iWork ‘08 Review: It Grows!

As I’m sure everyone knows, Steve Jobs introduced a brand new iWork suite alongside iLife at the media event on Tuesday.

iWork, consisting of Pages and Keynote, has been growing in popularity, however, iWork has never been thought of as a real competitor to Microsoft Office. This is mainly because iWork lacked a Spreadsheet App, but also because Pages has often been considered more of a desktop publishing app rather than a real word processor. With iWork ‘08, all that will change – the long-awaited Numbers spreadsheet app has been introduced, as well as some big changes throughout the suite. This is a big one, so sit back, relax, and read on.

Pages

The first thing that hits you in the new Pages is there are a whole lot more templates. In total there are 145, split into sections under 2 subheadings, which brings me nicely onto the next change: Pages now has 2 modes, Page Layout and Word Processing. This makes Pages a 2-in-1 app – it does both desktop publishing and word processing strong enough to rival anything else out there.

Another new feature is “track changes”. This has been around for a while on other word processors, so it is a good, solid addition which I’m sure many people will use. We here at MacApper use it so we contributors can see what the Editors have changed in our drafts.

Now, because Pages is a desktop publishing app as well, it has some new graphics tools. The most noteworthy of these is “instant alpha,” which removes backgrounds from photos, leaving just the foreground. This is great, and it works most of the time. You simply select a range of colors in a photo, and “instant alpha” will remove all of the similar colors. The only times it has failed for me so far is in beach shots, as skin very easily disappears due to the similarity of colors.

My favorite new feature is the “contextual format bar.” This removes much of the need to use the “inspector” window, as it gives you the information you need at a glance. If you are typing or editing text, it shows fonts and font sizes. If you are doing something with an image, it will change to a bar in which you can select how the image is placed on the page and add reflections. This is a brilliant feature, which really shows its worth when you have limited screen space.

Text Boxes are also improved, as you can link them together. This is especially useful if you want to start a story on a front page and continue it elsewhere; you simply click on the blue square and drag to the follow-on text box. When you run out of space in the first, it carries on in the second. This is really handy if you are making a newsletter or other multi-page document.

Pages also has a bit of a trick up its sleeve, as was mentioned on TUAW. You can open Word 2007 documents with this app, better than you can with any Microsoft tool! Apple claims that all of the page formatting will remain after you’ve imported it. Neat, huh?

Tables are also improved, mainly due to the new Numbers app, which now allows you to add formulas to the tables within Pages. More on that in the Numbers review further down.

The main thing is that Pages is more rounded, and it does the simple things better. Word Processing is now better; it feels right; it has new tools such as proofreading (for grammatical errors); and you can highlight a word and look it up in the OS X dictionary.
From my brief use of Pages ‘08 so far, I can really feel the improvements, it feels a bit snappier, and the new tools really make the app like two programs in one. At this junction I think it is miles ahead of Word:Mac, mainly due to the speed (I own an Intel Mac, and Rosetta can be painful). Time will only tell if it competes well against Word when it finally arrives in Universal Binary format in January ‘08.

Numbers

Numbers is really brilliant. It is like no Spreadsheet app I have used before, and I’ll explain why.

Making a formula is simple. You can have multiple tables on a single page, all of which can be completely independent of each other. Table references can be words, not confusing cell locations like A2:A16. Put simply, it is spreadsheets done without a university Ph.D. in math required.

For example, say you want to work out the sum of a set of numbers. You simply highlight them, then look to the bottom corner of the app. It tells you the sum, average, min, max and count. Then, simply drag to a cell, and it’s done.

Apple’s greatest innovation was to make Tables (which have been in Keynote and Pages) fully functioning spreadsheets (hence the reason Tables have been improved in the rest of iLife). So, on any page you can place multiple spreadsheets, complimented with Charts (which are stunning), and all your iLife media (Yes, you can add music to a spreadsheet!). It works better like this, as each table can be sized to fit the data. For example, you may want some text directly below a set of numbers. In any other spreadsheet program the numbers would end up being in a huge, wide box that is way too big. Not so with Numbers. Because of the separate tables, each column can be sized correctly. This is shown in the “mortgage calculator” template.

Although it is simple, it does all the complicated functions you would expect. From financial tools to trigonometry, from text to statistics, it will do them all.

Excel import and export is as easy as you would expect, and integration with other OS X apps is also there – for example you can use Address Book contacts in your tables.

Templates are also here, they are easy to customize, and make things much quicker if you can fit your project into one of the templates. There is everything from team organization to vacation planning to more business related uses such as expense reports or invoices.

Numbers is a brilliant app. It allows you to move away from Office, and use iWork exclusively. It completes the bundle, and does what it says it will: Spreadsheets for the rest of us.

Keynote

Keynote has seen some of the changes that I spoke of in Pages, such as Instant Alpha and the Format Bar, but Keynote also received some nice changes of its own.

The most work shows in Animations. There are new Text Effects and new Transitions, which you will have seen already if you saw the MacWorld or WWDC07 Keynotes. Even better, there is now A-B pathway animation, which is actually really easy to use.

Voice-Over recording is also now available, as are Smart Builds, my favorite new feature.

Probably most famous already for introducing the iPhone as a single product at MacWorld, Smart Builds allow you to drag images onto a bar, and Keynote will animate them. What would previously have taken a whole slideshow to do, using transitions, can now be done on a single slide. Simply select which animation you want, drag the images on, and you’re done. It’s brilliant, and a great way to show different pictures during one slide.

As with Pages, Keynote feels more polished, faster and more grown up. I have always preferred Keynote to PowerPoint, due to the Apple design (and presentations are all about looks, so it’s important). This update, although smaller than the update Pages has received, makes it that much better again.

Overall, this is a brilliant update. The addition of Numbers makes all the difference, as there is now an Apple version of the 3 main productivity Apps. At $79 for the set, this package is a killer value, too. It remains to be seen how they compare once Microsoft reveal Office:Mac ‘08 in January, but I won’t hold my breath.

Is it worth $79? If you like how iWork ‘06 works, with slightly more emphasis on design than MS Office, then definitely. Otherwise, check out the trial.

If you want to try iWork ‘08, you can. Apple has a free 30 day demo available clocking in at a 469MB download available here. iWork retails for $79, and is available from the Apple Store right now.

We would love to hear what you think of the upgrade, so tell us about your favorite tidbits in the comments below!

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