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Redesigned iWork for Mac with iCloud Drive and iOS updates with Continuity now available

Screenshot 2014-10-16 18.02.36

As promised during today’s event, Apple has begun rolling out significant updates to iWork across both OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. The Yosemite updates start with a new design to fit the operating system’s refreshed aesthetic, while the iOS updates center around adding Continuity and Handoff functionality. This means you can now start working on an iWork document on your iPad, and continue where you left off automatically on either an iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or another iPad. The Mac and iOS apps have also seen some notable feature enhancements. You can see the full feature addition lists for each Mac and iOS iWork app below:

Pages – iOS:

• Support for iCloud Drive
• Support for third-party storage providers
• Updated file format makes it easier to send documents via services like Gmail and Dropbox
• Instantly switch between iPad, Mac, and iPhone with Handoff
• More color options including new custom color mixer on iPad
• Use the color picker to sample and apply any color available in your document
• Take photos and videos right from the app
• Insert inline images in tables, headers, and footers
• Inter-table alignment guides
• Column and row labels in tables
• Usability improvements for resizing and positioning charts
• Improved accessibility
• Improved bi-directional language support
• Export ePub files with video

Pages – Mac:

• All-new design inspired by OS X Yosemite
• Instantly switch between iPad, Mac, and iPhone with Handoff
• Support for iCloud Drive
• Updated file format makes it easier to send documents via services like Gmail and Dropbox
• New sidebar for comments and tracked changes
• Filter comments and tracked changes by author
• AppleScript support for Mail Merge
• Insert inline images in tables, headers, and footers
• Move tables easily with improved table selection
• Inter-table alignment guides
• Improved cell border styling
• Usability improvements for resizing and positioning charts
• Improved bi-directional language support

Keynote – iOS:

• Support for iCloud Drive
• Support for third-party storage providers
• Updated file format makes it easier to send presentations via services like Gmail and Dropbox
• Instantly switch between iPad, Mac, and iPhone with Handoff
• More color options including new custom color mixer on iPad
• Use the color picker to sample and apply any color available in your presentation
• New Trace animation
• New presenter display layouts
• Pair Keynote with nearby iOS devices using Multipeer Connectivity
• Take photos and videos right from the app
• Inter-table alignment guides
• Print floating comments
• Column and row labels in tables
• Usability improvements for resizing and positioning charts
• Improved accessibility
• Improved bi-directional language support

Keynote – Mac:

Screenshot 2014-10-16 18.03.55

Numbers – iOS:

• Support for iCloud Drive
• Support for third-party storage providers
• Updated file format makes it easier to send spreadsheets via services like Gmail and Dropbox
• Instantly switch between iPad, Mac and iPhone with Handoff
• Column and row labels in tables
• Instantly rearrange data in tables with new transpose feature
• More colour options including new custom colour mixer on iPad
• Use the colour picker to sample and apply any colour available in your spreadsheet
• Take photos and videos straight from the app
• Inter-table alignment guides
• Print floating comments
• Usability improvements for resizing and positioning charts
• Improved accessibility
• Improved bi-directional language support

Numbers – Mac:

Screenshot 2014-10-16 18.03.30

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Comments

  1. Kadang (@Kadang) - 9 years ago

    Nice…

    But would still like to see (and get) what’s being upgraded in iLife suite (bring on the new Photo’s app)

  2. Morley34 (@keungch) - 9 years ago

    Keynote and Numbers are still old versions at MAS.

  3. iLife still in works

  4. Computer_Whiz123 - 9 years ago

    Do these updates apply to icloud.com?

  5. loupetron (@loupetron) - 9 years ago

    Well, just downloaded it, and it’s getting there. I’ve replaced Keynote and Numbers ’09 with the new versions, but I can’t fully replace Pages until they bring back 2-UP view and linked textboxes. Hopefully it’s in the next round of updates. Fingers crossed!

  6. I am so curious what will happen to my iphoto events (gallery) after updating to Yosemite?

    • loupetron (@loupetron) - 9 years ago

      Really, nothing at all. iPhoto isn’t being replaced until sometime next year. Until then your photos stay the same, just don’t update to iCloud Photo Library on iOS devices.

  7. Mario Cunha - 9 years ago

    I have both Yosemite with iWork apps updated… also iPhone running 8.1 with updated iWork apps, and still didn’t find a way to make subfolders on iOS inside numbers or pages root folders (allows me to create just one sub-folder) Can’t find a way either to open them and edit from dropbox. In this case allows me to copy from dropbox to iCloud drive, but not edit directly from dropbox.

    By the contrary on Yosemite and also on iCloud webpage allows me to create folders and subfolders (as many as I want) outside the ‘numbers’ and ‘pages’ folders and can edit the files with numbers or pages, so still don’t understand why can’t do that on IOS and can’t access the files i create on other subfolders on Yosemite or iCloud webpage.

    Am I missing something?

