Apple's iWork suite of productivity apps has been one of the go-to options for iPhone, iPad, and Mac owners for years. The three apps, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers all offer people the ability to create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets respectively, and best of all they don't cost a penny. They aren't necessarily the most updated apps around, however, which makes this round of updates worth paying attention to.

Apple has issued updates across all of its major platforms so owners of iPhones, iPads, and Macs should check for new updates if they don't have the App Store configured to handle them automatically. Each app has its own release notes although they are very similar no matter which platform you happen to use these apps on.

All three apps have gained improvements for handling photos taken on an iPhone and iPad while other improvements specific to their wheelhouse are also present. Obviously, all of these updates are free, and we'd suggest everyone downloads them sooner rather than later.

Pages

Apple's Pages app is a great option for people who need to create rich documents whether they be letters, posters, and more. This update improves photo handling and in-app notifications, among other things.

• Press and hold the Command key to select noncontiguous words, sentences, or paragraphs
• Streamlined in-app notifications inform you when a person joins a collaborative document for the first time
• Preserve file format and full quality when adding HEIC photos taken on iPhone or iPad
• Additional stability and performance improvements

Keynote

The Keynote app is perfect for creating presentations and users can connect their devices to projectors for that big-screen experience. In this update Apple has again improved HEIC photo handling while the familiar stability and performance improvements are also present. Those who deal with files that also need to work with Microsoft PowerPoint will also enjoy a compatibility improvement.

• Add a new look to your slides with the Dynamic Color, Minimalist Light, and Minimalist Dark themes
• Streamlined in-app notifications inform you when a person joins a collaborative presentation for the first time
• Preserve file format and full quality when adding HEIC photos taken on iPhone or iPad
• Press and hold the Command key to select noncontiguous words, sentences, or paragraphs
• Improved compatibility for slide transitions when importing and exporting Microsoft PowerPoint files
• Additional stability and performance improvements

Numbers

While Microsoft's Excel might be the go-to for a lot of people, Numbers can more than hold its own in the spreadsheet stakes. This new update isn't going to change the way people get their work done but there are still some notable improvements to stability and file handling.

• Streamlined in-app notifications inform you when a person joins a collaborative spreadsheet for the first time
• Preserve file format and full quality when adding HEIC photos taken on iPhone or iPad
• Press and hold the Command key to select noncontiguous words, sentences, or paragraphs
• Additional stability and performance improvements

Those who don't have the iWork apps installed already can download them all for free from the App Store and Mac App Store via Apple's developer page. Again, all of these apps are free which makes them a viable option for people who need to get things done but don't want to pay for a Microsoft subscription or buy Office outright.

More from iMore

• iWork for iPhone and iPad — Everything you need to know!
• Apple makes iWork suite free for everyone
• How to get all the iWork apps, iPhoto, and iMovie for free on an iPhone or iPad

If you’re hoping to see Apple show its hand with what it plans to do with AI, a new report states that you won’t have long to wait.

According to Mark Gurman’s ‘Power On’ newsletter at Bloomberg, work is being done on a language model, internally called Ajax. This is meant to be powering Apple’s generative AI and will allegedly give its Siri assistant a major boost in generating better results from user queries — and being more useful than it has been in the past as a result.

The newsletter goes on to explain that Apple’s AI is set to expand to other apps, such as playlist creation in Apple Music, and will be able to auto-complete some lines in its Pages and Keynote apps. A new version of its Xcode programming suite will also come with AI features, which will help developers complete certain lines of code that they may be struggling with.

Apple is allegedly set to unveil its AI plans at its developer conference, called WWDC, later this year, which is usually held in June. With Microsoft bringing its Copilot AI to Windows 11, as well as an app for iPhone and Android devices earlier this month, it remains to be seen if Siri will finally get the shot in the arm it has sorely needed for years.

No, Apple is not playing catch up with AI — iMore’s take

It’s been over a week since I started using Microsoft’s Copilot app on my iPhone, and I’ve enjoyed it. Asking the assistant for certain requests that I’d have used Google for brings me greater detail than using that search engine in my web browser.

Over the weekend, I discovered that I could use the app on my Mac, thanks to Apple silicon having the ability to run some iPhone apps in macOS. So now, I have Copilot running in its own window as I work away, generating random images to help give me some inspiration at certain times as I work on personal projects.

As I use Copilot more, I can’t help but wonder how Apple’s take on AI could help with Siri later this year. We’ve seen the company’s efforts in improving its assistant in the past, such as Siri Shortcuts, where third-party apps could better integrate with it — but Apple hasn’t mentioned Siri Shortcuts since it was announced in 2020, giving the impression that Apple has abandoned improving Siri further with the feature in favor of a deeper AI reworking.

Reports such as those seen in Gurman’s newsletter have previously stated how Apple ‘missed the mark’ with AI in 2023, and that it’s now playing catch-up. But to a point, I disagree. Apple’s focus has been elsewhere recently, making sure that its newest product, Vision Pro, is a success when released later this year.

To me, Apple’s plans with AI and improving Siri were simply sidelined for higher priorities, such as its headset, the newest Apple silicon chips like M3, and the iPhone 15 line. So this year, it’s all to play for with Siri and AI. I want to see it be faster and more detailed in its responses, but also in being helpful in the other apps that Gurman’s newsletter mentioned.

So with Vision Pro allegedly set to be released in a few short weeks, once that’s out of the way I’m excited to see what Apple’s take on AI will be, and the new reasons I’ll have to use Siri every day, rather than every month.

More from iMore

• ChatGPT - where can it go on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS?
• How to replace Siri with ChatGPT on iPhone
• Microsoft is adding a Copilot key to its Windows PCs

If you're a student with an iPhone or an iPad heading back to school or college, then you need to know about some of the best iPhone and iPad apps for college students. 

Whether you want help with your productivity, documents, collaboration, or even your learning itself, there are a ton of apps that can help you get the most out of your studies, all at your fingertips on iPhone and iPad. 

Thanks to the magic of Apple's App Store, you can download these apps whether you have Apple's best iPhone or iPad, or something cheap and cheerful. Here are our top picks as we head towards the end of summer. 

Pages, Keynote, and Numbers

If you're in college classes, the chances are high that you're going to need a word processor, presentation creator, or spreadsheet application. And if you're working with your best iPhone or iPad (or even a Mac), then there is nothing better and more crucial than Apple's own suite of office software.

Pages is Apple's word processor that does all of the same things that you can find in Microsoft Word, but in a sleeker interface that is easy to use. Keynote is like PowerPoint, but much more streamlined and fun to use. And Numbers is just like Excel, so you can create spreadsheets to your heart's content. And all three of these programs can save files that are compatible with Microsoft Office as well, if you need to submit files online as a .doc file or similar, for example.

Google Docs

Google offers an entire suite of apps, many of which you'll probably end up downloading on your iPad and all of your other devices. Google products are ecosystem-agnostic, meaning you can use them across Apple and non-Apple devices easily and smoothly. Google Docs is the first one you'll want to download, since you can use it to write papers, take notes in class, whatever you need.

You'll probably be able to get through school without paying for upgraded storage, unless you store a lot of photos and videos within your Google account. In that case, you'll need to upgrade. While you can store up to 15GB for free, the paid tiers start at $2/month for 100GB and go up from there.

Microsoft Office 365

If you're used to Microsoft Office or your school uses Microsoft products exclusively, then you can grab Microsoft Office on your iPad This app contains Word, PowerPoint, and Excel in one app, but you can also grab them individually on the App Store as well.

With the Microsoft Office app, you get Word, PowerPoint, and Excel in one place. You can create, edit, and even collaborate with others in real-time, but a Microsoft 365 subscription may be required to access some premium features. Still, you can use the app to view and create documents without paying anything.

Evernote

When it comes to digital note-taking, it's hard to beat Evernote. Not only is it available on iPhone and iPad, but it's also available on Android, PC, and Mac, and the web — so you can access it anywhere.

Evernote lets you create notebooks for easy organization, and notes can consist of plain text, formatted text, web snippets from the clipper, photos, entire web pages, audio — you name it. And the best part is that everything that you put into Evernote becomes searchable, so you can search by keyword to find what you need. There is seamless syncing across all of your devices and while there are paid plans, you should have a good amount of space for free every month.

Microsoft OneNote

For those who are invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, then OneNote is an excellent alternative to Evernote. With OneNote, you can create an unlimited number of digital notebooks for every subject you're taking, and take notes in an organized fashion.

OneNote lets students type out notes, as well as handwrite them in, sketch diagrams, import photos, collaborate with others, and more. There is also a Sticky Notes feature that lets you save notes for easy reference later, and they are synced to all of your devices. You can download OneNote for free and use it with your Microsoft Account or even an account that is assigned to you by your school.

Dropbox

You're bound to end up with a lot of files and documents for school, so you'll want a good cloud storage service. One of our favorites is Dropbox because once you upload your files to Dropbox, you're able to access them on practically any device. Dropbox also has seamless integration with a lot of existing third-party apps as well, giving you a ton of flexibility when it comes to choosing what apps to use to get things done. You can also share files with others quite easily, making this a great tool for collaboration.

Dropbox has a free tier with 2GB of storage, which isn't a lot, but you can get more space with referrals. However, we recommend signing up for one of their tiered plans, which starts at 2TB for $10 a month. Considering the ubiquity and versatility, Dropbox is well worth paying for.

Quizlet

Either you're a flashcards person or you're not, but if you are, step away from those index cards. Save paper and time and create your flashcards on Quizlet. You can create your own custom flashcards or choose from over 500 million pre-made flashcards by students and teachers in many popular fields of study from grade school to grad school. You'll be able to share them easily with your classmates and study groups. 

The app is free to download, but you'll need a Quizlet Plus subscription for the more premium features. For $8/month or $36/year, you'll unlock features such as offline studying and be able to access many more flashcards.

Khan Academy

Enrich your learning in a myriad of subject with Khan Academy. Maybe you need a little help understand certain subject material, or you want to brush up on previously learned material before beginning an advanced class. Perhaps you want to get a taste of a subject before committing to whole semester class on it, or you just have deeper interests that take you beyond your college course's materials. You can find it all here. 

Khan Academy is a free app with no in-app purchases, since a non-profit organization and. Downloading this app a no-brainer. Everyone should have this app on their iPad whether they are a college student or a student of life.

PCalc

Chances are high that you'll be taking a math class of some sort, especially if you're an undergrad. If that's the case, you may want to have a powerful calculator on your iPhone and iPad, and it's hard to beat PCalc.

With PCalc, you're getting a feature-rich calculator that is capable of basic calculations all the way up to more advanced equations. It has an optional RPN mode as well as a multi-line display, customizable button layouts, unit conversions, and constants, paper tape, multiple undo and redo, engineering and scientific notation, hexadecimal support, and binary calculations. PCalc is great for scientists, engineers, students, programmers, and anyone else who wants a powerful calculator.

Screens VNC

While services like Dropbox are great for accessing our files from any device, what about using our apps on desktop computers? If you have Screens VNC, then it's entirely possible.

