iWork for iCloud Updated With Interactive Charts, Improved Collaborative Capabilities

[Michael Goff]

Just as you can open Word/Excel/Powerpoint files in iWork. Have you ever even used the things you're criticizing?

You can import/export to/from iWork into just about any common format.

iWork is just as much of a solution as Googe Drive/Docs. That's for dang sure. For iOS users it's even better because we have a full blown locally installed suite not totally dependent on being online.

Yes, I have used it.

No, I don't like doing another step to make up for Apple pushing their own format.

 

[Futurix]

I can use Google Drive or OneDrive and not be heavily invested in any ecosystem. I can open a.doc or .docx with a lot of different things, for example. Just about every excel clone opens up .xls and just about every PowerPoint clone can open .ppt as a format.

I work with both Google Drive and OneDrive as well, and I know very few apps that work seamlessly with them (apart from Google's and Microsoft's own apps / web-apps). Yes, they provide generic file sync option which is lacking from iCloud and which (theoretically) works with every app - but that's hardly 'seamless' and very prone to conflicts in my experience.

And yes, iDisk would be useful as I still have to use OneDrive if I need to share some random files not supported by iCloud-enabled apps - but it does not mean that iCloud is inferior at what it does. I migrated my files to iCloud from a mixture of SkyDrive (for Excel and Notes), Google Docs (Spreadsheets, Docs), and Dropbox (1Password) based on the quality of Apple's mobile apps and I'm very happy with my choice.

Basically I agree that iCloud is not for everyone, but it works fine for me.

 

[Michael Goff]

I work with both Google Drive and OneDrive as well, and I know very few apps that work seamlessly with them (apart from Google's and Microsoft's own apps / web-apps). Yes, they provide generic file sync option which is lacking from iCloud and which (theoretically) works with every app - but that's hardly 'seamless' and very prone to conflicts in my experience.

And yes, iDisk would be useful as I still have to use OneDrive if I need to share some random files not supported by iCloud-enabled apps - but it does not mean that iCloud is inferior at what it does. I migrated my files to iCloud from a mixture of SkyDrive (for Excel and Notes), Google Docs (Spreadsheets, Docs), and Dropbox (1Password) based on the quality of Apple's mobile apps and I'm very happy with my choice.

Basically I agree that iCloud is not for everyone, but it works fine for me.

I can respect this.

 

[viacavour]

We don't really need your respect. It's meaningless and worthless to me.

I use iWorks and iCloud. I can open and save to MS's formats if necessary. They are no different from Apple's format from my perspective.

Keep adding features at the current pace and gimme iDisk.

 

[danielsutton]

Will this work on surface pro 3

I believe that right now, iWork for iCloud will work on Internet Explorer and Safari. So yes, iWork for iCloud will work on Surface Pro 3. Apple has created it so that it is a Web application that will work on multiple platforms, which is pretty ingenious. I wonder if the desktop application will eventually be deprecated in favor of the Web app. Only time will tell

 

[viacavour]

I believe that right now, iWork for iCloud will work on Internet Explorer and Safari. So yes, iWork for iCloud will work on Surface Pro 3. Apple has created it so that it is a Web application that will work on multiple platforms, which is pretty ingenious. I wonder if the desktop application will eventually be deprecated in favor of the Web app. Only time will tell

They will need to put in a lot of plumbing to beat the native apps.

The recent WebKit FTL work will speed up iCloud apps, but I think they need more than just performance.

During the first presentation, the Apple manager said iWorks in the cloud works with Safari, Chrome and IE. I am not sure about Firefox. I don't use it.

 

[danielsutton]

iWork for OS X Updates

It almost looks like Apple will, at some point, deprecate iWork for OS X and will go exclusively to the cloud. I may be getting ahead of myself here, but it might not be a bad idea for it to happen. This way, Apple only has to make updates to the Web apps, and they are immediately available to users of all platforms, not just OX X and iOS, but Windows (cough!), Linux, Android, and others.

 

[viacavour]

It almost looks like Apple will, at some point, deprecate iWork for OS X and will go exclusively to the cloud. I may be getting ahead of myself here, but it might not be a bad idea for it to happen. This way, Apple only has to make updates to the Web apps, and they are immediately available to users of all platforms, not just OX X and iOS, but Windows (cough!), Linux, Android, and others.

They will still have a disk version for countries with bad networks.

You can run Javascripts locally but a native app will be faster for large files. So who knows ? It's not necessarily a clear cut decision to drop the native apps.

 

[Michael Goff]

We don't really need your respect. It's meaningless and worthless to me.

I use iWorks and iCloud. I can open and save to MS's formats if necessary. They are no different from Apple's format from my perspective.

