Apple today unveiled iWork ’05, productivity software designed to take advantage of both Mac OS X and iLife ’05 to help users easily create, present and publish professional-looking documents and presentations. iWork ’05 introduces Pages, an innovative new word processor with an incredible sense of style, and also features Keynote 2, a major new version of Apple’s presentation software that lets anyone create cinematic-looking presentations. Both Pages and Keynote 2 take full advantage of the advanced typography and graphics engine of Mac OS X, are seamlessly integrated with iLife ’05, and include a collection of themes and templates that make it easy to produce stunning results in minutes.
“With iWork ’05, we’re building the successor to AppleWorks by taking advantage of the latest innovations in Mac OS X and iLife ’05,” said Sina Tamaddon, Apple’s senior vice president of Applications in the press release. “iWork ’05 makes it incredibly easy for anyone to create really great-looking documents, newsletters and presentations quickly and easily.”
Pages gives users the tools to create great looking letters, newsletters, reports, brochures and resumes with advanced typography, multiple columns, footnotes, tables of contents and styles. Featuring dynamic text wrapping and alignment guides, Pages lets users create free-form arrangements of text, graphics, photos, tables and charts. An integrated iLife media browser lets users drag and drop photos from the iPhoto library directly into documents, and with over 40 Apple-designed templates, Pages makes it easy to create amazing documents in minutes.
Keynote 2 is a powerful application that gives users everything they need to create compelling presentations, portfolios, interactive slideshows and storyboards. Keynote 2 delivers powerful slide animations to synchronize the movement of multiple objects and cinematic real-time animated text. The iLife media browser within Keynote makes it easy to insert photos, movies and music directly into presentations and with image masking, it’s easy to frame the exact part of the photo users want to display. Keynote 2 comes with 20 great- looking themes making it easy to create stunning presentations in minutes. Keynote 2 also helps presenters stay on track with the ability to use a second monitor to display upcoming slides, notes and a timer.
iWork ’05 imports AppleWorks and imports and exports Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files along with supporting a wide range of industry standard file formats including PDF, Adobe Photoshop, TIFF, JPG and QuickTime. Keynote 2 now includes the ability to export presentations to Macromedia Flash.
iWork ’05 will be available in the US on Saturday, January 22 and worldwide on Saturday, January 29 through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $79 (US). Minimum system requirements include Mac OS X version 10.3.6, a Macintosh computer with a 500 MHz or faster PowerPC G3, G4 or G5 processor (G4 for PowerBook), 128 MB of RAM (512MB recommended), 8MB of video RAM (32MB recommended), QuickTime 6.5 or later and iLife ’04 or later recommended.
More info about iWork ’05 here.
Great keynote today. Let the WWDC rumors begin!
Brought to you by magic word “sent”, as in: We SENT a message to Redmond today!
Billy boy and Monkey Boy are banging their heads knowing that Xcel is all they have left, or maybe they will realize that Word processing should cast $300!!
I still use Appleworks, but to say that it was a little ‘long in the tooth’ would be an understatement. I will definitely be upgrading to iWork (that has the added bonus of Keynote 2) and will continue to just say ‘no’ to Microsoft products.
Great expo this year!
No.. I don’t wanna think about WWDC..
this is not after-Xmas hangover.. this is absolutely perfect guys…
I really mean it..
Been floating around to different forums.. the Mac mini is an absolute hit.. besides a few ppl who think they can run high end games on it.. whining about the graphics chip.. this thing is going to be.. to paraphrase Bill Gates..
Hit # 4
Apple… mee your old friend.. excess demand
My hopes and dreams have come true.
Thanks to Apple and Steve Jobs.
By the way, where do I sign up to worship Steve Jobs. My prediction for next year… iCult.
I can just imagine everybody at the keynote creaming their pants. It’s like a wet dream for nerds/apple enthusiasts everywhere.
Kudos to Twenty Benson – for he say on 3rd Jan:
“Pages’ is likely to be a modular page layout programme… users will select from a a ‘pre-built’ document format – which includes type size and styles, picture formats and page/column layouts, pagination etc – and use mainly drag ‘n’ drop to insert their material – with all page elements dynamically reflowing and changing style depending on their positioning. A set of pre-built Pages will be bundled… A Page can be used for everything from letter writing, newsletters, through to… brochures.”
Guys.. the Apple store is jammed!!!
iWork sounds cool, though I wish they’d kept the old name. BUT, I notice that AppleWorks is still for sale, and currently iWork is just a WP and presentation app. I’m sure one day I’ll be upgrading, when they’ve added the SS and DB back in.
Pages sucks.
Good Idea but they didn’t implenment the One format that I have my data stored in. What’s worse is that the format is open to everyone.
Now I have to wait till next year for a OS X port of Open Office.