Screens VNC allows you to connect to your computer from anywhere in the world at any time. With Screens VNC, you can update your computer even when you're away from it, work with your computer software, and even access files that may not be in the cloud. All you need to do is download Screens, set up an account, and connect. You will need Screens VNC on both your iPhone or iPad as well as your Mac or PC.

YNAB

College isn't just about learning, it's about trying not to go broke. To that end, you need a great budgeting app that can help you keep track of all your income and your outgoings. You Need a Budget helps you put all your spending in different categories to help you keep track of your spending. 

Fantastical

Most college students will have a very busy schedule of classes, exams, studying, assignments, deadlines, and of course social gatherings. Not to mention sports, travel, and anything else you can think of. You need a great calendar to help keep track of your time and there's no better option than Fantastical. If features day, week, and month views as well as reminders. 

Get back to school!

If you have a new iPhone or iPad and you're about to go back to school, all the apps listed above are perfect for helping you with your studies. A combination of them means you can get plenty of work done in a portable fashion without relying on your best student Macbook to be productive.

Of course, if you're in a creative program, especially in the digital design field, you may want to check out some of the best drawing apps for iPad, as they will offer you a ton of great tools to sketch, paint, or draw right on your best iPad.

Apple has released updates to all of its iWork apps.

Today's update, which brings the productivity suite to version 12.2, adds some notable updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and iCloud, but especially macOS.

The new update launches a ton of new features enabled by macOS Ventura, which was launched to all users on Monday, October 25. You can check out all of the new features below:

Pages

The latest version of Pages adds a number of notable features to the writing app, including the ability to send a message or start a FaceTime call from within a collaborative document:

• An all-new activity view shows recent changes in collaborative documents, including when people join, comment, and make edits
• Get notifications when others join or make changes in your shared documents
• Share a document in Messages to instantly start collaborating with your team and see updates right in the Messages conversation (Requires macOS 13)
• Send a message or start a FaceTime call right from a collaborative document (Requires macOS 13)
• Now use the File menu to manage your shared document or send a copy
• The new Blank Layout template makes it easy to start documents that let you freely arrange text and graphics
• A new option lets you automatically remove an image’s background to isolate its subject (Requires macOS 13)

Numbers

Numbers also has an exciting update. The latest version, amongst other things, allows you to work across multiple spreadsheets on iPad with Stage Manager:

• An all-new activity view shows recent changes in collaborative spreadsheets, including when people join, comment, and make edits
• Get notifications when others join or make changes in your shared spreadsheets
• Share a spreadsheet in Messages to instantly start collaborating with your team and see updates right in the Messages conversation (Requires iOS 16 or iPadOS 16)
• Send a message or start a FaceTime call right from a collaborative spreadsheet (Requires iOS 16 or iPadOS 16)
• Compare values and combine text with new functions, including BITAND, BITOR, BITXOR, BITLSHIFT, BITRSHIFT, ISOWEEKNUM, CONCAT, TEXTJOIN, and SWITCH
• See autocomplete suggestions based on the contents of other cells in the same column
• Style charts with additional controls for colors, lines, and number formats
• Be even more productive on iPad with iPadOS 16
• Quickly insert objects and get to your favorite tools with the customizable toolbar
• Find common actions like print, rename, and more in the new document menu
• Work across multiple spreadsheets more easily with Stage Manager on supported iPad models
• A new option lets you automatically remove an image’s background to isolate its subject (Requires iOS 16 or iPadOS 16)

Keynote

The latest version of Keynote adds the ability to share a presentation in Messages to instantly start collaborating:

• An all-new activity view shows recent changes in collaborative presentations, including when people join, comment, and make edits
• Get notifications when others join or make changes in your shared presentations
• Share a presentation in Messages to instantly start collaborating with your team and see updates right in the Messages conversation (Requires iOS 16 or iPadOS 16)
• Send a message or start a FaceTime call right from a collaborative presentation (Requires iOS 16 or iPadOS 16)
• Be even more productive on iPad with iPadOS 16
• Quickly insert objects and get to your favorite tools with the customizable toolbar
• Find common actions like print, rename, and more in the new document menu
• Work across multiple presentations more easily with Stage Manager on supported iPad models
• A new option lets you automatically remove an image’s background to isolate its subject (Requires iOS 16 or iPadOS 16)
• Remove or replace the background of live video for a dramatic effect
• Style charts with additional controls for colors, lines, and number formats
• Additional options for printing and exporting PDFs

If you are curious about what other types of office apps are good on the Mac, check out our list of the Best Home Office Software for Working from Home.

What you need to know

• The entire suite of iWork apps has been updated today.
• Pages, Numbers, and Keynote have all been updated to version 12.1.
• The update brings new features to the productivity apps on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and iCloud.

Apple has released updates to all of its iWork apps.

Today's update, which brings the productivity suite to version 12.1, adds some notable updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and iCloud.

Pages

The latest version of Pages adds a number of notable features to the writing app, including the ability to mail merge:

• Use mail merge to quickly create personalised letters, cards and envelopes for multiple recipients
• Select from stylish new templates for event invitations and student certificates
• Export your Pages documents as TXT files

Keynote

The latest version of Keynote adds additional transition animation options and new animated themes:

• Add subtle movement and visual interest to your presentation with dynamic backgrounds that move continuously as you transition from slide to slide
• Select from new animated themes featuring dynamic backgrounds
• Skip or unskip all slides in a collapsed group

Numbers

Numbers has the least exciting update. While the latest version does not have any new features, it does offer a performance improvement:

• Improved performance when inserting rows and columns in large tables

All of the latest versions of the apps are available now on the App Store. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are all free to users on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Users also have access to create and edit their documents on the iCloud website.

If you are curious about what other types of office apps are good on the Mac, check out our list of the Best Home Office Software for Working from Home in 2020.

Last weekend, I covered Apple's new actions for its Pages, Keynote, and Numbers apps, which brought templates, and improved presentation modes, and data logging for spreadsheets to iWork for iOS and Mac.

In covering that update, I started to reflect on the impact just a few actions could have come from Apple's own apps — and here are my deeper thoughts on why first-party actions for Shortcuts are so important.

From Apple's side, bringing Shortcuts support to one of their actions forces cross-platform parity, highlights the features of the app and makes them more accessible, and pushes them to be even better for the next set of expected actions.

For developers, Apple adopting Shortcuts gives them a template for how to build their own actions, gives greater emphasis on the ecosystem to encourage adoption, and also gives them hooks into the everyday default apps that people are using to tie together with their own third-party apps.

And for users, they are now able to take greater advantage of what's possible, rediscover and utilize the features that are there, and can start to fully rely on Shortcuts as a true part of the iOS and macOS platforms.

Apple is better when powered by Shortcuts

Apple is a company made better by Shortcuts — the app's integration of everything the company does across hardware and software leads to the greatest ecosystem gains, and Apple should continue to develop this version of themselves with Shortcuts tied across everything they do.

When Apple brought the iWork actions from iOS to the Mac, they aligned both versions of the apps together for the first time in years — Pages, Keynote, and Numbers got Shortcuts support on iOS, but despite the launch of Shortcuts for Mac they didn't get the same actions until 4 minor releases later in iOS 15.4.

With the expectation going forward that new actions in Shortcuts will always be released simultaneously across platforms, Apple will force their own hand at developing for each platform with feature parity — Shortcuts necessarily requires first-party apps to be cross-functional.

Along with the continued development of Swift UI and Apple's efforts to bring their iPad apps to the Mac, this new expectation fits in nicely — this new era means apps should be just as good on iPhone and iPad as they are on Mac (and vice versa).

Beyond forcing cross-functional features, Shortcuts support from first-party apps also gives the apps themselves greater discoverability — in developing the Template actions for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, I rediscovered the 150+ templates across the apps that actually solve a great number of use cases.

Plus, with actions like the new "Log value" option for Numbers, I can really take advantage of the Personal Budget by adding in my data over time in an automated fashion, thanks to Shortcuts. Previously, much of this template functionality seemed like a "nice-to-have" set of examples to reference, but Shortcuts support lets me actually put those into action and make use of them.

From my brief time working at Apple, I can attest that employees there actually use these apps — now, you don't have to work at Apple to get value out of iWork 😉.

Finally, the best part about Apple adding Shortcuts support to their apps is that, in theory, they will continue to improve them over time. Putting a stake in the ground and adding basic functionality allows users to take advantage of the actions now, provide feedback to Apple, and help them develop future versions of the actions that solve even more real use cases.

A good example is the "Log value" action from Numbers – right now, it requires manually opening the app and inserting the data; in future versions, I fully expect Apple to let users insert data in the background without opening the app at all.

In a non-Shortcuts world, logging data to Numbers at all isn't even possible without AppleScript or something much fancier; in the current Shortcuts world, it's now possible, albeit a bit cumbersome; in the next version of this Shortcuts world, there's even more possibility – and we had to take this first step to get there.—

Shortcuts has its own developer community

While Apple itself benefits from its own continued push into the Shortcuts world, a major benefit of seeing first-party actions in the wild is the effect on the developer community.

Developers often don't know which set of shortcuts to build for their apps, they look at other pro apps and decide whether to adopt Shortcuts based on what the community is doing, and the use cases can be somewhat limited based on the built-in actions or only hooking into other third-parties.

For every action that Apple develops for their own apps, third-party app developers will then have a new set of templates to model their own actions against.

Apple has provided a WWDC guide on How To Build Great Shortcuts Actions, which does lay out a very detailed set of instructions on the types of actions that are possible (and recommended) — however, taking that video and turning your app into something that's Shortcuts-capable is a different story.

Especially for a suite like iWork, developers can look at how Apple thinks about implementing Shortcuts support across three separate-yet-similar types of apps — opening files, creating new files, and interacting with data. And while this only covers part of what Apple recommends in the video, it's a great framework for getting started with your apps if you're a developer.

Even further, the Shortcuts ecosystem is only as healthy as the apps available in it, and Apple putting their main set of productivity apps for working environments into Shortcuts gives the ecosystem the air of professionalism – this tool is designed for work, and here are work apps that hook into it all.

Shortcuts for Mac brought automation to the desktop environment where most people traditionally get their work done, but if it doesn't support actual productivity apps, how can anyone get their work done?

This set from Apple is just the start, but hopefully, it encourages third-party developers that Apple will continue to push the platform, and they'll, in turn, develop even more actions themselves.

Finally, Apple's first-party actions are a boon for third-party developers because of their ubiquity among users — Apple makes all these apps, provides the suite of iWork apps for free, and in theory, they are the most commonly-used apps.

For third-party developers, that means they can generally rely on a large portion of their audience to either be familiar with or take advantage of those apps themselves. Thus, they are great targets for integrating the third-party app with the first-party app using custom shortcuts.

A great example of this is anything related to spreadsheets — prior to this release, Shortcuts users could only really rely on creating structured data using .CSV files or much deeper integrations like Airtable's API; instead, knowing that Numbers should always be available, developers could design actions that log their data into a spreadsheet for easy viewing.

In effect, the third-party app ecosystem can go from a bunch of standalone apps passing data back and forth to a true system integrated across apps that are designed to work with each other — the era of the Shortcuts-specific app is already among us and will only get better.

