iWork Apps for Mac and iOS Updated With New Features, Apple Pencil Support on iPad

[MacRumors]

At today's education-focused event in Chicago, Apple announced several new features for its suite of iWork apps for Mac and iOS devices, and those updates have now been pushed out in new versions of the apps that are available for download now.

All of the iWork apps for iOS, including Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, are compatible with the Apple Pencil both on iPad Pro models and the new sixth-generation iPad, which now supports Apple Pencil.

In all three apps, you can draw and write with the Apple Pencil and use it for navigational purposes instead of a finger. In Pages, there's also a new Smart Annotation beta that's designed to allow you to use the Apple Pencil to add comments and marks to a Pages document, and you can add Apple Pencil drawings.

Pages for iOS also includes a new digital books templates for creating books, donut charts, real-time collaboration for documents stored in Box, and more. Full release notes for Pages for iOS are below:

- Draw, write, and annotate using Apple Pencil on supported devices, or use your finger.
- Easily add drawings with pen, pencil, crayon, and fill tools.
- Use Smart Annotation Beta to add comments and marks that stay anchored to their associated text.
- Make beautiful digital books using new book templates.
- Collaborate in real time on documents stored in Box.
- Add an image gallery to view a collection of photos on the same page.
- Use presenter mode to easily read and auto scroll text while giving a speech.
- Create and edit paragraph styles and character styles.
- View pages side by side as you work.
- Turn on facing pages to format your document as two-page spreads.
- Create master pages to keep the design consistent across your page layout document.
- Change your document orientation to landscape or portrait.
- Enhance your documents with a variety of new editable shapes.
- Use donut charts to visualize data in an engaging new way.
- Use conditional highlighting in tables to change the appearance of a cell when the value meets specified conditions.
- New option to automatically format fractions as you type.

In Keynote for iOS, there's an option to animate your drawings during slideshows, and you can more easily change the theme of a presentation. Donut charts have been added for visualizing data in new ways, and there's an interactive image gallery for viewing collections of photos. Full release notes for Keynote for iOS are below:

- Draw and write with Apple Pencil on supported devices, or use your finger.
- Animate drawings during slideshows.
- Collaborate in real time on presentations stored in Box.
- Easily change the theme of a presentation.
- Adjust presentation slide size and aspect ratio.
- Use donut charts to visualize data in an engaging new way.
- Add an interactive image gallery to view a collection of photos.
- Enhance presentations with a variety of new editable shapes.

Numbers for iOS offers new options for sorting and filtering tables, new donut charts, and interactive image gallery, editable shapes for spreadsheets, and more. Full release notes for Numbers for iOS are below:

- Draw and write with Apple Pencil on supported devices, or use your finger.
- Collaborate in real time on spreadsheets stored in Box.
- Use conditional highlighting in tables to change the appearance of a cell when the value meets specified conditions.
- Powerful new options for sorting and filtering tables.
- Improved, customizable import of CSV and text data, with support for custom delimiters and fixed-width files.
- Use donut charts to visualize data in an engaging new way.
- Add an interactive image gallery to view a collection of photos.
- Enhance spreadsheets with a variety of new editable shapes.
- Full bidirectional support for Arabic and Hebrew.

While Apple Pencil support in iWork for iOS was Apple's big announcement, all of the company's Mac apps have also gained new features in line with new features added to the iOS versions of the apps.

All Mac apps have been updated with support for real-time collaboration on spreadsheets stored in Box (macOS High Sierra required), and there are new donut charts for visualizing data in an "engaging new way." A new interactive image gallery is available in all three for viewing a collection of photos, and there's support for adding new editable shapes and reducing the file size of documents.

In Numbers for Mac, Apple has improved imports of CSV and text data with support for custom delimiters and fixed-width files, while in Pages, there are new book templates for creating digital books. You can also now view pages side by side as you work with two page spreads available, and master pages can be added to keep design consistent across your document. There's also a new Pages option for automatically formatting fractions while you type.

All of Apple's iWork apps are free downloads that can be obtained from the App Store and Mac App Store.

