“Apple’s launch of iWork ’07 next week is expected to be touted as one of the company’s more significant product launches of the year, most notably due to the addition of a new spreadsheet application. This third component will better enable Apple to compel Mac users to forgo Microsoft Office and consider its offerings instead,” Ryan Katz reports for Think Secret.
Katz reports, “As first reported by Think Secret in July, the application, referred to internally as Lasso and expected to be titled Numbers or Charts, will offer more than 200 hundred functions and full support for importing and exporting Microsoft Excel documents.”
“Lasso will launch alongside Pages 3, code-named Hammer, and Keynote 4, code-named Cannon,” Katz reports.
Full article with images of the Lasso’s icon and default blank interface here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Related MacDailyNews articles:
RUMOR: Apple to take on Microsoft Office, add ‘Lasso’ spreadsheet app to iWork ‘07 – October 11, 2006
More information surfaces about Apple’s ‘Numbers’ trademark – July 17, 2006
RUMOR: ‘Charts’ spreadsheet software coming to Apple iWork in ‘07 – July 05, 2006
Where’s Apple iWork’s spreadsheet? – February 01, 2006
RUMOR: Apple working on spreadsheet application called ‘Numbers’ for iWork – June 16, 2005
I love the code names. Awesome. I’m excited.
And my Microsoft dependency is now over.
(deep sigh of relief)
Here’s guaranteeing that charts and graphs will be better looking in Lasso than in Excel.
200 Hundred? That would be like 20,000 functions. Wow!
Whoop Tee Doo!
Dunno about those images – maybe those are from early development but it seems weird to have a “Table” option in a spreadsheet application – Looks more like a Pages document with an instered blank table and *perhaps* some added icons that may or may not have been made in Photoshop and added.
“Apple’s iWork ‘07 release imminent”
Duh.
As far as the “images” are concerned – FAKE!
Fire a Cannon over the bow, Lasso the customers, and Hammer Office sales.
Bloody good Depp movie that was…
“Dunno about those images – maybe those are from early development but…”
Over analysis sd.
Doesn’t anyone remember that Apple posted an alpha version of “Tables” several months back?
I just wish they would codename it something more inspiring…like SteerCow.
could anyone comment on moving from Word to Pages? I tried Pages v.1 a while back but didn’t really enjoy it.
Word runs horribly on my Powerbook and i am thinking about moving to Pages for 2007. I am an academic so my needs are about as basic as they come: footnotes, bibliography, section headings …
many thanks
lasso?
TS also reports on Apple’s new database app, codenamed ‘rubber chicken’…
Good. Now -please- Apple, bundle a ‘lite’ version of Filemaker to step up and combat that much used abomination called Access.
Then, with iWork and iLife, ALL your normal computing requirements are met – right out the box.
I’m excited.
I guess I can quit hoping for long-overdue improvements to iPhoto, and iMovie with all the attention focus focused on a friggin’ spread sheet. Dammit.
As iLife grows, it’s losing its appeal as an integrated program because so many of its parts are so buggy, unpredicible, subject to stops, freezes, unexpected quits, strange aberrations, and, worst of all, all kinds of functions that DO NOT “JUST WORK”.
And, don’t tell me it’s working fine for you since you are probably not asking it to do much of anything beyond some sophomoric photo touch up or fancy (you think) slide show.
I want iLife to do and be what it is suppose to do and be. Is it too much to ask?
Separate parts of the iLife suite are available all over the place for Windows and many work better than Apple’s stuff. Result: switching backwards. Oh, the horrors!
Note to Steve: make your promise that “it just works” the truth, not a marketing lie.
Lasso? Or Numbers? Or Cells?
mike k –
Pages is more of a page layout program than a strict word processor – go to MacUpdate or Version Tracker and search for word processors – most have demos – and choose the one you like.
Not to be outdone, MS will announce three new and innovative project code names at CES that will shift your paradigm into overdrive:
Loopy, Stanley Burrell and Ballmer’s favorite, William Conrad.
So far, all they have are code names. But the tech analysts will froth and lather up for days with their informed speculation.
Apple usually announce a few products BEFORE the big event (upgrades etc), so this year may be no exception.
Could be a good year:
1) Apple ‘Office’ alternative
2) Apple licence OS X to Dell (dual boot)
3) OS X to run all Windows apps
4) iPod phone running on OS X only
…and here’s me, been contentedly using Appleworks all these years!
Still, be nice to have the new thing arapped up in a modern iW wrapping.
One thing to think about for the adoption of iWork is that Office 2007 dramatically changes the Word/Excel menu interface. I think the main reason some people have stuck with Microsoft is because the menus haven’t’ changed since Office 97. If people have to learn a new interface anyway, they may be more apt to switch to an Apple solution.
The other hurdle is making sure that most files can be converted from .doc/.xls to the new format.
Disappointing:
Sounds like you should upgrade to Aperture and Final Cut Express.
By the way, maybe I am just doing sophmoric stuff, but for me iLife works really well without any of the issues you describe.
How does Apple expect to provide an office suite if it doesn’t have a good word processing program? Pages is great for simplifying page layouts but it’s limiting and stinks as a word processor. I would love for iWork to be as good, useful and flexible as Microsoft Office but it isn’t. MS office is still the standard and still in the lead.
@ disappointing… sounds like you’re ready for a pro app –
If your needs are more than ‘sophomoric’, maybe you should consider a more capable (and pricier) photo management program. It’s hard to realistically complain about five bundled programs being sold for 80 bucks that elegantly meet the needs of 95% of users.
Disappointing:
“And, don’t tell me it’s working fine for you since you are probably not asking it to do much of anything beyond some sophomoric photo touch up or fancy (you think) slide show.”
Wow, you must be so much better than me! Therefore I’ll have to assume that you must be right. Apple, please fix iLife as it is clearly broken.