Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 07 January 2009 11:14
Opinion and Analysis
Page 3 of 3
Remember the
rumour about iWork either coming in a cloud version or with better integration with Apple's online services?
It turns out there was some truth in it. iWork '09 includes support for the forthcoming iWork.com service that Apple is initially making available as a free beta.
Pages, Numbers and Keynote presentations can all be published to iWork.com, from which they may be viewed in a web browser by invited guests with a high degree of fidelity with the originals.
Guests can also provide feedback in the form of Post-It style notes, and download the documents themselves in iWork, Microsoft Office or PDF formats for offline use.
The owner of the document can see which documents have been shared, which have unread feedback, and how many people have viewed them. The same web page also allows documents to be unpublished.
At this stage, it isn't clear whether iWork.com will be free, a subscription service, or part of MobileMe. Apple's web site notes only that "Fees may apply." Nor is there a hint about when the service is likely to leave beta testing.
iWork '09 itself is available immediately for $A129/$US79. If you want to try before you buy, a free 90-day trial version is available for
download.