68040
Apr 18, 2018
3,429
5,079
Not for me either, it says updated 20 hours ago at the Mac Store but doesn't offer the update button to me.

I updated to Catalina and iOs 13, public betas, not showing for me (yet)
[doublepost=1561494512][/doublepost]
Like others here, I really like the iWork suite, but interacting with others, I pretty much have to use MS Office, which is horribly bloated and definitely not a delight to use.

I did a whole international project using the iWork suite. I saved my work in Office format, everything worked fine. albeit I just shared my result data. No one would ever advocate developing spreadsheets or what not in one package for use in another.
 

Crowbot

macrumors 68000
May 29, 2018
1,702
3,915
NYC
I totally agree. Everyone I know uses MS Office. I really wonder who the end users are for these products. They are really good but what is the user base?

The user base is me, for one. I don't need Keynote but having a powerful word processor and spreadsheet for free is fantastic. My needs don't justify spending on Office 365. In fact, my former boss used to send me Excel sheets that were too advanced for the version running on my work PC. Once I shot them over to Numbers on my iPad they opened right up. LibreOffice is still a good alternative to Office on PCs.
 
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MauiPa

macrumors 68040
Apr 18, 2018
3,429
5,079
I use the iWork apps exclusively, so much better designed than Office (needs a major update in which they actually streamline, and simplify it). The multiple tables/sheet in Numbers is so much better than the one big honking table Excel paradigm, especially if you need to split Excel into multiple ranges.

I do admit that I have upped my game into SQL for data analysis, but exporting Numbers/importing to SQLite is a breeze. When I used Excel, the pivot tables were easier, but they crashed a lot (on windows systems, if you can believe that).

So I am a wholehearted supported.
 

Böhme417

macrumors 6502a
Mar 11, 2009
982
1,337
For me, Word and Excel definitely beat out Pages and Numbers. I really tried to use iWork over the years, but it just doesn't cut it. The only exception would be Keynote. I feel like Powerpoint is nearly the same it was 15 years ago. (That's not to say Word and Excel aren't as well, but they are just more capable products anyway. But for a product that is based on visual presentations, it needs to stay fresh.)

Are the MacOS updates showing for anyone? They're not for me.

Not showing for me.
 

AdeFowler

macrumors 68020
Aug 27, 2004
2,317
361
England
I haven’t used Office since iWork was introduced. Admittedly I only use Pages on a daily basis but it does all I need it too. Maybe Apple should publicise it more.
 

jpn

Cancelled
Feb 9, 2003
1,854
1,988
App Store shows new versions, including the update of July 25 in the Version History of each app.
but was only showing "Open" (the old version). no way to Download the New latest version.
i wonder if you need Catalina to get download?

anyway, workaround is to delete current versions and then can immediately access and download new versions.

great to see apple completing cross platform (iOS/macOS) on its apps.
can't wait for a notebook based version of iOS/iPadOS, or, trackpad version of Magic Keyboard iPad Pro.
 
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