At today's education-focused event in Chicago, Apple announced several new features for its suite of iWork apps for Mac and iOS devices, and those updates have now been pushed out in new versions of the apps that are available for download now.

All of the iWork apps for iOS, including Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, are compatible with the Apple Pencil both on iPad Pro models and the new sixth-generation iPad, which now supports Apple Pencil.

iworkiosapp
In all three apps, you can draw and write with the Apple Pencil and use it for navigational purposes instead of a finger. In Pages, there's also a new Smart Annotation beta that's designed to allow you to use the Apple Pencil to add comments and marks to a Pages document, and you can add Apple Pencil drawings.

Pages for iOS also includes a new digital books templates for creating books, donut charts, real-time collaboration for documents stored in Box, and more. Full release notes for Pages for iOS are below:

- Draw, write, and annotate using Apple Pencil on supported devices, or use your finger.
- Easily add drawings with pen, pencil, crayon, and fill tools.
- Use Smart Annotation Beta to add comments and marks that stay anchored to their associated text.
- Make beautiful digital books using new book templates.
- Collaborate in real time on documents stored in Box.
- Add an image gallery to view a collection of photos on the same page.
- Use presenter mode to easily read and auto scroll text while giving a speech.
- Create and edit paragraph styles and character styles.
- View pages side by side as you work.
- Turn on facing pages to format your document as two-page spreads.
- Create master pages to keep the design consistent across your page layout document.
- Change your document orientation to landscape or portrait.
- Enhance your documents with a variety of new editable shapes.
- Use donut charts to visualize data in an engaging new way.
- Use conditional highlighting in tables to change the appearance of a cell when the value meets specified conditions.
- New option to automatically format fractions as you type.

In Keynote for iOS, there's an option to animate your drawings during slideshows, and you can more easily change the theme of a presentation. Donut charts have been added for visualizing data in new ways, and there's an interactive image gallery for viewing collections of photos. Full release notes for Keynote for iOS are below:

- Draw and write with Apple Pencil on supported devices, or use your finger.
- Animate drawings during slideshows.
- Collaborate in real time on presentations stored in Box.
- Easily change the theme of a presentation.
- Adjust presentation slide size and aspect ratio.
- Use donut charts to visualize data in an engaging new way.
- Add an interactive image gallery to view a collection of photos.
- Enhance presentations with a variety of new editable shapes.

Numbers for iOS offers new options for sorting and filtering tables, new donut charts, and interactive image gallery, editable shapes for spreadsheets, and more. Full release notes for Numbers for iOS are below:

- Draw and write with Apple Pencil on supported devices, or use your finger.
- Collaborate in real time on spreadsheets stored in Box.
- Use conditional highlighting in tables to change the appearance of a cell when the value meets specified conditions.
- Powerful new options for sorting and filtering tables.
- Improved, customizable import of CSV and text data, with support for custom delimiters and fixed-width files.
- Use donut charts to visualize data in an engaging new way.
- Add an interactive image gallery to view a collection of photos.
- Enhance spreadsheets with a variety of new editable shapes.
- Full bidirectional support for Arabic and Hebrew.

While Apple Pencil support in iWork for iOS was Apple's big announcement, all of the company's Mac apps have also gained new features in line with new features added to the iOS versions of the apps.

All Mac apps have been updated with support for real-time collaboration on spreadsheets stored in Box (macOS High Sierra required), and there are new donut charts for visualizing data in an "engaging new way." A new interactive image gallery is available in all three for viewing a collection of photos, and there's support for adding new editable shapes and reducing the file size of documents.

In Numbers for Mac, Apple has improved imports of CSV and text data with support for custom delimiters and fixed-width files, while in Pages, there are new book templates for creating digital books. You can also now view pages side by side as you work with two page spreads available, and master pages can be added to keep design consistent across your document. There's also a new Pages option for automatically formatting fractions while you type.

All of Apple's iWork apps are free downloads that can be obtained from the App Store and Mac App Store.

- Pages for iOS [App Store]
- Keynote for iOS [App Store]
- Numbers for iOS [App Store]

- Pages for macOS [Direct Link]
- Keynote for macOS [Direct Link]
- Numbers for macOS [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

ipedro Avatar
72 months ago
iWork was already fantastic. These three apps cover the vast majority of features that people use without adding the insane complexity and clutter seen in Microsoft Office. Support for Pencil makes it even better without complicating the apps. Well done.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sracer Avatar
72 months ago
Although the pace in which Apple is re-introducing functionality that was present in iWork '09 is painfully slow, it is nice to see that it continues to be updated. There are times when I still need to fire up iWork '09, but otherwise, I appreciate and enjoy the ability to work on documents on my iPhone, iPad Pro, Macbook Air, and iMac and have them look identical. (as long as I install the custom fonts I use)
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sracer Avatar
72 months ago
ok. Just updated iWork on my 12.9 iPad Pro. Pencil support in Pages is very nice. Just for grins, I loaded the web version of Pages to see now well it translated the drawing... other than losing the crayon texture, it was spot on. This is going to be handy.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AllergyDoc Avatar
72 months ago
“Collaborate in real time on spreadsheets stored in Box.”

What is Box?
Online storage, like DropBox.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JosephAW Avatar
72 months ago
App Store seems to be down. Getting message unable to process purchases.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Altis Avatar
72 months ago
Did iWorks not support the pencil until today?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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