“Apple introduced several important improvements to its iWork for iCloud service last night,” Jonny Evans writes for Computerworld. “I’ve taken a look at the new collaboration, print and document management features.”
“Apple’s much improved collaboration tools are the big news,” Evans writes. “The service gains a collaborator list, collaborator cursor (and animation) and the ability to jump between collaborators.”
“With a series of additional updates to the applications within the suite promised across the next six months, alongside Apple’s stated commitment to user privacy, I expect to see Pages, Keynote and Numbers becoming more widely user as iWork is recognized as a good solution for most real-world needs,” Evans writes. “Apple still has lots of work to do, but these latest improvements show it is committed to competing with Google and Microsoft with its own unique suite, iWork.”
Read all about what’s new in iWork for iCloud and how it works here.
MacDailyNews Take: I seems like forever that whenever we mentioned Pages, Numbers or Keynote to “regular” people, they just stared back at us blankly.
Lately, though, we’re hearing more things like “I’ve used that,” “I love Pages,” “I have that on my iPad,” etc.
Tipping point?
Give it back all the missing features, Tim.
It’s a complete rewrite, not an update. Features not yet in the new applications were removed, they haven’t been written/tested/rolled in yet. Give them some time.
It really isn’t rocket science.
s/were/weren’t/
I lose the will to live at times, people whinge all the time about bloated, inconsistent over complex software but when a company rewrites for a brighter, better and bigger future… well whinge all the more. Pathetic.
I love all those Northern Korean friends. Everything what Apple does is great, no matter if it is not, like this time. Then the not-great is the new great? Good lord, throw brain from heaven.
… iWork re-boot. This is a change to iCloud and how IT allows you to work with iWork.
While I, too, would like to see certain of iWork’s deleted features restored, THIS is all about NEW features for a different product.
It’s coming, relax. And this was about iCloud, not iWork standalones.
Wait until you try the sharing via the web – it is great for non-Mac users to get used to iWork.
iWork for Mac has always been too overly complicated.
After using Google Docs since early beta, iWork for iCloud has been a dream. Using opacity for color variation instead of the “color wheel” makes using iCloud Pages an easy tool for diagrams and other drawings. Just playing around with iCloud Numbers has allowed me to create tools like a complex Poker Play tracker and a Net Worth tracker, something 4 years of trying with Google Docs never quite worked. The key is these three iWork tools are now really widgets not separate Word Processing/Publishing, Spreadsheets, and Presentation. A table is now a widget which can hold hidden formula data so the visible data cells contain simple formulas. A shape can be overlaid on a table cell to give character to formula controlled values. Forms can be simulated by overlaying shapes on table cells. Can’t wait for chart editing. Need to add data import/export. Would also like to see formula controlled background/foreground cell font/color control.
Now if iCloud Mail would allow Pop/IMAP mail to be pulled from all my different mail providers, bye bye Google (for everything but Search and Maps), though I expect iCloud Maps will be added at some point.
Totally true. Pages was a nightmare unless you had been gone through the learning pains. Features need to be more intuitive and discoverable. Apple made the right decision.
“…more widely user as…”, that should read “…more widely used as…”.