KEY POINTS:
iWork was Apple's replacement for the much lamented AppleWorks, which slowly faded away after the completely new OS X replaced the aging OS 9.
AppleWorks in turn had evolved from a suite called ClarisWorks. It had drawing and painting applications, a word processor, a spreadsheet (I loved the spreadsheet's document link feature, great for tracking invoices across your hard drive) and even a database, a kind of bare-bones FileMaker, which many individuals used to keep track of CD collections.
Educators used the database for all sorts of other, more complex tasks and it was a handy stepping stone to FileMaker, as they looked very similar.
One of the best things about AppleWorks was that it was like having one application open, yet with separate facets available for different tasks; you could place a painting window inside a word processing document, for example.
After a hiatus - which Microsoft addressed, to an extent, with Office:Mac - Apple introduced iWork. At first it had only two apps (Pages and Keynote) and then a third app, Numbers, was added for spreadsheet tasks beneath Excel's rather more extensive franchise.
When FileMaker introduced Bento, by the way, it partly addressed the criticism that iWork was still missing a database. It's cheap and easy to add into your iWork stew (NZ$89). Although FileMaker is a wholly Apple-owned subsidiary, it seemed that just placing Bento under iWork's umbrella was a bridge too far, but if you want it, Bento (now up to v2) is perfect for non professional users and its highly adaptable, plus it handles document links like AppleWorks' spreadsheet did.
Anyway, now we're up to iWork '09. Much of the upgrade work seems to have gone into the presenter software Keynote, which Al Gore (an Apple Board member) famously used in his enviro-doco movie.
Keynote always had pretty groovy transitions, thanks to harnessing Apple's CoreGraphics tech, but now there are even more whizz-bang effects available.
Object transitions have been added too, to automatically animate objects with a choice of effects. Magic Move lets you create sophisticated animations by applying a simple transition and 3D charts now include cylinder shapes, bevelled-edge pie charts, new textures and four new 3D build effects.
There's also a new Keynote Remote application, available separately from the NZ App Store for $1.29 - this lets iPhone or iPod touch users view Keynote slides and presenter notes, and to control presentations wirelessly.
All in all, Microsoft is going to have to work hard to make PowerPoint:Mac compete. PowerPoint's biggest advantage is its much bigger group of users right into the huge PC domain. Keynote does PowerPoint shows and even saves out as PowerPoint, though some of the graphics trickery gets ditched in the process.
Pages is a fairly comprehensive word processor with a page layout mode. This was emulated by Microsoft Word:Mac in its 2008 version. Neither competes with, say, Adobe InDesign as far as complex publishing goes but both are ample for newsletters, statements and more.
Pages '09 features a new Full-screen view that helps users focus on writing - this has been a popular feature of third party Mac writing apps. Apple posted a video tutorial on Full-screen - it looks pretty effective. (There are other Pages tutorials here).
A new outline mode is in there, too. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be all that much to write home about (hardi-ha), although the Mail Merge with Numbers brings back another facet enjoyed by the venerable and aforementioned AppleWorks, and EndNote and MathType support boots the app further towards the pro-user sphere.
Numbers looked great when it came out but it didn't do much for power Excel users. I never was one, so I liked Numbers - particularly the gorgeous charts it produced. Numbers '09 introduces more professional features, though, including an enhanced function browser with built-in help for over 250 functions. Visual placeholders with tool tips explain each variable in formulae and a new Formula List displays all formulas in a spreadsheet so you can jump directly to any formula cell.
I liked the charting ability already - now you can mix chart types, there are two-axis charts and you can apply trend lines and error bars. Once again, in a resurgence of AppleWorks-like unification, Numbers charts pasted into Pages or Keynote are linked which means they can be updated with a single click. Good.
Apple also announced iWork.com public beta, a new service Apple is developing to share iWork '09 documents online. You use your Apple ID (which you set up when you buy your first Mac) and just click the iWork.com icon in the Keynote, Pages or Numbers toolbar to upload a document. You can invite others to view it online - this is a bit like extending the AppleWorks collaboration over the internet, if you like. It's expected that this will morph into a paid service once it's out of Beta, so if you like it, you may end up paying for your esteem of it.
Unfortunately, you can't seem to try iWork.com without buying a full version of iWork '09. But that's already available through the Apple Store [www.apple.com/nz] or from Apple Authorised Resellers for $179.
In case you are wondering whether it's worth the money, check out the free trial.
- Mark Webster, mac.nz
