Apple today updated its iWork suite of apps, introducing new features for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote on both iOS devices and Mac. These are major version 12 updates, but each app has received only a couple of changes, as outlined below.
Keynote
On iOS, Keynote now features an option to enlarge slides to a maximum zoom level of 400 percent, plus there is a new feature for editing font size more precisely with up to two decimal places.
On Mac, the Shortcuts app can be used to create create or open presentations, rehearse a slideshow, or start presenting.
Numbers
On Numbers for iOS, users can now copy a snapshot of table cells without formulas, categories, or hidden values, plus formulas and cells can be filled with autofill using VoiceOver. Numbers also supports editing font size more precisely with up to two decimal places.
On Mac, Shortcuts can be used to create or open spreadsheets and add rows to a table, plus VoiceOver can be used to create formulas and fill cells using autofill.
Pages
Pages for iOS now features an option to publish directly to Apple Books with file sizes up to 2GB, and there is an option to quickly start writing a new document on iPhone by touching and holding the Pages app icon on the Home screen. Comments can be read and changes can be tracked with VoiceOver, and font size can be edited more precisely.
On Mac, Pages has the same VoiceOver support, plus Shortcuts can be used to create and open documents.
The iWork apps for iOS and Mac are available for free from the App Store and Mac App Store.
Top Rated Comments
It seems to me that the iWork apps are more about a) providing a baseline of functionality so that every computer they sell can do common productivity tasks (word processing, domestic budgeting, etc) out of the box; b) providing apps that emphasise different things to the other products. Pages, for instance, doesn't have all the bells and whistles of Word, or collaboration tools of Google Docs, but makes it very easy to produce attractively formatted documents.