Shortcuts users need new actions to expand their own capabilities

Beyond the larger implications for Apple and its third-party developers, the continued support of first-party apps with Shortcuts features is incredibly important for the front-end users themselves.

Shortcuts is just a toolbox, and the actions are our tools — while the Scripting category great expands what a user can create on their own, hooking into native apps with pre-built actions is simply much easier and takes way less time.

That means that every new action given to us by Apple greatly expands the sandbox we can play in — Apple gave us nine actions for iWork, and I was able to create 200 individual shortcuts out of it (and that was just the beginning).

As I mentioned above, Shortcuts support gives new life to features of apps that were previously available but not often used.

The templates in Pages make becoming a writer possible, the Keynote rehearse and show modes might've been easy to miss. The Numbers data logging gives a lot of possible use cases the realistic potential for getting utilized. Shortcuts can make what's otherwise viewed as "the default apps you delete right away" instead of a core set of productivity tools that guide core areas of your life.

Plus, not only can you get more out of all your apps, but it's easy to actually utilize them regularly.

Rather than dread opening your novel to make progress on it, you can tie in your shortcut with other actions like Control Home, Play Music, and even Run Script over SSH to set the lighting just right, play your writing playlist, set up your favorite Mac just how you want it – all triggered from Siri.

Or, if you're logging data with Numbers, a series of Scripting actions can prompt you to fill out your data and collect it right in your spreadsheet — you don't have to hunt and peck through all the columns and rows to make sure everything is correct.

Even the Keynote actions make the presentation tool seem more accessible, as if it could be a good way for me to structure and practice storytelling for the videos I make – perhaps there's a Theme you can adopt and take advantage of in a unique way in your own life.

Perhaps the most significant effect of Apple adopting first-party actions for their own apps is the signal it sends to users that Shortcuts is part of how Apple apps work now and that it's here to stay.

Apple has explicitly stated that Shortcuts is the future of automation on the Mac, and the multi-year transition that is occurring in many ways means Shortcuts isn't entirely the present of automation on the Mac — Apple's core set of iWork apps only getting proper actions near the end of this year's cycle matches up with that.

But since that is to be expected (thanks to Apple saying so), it does give folks time to move over and adopt the app's larger ecosystem — for each first-party app that Apple adds actions for, this effect will be even greater.

Early adopters like me will dig in the second these are available, but your everyday Mac user doesn't want to wait for iWork actions — they want to show up and have it all working perfectly. The sooner Apple develops these actions for all their apps, and gives the community time to provide feedback and shape them to be even better, then the sooner the larger Shortcuts community will flourish by actually using the actions too.

First-party actions make Shortcuts the future of automation

Apple's continued commitment to Shortcuts as the future of automation on the Mac (and iOS) is reinforced by their adoption of actions for the first-party apps they've developed.

Beyond the native actions already available, the iWork suite for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers marks a major step forward from the Cupertino company in pushing Shortcuts as part of how you get work done on Apple devices. The signal that this sends to their own internal teams, the developer community, and Shortcuts users themselves is a great sign, especially ahead of WWDC in just a few weeks.

I can't wait to see how Apple leads the way, how developers follow, and what we users can end up doing with it all — it's a great time to begin your own journey towards the future of automation as an Apple user.

What you need to know

• The entire suite of iWork apps has been updated today.
• The updates bring new features to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and iCloud.

Apple has released updates to all of its iWork apps, bringing some notable updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and iCloud.

Pages

The latest version of Pages adds a number of notable features to the writing app:

• Publish directly to Apple Books with larger file sizes up to 2 GB
• Insert page numbers anywhere in your document
• Edit font size more precisely with up to two decimal places
• Quickly start writing a new document on iPhone — just touch and hold the Pages app icon on the Home Screen
• Read comments and track changes using VoiceOver

Keynote

The latest version of Keynote brings a couple of new features to the presentation app:

• Enlarge slides to a maximum zoom level of 400%
• Edit font size more precisely with up to two decimal places

Numbers

Numbers has also added a few features to its spreadsheet application:

• Copy a snapshot of table cells without formulas, categories, or hidden values
• Edit font size more precisely with up to two decimal places
• Create formulas and quickly fill cells with autofill using VoiceOver

All of the latest versions of the apps are available now on the App Store. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are all free to users on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Users also have access to create and edit their documents on the iCloud website.

If you are curious about what other types of office apps are good on the Mac, check out our list of the Best Home Office Software for Working from Home in 2020.

What you need to know

• Apple has updated its entire iWork productivity suite.
• The update includes new features for Pages, Number, and Keynote across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
• All of the updates are available now for free on the App Store.

Today, Apple has announced some notable updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

In a press release, the company announced updates to its entire suite of productivity apps. You are now able to show a live camera view of a presenter in Keynote as well as bring in more than one presenter. Pages is more optimized for iPhone. And Numbers finally gets pivot tables, a power feature that has existed in Microsoft Excel since the beginning of time.

Bob Borchers, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, says that the experience across all three apps is coming to the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

You can learn about all of the new features to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote in the press release. All of the updates for the iWork productivity suite are available to download for free from the App Store.

What you need to know

• Apple has updated its iWork suite.
• It includes new features for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Apple has today updated its iWork suite with new features for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

The new version of Pages, 11.1, includes an update for linking and better integration with Schoolwork:

• Link to web pages, email addresses, and phone numbers from objects such as shapes, lines, images, drawings, or text boxes
• Teachers using the Schoolwork app to assign activities in Pages can now view student progress, including word count and time spent

The same linking and Schoolwork updates have been applied to Numbers, which also gets support for collaborating on forms in shared spreadsheets. Keynote has also received the same Schoolwork app.

As noted, better Schoolwork integration means teachers can give assignments in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote and then view student progress including how much time they've spent in a document and their word count.

In March Apple launched its Apple Teacher Portfolio to help teachers bring creativity to the classroom. From that announcement:

Apple also brought more significant updates to its iWork suite in March, the whole suite makes up some of our picks for the best home office software for working from home available.

What you need to know

• All of the suite of iWork apps have been updated to version 11.0.
• The new version updates Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.
• The update brings new features to iOS, iPadOS, Mac, and iCloud.

Apple has officially released version 11.0 of its suite of iWork apps, bringing some notable updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote across iOS, iPadOS, Mac, and iCloud.

Pages

In addition to precision editing, quick value entry, and an easier way to select multiple objects, Pages 11.0 has added the following to the iOS and iPadOS app:

• A new option in More > Settings > Editing to always open documents in edit view.
• Add phone number links to table cells, text objects, and shapes.
• Scribble support for Portuguese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish languages.

Pages 11.0 for the Mac has also received some notable updates:

• Updated media browser offers enhanced search options and new content categories such as Recents, Portraits, and Live Photos.
• Add phone number links to table cells, text objects, and shapes.
• Use AppleScript to change a document password or open password-protected documents.

Pages for iCloud has also been given the ability to add bookmarks to documents.

Keynote

Keynote 11.0 for iOS and iPadOS has also added precision editing, quick value entry, and an easier way to select multiple objects. It has also added the following:

• A new option in More > Settings > Editing to always open presentations in edit view.
• Add phone number links to table cells, text objects, and shapes.
• Scribble support for Portuguese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish languages.

Keynote 11.0 for the Mac has added some new enhancements for presenters:

• View your presenter notes, current slide, and next slide in a separate window while presenting.

Keynote for iCloud has also added some new shapes to bring variety to your slides.

Numbers

Numbers 11.0 has added precision editing, quick value entry, and an easier way to select multiple cells in a sheet. In addition, the new update adds the following for the iOS and iPadOS app:

• A new option in More > Settings > Editing to always open spreadsheets in edit view.
• Add phone number links to table cells, text objects, and shapes.
• Export your spreadsheet to Microsoft Excel with the summary worksheet excluded.
• Scribble support for Portuguese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish languages.

The new Numbers update adds the following for the Mac app:

• Updated media browser offers enhanced search options and new content categories such as Recents, Portraits, and Live Photos.
• Add phone number links to table cells, text objects, and shapes.
• Use AppleScript to change a spreadsheet password or open password protected spreadsheets.

Numbers for iCloud has also added new shapes.

If you are curious about what other types of office apps are good on the Mac, check out our list of the Best Home Office Software for Working from Home in 2020.

What you need to know

• Apple has updated its iWork apps.
• The new updates include a new app icon and a refreshed user interface.
• Updates for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote bring each app in line for macOS Big Sur.

Reported by 9to5Mac, Apple has updated its suite of iWork apps on the Mac App Store. The updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote bring new icons and a new user interface designed for macOS Big Sur.

While the release notes do not call it out specifically, the report believes that the updates also add support for Macs running the new M1 processor.

Apple's release notes for the updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote below:

Pages 10.3.5

• Refined new design on macOS Big Sur
• Stability and performance improvements

Numbers 10.3.5

• Refined new design on macOS Big Sur
• Stability and performance improvements

Keynote 10.3.5

• Refined new design on macOS Big Sur
• Stability and performance improvements

You can download all of the updates, or download the apps for the first time for free, from the Mac App Store.

What you need to know

• Apple has updated Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.
• The updates bring features like video embedding and easier caption creation.
• All updates are available today for free.

Apple has released updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote today that brings a host of new features to users of the productivity suite.

Pages

For Pages, users can now embed videos from YouTube and Vimeo into their documents and more easily add captions to images, videos, and more. Apple has also brought all of the functionality of iBooks Author, which it discontinued at the start of the month, to the app.

• Use the new reading view to scroll and zoom your documents without unintentional edits.
• Play YouTube and Vimeo videos right in your documents.*
• Easily add captions and titles to images, videos, shapes, and other objects.

Numbers

Today's update to Numbers also brings embedded video and caption support as well as some new functions to manipulate data.

• Use the new reading view to scroll and zoom your spreadsheets without unintentional edits.
• Play YouTube and Vimeo videos right in your spreadsheets.*
• Easily add captions and titles to images, videos, shapes, and other objects.
• New functions, including XLOOKUP, XMATCH, and REGEX, let you match patterns, manipulate text, and create flexible formulas.

Keynote

Keynote will now play movies added on one slide through to the next slide. Better captions, just like Pages and Numbers, are also in the update.

• Movies can now play through slide transitions. Add the same movie to multiple slides to play from one slide to the next.
• Use the Align to Path option to have objects stay pointed in the correct direction while following a motion path.
• Easily add captions and titles to images, videos, shapes, and other objects.

Apple does note that the ability to embed YouTube and Vimeo videos inside of Pages and Numbers may not be available to customers in all regions.

You can download Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for free through the App Store. All three work with the Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

What you need to know

• Apple has added mouse and trackpad support to iWork and iMovie for iPad.
• iPads runnings iOS 13.4 will be able to take advantage of the new feature.
• The apps have also been updated with support for iCloud Folder Sharing.

Earlier today, Apple updated its suite of productivity apps like Pages, Numbers, Keynote with support for iCloud Folder Sharing. Now, Apple has also updated its productivity apps for iPad with support for a mouse and trackpad.