Keep adding features at the current pace and gimme iDisk.

And now you speak for others.

Nice.

 

[viacavour]

And now you speak for others.

Nice.

I am just speaking for myself. Really, I don't need your respect. Don't be afraid of people liking iCloud apps.

 

[Michael Goff]

I am just speaking for myself. Don't be too afraid of people liking iCloud apps.

I'm not.

I'm asking questions, then having a discussion. I know you're incapable of that, but some of us aren't.

 

[viacavour]

I'm not.

I'm asking questions, then having a discussion. I know you're incapable of that, but some of us aren't.

We are having a discussion alright. I just don't need your respect or approval that is all.

Started using iCloud more and more. I don't see why not. It works well so far. Delivered my presentation on time and with lot's of thank yous from my clients.

And yes, I can open and save to MS formats.

 

[bushido]

It works well so far. Delivered my presentation on time and with lot's of thank yous from my clients.

And yes, I can open and save to MS formats.

until you are in the middle of a presentation in class trying to open your "powerpoint" document which you worked on with keynote previously and all the formatting has been messed up, the font hasnt been supported by apple standards and my teacher is freaking out ... thats some real awesome experience i had using iWork in the past

so for me its

iWork = private
Office = university / more serious stuff

also the "hidden files" approach is a mess, you cant make folders as far as i know. its just a huge list of .pages or .keynote files thrown together. also you cant ever be sure your stuff is actually "save" because you simply have no control over it really

 

[hagar]

Is everybody that uses iCloud working on perfectly manageable one file projects? I’m not. My projects have drafts, excel sheets, images, videos, PDF’s, Word documents, etc. I need to keep those files together, as they are the project.

With iCloud I simply cannot do that. I have to distribute my project files over every single app I need to use to manipulate my project. As a trade-off, if I want to use iWork in the Cloud, I need to duplicate my files, edit/sync them, and then afterwards regroup them in a folder on my Mac. It’s madness.

The biggest issue is that Apple forces its ‘hidden-file’ idea on you without giving a choice. Offer it as a solution for newbies, for cooking recipes and party invitations, but for serious work, give us a file system. It’s been around for 30+ years, there’s nothing wrong with it.

 

[bushido]

Is everybody that uses iCloud working on perfectly manageable one file projects? I’m not. My projects have drafts, excel sheets, images, videos, PDF’s, Word documents, etc. I need to keep those files together, as they are the project.

With iCloud I simply cannot do that. I have to distribute my project files over every single app I need to use to manipulate my project. As a trade-off, if I want to use iWork in the Cloud, I need to duplicate my files, edit/sync them, and then afterwards regroup them in a folder on my Mac. It’s madness.

The biggest issue is that Apple forces its ‘hidden-file’ idea on you without giving a choice. Offer it as a solution for newbies, for cooking recipes and party invitations, but for serious work, give us a file system. It’s been around for 30+ years, there’s nothing wrong with it.

indeed, the closed ecosystem without seeing any order or file system is a mess to me. so i want to open a keynote file from the cloud which means i have to open keynote first then find the file among 100th of files just thrown together in a list and if i want to open the pages document which belongs to the keynote file i have to open pages first and look through yet another list of files with no real order either.

 

[gri]

It almost looks like Apple will, at some point, deprecate iWork for OS X and will go exclusively to the cloud. I may be getting ahead of myself here, but it might not be a bad idea for it to happen. This way, Apple only has to make updates to the Web apps, and they are immediately available to users of all platforms, not just OX X and iOS, but Windows (cough!), Linux, Android, and others.

I hope not. Just imagine you want to give a presentation in a national or international science meetings. I have never encountered a fast network in these venues (conference centers) because of all the many users (in some meetings up to 60,000). Now, lets say you want to change something quickly in the presentation b u t
t h e
n e t w o r k . . .

I rather have it all ready to go on my MacBook Air or Pro then to have to rely on the cloud. Dumbing down a perfectly great presentation software is imo a stupid idea. Give us a Pro version, I am happy to pay several 100 bucks for it as I need it. PP stupid compression of graphics is no comparison for Keynote's vector graphics.

 

[BaldiMac]

Is everybody that uses iCloud working on perfectly manageable one file projects? I’m not. My projects have drafts, excel sheets, images, videos, PDF’s, Word documents, etc. I need to keep those files together, as they are the project.

With iCloud I simply cannot do that. I have to distribute my project files over every single app I need to use to manipulate my project. As a trade-off, if I want to use iWork in the Cloud, I need to duplicate my files, edit/sync them, and then afterwards regroup them in a folder on my Mac. It’s madness.

