Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 07 January 2009 12:14
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 3
The latest incarnation of Apple's iWork productivity suite for the Mac doesn't deliver any new programs (eg the database that some users have been begging for) but it does beef up the existing trinity of applications with some useful new features including an advance look at forthcoming online document sharing facilities.
Like its predecessor, iWork '09 comprises Pages for word processing and page layout, Numbers for spreadsheets and charts, and Keynote for presentations.
If you thought Pages didn't deliver all the tools you need, it might be time for another look.
I'm looking forward to trying the new Outline mode, something I find very useful in Microsoft Word to help create and maintain a logical structure in longer documents. An interesting touch is that Pages 09's outliner will display thumbnail versions of inline images and movies. If you want to see them at full size, that's another option.
Another significant improvement is the ability to use a Numbers table - not just the Address Book - as a data source for mail merging.
And for those of a technical persuasion, Pages is now compatible with MathType 6 and EndNote X6 for equations and citations.
Other changes to Pages include additional document templates (there are now over 180 of them) plus an improved template chooser, a full-screen view of the document (no menu bar or other visual clutter), and the ability to send a document as an email attachment in Pages, Word or PDF format.
What about Numbers? See
page 2.
