What on earth is going on with Apple's iOS/Mac iWork compatibility strategy?

[kdum8]

So many items don't sync well between Mac and iOS in iWork. I use it for business and the disruption to my work flow is a real pain. For example:

I added phonetic guides for Japanese text to some of my iOS Pages files on my iPad for some translation work I was doing. I then opened one of the files on my Mac for further editing. To my surprise the phonetic guides were not displayed. Thinking perhaps that only the iPad could display the phonetic guides, I then again opened the files on my iPad to discover to my horror that the phonetic guides had been stripped out completely without any warning. This is a serious incompatibility. Didn't even warn me.

Why aren't Apple taking iWork seriously? I mean come on, above all else, a basic office suite is the most fundamental of apps on any system. If they can't get that right, well...

I could understand if the mac just couldn't display phonetic guides but left them untouched so that next time the files were opened on an iOS device they were there, but to remove them? I mean come on.

There are lots of similar examples. Apple have had over two years to fix this and other incompatibilities now. What on earth do all their employees do all day? They claim they put in 12-15 hour days all the time. Doing what I want to know....??

P.S. Yes I have given them feedback on this and many other things

 

[canesalato]

So many items don't sync well between Mac and iOS in iWork. I use it for business and the disruption to my work flow is a real pain. For example:

I added phonetic guides for Japanese text to some of my iOS Pages files on my iPad for some translation work I was doing. I then opened one of the files on my Mac for further editing. To my surprise the phonetic guides were not displayed. Thinking perhaps that only the iPad could display the phonetic guides, I then again opened the files on my iPad to discover to my horror that the phonetic guides had been stripped out completely without any warning. This is a serious incompatibility. Didn't even warn me.

Why aren't Apple taking iWork seriously? I mean come on, above all else, a basic office suite is the most fundamental of apps on any system. If they can't get that right, well...

I could understand if the mac just couldn't display phonetic guides but left them untouched so that next time the files were opened on an iOS device they were there, but to remove them? I mean come on.

There are lots of similar examples. Apple have had over two years to fix this and other incompatibilities now. What on earth do all their employees do all day? They claim they put in 12-15 hour days all the time. Doing what I want to know....??

P.S. Yes I have given them feedback on this and many other things

Amen...I agree...iwork for mac hasn't been updated since 2009...they could at least make the iOS version compatible...
Not yet...

 

[LastMinuteMike]

You think that sucks? I had a presentation in school and opened my document with notes on my iPhone to have iCloud tell me there where duplicates of the file. I selected the latest edited version and a progress indicator showed up for 1+ minute, and then the document just disappeared complete with a nice animation and all. I had to improvise my entire presentation When I got home the document was still available on my Mac though...

Also, every time I open Pages or Keynote on the Mac it tells me there's an update available to make it compatible with the latest iOS version of the program. However the Mac App Store fails to show me any update when I agree to update. I've downloaded the update directly from Apple as well but then it just refuses to install. This really sucks, the other day I whipped out my iPhone and made a quick edit to an essay I was working on. When I tried to open the essay on my Mac it told me I needed the latest version to do so! The document became blocked from my Mac simply by opening it on the iPhone, even though it was originally created on the Mac.

They really need to sort out the differences between the iOS and OS X versions. The iOS version needs full feature parity.

 

[Dwalls90]

iWork needs a major overhaul ASAP or Apple should ditch it altogether as Windows rolls out office for iOS soon.

 

[Razeus]

iWork is a complete waste of time. Use Microsoft Office or Google Docs. I've switched and haven't looked back. Apple really get it's desktop software up to snuff. But I guess that's hard to do when you ignore OS X because it's only 10% of your business.

 

[kdum8]

iWork is a complete waste of time. Use Microsoft Office or Google Docs. I've switched and haven't looked back. Apple really get it's desktop software up to snuff. But I guess that's hard to do when you ignore OS X because it's only 10% of your business.

Well I actually use it to run my business and for the most part it is sufficient. Admittedly MS Office (Windows version only) is a lot more polished and feature rich. The main reason I use Pages and Numbers is for iCloud syncing (and having native run apps is always a bonus too). Being able to access and edit my spreadsheets on the move from a mobile device is a must. It is the one killer feature that MS Office lacks. That's why I am surprised that Apple haven't tried to capitalise on it more by really making iWork into something a little more than it is.

I don't think we need all the features of Excel/Word. That would make it too bloated, but I think we are already 80% of the way there. Apple just never seems to work on that final 20%. Frustrating. Let's just hope that the recent OS X iWork related hiring is a good sign....