Mouse and trackpad support came to iPads capable of running iOS 13.4 last week, but barely any apps supported the feature at launch. Today, Apple has added support for the accessories for Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and even iMovie on iPadOS.

All three apps have also gained the support for iCloud folder sharing, something its Mac companions had received earlier today. It also provides full support for the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro which is expected to ship this May.

You can check out all of the new features for Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and iMovie below:

Pages

• Use Pages on an iPad with Magic Keyboard, a mouse, or a trackpad for a new way to work with your documents. Requires iPadOS 13.4.
• Select from a variety of gorgeous new templates to help you get started.
• Add a Pages document to a shared iCloud Drive folder to automatically start collaborating. Requires iPadOS 13.4 or iOS 13.4.
• Add a drop cap to make a paragraph stand out with a large, decorative first letter.
• Apply a color, gradient, or image to the background of any document.
• Touch and hold, then drag across multiple objects to select them.
• Easily access recently used templates in a redesigned template chooser.
• Print or export a PDF of your document with comments included.
• Edit shared documents while offline and your changes will upload when you're back online. Requires iPadOS or iOS 13 or later.
• Enhance your documents with a variety of new, editable shapes.

Numbers

• Use Numbers on an iPad with Magic Keyboard, a mouse, or a trackpad for a new way to work with your spreadsheets. Requires iPadOS 13.4.
• Create spreadsheets with more rows and columns than ever before.
• Apply a color to the background of a sheet.
• Add a Numbers spreadsheet to a shared iCloud Drive folder to automatically start collaborating. Requires iPadOS 13.4 or iOS 13.4.
• Edit shared spreadsheets while offline and your changes will upload when you're back online. Requires iPadOS or iOS 13 or later.
• Touch and hold, then drag across multiple objects to select them.
• Easily access your recently used templates in a redesigned template chooser.
• Print or export a PDF of your spreadsheet with comments included.
• Add a drop cap to text in a shape.
• Enhance your spreadsheets with a variety of new, editable shapes.

Keynote

• Use Keynote on an iPad with Magic Keyboard, a mouse, or a trackpad for a new way to work with your presentations. Requires iPadOS 13.4.
• Add a Keynote presentation to a shared iCloud Drive folder to automatically start collaborating. Requires iPadOS 13.4 or iOS 13.4.
• Edit shared presentations while offline and your changes will upload when you're back online. Requires iPadOS or iOS 13 or later.
• Select from a variety of gorgeous new themes to help you get started.
• Touch and hold, then drag across multiple objects to select them.
• Easily access your recently used themes in a redesigned theme chooser.
• Print or export a PDF of your presentation with comments included.
• Add a drop cap to make text stand out with a large, decorative first letter.
• Enhance your presentations with a variety of new, editable shapes.
• New "Keyboard" text build in and build out animation

iMovie

• Use iMovie on iPad with Magic Keyboard, a mouse, or a trackpad for a new way to create movies and trailers (requires iPadOS 13.4)
• Use keyboard shortcuts to toggle between the five inspector modes when a clip is selected: Action, Speed adjustments, Volume, Titles, and Filters
• Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly rotate video 90-degrees clockwise or counterclockwise
• Tap the Download All button at the top of the soundtracks list to download all bundled soundtracks at once
• Add PNG, GIF, TIFF, and BMP files to your movie
• Performance and stability improvements

You can download Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and iMovie for free on the App Store now.

What you need to know

• Apple has released updates for iWork on iOS to take advantage of iOS 13.
• The new features include support for Dark Mode.
• iPadOS can take advantage of Split View to edit two documents side by side.

Apple on Monday released a slew of updates for its iWork suite of applications to take advantage of iOS 13, including support for Dark Mode.

In Pages, iPadOS users can now use the writing software in multiple spaces and edit two documents side by side. Similar support is available for Numbers and Keynote.

Many of the updates are similar across the board, so it would be easier to share release notes for each application:

Pages 5.2 release notes:

• Enable Dark Mode to emphasize your content.*
• On iPadOS, use Pages in multiple spaces or edit two documents side by side in Split View.
• Support for new iOS 13 and iPadOS text editing and navigation gestures.*
• Set the default font and font size used for all new documents created from basic templates.
• Use custom fonts installed from the App Store.*
• Capture a screenshot of an entire document, mark it up, then easily share it as a PDF.*
• Access files from a USB drive, external hard drive, or file server.*
• Listen to an audio representation of your chart using VoiceOver.*
• Add accessibility descriptions to audio, video, and drawings.
• Improved accessibility of exported PDFs.
• Support for HEVC-formatted movies, enabling reduced file size while preserving visual quality.
• Select multiple objects by pressing Shift or Command on a hardware keyboard.
• *Requires iOS 13 or iPadOS

Numbers 5.2 release notes:

• Enable Dark Mode to emphasize your content.*
• On iPadOS, use Numbers in multiple spaces or edit two spreadsheets side by side in Split View.
• Support for new iOS 13 and iPadOS text editing and navigation gestures.*
• Use custom fonts installed from the App Store.*
• Capture a screenshot of an entire spreadsheet, mark it up, then easily share it as a PDF.*
• Access files from a USB drive, external hard drive, or file server.*
• Listen to an audio representation of your chart using VoiceOver.*
• Add accessibility descriptions to audio, video, and drawings.
• Improved accessibility of exported PDFs.
• Support for HEVC-formatted movies, enabling reduced file size while preserving visual quality.
• Select multiple objects by pressing Shift or Command on a hardware keyboard.
• *Requires iOS 13 or iPadOS

Keynote 5.2 release notes:

• On iPadOS, use Keynote in multiple spaces or edit two presentations side by side in Split View.
• Support for new iOS 13 and iPadOS text editing and navigation gestures.*
• Use custom fonts installed from the App Store.*
• Capture a screenshot of an entire presentation, mark it up, then easily share it as a PDF.*
• Access files from a USB drive, external hard drive, or file server.*
• Listen to an audio representation of your chart using VoiceOver.*
• Add accessibility descriptions to audio, video, and drawings.
• Improved accessibility of exported PDFs.
• Support for HEVC-formatted movies, enabling reduced file size while preserving visual quality.
• Select multiple objects by pressing Shift or Command on a hardware keyboard.
• *Requires iOS 13 or iPadOS

You can download the latest updates for Apple's iWork from the App Store.

What's new with iWork?

Check back here for all the latest updates in iWork news.

Right on the heels of the launch of iOS 12, Apple also announced an update to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. It's more than just compatibility with the new operating system. Here's what's changing:

What's new in Pages

• Animate your drawings and watch them come to life in a document or book.
• When using Smart Annotation, lines connecting text to annotations in the side margins stretch and move with edits.
• Annotations now anchor to table cells.
• Easily save drawings to Photos or Files, or share them with others.
• Support for Siri Shortcuts. Requires iOS 12
• Adjust the line spacing before and after a paragraph, and set the width for columns of text.
• Pages now supports Dynamic Type.
• Enhance your documents with a variety of new editable shapes.
• Performance and stability improvements.

What's new in Numbers

• Use Smart Categories to quickly organize and summarize tables to gain new insights.
  • Group your data based on unique values and date ranges, including day of week, day, week, month, quarter, and year.
  • Instantly show count, subtotal, average, maximum, and minimum values for columns in each group.
  • Create charts of your summarized data.
  • Easily reorder categories to see your data in a different way.
• Easily save drawings to Photos or Files, or share them with others.
• Support for Siri Shortcuts. Requires iOS 12
• Numbers now supports Dynamic Type.
• Enhance your spreadsheets with a variety of new editable shapes.
• Performance and stability improvements.

What's new in Keynote

• Adjust text size in presenter notes and invert colors while presenting.
• Easily save drawings to Photos or Files, or share them with others.
• Support for Siri Shortcuts. Requires iOS 12
• Keynote now supports Dynamic Type.
• Enhance your presentations with a variety of new editable shapes.
• Performance and stability improvements.

In addition, iWork for macOS has received a big update even though Mojave isn't scheduled to launch until September 24. Guess they're getting ahead of things. Here are the changes:

What's new in Pages

• Easily record, edit, and play audio right on a page.
• Support for Dark Mode gives Pages a dramatic dark look. Toolbars and menus recede into the background so you can focus on your content. Requires macOS Mojave.
• Support for Continuity Camera allows you to take a photo or scan a document with your iPhone and have it automatically appear in your document on your Mac. Requires macOS Mojave and iOS 12.
• Enhance your documents with a variety of new editable shapes.
• Performance and stability improvements.

What's new in Numbers

• Use Smart Categories to quickly organize and summarize tables to gain new insights.
  • Group your data based on unique values and date ranges, including day of week, day, week, month, quarter, and year.
  • Instantly show count, subtotal, average, maximum, and minimum values for columns in each group.
  • Create charts of your summarized data.
  • Easily reorder categories to see your data in a different way.
• Support for Dark Mode gives Numbers a dramatic dark look. Toolbars and menus recede into the background so you can focus on your content. Requires macOS Mojave.
• Support for Continuity Camera allows you to take a photo or scan a document with your iPhone and have it automatically appear in your spreadsheet on your Mac. Requires macOS Mojave and iOS 12.
• Easily record, edit, and play audio right in a spreadsheet.
• Enhance your spreadsheets with a variety of new editable shapes.
• Performance and stability improvements.

What's new in Keynote

• Support for Dark Mode gives Keynote a dramatic dark look. Toolbars and menus recede into the background so you can focus on your content. Requires macOS Mojave.
• Support for Continuity Camera allows you to take a photo or scan a document with your iPhone and have it automatically appear in your presentation on your Mac. Requires macOS Mojave and iOS 12.
• Easily record, edit, and play audio right on a slide.
• Enhance your presentations with a variety of new editable shapes.
• Performance and stability improvements.

Back at Apple's education event in March, CEO Tim Cook showcased new, completely upgraded versions of the company's suite of iWork productivity apps that is comprised of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Today, those apps are receiving further improvements that will be a boon to educators and students alike, especially those who incorporate iPad into their daily study.

Perhaps the most feature of iWork 4.1 is that users can now record, edit and play audio without every needing to leave the iWork apps, no matter what kind of project they're working on. This is especially great for teachers who want to give actual verbal feedback to their pupils or for really punching up a presentation with sound that you've customized yourself. The update also includes controls to help you more easily switch between the "Draw" and "Smart Annotation" functions (both introduced in version 4.0), the ability to stretch annotation marks to fit your text, the ability to add math equations in LaTeX or MathML notation, and more. Here are a few more of the new features, according to Apple:

iWork Features

• A highlight now appears in Pages to let you know where your Smart Annotations are anchored.
• Pages now allows you to add colors and images to backgrounds in page layout documents. You can also easily browse templates for your Pages docs by category on the iOS version of the app.
• You can now give charts (and the columns and bars therein) rounded corners in Pages, Numbers, and Keynote on iOS and Mac, offering you even more options for customizing the look of your documents.
• With Keynote for iOS, you can now edit existing or create new master slides. You can also export a presentation as a movie or images.