- Pages for iOS [App Store]
- Keynote for iOS [App Store]
- Numbers for iOS [App Store]

- Pages for macOS [Direct Link]
- Keynote for macOS [Direct Link]
- Numbers for macOS [Direct Link]

Article Link: iWork Apps for Mac and iOS Updated With New Features, Apple Pencil Support on iPad

 

[Dave245]

I think this is really cool and will be very helpful to people like myself who write and collaborate with other people at times. Writing notes on a script or outline will be a lot easier without having to print it out send it, take notes, get notes back and so on.

 

[Altis]

Did iWorks not support the pencil until today?

 

[Theophilos]

I could be wrong, but the iBooks support in Pages appears to simply be templates that can be exported as ePub. It doesn't open iBooks Author documents and doesn't seem to replace that app.

 

[hajime]

How come there is no update when I visit the app store from my iPad PRO?

 

[ipedro]

iWork was already fantastic. These three apps cover the vast majority of features that people use without adding the insane complexity and clutter seen in Microsoft Office. Support for Pencil makes it even better without complicating the apps. Well done.

 

[rtomyj]

iWork was already fantastic. These three apps cover the vast majority of features that people use without adding the insane complexity and clutter seen in Microsoft Office. Support for Pencil makes it even better without complicating the apps. Well done.

I agree. I use Excel and Pages for reports in physics, English, and professional areas. The only two issue I’ve ran into is a graph issue where a fit for a graph cannot be moved (the equation) and defaults to the top left. The other being how hard it is to put different data sets on one graph where the data sets share one axis (data). I actually still haven’t figured that out but I know you can since importing from excel works.

Anyways, i never thought there was a feature missing in the recent updates (other than pencil support, had to use Notes app like some kind of caveman). And my god is the UI 100% better than the office suite. I like the look of office apps but there are too many options many, many people won’t use.

 

[JosephAW]

App Store seems to be down. Getting message unable to process purchases.

 

[Morgenland]

.

 

[sracer]

Although the pace in which Apple is re-introducing functionality that was present in iWork '09 is painfully slow, it is nice to see that it continues to be updated. There are times when I still need to fire up iWork '09, but otherwise, I appreciate and enjoy the ability to work on documents on my iPhone, iPad Pro, Macbook Air, and iMac and have them look identical. (as long as I install the custom fonts I use)

 

[CrystalQuest76]

I have read that we can now use the pencil and draw in Pages and Keynote. Is there a way to write in these updated apps and it convert to text?
I had a MessagePad 120 (it is still functional with its original box and documentation) and miss the ability to convert handwriting to text.

 

[sracer]

ok. Just updated iWork on my 12.9 iPad Pro. Pencil support in Pages is very nice. Just for grins, I loaded the web version of Pages to see now well it translated the drawing... other than losing the crayon texture, it was spot on. This is going to be handy.

 

[ardent11]

“Collaborate in real time on spreadsheets stored in Box.”

What is Box?

 

[AllergyDoc]

“Collaborate in real time on spreadsheets stored in Box.”

What is Box?

Online storage, like DropBox.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Can someone with Pages '09 experience comment on whether "Master Pages" and "Facing Pages" features is as good as '09's implementation of those? Anything standout missing there?

Any chance linked text boxes are now truly independent of each other (such that if you create a text box lower on a page and then move it up higher, it doesn't auto renumber and auto reflow)? For example, if you stack up 4 horizontal text boxes and link them together, then position box 3 a little higher than box 2, does it still automatically make (what was) 3 into the new box 2 or can we link text boxes and then put them wherever we want (if we wanted could we load #1-#4 in this example with text and then put 4 higher than 3 higher than 2 higher than 1 for some reason, and not have them renumber and reflow text from highest (positioned) box to lowest)?

If it still auto renumbers and relinks, any new feature to optionally turn off those auto-features?

 

[sracer]

Can someone with Pages '09 experience comment on whether "Master Pages" and "Facing Pages" features is as good as '09's implementation of those? Anything standout missing there?

Any chance linked text boxes are now truly independent of each other (such that if you create a text box lower on a page and then move it up higher, it doesn't auto renumber and auto reflow)? For example, if you stack up 4 horizontal text boxes and link them together, then position box 3 a little higher than box 2, does it still automatically make (what was) 3 into the new box 2 or can we link text boxes and then put them wherever we want (if we wanted could we load #1-#4 in this example with text and then put 4 higher than 3 higher than 2 higher than 1 for some reason, and not have them renumber and reflow text from highest (positioned) box to lowest)?

