Apple's iWork Apps for Mac and iOS Gain Text Styles, Apple Pencil Customization Options and More

Tuesday June 25, 2019 12:01 PM PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today updated its line of iWork apps for iOS and macOS, bringing new features to Pages, Keynote, and Numbers on both iOS devices and Macs.

All of the apps have a new feature designed to let you style text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles. Images, shapes, and equations can be placed inline in text boxes so they move with text, and using face detection features, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.


In Pages, Apple added new templates for novels, and the option to reapply text to a master page so text and placeholders return to their default style and position. Release notes for Pages are below:

iOS Version:
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Customize lists by choosing from new bullet types, changing the size and color of bullets, creating custom bullets, adjusting indentation levels, and more.
- Choose Learn Spelling to add a word to the spelling dictionary.
- Create links from text to other pages in a page layout document.
- Copy and paste pages or sections between documents.
- Use new chart editing capabilities to change the style of individual series, adjust spacing between columns, add trendlines, and more.
- Adjust the appearance of cell borders in tables.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Choose whether Apple Pencil is used to start drawing or to select and scroll -- or toggle between these options via double-tap using a supported Apple Pencil.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
- Reapply a master page so text and media placeholders return to their default style and position.
- Create books using new templates for novels (available in English only).
macOS Version:
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Create links from text to other pages in a page layout document.
- Copy and paste pages or sections between documents.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
- Reapply a master page so text and media placeholders return to their default style and position.
- Create books using new templates for novels (available in English only).
Keynote for iOS and macOS has a new feature for editing master slides while collaborating on a presentation, while Keynote for iOS specifically has options like customizing lists with new bullet types, selecting what the Apple Pencil can do, and more. Release notes for Keynote are below:

iOS Version:
- Edit master slides while collaborating on a presentation.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Use new chart editing capabilities to change the style of individual series, adjust spacing between columns, add trendlines, and more.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
- Adjust the appearance of cell borders in tables.
- Choose whether Apple Pencil is used to start drawing or to select and scroll -- or toggle between these options via double-tap using a supported Apple Pencil.
- Customize lists by choosing from new bullet types, changing the size and color of bullets, creating custom bullets, adjusting indentation levels, and more.
- Choose Learn Spelling to add a word to the spelling dictionary.
macOS Version:
- Edit master slides while collaborating on a presentation.
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
Numbers for Mac and iOS offers improved performance while editing and sorting tables and the option to add rows to filtered tables. For iOS, there are Apple Pencil options and customizable lists. Release notes for Numbers are below:

iOS Version:
- Greatly improved accuracy using the enhanced 128-bit calculation engine.
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Create links from text to other sheets in a spreadsheet.
- Add rows to filtered tables.
- Use new chart editing capabilities to change the style of individual series, adjust spacing between columns, add trendlines, and more.
- Adjust the appearance of cell borders in tables.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
- Choose whether Apple Pencil is used to start drawing or to select and scroll -- or toggle between these options via double-tap using a supported Apple Pencil.
- Customize lists by choosing from new bullet types, changing the size and color of bullets, creating custom bullets, adjusting indentation levels, and more.
- Choose Learn Spelling to add a word to the spelling dictionary.
macOS Version:
- Greatly improved accuracy using the enhanced 128-bit calculation engine.
- Style your text by filling it with gradients or images, or by applying new outline styles.
- Create links from text to other sheets in a spreadsheet.
- Place images, shapes, and equations inline in text boxes so they move with text.
- Using face detection, subjects in photos are intelligently positioned in placeholders and objects.
- Improved performance while editing and sorting tables.
- Add rows to filtered tables.
All of the new updates are available from the iOS App Store and macOS App Store as of this morning.
Apple's iWork apps are free downloads for everyone.

Tags: iWork, Pages, Keynote, Numbers
41 comments


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sracer
3 weeks ago

I totally agree. Everyone I know uses MS Office. I really wonder who the end users are for these products. They are really good but what is the user base?

Everyone I know uses MS Office... and I use it too, but when I have a choice, i use the iWork suite. Pages allows me to easily create documents with medium to advanced layouts and formatting without getting in the way so that I can spend my time on the content of the document, not how it looks.