    • loupetron (@loupetron) - 9 years ago

      The iOS App folders are still locked to one subfolder as they have always been and are only visible to the owner app on iOS.

      However, you can import from your iCloud Drive or other storage service, using the plus button at the top-left. Then Import and tap “More” to add Dropbox. Then you’ll be able to pick from your dropbox storage.

      It’s a security sandbox thing. The document picker is a way to maintain the walls between the apps but still allow the passing of files between them.

    • Joshua Wyner - 9 years ago

      It’s really clunky. You can edit a file in your iCloud Drive by clicking the + at the top left of your iOS app (e.g., Pages) and navigating to it after clicking the iCloud link that appears. This creates an *alias* of the file inside of the Pages folder (the folder that appears when you open the iOS version of an app). Editing this file (alias) thus edits the file located outside of the app’s root folder, while maintaining the awfulness that is only a single level of subfolders for the iOS app!

      I’ve still not discovered the actual button for Dropbox (you can supposedly enable Dropbox with the toggle that appears under ‘More…’ in the + menu, but no new items appear in the menu after doing so).

      • ibnabouna - 9 years ago

        This is really quite bizarre. It seems that all of the application-specific folders inside iCloud Drive are limited to a single level of nested subfolders, which makes the whole thing useless to a person who has hundreds or thousands of documents lying around in a folder hierarchy.

        I’m not sure if Pages is actually editing an ALIAS or a COPY of the document that is imported from third-party apps like Dropbox, but even if it were an alias, this is a dreadful nightmare of file management. How to know which file is the latest? How to prevent clutter in the Pages file management area?

        I’m frustrated that Apple made such a leap forward and then stopped right before the inch that would make all of this functional and a worthwhile alternative to Dropbox. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am considering switching to Office for iPad and its cloud service just to have a reliable way of working with docs on my iPad using a traditional file system of nested folders.

        I hope people are sending feedback to Apple and that Apple is listening.

      • Mario Cunha - 9 years ago

        Well seems buggy on my case then (on iPhone 6) I will try later on iPad. When I hit the + on pages or numbers, can’t see my other folders on iCloud drive, and I can’t either find a way to see the dropbox folder. On Dropbox app, I can send a file to be opened in numbers, but what it will do is duplicate the file under the numbers folder. When I edit this file does not reflect on Dropbox, so we can’t call it an Alias, is just one duplicate file.

        Maybe next monday with final version of 8.1 this might be fixed? (i’m running a developer iOS 8.1 beta 2)

      • Joshua Wyner - 9 years ago

        You can see it’s an alias if you get info via the Finder on a Mac. In addition, the changes appear on both files when I’ve tested it.

        That said, yes, unfortunately this arrangement doesn’t solve the real issue of complex file management, where one might prefer and need to store multiple file types together in nested folders, without hundreds of aliases showing up in Pages on iOS in order to have access!

      • Joshua Wyner - 9 years ago

        That’s my experience as well, Mario — for Dropbox, the file is simply copied. Only when you click “+”, “iCloud”, and then navigate via the picker to the external folder is an alias created. I am also running 8.1b2, so I’m not sure why you’re unable to see the menu. Perhaps Monday’s release will indeed fix some of this!

  8. This is all fine at first but after you stop and think about it, it’s total BS. What a joke that I still cannot work in icloud with my pics. Why is this so difficult? 1k pic limit is such a joke. It has been like this for a couple years and I fully expected Apple to lift this restriction. As far as I can tell, I’m paying for 200 gigs that I cannot use as I want. Will someone please tell me I’ve missed something? Apple takes so long to implement features that are available on other software platforms and it is an insult to the end user because it is slightly more convenient when it is a native app (I’m looking at you dropbox, sorry – I know you try but you are limited by Apple) – but apple continues to drag it’s heals on features that are basically required at this point.
    But honestly, in the end – if their solution to photo storage is anything like iTunes Match then I want no part of it. While on paper, that service is amazing – in practice, terrible. Just like the entirety of iCloud, or as it is still called on itunes ‘in the cloud’.

  9. Pages, anyway, is still GARBAGE:
    – no bookmarks
    – no facing pages
    – no non-contiguous text selection
    – stupid (intrusive) implementation of word/page count
    – no mail merger (not really)
    – dozens of feature s that were present in Pages 4.3 missing now. This is kiddieware, not software.

  10. puri517 - 9 years ago

    New Numbers icon looks like crap!!!

  11. Phil F (@tacmanphil) - 9 years ago

    Yesterday I updated to Yosemite and then tried to get the iWork updates in the App Store. Kept getting error messages…”too many http rediriects” and “try the Purchased page”
    Nothing worked, so I tried again early this morning. Same situation.
    So, for now it seems as if I have to use the apps from the icloud site.
    Ugh!

  12. indipon - 9 years ago

    Can not change folders place. i can’t move 1 folder to another folder’s inside.