As with all Apple updates, this update is 100% free. If you have these apps and have automatic updates turned on, they should update when they're able automatically. If you prefer to start updates yourself, you can do so by heading to "Updates" tab in the App Store to get the new versions manually.

March 27, 2018 - Apple just unveiled all-new versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote

At Apple's education event this morning at Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago, CEO Tim Cook just presented new, completely upgraded versions of the company's suite of iWork productivity apps that includes Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. From this day forth, the apps will boast support for the Apple Pencil — which, the company remarked, is the top choice for digital illustrators — on all compatible iPads.

Now when you're creating a document, you'll be able to draw, sketch, or write with your Apple Pencil without needing to leave the app, allowing you to give your projects new life with illustrations, diagrams, and more. And I'm not talking notelike digital scribbles here (although you can make those, too) — if you want, you can create intricately detailed drawings complete with precisely-added colors, textures, and effects that will really make your work stand out.

Out of all of the iWork apps, Pages seems to have received the most updates, with probably the most exciting being Smart Annotation (launched today in beta). With Smart Annotation, users can easily and effectively give, receive and incorporate feedback in a document with their Apple Pencil. Each mark, correction, and note stays dynamically anchored to the word or words it's added to, so even if you move the word word or phrase around within the work, the annotation follows. It's "not just a superficial layer" atop the piece — it's actually tethered to the elements within. That essentially means that when used in the classroom, teachers can mark up a student's paper in a way that they've never been able to before.

In addition, the Pages update is bringing digital book creation to the iPad. (That means no more iBooks Author, as it's being integrated directly into Pages.) Now, students and teachers can create interactive digital textbooks, travel books, short stories, and pretty much any other book projects their beautiful minds can conjure, then make their work even more immersive with galleries, captions, music, illustrations, and video. What's more, Pages gives users the ability to collaborate on all projects including books, so multiple students (or colleagues, or artists, or writers) can work on a masterpiece together in real time. Once a project is complete, you can share it directly to iBooks.

Finally, new Pages has been outfitted with what Apple calls Presenter Mode, which essentially allows iPad and iPhone users to turn their device into a virtual teleprompter for "distraction-free reading" — a feature that's great for sharing important excerpts in a classroom setting. According to Apple, the text can auto scroll at an adjustable speed, and users can customize text size, spacing, font, and background color so that whatever is being presented is as accessible as possible.

Susan Prescott, Apple's VP of Apps Product Marketing, the company's enthusiasm for the opportunities the changes to iWork provide in a statement:

Updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are all available today, and will also come with every new iPad for no additional charge.

Thoughts? Questions?

Have any burning questions about the iWork suite that we didn't cover? Share them with us in the comments and we'll do our best to answer them for you.

If you're looking to create an ebook on your iOS device, look no further than Apple's own Pages app. Part of the iWork suite, pages comes with built-in tools for ebook creation and sharing, letting you publish your work in the EPUB format for easy sharing with pretty much anyone.

Creating an ebook in Pages is quite simple, and adding content to it is almost easier. Here's how you can create ebooks in Pages for iPhone and iPad.

• How to create a book in Pages for iPhone and iPad
• How to add pages to your landscape ebook in Pages on iPhone
• How to add pages to your landscape ebook in Pages on iPad
• How to share your ebook in Pages for iPhone and iPad

How to create a book in Pages for iPhone and iPad

1. Open Pages on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Create Document or + in the document manager.
3. Tap on one of the book templates under Books - Portrait or Books - Landscape.

Apple recommends Portrait templates for books that will mostly be text, while Landscape orientation is best suited for books with a lot of images or whose content is formatted into columns. Exported EPUB books in Portrait orientation will see their text adjust to different screen sizes or device orientations, while Landscape template layouts are static.

How to add pages to your landscape ebook in Pages on iPhone

If you are writing your book using a Portrait template, new pages are created automatically as you write. Books created in landscape orientation, however, need to have additional pages added manually.

1. Open Pages on your iPhone.
2. Tap on your book.
3. Tap the page numbers at the bottom of the screen.

4. Tap and hold the thumbnail of the page that you want your new page to follow.
5. Tap +Add Page.
6. Tap on the page template you want to use.

7. Tap Choose.
8. Pull down on the handle above the thumbnails to return to your book.

How to add pages to your landscape ebook in Pages on iPad

Adding pages is a little different on the iPad.

1. Open Pages on your iPad.
2. Tap on your book.
3. Tap the + at the bottom of the left column.

4. Choose the page template you want to use.
5. Tap, hold, and drag to choose a different position for page.

How to share your ebook in Pages for iPhone and iPad

When you're finished with your book, you can export it in the EPUB format and share it with others.

1. Open your book on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap the ... button.
3. Tap Export.

4. Tap EPUB.
5. Tap Send.

6. Tap Copy to iBooks to view your book in iBooks.
7. Choose an app from the Share menu in order to send your book to somewhere by another means.

Questions?

If you have any questions about creating or sharing a book using the Pages app on your iPhone or iPad, let us know in the comments.

At Tuesday's Apple Education event, the company announced that for the first time, students and teachers alike would be able to build and export ebook projects directly on an iPad or iPhone. It's a pretty exciting feature — but one that was quickly met with concern from longtime iBooks Author users about Apple's silence on the prosumer book-editing app.

Curious about what's going on with iBooks Author and Pages ebook creation? Here's how it breaks down.

Why can you edit ebooks in Pages now?

Fun fact: Before iBooks Author was even a twinkle in someone's eye, Apple's eBook creation tools were found entirely in the Pages app. (Even more fun fact: Apple's iWork team is responsible for both iBooks Author and Pages — so it's always been the same engineers working on each program.)

Back in the early ebooks days, it was common practice to edit a manuscript in Word (or Pages) and send that file to a design program like InDesign to get packaged as an ePub; with ePub 2, Apple introduced support for direct export in Pages, allowing users to export rudimentary ebooks.

But that export tool was haphazard and poorly labeled: Some Pages features worked in the resulting ebook file, others didn't work at all, and there was no indication as to what would render until after you exported your file.

After iBooks Author was introduced as a way to create great-looking fixed-format ebooks, Apple updated Pages to export flowing ePub 3 files, but those files were still extremely rudimentary and based entirely around paragraph styles, with no support for most of Pages' multimedia options.

This latest update to Pages brings a full-featured ePub 3 book-editing experience to the Mac, iPhone, and iPad — there are multiple templates for both free-flowing and fixed-format ebooks, with support for text, multimedia galleries, custom styles, drawings, and video.

ePub 3? What about iBooks Author's .iBooks format?

Pages has always exported files as .epub, and will continue to do so. It's an open format, and it means your books will be available for all devices — not just Apple's iBooks software.

Can you open ePub, .iBooks, or .iba files in Pages?

Nope. As before, you can only open .pages or .doc files in Pages. (And yes: That means you still can't export an ePub, crack it open and do some editing, then re-import it into Pages for more editing.)

Okay, but… what's happening to iBooks Author? Why the silence from Apple?

iBooks Author isn't going anywhere (yet). It's not being discontinued, .ibooks files will still work in the iBooks app, and you can make them to your heart's content.

And that's important, because Pages's ebook creation — while much better than before — is still in its rudimentary stages. Support for things like quizzes, HTML5 widgets, and popovers just don't exist currently on the Pages side.

But will iBooks Author be around forever, the Logic to Pages's GarageBand? I'm thinking no.

It's clear that the iWork team has done a lot behind the scenes to completely rewrite their ePub export tool with all of Pages's features in mind, and they've done so in a way that still makes it ePub 3 compatible — no proprietary iBooks format needed.

As the software continues to evolve, it's clear that the iWork team want a unified, easier experience for both creating and viewing ebooks. Like with many Apple apps before it, that sometimes means going back to the drawing board and starting from scratch.

This isn't Apple's official position: Everything I've heard has them simply saying that iBooks Author isn't going away anytime soon.

But the writing is on the wall: Apple wants to build an experience that works with ePub 3 without the need for proprietary formats, and that experience is being built inside of Pages. The app may not have feature parity with iBooks Author yet, but when it does, I expect the older ebooks program to disappear in favor of its more flexible cousin.

Could that code make its way back to a new version of iBooks Author? Maybe. But it makes a lot more sense to have one app for building PDFs/books/papers and the like.

But I like iBooks Author!

That's fine. It still works pretty well and people have been able to make some great books with it! But I wouldn't expect to find new features inside of it anytime soon.

Why would I want to make an ebook in Pages?

There are some great new features worth considering for making a book in Pages:

• Pages has new (really pretty) book templates for both free-flowing and fixed-format books, and you can edit them by making master pages
• You can build books on any platform (Mac or web or iOS) and collaborate on them
• You can export ebooks directly to iBooks on your iPad from Pages, for easy previewing
• You can draw directly in Pages (or atop existing images) and have that appear in your book
• You want to create ePub 3 files that can be read on any platform

Why would I still use iBooks Author?

Pages is still pretty limited for more advanced ebook creation. Here are a few reasons you might want to stick with iBooks Author for the time being:

• You want a glossary, intro video, and fancy table of contents
• You want to use any non-multimedia widgets (quiz module, Keynote, 3D, scrolling sidebar, pop-over, or HTML)
• You want to prep your book for publishing on the iBookstore
• You want to do live previews of your book without exporting it

Other questions?

Let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. I'm still digging through Pages as of this writing, so I may find more pros and cons to using Pages vs iBooks Author; I'll let you know when/if I do.

At its March 2018 special event, Apple announced several new updates to its hardware, software, and services aimed at the education market. A brand new set of features for Apple's iWork suite was one of the highlights of the event. Along with Apple Pencil support for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, the company introduced a new feature for Pages called Smart Annotation. Here's what you need to know about the brand new tool!

What is Smart Annotation?

Smart Annotation is a new tool in Pages that lets you mark up your document with proofreading marks, notes, and comments. These annotations aren't simply layered above your document — they move along with the objects and text in your document, anchored to the location where you added them.

Note: Smart Annotation is still in beta. You may experience the occasional bug while using the tool.

How do I use Smart Annotation?

Using the Smart Annotation tool in Pages is a lot like using the mark up tools in the Notes app for iOS.

1. Make sure your Apple Pencil is connected to your iPad.
2. Open a document in Pages.
3. Tap your Apple Pencil anywhere on the document.
4. Start writing your annotation.
   • To switch the tool you're using for annotation, tap on a tool in the mark up bar at the bottom of the document.
   • To change the color you're using for annotation, tap on a color in the mark up bar at the bottom of the document.
5. When you're finished annotating the document, tap Done.
   • To delete an annotation, tap on an annotation, then tap Delete.

You can also access Smart Annotation using the options in Pages.

1. Open a document in Pages.
2. Tap the More button (looks like three dots) in the top right corner of the screen.
3. Tap Smart Annotation Beta.
4. Start writing your annotation.

Can I export my document with Smart Annotations?