The greatest hurdle I've seen for people to warming up to iWork is that they take an "MS Office mindset" to these apps. One needs to "think different" about how to accomplish the final results. Once over that hurdle, there are many situations where iWork can be used more efficiently and effectively than MS Office.

Apple has done a stellar job in attempting feature parity between the web/macOS/iOS versions. So much so, that I can start work on a document on my iMac, continue on my iPad, and finish it up on my Pixelbook.

Here's the web version of Pages running on my Pixelbook (chromebook).
(click to expand)


Rating: 17 Votes
Avatar
easteraries
3 weeks ago

Indeed. I don't think PC can use .pages (or .keynote) files, except perhaps if they login to icloud.com
That's unfortunate because I find iWork substantially superior in terms of UI, features, stability. They've done a wonderful job here and they keep upgrading them with new features.


I have the incredible good fortune to work in an all-Apple company. We use all the internally and are soooo much happier for it.

And we credit Keynote for a big portion of the wow factor our client get from our presentations. Not to mention that we do essentially all our page-layout in Pages, and our collateral looks so much better for it.
Rating: 11 Votes
Avatar
techpr
3 weeks ago

Nice that they keep updating these at regular intervals.

But I never have come across people who actually use these. At work, my shopping life , my friends and family always either use Office or Google Docs.

I never get pages or number files

I use them almost everyday. Pages and Keynote specially. Keynote is far superior to PowerPoint.
Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
markaceto
3 weeks ago
Mac Users: we use pivot tables on Excel and Sheets

Apple: announcing face detection!
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
atoqir
3 weeks ago
Nice that they keep updating these at regular intervals.

But I never have come across people who actually use these. At work, my shopping life , my friends and family always either use Office or Google Docs.

I never get pages or number files
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
AllergyDoc
3 weeks ago
I use all three: Pages almost daily, Numbers when I have sales, and Keynote for educational seminars. I work alone, though, very little collaboration.

I ended up deleting the all then redownloading them to get the new versions.
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
fronesis
3 weeks ago
For everyone out there saying "I don't know anyone who uses these apps," keep in mind that a lot of iWork users are longtime Apple users, and some of us remember the bad old days where there was enormous hostility to any docs not in MS format.

I'm an author and I collaborate all the time. I use Pages daily (extensively), Numbers almost-daily, and Keynote about once a month. I've been using iWork for more than a decade.

But when I send someone a word processing document, I convert it to Word or PDF first, because non iWork users EXPECT all documents to be in MS format. So they don't know I write in Pages.

If I give a presentation, no one knows I'm using Keynote, because unlike PC users, I don't start my presentation at the Windows desktop; I start it with my title screen slide.

I collaborate with most people using MS or Google formats, but all the content is created in iWork. And every now and then I find someone who I know is using Pages, and then I stop having to convert things.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
Konigi
3 weeks ago

But I never have come across people who actually use these. At work, my shopping life , my friends and family always either use Office or Google Docs.

I never get pages or number files

Indeed. I don't think PC can use .pages (or .keynote) files, except perhaps if they login to icloud.com
That's unfortunate because I find iWork substantially superior in terms of UI, features, stability. They've done a wonderful job here and they keep upgrading them with new features.
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
jonblatho
3 weeks ago
Support docs for each with instructions for using some of the new features:

* Keynote: macOS ('https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207247') / iOS ('https://support.apple.com/en-euro/HT207246')
* Numbers: macOS ('https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207244') / iOS ('https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207245')
* Pages: macOS ('https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207243') / iOS ('https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207242')
Rating: 4 Votes
Avatar
BWhaler
3 weeks ago
Huge update. I love iWork and use it daily for work.

Yes, like others have noted, at times, one does have to export to MSOffice and Google docs, but the amazing iWork apps and gorgeous templates are worth the extra step because you have beautiful, compelling documents in a sea of enterprise beige. Others simply cannot compare.

Thank you Apple and the iWork Team. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us for iOS 13 and multiple instances and other surprises. :)
Rating: 4 Votes
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