Oh well, I can take the money I would of spent on pages and by a ipod shuffle
Well, I guess I’m one of the few who’s disappointed by iWork. Is it or is it not meant as a replacement to MS Office? Without a spreadsheet and a high-end app to match Excel and Entourage, it just seems to me to be a small step in the right direction. I would imagine Apple is intentionally taking baby steps so as not to tick off Microsoft, who could create a severe untertow by yanking MS Office. Let’d face it, to make headway into businesses, Mac must have a MS Office-compatible, full featured application. I’m reading tea leaves here, but 2 apps bundled together, as good as they are, are not what I was hoping for. Why is purported to be an upgrade/replacment to AppleWorks, which has multiple functionality, is beyond me. But I’m happy the step was taken and you can be damn sure I’m going to buy iWork.
“I’m sure one day I’ll be upgrading, when they’ve added the SS and DB back in.”
Yeah, I was pretty disappointed with the lack of spreadsheet because I have lots of data in AppleWorks spreadsheets. Oh well…maybe someday…
In the immortal words of Bill Murray in “What about Bob?”: “Baby step to four o’clock. Baby step to four o’clock.”
Don’t expect an MS Office killer. Think of this software as a wedge to get Apple back in the game. Expect to see a newer version next year with a spreadsheet app. In the engineering world, we call this spiral development. The motto usually is “get the product out the door and add the bells and whistles in each new iteration”. Some people might argue that this is what MS does already, but they’d be wrong. Spiral development actually involves knowing what each new iteration will have. MS just creates vaporware and buggy code. I think Steve knows clearly what direction he has in mind.
All hail Steve Jobs!
Round out this package with a spreadsheet and a web developement tool and we will all be set! I want to see iWork 2!!!!!
Baby steps, folks, baby steps. iWork will truly be an “Office killer” when spreadsheet and database apps are included. Businesses rely far more on Excel than they do word, and give the devil his due, Excel is a superb application. My guess is that Apple has to proceed with caution in this area so as to not have Microsoft yank the rug from under them abruptly. I suspect that any notional database app will be a ‘Lite’ version of FileMaker, and a forthcoming spreadsheet will pick up where the “best spreadsheet ever made”, Improv for NeXT, left off.
500mHz G3!!!
Does it think and type for me, too?
Do you guys remember about a year or so ago.. someone shot some pictures of what was rumored to be a new Apple product.. it had a similar green layout and style as the new iLife logo…
Which site was that? I *think* it was macosrumors, but not sure.
Whoever it was lashed pretty badly when the materials didn’t surface, but I remember the whole lightbulb thing and green scheme that is now present with iLife and iWork.
<I>”[…] a forthcoming spreadsheet will pick up where the ‘best spreadsheet ever made’, Improv for NeXT, left off.”
As an aside, I’m really surprised Apple hasn’t lobbied IBM/Lotus to convert Improv from NextStep to Cocoa. I can’t imagine that it would be that difficult–of course, I don’t know the code and maybe they made some rash assumption about how the NeXT Cube worked.
But, yeah, now that they’re friends, maybe Apple could get the code from IBM/Lotus and convert it.
Businesses may use spreadsheets more (which is debatable), but the biggest bang for Apple’s buck is in word processing. Just about everybody has a use for it- especially home users. I think it is a very good first step. I was rather impressed with what it will do- it looks comparable to Word. I will hold off my fina judgement until I get a chance to kick the tires. It does give you the option to buy only Excel now instead of the whole office package if you need to use a speadsheet.
Still, $79 for both Pages and Keynote is a steal, any way ytou look at it. Keynote was going for $99 all by its lonesome.
To those who were complaining about-
AppleWorks being old- taken care of
No Cube- taken care of
No low cost iPod- taken care of
iMovie being slow- taken care of
No headless Mac- taken care of
I wonder what they are going to complain about now.
Innovation NEVER sleeps.
What do I put in my G4 400 mhz so I can purchase iWork?
I played with both today.
Here’s my take:
1. Pages is amazing, but clearly is 1.0 program. It reminds me of Keynote 1.0: where what Apple focused on was simply amazing, but was missing some pretty essential things. But it is missing key features, such as “Track Changes,” which is critical to businesses. But make no mistake about it, while the holes will be painful until 2.0, Pages is an amazing application and much better than word. The templates are breath taking.
2. Keynote 2.0 is a great upgrade. Apple really listened, and the update is fantastic. I think Apple hit 85% of what people asked for and complained about. Still room for more features for real ppt2004 parity.
Net/Net, after hogging a machine at MWSF for about an hour today, I was very, very impressed.
On a different note, iLife is very mature at this point, and off the charts.
I bought both today. I think people are going to be very pleased with both suites.