Yes! If you'd like to keep your annotations editable, make sure your file is saved as a Pages document. If you want a more universal document, you can export your annotated Pages document as a PDF — the annotations will appear in the PDF. Apple says Smart Annotations aren't supported if you export using the following document types: Word, RTF, EPUB, or Pages '09 files.

Can I use Smart Annotation on my Mac?

Yes and no. You won't be able to add Smart Annotations to your Pages document on the Mac, but you can remove, show, and hide Smart Annotations. If you keep your Pages documents stored in iCloud, your Smart Annotations will appear and update across all your devices.

• Want to delete a Smart Annotation on your Mac? Select the annotation, then tap the Delete key on your keyboard.
• Want to show or hide the Smart Annotations in a particular document? Click View in the menu bar, then click Show/Hide Smart Annotations.
• Want to delete all the Smart Annotations on a particular document? Click Edit in the menu bar, then click Remove Smart Annotations.

Awesome, so when can I start using Smart Annotation?

Right now! Apple has updated Pages for iOS and macOS (as well as the rest of its iWork suite) with several new features — Smart Annotation is just one of 'em!

Apple just rolled out an update for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, the company's iOS productivity apps. Along with performance and stability improvements, the apps now include new iOS 11 features.

All three apps include a redesigned document manager that brings them more in line with iOS 11's document management system. They also received a few tweaks for drag and drop and multitasking on iPad. Lastly, you can organize all your Pages, Keynote, and Numbers documents using the new Files app on iOS 11. Read on to learn about the individual updates and improvements to each app!

Pages

Here's what's new, straight from the App Store:

• Redesigned document manager makes it easier to access files stored in iCloud Drive or with third-party storage providers
• On iPad, drag and drop text, images, and more between Pages and other apps
• Work more efficiently on iPad using Slide Over, Split View and the new Dock
• Quickly access and organize your documents using the new Files app
• Use Unite, Intersect, Subtract, and Exclude commands to create new shapes
• Use Align, Distribute, Flip Vertical, and Flip Horizontal commands to quickly arrange objects
• Support for Break Apart command for complex shapes from the shapes library
• Select a paragraph of text with a triple tap gesture
• Improved PDF export lets you view a document's table of contents in the sidebar in PDF viewer apps
• Performance and stability improvements

Pages - Free - Download now

Keynote

Here's what's new, straight from the App Store:

• Redesigned document manager makes it easier to access files stored in iCloud Drive or with third-party storage providers
• On iPad, drag and drop text, images, and more between Keynote and other apps
• Work more efficiently on iPad using Slide Over, Split View and the new Dock
• Quickly access and organize your presentations using the new Files app
• Use Unite, Intersect, Subtract, and Exclude commands to create new shapes
• Use Align, Distribute, Flip Vertical, and Flip Horizontal commands to quickly arrange objects
• Support for Break Apart command for complex shapes from the shapes library
• Performance and stability improvements

Keynote - Free - Download now

Numbers

Here's what's new, straight from the App Store:

• Redesigned document manager makes it easier to access files stored in iCloud Drive or with third-party storage providers
• On iPad, drag and drop text, images, and more between Numbers and other apps
• Work more efficiently on iPad using Slide Over, Split View and the new Dock
• Quickly access and organize your spreadsheets using the new Files app
• New date, time, and duration keyboards make entering values easier
• Make minor adjustments to existing date, time and duration values faster using new "smart steppers"
• Use Unite, Intersect, Subtract, and Exclude commands to create new shapes
• Use Align, Distribute, Flip Vertical, and Flip Horizontal commands to quickly arrange objects
• Support for Break Apart command for complex shapes from the shapes library
• Performance and stability improvements

Numbers - Free - Download now

Apple has released a set of updates for its iWork suite of productivity apps, adding professionally-drawn shapes, enhancements for collaboration, and improvements to the stock and currency functions of the apps.

On both iOS and macOS, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers now all have access to a library of 500 professionally-drawn shapes for use in documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can now reply to comments and join in on threaded conversations on collaborated projects. Additionally, the Stock and Currency options, added in another recent update, will now return data from the close of the previous market day. Each of the iWork apps now also sports new options for auto-correction and text replacement.

When it comes to the individual apps, Pages will now let you export documents as fixed-layout ePub books, and you can now change margins, headers, and footers while collaborating. Speaking of collaboration, Numbers now offers print preview support for collaborative spreadsheets. Meanwhile, Keynote on macOS has a new Light Table view that lets you edit presenter notes while displaying slides.

You can grab the updated apps from the App Store and Mac App Store now.

Mac:

• Keynote - Download Now
• Numbers - Download Now
• Pages - Download Now

iOS:

• Keynote - Download Now
• Numbers - Download Now
• Pages - Download Now

If you're still using an older device, and haven't purchased Pages, Keynote, or Numbers because it would cost you $9.99, you're in luck. Apple has just dropped the price of it's iWork suite to the low price of free. Plus, GarageBand and iMovie got the same treatment.

As first reported by MacRumors, Apple's most popular software line is now listed as free in the App Store, even for older devices.

This is fantastic news for people still running older Macs, iPhones, and iPads. I have a mid-2012 MacBook Pro and had to drop $30 for iWork because it wasn't free for me. Now that Apple has dropped the price to zero dollars, it is likely more users will join the bandwagon. Even if you were able to download such programs as Pages on iOS, it wouldn't be very useful if you couldn't continue working on it on your Mac without paying a premium price. Now you can!

If you've been holding off on getting iWork, GarageBand, or iMovie for any reason, now is the time to download them. The price is right.

• Pages on iOS - Download now
• Keynote on iOS - Download now
• Numbers on iOS - Download now
• GarageBand on iOS - Download now
• iMovie on iOS - Download now
• Pages on Mac - Download now
• Keynote on Mac - Download now
• Numbers on Mac - Download now
• GarageBand on Mac - Download now
• iMovie on Mac - Download now

What do you think about Apple's decision to drop the price of iWork, GarageBand, and iMovie?

iPhone and iPad owners have an amazing problem — iOS is the only platform with all major office suites. The good news is: we get to choose between Apple iWork (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), and Google Docs (Docs, Sheets, and Slides). The bad news is: we have to choose between Apple iWork, Microsoft Office, and Google Docs. And it can be a tough choice! iWork is great for consumers. Microsoft Office is the enterprise standard. Google Docs is increasingly everywhere. So, which one is best? We put them to the test so you can find out!

Word processing: Pages vs Word vs Docs

One of the most common things we do with an Office suite is create documents or PDFs. Whether you need to update your resume, complete an assignment for school, or create a flyer for an event, or something else, you need to be able to get the text in efficiently and format it effectively.

In terms of templates, both Pages and Word offer a decent selection to choose from. Everything from reports to resumes to outlines to fliers and more. Google Docs doesn't offer templates and simply launched you right into a blank text document. So if you're looking for templates, you're going to want to use either Pages or Word.

When it comes to feature set and editing tools, Pages uses interactive formatting in order to let you select different elements. Editing tools and the format menu will change depending on what you have selected. When you're typing, a formatting bar will appear over the keyboard so you can easily adjust fonts, alignment, breaks, and more. You can also add tables, charts, graphs, shapes, and photos in just a few taps. Overall, Pages offers a robust feature set that remains easy to use and works great on a touch interface. When it comes time to export your documents, Pages supports .doc and .docx as well. Pair Pages with a Bluetooth keyboard and it's almost comparable to the desktop version of Pages.

Microsoft Word has been completely designed around a touch screen interface, but will be familiar to desktop Office users as well. (This is true across all the Microsoft apps.) There are tabs for creating, formatting, and editing your documents. In just two taps you can insert or format pretty much any object you'd like. Some features such as tracking and reviewing changes, section breaks, and a few others will require an Office 365 Premium subscription. Either way, the free version of Word offers enough features that a good majority of folks will be able to accomplish what they need with zero issues. One thing I do wish Word had was the formatting toolbar similar to what Pages offers.

Google Docs is simpler than either Pages and Word, and the editing tools more basic. Like Word, I do wish Google had placed a formatting bar directly over the keyboard instead of at the top of the screen. Image insertion is also missing, which will be a deal breaker for many. (You can go back to the web version to do it, but that's a terrible work around.)

When it comes to word processing, Pages and Word are equal in terms of feature set. However, certain features such as review tracking, section breaks, and more are free with Pages but require premium subscription with Microsoft Word. So unless you need Word or simply prefer the layout, Pages currently offers the best value for most people.

Spreadsheets: Numbers vs Excel vs Sheets

Numbers proves that doing calculations doesn't have to be painful on an iPad or iPhone. Just plot your data and then choose what kind of table, graph, or chart you'd like to use to represent it. The keyboard also changes dynamically in order suit what you're doing. So if you type an = sign in order to start a formula, Numbers automatically gives you a full number pad and relevant buttons you may want to use. There are also lots of templates to choose from in Numbers including ones to create budgets, calculate net worth, track grades (great for teachers), plan travel, and much more.

There's no disputing that Microsoft Excel has been the king of spreadsheets. The main reason for that is the robust feature set. There's no denying in networked office environments, Excel can't be beat. Microsoft did good job bringing the experience to the iPhone and iPad as well. When using formulas in Excel, the formatting bar automatically brings up suggestions to make handling complex formulas an easier job. The keyboard also is suited for entering numbers and editing formulas, a feature I wish the Word application received as well in terms of a formatting bar. Some features, however, will require a premium subscription.

Google Sheets is a barebones spreadsheet application that allows you to create spreadsheets but without the help of a lot of formatting tools and templates that are offered in competitor apps such as Excel and Numbers. However, if your main purpose is to track data between large groups of people, Google's collaboration tools are some of the best around. Just share sheets with whoever you need to via email and once they accept you can view changes, make comments to each other, and even see who's changing what in real time.

If feature set and advanced tools are your main concern, there's none better than Excel. If you're new to spreadsheets and would appreciate a balance between ease of use and feature set, Numbers is for you. If collaboration tools are what you're after and your feature requirements are minimal, Google Sheets will suit you just fine.

Presentations: Keynote vs PowerPoint vs Slides

Keynote has always been Apple's best office app, and the same holds true on iOS. Aside from offering gorgeous templates to choose from, Keynote's interface feels as it if were made for the touch screen. Adding slides couldn't be easier, and neither could tweaking them to your liking. Just like the other iWork apps, formatting and editing is interactive, so the menus will change depending on what type of content you're working with. The Keynote Remote feature also lets you use one iOS device as a remote to control a presentation on another, or even on a Mac.

PowerPoint is no a slouch when it comes to creating presentations either. You can create animations, transitions, and much more in just a few taps. If you've ever used PowerPoint on the desktop computer, the experience is very much the same on iPad and iPhone. Inserting objects is also easy and includes support not only for tables and pictures, but videos as well.

Unfortunately Google Slides doesn't provide as great of an experience as either Keynote or PowerPoint do. Slides are technically "editable" but not functionally. You can add text into existing text boxes but there isn't a way to add, move, or edit them. Basically, you have to pick from Google's pre-made slides and be happy with text-only slides with no image support, unless, of course, you are okay with finishing things up from a web browser. You can choose themes on the web and then they'll sync down to the mobile version, but again, not very convenient.

