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Apple begins flat redesign of iWork for iCloud, adds shared password protected docs & new editing features

Update: Some users are reporting that after opening a document in iWork for iCloud, that document is unable to be opened in the Mac or iOS versions of iWork.

Apple has just pushed out an update to its iWork for iCloud web apps that brings a redesign for some elements of the three apps and a long list of new features and improvements. Apple has added a new iOS 7-style UI for each app’s template chooser and document library (the first thing you see when launching the apps, pictured above), but when editing a document you’ll still get the old black and grey editor UI for now.

All three apps— Pages, Numbers, and Keynote— get the ability to add passwords and share password protected documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, as well as “improved voice over support for body text and document manager.” You can also now view a list of your documents, spreadsheets, or presentations that others have recently shared with you from a clock icon at the top of each app.

Other improvements in today’s update include new keyboard shortcuts and some highly requested editing features such as rich formatting of text in table cells. A full list of what’s new in each app is below.

After unveiling its revamped iWork applications for OS X, iOS 7 and iCloud last year, Apple responded to complaints about the rebuilt apps by promising to bring back features that had been removed in the redesign within the next few releases. We’d expect to see a redesign of the actual editor for each iCloud iWork app in the near future.

Pages:

Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 1.58.58 PM

Numbers:

Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 1.59.14 PM

Keynote:

Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 1.59.25 PM

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Comments

  1. Lucas Deichl - 10 years ago

    FYI once you open a document in any of the updated online apps they will not open in the local apps on the Mac or iPhone or iPad. Hopefully updated apps will arrive soon! just an fyi for those using it!

  2. Rohan Gupta - 10 years ago

    This is probably the direction Apple is likely to go in with respect to the (possibly) upcoming OS X redesign

    • drgeert - 10 years ago

      I love it at least at this place. Clear and easy on the eyes.

      This, and Logic Pro X, bode well for Apple’s future desktop app design!

  3. Michael Cohen - 10 years ago

    I can confirm that Pages for iCloud makes documents incompatible with the Mac and iOS apps. Fortunately, if you back up your Mac with Time Machine, you can go to ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~Pages/Documents/ with Time Machine to restore earlier versions.

  4. Michael Wildoer - 10 years ago

    It’s an excellent idea to protect cloud documents with passwords, but you have to keep track of them as well. I use Lava Software’s PasswordVault (www.lavasoftware.com) – it works on MacOS and Windows, and has online syncing. It’s really convenient, and the Lite Edition (which supports 25 services) is free. It made my life a lot easier.

  5. ronie678 - 10 years ago

    Reblogged this on Ronak's Apple iNews and commented:
    I used this today. Great experience!

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.