If it still auto renumbers and relinks, any new feature to optionally turn off those auto-features?

If I understand you correctly, this new version "remembers" the numbering of the linked text boxes even when they are moved around the page. Linked text box "2" can be at the top of the page and "1" can be at the bottom. Sadly, all linked boxes must still be on the same page.

UPDATE:
The iOS version of Pages has the restriction of linked text boxes being on the same page.

I updated the macOS version of Pages and I was able to have linked boxes spanning multiple pages. But there's a bit of funkiness going on. I put 3 linked text boxes on a 3 page document (1 on each page). When I moved the 3rd text box up to the top of the 1st page, it changed the box to be the 2nd in the chain. Moving it back to the 3rd page switched it back to the 3rd.

More experimenting is needed, but so far this is very promising.

 

[HJM.NL]

I could be wrong, but the iBooks support in Pages appears to simply be templates that can be exported as ePub. It doesn't open iBooks Author documents and doesn't seem to replace that app.

Has iBooks Author also received an update? It seems long overdue...

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

If I understand you correctly, this new version "remembers" the numbering of the linked text boxes even when they are moved around the page. Linked text box "2" can be at the top of the page and "1" can be at the bottom. Sadly, all linked boxes must still be on the same page.

Thanks for the quick reply... and that's soooooo disappointing on that added detail (but thanks for it anyway).

I wonder if the 10th anniversary of Pages '09 (in 2019) will have much of a chance of bringing key feature parity like these in this (replacement) version of Pages?

Since you seem to have great familiarity with '09, if you do play around some with master pages and facing pages, I'd love to know if those 2 features are about as good as the same in '09 or if they too have some glaring shortcoming(s). Facing pages and master pages were key features for my clients (got them to embrace Macs for Pages '09 back then) but wow, those linked text boxes need to be free (to link to other pages).

 

[JosephAW]

What? No update for iWorks for El Capitan.
Actually it does say update but. I thing happens, so maybe later.

 

[usarioclave]

Finally, pencil support.

 

[BWhaler]

I love iWork. Great update today...

 

[Anuba]

Great update... if you want to use your Pencil to actually draw on top of your spreadsheets.

If you, like me, have been using the pencil for navigation such as for precision pointing on cells without having to zoom in to fingertip size, you will hate this update, as Numbers will now refuse to take any other input from the pencil than drawing. As soon the pencil touches the display, Numbers enters drawing mode. Again, if this was something you wanted, good for you. As I don’t plan on vandalizing my spreadsheets with scribblings like some toddler, I find the feature 100% annoying, and I can’t find a way to turn it off.

If Apple wishes to ban all use of the Pencil as an iPad ”mouse”, fine, but then do it consistently, system wide. Because the forced auto-switching just went from mildly disruptive to aggressively hostile.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

“Collaborate in real time on spreadsheets stored in Box.”

What is Box?

https://www.box.com

 

[ArisaemaDracont]

Online storage, like DropBox.

Obviously. But this is the first mention ever of "Box" and there is no more detail provided.

 

[sracer]

Thanks for the quick reply... and that's soooooo disappointing on that added detail (but thanks for it anyway).

I wonder if the 10th anniversary of Pages '09 (in 2019) will have much of a chance of bringing key feature parity like these in this (replacement) version of Pages?

Since you seem to have great familiarity with '09, if you do play around some with master pages and facing pages, I'd love to know if those 2 features are about as good as the same in '09 or if they too have some glaring shortcoming(s). Facing pages and master pages were key features for my clients (got them to embrace Macs for Pages '09 back then) but wow, those linked text boxes need to be free (to link to other pages).

I updated my previous post with additional info based on my testing of both the iOS and macOS versions. The macOS version of Pages has a bit more functionality added to linked text boxes.... still not to the '09 level function, but a good step.

Regarding facing pages and master pages, I haven't had enough time with this latest version of Pages to speak to the differences in any detail. I think it is safe to say at this point, that the functionality exists and usable. I didn't see any glaring omissions (though those differences may be lurking in the details).

Bottom line: There are still differences between this latest version of iWork and iWork '09, but the gap is steadily closing. There appears to be a growing gap between the maOS and iOS versions of iWork. (that is a bit worrisome to me) The web version of iWork is still a pretty useful option for those times when one needs to access iWork docs but don't have a macOS or iOS device handy.