Keynote and PowerPoint run neck and neck when it comes to creating presentations. Both support inserting images, videos, and other kinds of objects as well as the option to choose from many great looking templates. Google Slides can't really offer any of that.

Syncing, sharing, and collaborating

All of Apple's iWork apps tie in with iCloud. That means no matter what device you create something on, you'll be able to access it on any other iOS device or Mac that's linked to your account. (You can also use Continuity to Handoff documents between devices as you go.) All of Apple's iWork apps also support the most popular file formats and let you easily share what you create via email or by sharing an iCloud link.

Microsoft Office syncs with Office 365 so you can access all your work on the web from anywhere. You can also link Dropbox and pull files from there into any of the Office apps. Dropbox integration isn't something Google or Apple offer (though that may change in the future thanks to iOS 8's third-party storage provider support), so if you're tied into that ecosystem due to file sharing or some other factor, Office may be the best option for you.

Google uses Google Drive as a hub. There, you can view all your Docs, Sheets, and Slides files in one place, and they'll sync anywhere you can access Google Drive, including any desktop browser. You can easily share documents or export them from the apps and online. And when it comes to collaboration, Google can't be beat. Not only can you share Google Docs files with others so they can view and edit them, you can see what changes they're making live, which makes Google Docs a great option for workgroups and teams that need live collaboration options.

Who should use iWork?

If you're tied into an Apple ecosystem consisting of Macs and multiple iOS devices, and iCloud is your main syncing service of choice, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers will serve you well. All of the iWork apps manage to strike a great balance between feature set and ease of use. If you don't need the most advanced tools on the planet, the iWork apps are a great place to start. Also, if you're new to working with office documents, iWork is a great place to start.

• Pages - $9.99, free for newer iPhones, iPads, and Macs - Download Now
• Numbers, $9.99, free for newer iPhones, iPads, and Macs - Download Now
• Keynote, $9.99, free for newer iPhones, iPads, and Macs - Download Now

Who should use Microsoft Office?

Microsoft Office has always been the most advanced productivity suite on the market. Anyone that's already familiar with Office 365 on the PC will feel right at home with Office for iPad or iPhone. Office is also the only offering that includes Dropbox integration, which is something you'll want to consider if you keep most of your documents there. The more advanced features of Office will require a 365 subscription, however. If you already have an Office subscription, Microsoft Office is hands down the best option for you considering all the premium features you already have access to.

• Word - Free - Download Now
• Excel - Free - Download Now
• PowerPoint - Free - Download Now

Who should use Google Docs?

Google Docs is a barebones productivity suites but it's completely free and offers some of the best collaboration tools you can ask for. If you don't need all the fancy formatting and media capabilities, want to work with multiple people, and like having everything in the cloud, Google Docs is your best option. (If you work with presentations, however, you'd be well advised to pick up Keynote or PowerPoint as well...)

• Docs - Free - Download Now
• Sheets - Free - Download Now
• Slides - Free - Download Now

If you own an iPad Air 2, the first thing you'll want to do is load up on great apps that take advantage of the all new A8X processor, Touch ID sensor, updated camera, and more. While all iPad apps available in the App Store will work perfectly fine on your new iPad Air 2, there are some that stand out from the crowd by taking advantage of the new hardware in some way or another. So if you're only looking for the best iPad apps, these are the ones we think you need to download ASAP!

Pixelmator

Pixelmator, originally available on the Mac, is now available for the iPad, and holy cow is it awesome. Not only can you do many of the same edits you can with software such as Photoshop, it runs smoothly on the iPad Air 2 and provides pretty much a desktop class experience. Shapes, shadows, fills, strokes, masks, retouching, and much more, all built specifically for a great touch screen experience on your iPad.

If you want a powerful image editor to take with you on the go, Pixelmator should be one of your first purchases on your new iPad Air 2.

• $4.99 - Download Now

iMovie

iMovie is Apple's own take on editing video, and it's a pretty powerful tool. Not only that, it's pretty simple to use but can become as advanced and as intricate as you want. You can add titles, transitions, and much more to create HD movie without ever having to touch a desktop computer. Once you're done, you can instantly share your creations on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and more.

If you plan on taking or editing video on your iPad often, you'll definitely want to have iMovie at your disposal.

• $4.99, Free with newer iOS devices - Download Now

Storehouse

Storehouse is one of my favorite platforms for turning photos and videos into amazing stories. Although it's now available for iPhone as well, it's still obvious that it was made for the iPad. And with the iPad Air 2's improved screen, your photos and videos really pop. With Storehouse you can add as many photos and videos as you'd like to a project, add text, and share your adventures in just a tap. You can also browse other people's projects for inspiration, or just because.

For a unique and creative way to share your memories, Storehouse is a must have.

• Free - Download Now

Photoshop Mix

Photoshop Mix brings some of Adobe's most popular Photoshop tools right to your iPad. With the ability to enhance, combine, cut out, and much more, there aren't very many limits with what you can do with Photoshop Mix. All the edits you make are also non-destructive too so you can revert back to the original any time you'd like. If you have a Creative Cloud subscription, you can hook right into your account to pull documents from the cloud in an instant.

If you want a lighter version of Photoshop that offers easy to use tools with endless possibilities, check out Photoshop Mix.

• Free - Download Now

1Password

1Password is a password management suite that stores all your logins, credit card information, and much more. You can also generate random strong password for more sensitive logins such as bank accounts or credit cards. And since 1Password is supported on pretty much any platform and has web browser extensions for desktop, you only need to remember one password, to unlock them all. Even better yet, 1Password supports Touch ID for instant access to all your passwords.

For a great password management experience that takes full advantage of Touch ID on the iPad Air 2, you can't go wrong with 1Password.

• Free with IAP - Download Now

Fantastical 2

Fantastical 2 is an amazing little productivity app that bundles your calendar and reminders into one beautifully put together package. The iPad version took a while to become a reality but it really looks stunning. Flexibits managed to get a week, month, and list view on a single screen without causing chaos. Even further, pull down on the week view to reveal a day ticker that shows hourly events. Swipe from the left side of your iPad to reveal your reminders. The layout was made for iPad and features all the same great features of its iPhone counterpart. It really is the calendar app Apple should have made.

For one of the best calendar and reminders apps the App Store has to offer, look no further than Fantastical 2.

• $9.99 $7.99 on sale - Download Now

PDF Expert 5

PDF Expert 5 by Readdle is one of the best PDF management apps available. When it comes to the iPad Air 2, documents look crisp, clear, and better than ever. Not only can you view PDFs, you can fill forms, annotate, mark up, and much more. My favorite feature of PDF Expert 5, and what I think sets it apart from the others, is a feature called Review Mode. While in Review Mode, you can mark up a PDF document like it's a normal text editor. Your changes automagically show up in a different color so the recipient can easily see changes without actually changing the original document.

If you plan to work with a lot of forms and PDFs on your iPad, you need PDF Expert 5 in your workflow.

• $9.99 - Download Now

iWork

Apple's iWork suite of apps include Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. All of which have been updated with iCloud Drive support and more. They also look great on the new iPad Air 2. More importantly, they're completely designed around providing a great touch screen experience that takes full advantage of the iPad's screen real estate. So whether you're working on a school project in Pages, putting together a presentation in Keynote, or creating charts for your next board meeting in Numbers, iWork lets you do it all on the go.

For a productivity suite that works great with every iOS device and Mac in your workflow, zero subscription fees required, iWork is a necessity.

• Pages - $9.99, Free for newer iOS devices - Download Now
• Keynote - $9.99, Free for newer iOS devices - Download Now
• Numbers - $9.99, Free for newer iOS devices - Download Now

Microsoft Office

Some folks just prefer the workflow and tools that Microsoft office offers. Nowadays, you can have that same experience on your iPad. Microsoft may have taken a while to bring Office to iOS, but as they say, sometimes a great product is worth the wait. In this case, that definitely holds true. If you use Microsoft Office on your desktop, you'll feel right at home on the iPad versions. The layout is almost a mirror image of its desktop sibling, but designed completely around a touch experience. Just keep in mind you'll need an Office 365 subscription to edit and create documents in any of the Office apps. Subscriptions currently start at $7 a month, or $69 a year.

If you're an MS Office fan and want the same experience on your iPad, Microsoft Office can give it to you.

• Word - Free with subscription - Download Now
• Excel - Free with subscription - Download Now
• PowerPoint - Free with subscription - Download Now

Your vote for best iPad Air 2 apps?

If you already have your iPad Air 2 in your hands, what apps have you found to offer an exceptionally great user experience? Be sure to let me know in the comments!

Announced at the iPad/Mac event today, to go right along with the public release of Yosemite, Apple will also be releasing a new version of iWork as well. The free update will be fully compatible with Yosemite, and get everything playing nicely across the board. iWork will help bring together Yosemite and iOS and take advantage of the Handoff feature, allowing users to pick up in the same place in a document on another device.

iWork includes a new UI, and includes the Pages, Keynote, Numbers applications.

A report prior to the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus claimed that the Apple iWork apps would be pre-installed on 64GB and 128GB devices. As retail launch hits today we're able to confirm the report as true, and that yes, these apps are pre-installed on your new iPhone, but worry not. If you don't want them you can delete them.

It's not like Apple's 'other' pre-installed apps that you might not want on your phone, you do at least get a choice. The full list includes iMovie, Garageband, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and iTunes U. As you'll see in the image up top I've already removed Keynote.

So they're there. But only if you want them. Which is good.

Numbers, the part of Apple's iWork suite for iPhone and iPad that's focused on spreadsheets, lets you do more than simply log values and run equations. Numbers lets you share and collaborate with others. But what if need to leave a comment on a Numbers cell for those you're sharing and collaborating with? Luckily, Numbers lets you do just that!

How to comment on a cell in Numbers for iOS

1. Launch Numbers on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Open the spreadsheet you'd like to leave comments on.
3. Find the specific cell you have a question or thought about and tap on it once in order to bring up the popup menu.
4. Tap on the Comment option. If you don't see it, hit the right arrow to bring up more options, and you should see it in the second set of options.
5. You'll be prompted to enter your name which is what others will see when viewing your comment.
6. Type your comment and then tap Done.

Anyone else viewing that spreadsheet should now see your comments. You can also tell which cells have comments on them by looking for yellow marked corners.

If you use Numbers for iPhone or iPad, give comments a try and let me know how they work for you!

Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are all part of Apple's iWork suite, and some of the best ways to manage documents, edit spreadsheets, and create presentations on an iPhone or iPad. When you make Pages, Numbers, or Keynote files, however, you're not locked into Apple's iCloud online storage. You can move anything you create to any other storage app that supports the basic file types. That includes Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, and more!

How to upload Pages, Numbers, or Keynote files to other cloud storage apps on iPhone and iPad

1. Launch Pages, Numbers, or Keynote on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Open the document that you'd like to open or transfer to a different App Store app.
3. Tap the Wrench icon in the upper right hand corner.
4. From the popup menu choose Share and Print.
5. Choose Open in Another App.
6. You'll now be asked to choose the format you'd like to save the document in. Tap on the type you'd like.
7. Tap on Choose App.
8. Tap on the app you'd like in the Share Sheet. In this example, I'll choose Google Drive.
9. Your file will now launch in the chosen app.