On a Mac, you can do that using tags. I assume that tags will be the focus of whatever solution Apple comes up with on iOS.

 

[danielsutton]

They will still have a disk version for countries with bad networks.

You can run Javascripts locally but a native app will be faster for large files. So who knows ? It's not necessarily a clear cut decision to drop the native apps.

It is fun to ponder this I agree, right now, Web apps are not feasible replacements for locally-run ones, but it does look that we are headed in that direction. The SSDs that are built into Macs, and the storage provided on iOS devices keeps growing, so it doesn't appear that local programs will disappear any time soon, but for iWork at least, it may be going there, although not very quickly.

 

[hagar]

On a Mac, you can do that using tags. I assume that tags will be the focus of whatever solution Apple comes up with on iOS.

That’s a possibility. But still, if Apple wants to hide the concept of files entirely on iOS, it would be strange to introduce tags for those hidden files. And while tags can be used to group projects, they are rather intended for other metadata such as urgent, todo, archived, …

Also, the views of Apple on this are contradictory. On the Mac, there’s this whole evolution towards focussing on your content (grey icons, big canvas, cover flow, small toolbars, etc) while in iOS the focus is solely on apps, apps, apps.

And it’s exactly in tools like iWork where their contradicting approaches fail to merge. While I’m happy that they continue to invest in iWork in the cloud, their target audience is very very limited. Mac users have MacOSX or iOS while in hybrid, professional environments, Office or Google Docs is used.

If I were to send an iWork document in the cloud around for review by my colleagues, I’d be shot.

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

Oh, yes. Pages 5.2 is awesome! Especially when I ask it to open a "doc" document and it says nope: "Pages does not support RTF files."

Awesome word processor! These are the very same documents that open fine in Word, Nissus, and NeoOffice AND Pages 4.3.

 

[gnasher729]

I still don't understand why I'd want to use a web version of iWork over a native version for the Mac or iOS.

The web version works on a PC, or on an Android tablet, or on the computer of a friend who doesn't have the native apps. Here's an extreme:

I'm using Filevault. You can't log in to my computer at all without my password. However, you can take my MacBook, hard drive fully encrypted, log in as a guest, start Safari, and go to your iCloud site and edit your documents.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

There's nothing iCloud does that's special and a lot of things it doesn't do.

Photo stream
iWork/Documents/Storage
Address Book
Calendar
Safari
Reminders
Notes
Find My Phone
Keychain

 

[k1121j]

I still don't understand why I'd want to use a web version of iWork over a native version for the Mac or iOS.

PC users can't use the native version i have friends that use numbers with me that don't even have iOS or a mac they find it fun and easy to use we colobrate all the time

 

[BaldiMac]

That’s a possibility. But still, if Apple wants to hide the concept of files entirely on iOS, it would be strange to introduce tags for those hidden files.

They don't want to hide the concept of files. iOS already has files. They want to hide the file system. They've already introduced tags to iOS through iCloud syncing. It's just a matter of providing an appropriate search interface.

And while tags can be used to group projects, they are rather intended for other metadata such as urgent, todo, archived, …

I think that you are just making up a problem that doesn't exist here. Apple certainly intended them to be used to group projects.

http://www.apple.com/osx/whats-new/#tags
"So if you’re planning an event, you could tag the guest list you saved in Numbers, the flyer you designed in Pages, and the presentation you created in Keynote — and see them all with just one click."

Also, the views of Apple on this are contradictory. On the Mac, there’s this whole evolution towards focussing on your content (grey icons, big canvas, cover flow, small toolbars, etc) while in iOS the focus is solely on apps, apps, apps.

Not sure of your distinction here. iOS 7 was specifically designed with the same focus on content over chrome as you are describing on the Mac.

And it’s exactly in tools like iWork where their contradicting approaches fail to merge. While I’m happy that they continue to invest in iWork in the cloud, their target audience is very very limited. Mac users have MacOSX or iOS while in hybrid, professional environments, Office or Google Docs is used.

Again, there was no contradiction.

If I were to send an iWork document in the cloud around for review by my colleagues, I’d be shot.

Tough crowd.

 

[springsup]

What I would really like to see is this same live collaboration happening directly inside the native Mac/iOS apps.

I don't really see any reason Apple can do this in a web browser but not do it natively.

Doing it like this would be much easier. You can be working on a document on your Mac, then just say "hey, can you help me with this?" and push a web link over to your colleague's Mac/PC/iPad and they can jump in to a live session.

Right now you need to be working inside the browser (regardless of which device you're on) to get that workflow. That means you can't collaborate with an iOS device since they won't AFAIK they won't open the iWork web apps (they technically could since they support the web standards, but Apple block them and show you a poster advertising the native apps instead).