Apple iWork 09

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The main feature Apple seems to want to show off is the new full screen view. This allows you to work on your documents without the clutter of the toolbar and the dock, leaving you with the document you are editing against a smooth black background. I have to say, this is a very nice feature, especially when you are working on a document that requires your full attention and concentration, like an essay- preventing you from getting distracted ...
.../> Pages also features new Apple designed templates, which as usual look stunning. You can easily drag and drop your images into the stock ones to change the templates quickly and easily.

Another important feature is dynamic outlines- allowing you to structure and plan your work quickly and easily. In pure Apple fashion, you can add templates to your outline, and edit it by dragging and dropping.

Other features include ... more

To those who are new to the Mac, iWork is Apple's version of Microsoft Office. It circulates around making it easier to make better looking documents.

The three programs in the suite are:

Pages- equivalent to Word
Numbers- equivalent to Excel
Keynote- equivalent to Powerpoint.

Let's go through each one in turn, talking about the major refinements, the flaws, and whether it is worth the '09' labelling.

PAGES 09

The main feature Apple seems to want to show off is the new full screen view. This allows you to work on your documents without the clutter of the toolbar and the dock, leaving you with the document you are editing against a smooth black background. I have to say, this is a very nice feature, especially when you are working on a document that requires your full attention and concentration, like an essay- preventing you from getting distracted by iTunes or perhaps a Software Update. If you need to access the toolbar, you can easily reach it by moving the mouse to the top of the screen where it will slide down. Also, you can see mini thumbnails of all the pages in your document by moving you mouse to the left of the screen, while in full screen mode.

Pages also features new Apple designed templates, which as usual look stunning. You can easily drag and drop your images into the stock ones to change the templates quickly and easily.

Another important feature is dynamic outlines- allowing you to structure and plan your work quickly and easily. In pure Apple fashion, you can add templates to your outline, and edit it by dragging and dropping.

Other features include MathType and endnote integration (both sold separatley) allowing you to add citations and equations easily.

And as usual Pages supports file exporting to Word Documents and PDFs, giving you great flexibility over your documents. Bear in mind that exporting to word may remove some of the nifty effects you applied such as reflections and shadows. Saving as a PDF will not affect the look of the document at all.

It's a nice upgrade for Pages, but still it lacks some more robust features that are in Word. I would say the vast majority of users (bar the serious document editing pros, who need to use macros etc.) will not notice any difference, except how much easier it is to use than Word.

NUMBERS 09

Numbers drastically improves the ease of implementing formulas into spreadsheets. There are now over 250 formulas available to you built in, and each one features its own explanation and a mini tutorial on how to use it. Great stuff for those who find equations in Excel clunky and complex.

Like Pages, there are now more templates to choose from, such as tax savings, yearly revenues- all of them making it easier for you to create an otherwise complex spreadsheet.

Another great feature is the Linked Graphs. Create charts in Numbers and paste them into Pages documents or Keynote presentations and they’ll stay linked to the original data in Numbers. Meaning you don't have to re-copy and paste the chart into Page or Keynote if you edit the data in Numbers. This works even if you change the font sizes and colours.

In addition, Numbers introduces Table categories which with one click, you can group rows based on data in any column and create table categories. Each category includes a summary row which is easy to collapse, expand, and rearrange. You can also add functions to each summary row — subtotals, averages, count, minimum, and maximum.

Numbers has really upped the bar, and with 09, it has matured greatly to give you a much better, more robust spreadsheet application. It's still missing a few features compared to Excel, and Excel copes better with larger spreadsheets (over 15Mb in size). Certainly worth the upgrade.

Numbers supports file exporting to Excel and PDFs

KEYNOTE

Keynote is the one application that, really, has trumped Microsoft's Powerpoint in terms of effects, ease of use and quality. Keynote 09, continues this trend.

Magic Move is probably the best new animation added to Keynote. It's very difficult to explain how this works. Say you have a slide with a scattered deck of cards, and on the next slide you want them to organise themselves into their respective colours. With Magic move you create the two slides- one scattered, one organised, and then Keynote will sort out the rest and make all the cards slide into the required positions, creating some dramatic effects.

Add to this the vast amount of new transitions that, trust me here, are not gimmicky at all and will leave your audience mouth agape, there is enough here already to warrant the upgrade, but let's plough through.

There is the new Keynote remote app which can be downloaded separately through the iTunes app store for you iPhone or iPod touch, allowing you to control your presentation for said device. It allows you to have on screen notes that do not appear on your presentation and see the next slide before it's being played. It does require a WiFi connection though (so your Mac and iPhone/iPod Touch need to be connected to the same network.)

There are new 3D charts and newer, improved templates to choose from.

Keynote supports file exporting to Powerpoint, HTML, iPod, Quicktime and JPEG.

All these programs feature the new iWork.com integration (still in BETA) which will allows users to share and edit there documents online. The interface is slick and really well done. However Apple did state that this is a service that they are going to charge for, how much, is yet to be seen.

iWork 09 is a fantastic upgrade from 08, and is a brilliant alternative to Microsoft's more expensive Office 2008.

iWork 09 is priced at (RRP) £69 for the single user license and £85 for the Five-user family pack. It is also available along with iLife 09 and Mac OS X Leopard in a Mac Box Set, all for just £149 saving you 40%.

Also note that iWork 09 will only work with the latest version of Leopard which at time of writing is 10.5.6 Use software update in the Apple menu to check for any updates before installing.

To those who, will, want to and do own a Mac, I give you the thumbs up for iWork 09.

 

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