If you use another app to store your files but prefer iWork's set of tools for editing and creating, this is a great way to mix the two together.

While it'd be nice to have integration right inside iWork, this is about the best we can do for now. If you use Dropbox or Google Drive or anything else to store files, give this a try and then let me know what you think in the comments!

If you're using Pages, Keynote, or Numbers on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac you can easily share anything you create via Apple's online service, iCloud. The best part about sharing iWork documents via iCloud is that the person you share with doesn't need an iOS device or Mac to open or even collaborate on the documents with you. All they need is a web browser.

How to share your Pages, Keynote, and Numbers files from iPhone and iPad

1. Open the file in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote on your iPhone or iPad that you'd like to share.
2. Tap on the Share button in the upper right hand corner.
3. Choose Share Link via iCloud from the drop down menu.
4. Tap on the method you'd like to use in order to share it.
5. iWork automatically inserts the iCloud link for you. Type anything else you'd like to add and send your message.

How to share your Pages, Keynote, and Numbers files from your Mac

1. Open the file in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote on your Mac that you'd like to share.
2. In the top menubar, click on the Share button.
3. Choose the option for Share Link via iCloud.
4. Tap on the option you'd like to use in order to share the file link.
5. iWork will automatically insert the link. Type anything else you'd like to tell the person receiving the document and send it.

That's it! The person you've sent the link needs only open it in a browser in order to view and edit the spreadsheet.

Want to take your spreadsheets, documents, and presentations from Dropbox and start using them with Apple's iWork suite of Numbers, Pages, and Keynote, and store them in iCloud? Luckily, both Dropbox and Apple make it easy to do. Here's how!

How to transfer files from Dropbox to Pages, Keynote, and Numbers

1. Launch the Dropbox app on your iPhone or iPad, navigate to the file you want to open in Pages, Keynote, or Numbers, and open it inside of Dropbox.
2. Tap on the Share button in the bottom left hand corner.
3. Now tap on Open In....
4. In the popup menu, tap on Pages, Numbers, or Keynote. For instance, if you're trying to open a spreadsheet, you'd have the option to open it in Numbers. If you're open a word document, Pages should be an option.

If you have multiple files you need to move over to iCloud from Dropbox, you can do so quickly from a Mac by copying and pasting the files into iCloud.

See also:

• How to move existing iWork files from your Mac to iCloud

Adobe's switch to software as a service has sent budget-minded creative professionals looking for alternatives to the Creative Cloud apps that don't cost them a monthly fee. As the Mac App Store has grown in popularity, alternatives have cropped up. Pixelmator serves many users' needs for a Photoshop replacement. Sketch 3 is an excellent alternative to Illustrator. But where's a solid alternative to InDesign?

I've checked around; I've even polled some of you on Twitter to find out what you like. And my results have come up a bit short. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think that there really is a solid alternative.

Disrupting the disruptor

InDesign exists in an interesting place in the design ecosystem. It started life itself as a market disruptor — Adobe introduced InDesign as an alternative to QuarkXPress at a time when Quark ruled the desktop publishing market. Because of unwise management, hostile customer service, and other foibles, Quark was utterly loathed by many of the businesses and users that depended on its software.

Adobe didn't hit a home run with the first version of InDesign, but steadily improved it and integrated it so thoroughly with other Adobe products that it eventually became indispensable. Now InDesign is the market behemoth, and at least for some, Adobe has become the evil empire they're trying to get away from.

Having said that, InDesign is a darn nice piece of page layout software. It's powerful and it's ubiquitous. If you have InDesign and are familiar with how it works, it's reminiscent of the old marketing phrase, "No one ever got fired for buying IBM."

Though the full Creative Cloud suite costs $49.99, it's worth pointing out that if all you need is InDesign, you can subscribe to just it for $19.99. And if you're a Creative Suite user, you can "upgrade" to Creative Cloud for $29.99 per month for your first year.

• $49.99 per month - Download now

QuarkXPress: Everything old is new again

Quark, for its part, soldiers on with QuarkXPress. With QuarkXPress 10.1, Quark continues to iterate Quark with very powerful features. Last year's version 10 release saw a thorough under-the-hood and feature-rich modernization, with 50 feature enhancements, a throughly optimized graphics engine, improved interface elements and much more.

More recently, the 10.1 release makes tweaks that even further, incorporating InDesign-style Dynamic Guides (like Smart Guides), 8000 percent zoom, layout export, a reimplemented and greatly improved Books feature, and HTML 5 animation support.

Unfortunately, all that power comes with a price, and a hefty one at that: $849, a lot more than budget-conscious creatives will be willing to pay, especially those that still have a negative connotation of Quark.

• $849 - Download now

iStudio Publisher

iStudio Publisher came out in 2009, coincidentally the same year Apple really brought Pages into its own as a powerful page layout tool. If you've exhausted what the older version of Pages can do for you — or if you're horrified by what happened to it in 2013 – give iStudio a try. There are a ton of templates you can download, too.

C.Four published it then handed back to the original creators. It'll be interesting to see what they do with iStudio Publisher — certainly one to keep your eye on.

$29.99 - Download now

Swift Publisher: Consumer-focused page layout tool

Some of you pointed out Swift Publisher as a possible alternative to InDesign. In fairness, developer Belight Software isn't trying to copy InDesign feature for feature, or even attempting to make a professional page layout app. But they have succeeded in creating a surprisingly powerful, lightweight page layout app with a lot of cool features at a very low price.

Looking over Swift Publisher, I don't liken it to an InDesign competitor as much as a more sophisticated version of an tool like Print Explosion or The Print Shop — and that's squarely its market: for consumers looking for a way to make really pretty layouts for their projects. You can use it to print flyers, newsletters, brochures, calendars and other content either freeforming them from scratch or using built-in templates and clip art.

• $19.99 - Download now

Pages: Apple's alternative

I can hear some of you out there groaning already. Pages took a big step backwards last year when Apple reworked the Mac versions of its iWork apps to work in lockstep with their iOS counterparts. And of all the apps, Pages took the biggest hit in terms of interface and functionality; changes I don't see it getting back any time soon.

Having said that, Pages' price for new Mac owners is certainly right — it's free with the purchase of a new computer, after all. What's more, it does have a powerful set of page layout features that make it powerful if you're patient enough to use it right.

But if you're a long-time Pages user, you're probably still suffering with some of the missing features and functionality from previous versions. Either that, or you're still using the older iWork '09-era version that Apple leaves behind when it upgrades.

• $19.99 - Download now

MultiAd Creator: Consumer or pro, it's your choice

It's been a few years since MultiAd has done anything significant to Creator, but it's still an alternative that some may want to consider. Creator combines page layout, drawing, illustration and image editing tools in one. It supports different export options, text on a path, automatic CMYK-RG conversions and full support of OpenType fonts.

Creator is available in two trim levels - Creator Express, a consumer-friendly version available for download in the Mac App Store, and Creator Professional, which is available for purchase directly from MultiAd. Professional adds a slew of important features like Pantone color library support, file conversion (including InDesign Interchange), trapping and more.

Creator Express:

• $29.99 - Download now

Creator Professional:

• $499 - Download now

Still looking

None of these options really fit the bill for what I was looking for — an inexpensive alternative to InDesign that's powerful enough for a creative professional to get by. It seems that we've come along way with image editing and illustration alternatives to Adobe products, but page layout still needs work.

Maybe I just have to accept that InDesign is the page layout king, and move on. Or maybe you're familiar with something that isn't listed here. If that's the case, I heartily welcome you to share your comments with me below.

If you've been using iWork — Pages, Keynote, or Numbers — on your Mac for a long time, chances are you have older files stored locally rather than in Apple's online service, iCloud. While those files are still perfectly good, they don't benefit from iCloud's Documents in the Cloud sync service, which lets you open copies on any other Mac, iPhone, iPad you may have logged into your account, nor can they be shared or accessed via iCloud.com. If you want all of that sync and access goodness, you'll need to move your Keynote, Pages, or Numbers files from your Mac to iCloud. Luckily, it's easy to do!

How to save existing Pages, Numbers, and Keynote files on your Mac in iCloud

1. Launch Pages, Keynote, or Numbers on your Mac — keep in mind you must be running a version new enough to support iCloud.
2. At the top of the documents window, click on On My Mac.
3. Navigate to the Pages, Numbers, or Keynote file you'd like in iCloud. Open it.
4. At the top, click on the title.
5. You should now see a drop down that lets you choose where you'd like to save it, as well as an option to rename it.
6. Just choose iCloud and change anything else you'd like.
7. Hit Command + S on your keyboard in order to save it in iCloud.

Your document or file should now be saved in iCloud with the rest of your iCloud documents. You can now access it not only on your Mac but on any iPhone or iPad with iWork installed. Alternately, you can also view and edit it from iCloud.com on the web from any computer. If you have lots of documents to save to iCloud at once, just highlight them and drag them to the iCloud window. That should also work but I've found a few random documents to get left behind here and there, so just make sure they all import.

If you have lots of iWork documents saved on your Mac, have you moved them over to iCloud? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments!

Apple's iWork suite consisting of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers can store your documents up in iCloud and push them back down again to all your devices, iPhone, iPad, and Mac. However, sometimes when you try to open those files again, you get the dreaded "The operation couldn't be completed [LibrarianErrorDomain error 1 - Unable to initiate item download.)" or similar error. What it means is that the iCloud file has gotten lost in limbo. Luckily, what it doesn't mean is that your iWork file is lost forever. There's an easy fix!

How to force iWork to re-sync a document from iCloud

If you aren't able to open a file or document in Pages, Keynote, or Numbers that's saved in iCloud, it's most likely caused by a syncing error. Fortunately the solution is fairly simple.

1. Completely quit Numbers, Keynote, or Pages — whichever program you're having an issue with — on the computer or device in question. On iOS, just close them out of the multitasking tray. In OS X, just be sure they're closed by hitting Command + Q while they're open.
2. Now go to another device that also has Pages, Keynote, or Numbers installed and open the exact same document you were just having issues with.
3. This time the document or file should load just fine. Make a small change and then let iCloud sync your changes. It can be something as small as adding a word or period — you can remove it in just a second.
4. Now go back to the problem Mac or iOS device and try launching the iWork program in question and that same file. It should now open like normal.

While the fix is somewhat simple, it does rely on the fact that you have another device lying around with iWork installed. Alternately, you can go to iCloud.com from any computer and make a small change and save it. That should force other versions of your document to update correctly. Not the most elegant solution but it works. Here's to hoping Apple fixes it in a future update!

If you've had the issue and found another way of fixing it, let us know in the comments! Also let us know if this method fixed any iWork error messages for you!

As Apple released OS X 10.9 Mavericks last fall they also introduced new versions of their iWork applications — Keynote, Pages and Numbers. The new release created major disruptions for long-time iWork users who depended on automation workflows that were no longer available in the new releases.

Out with the old, in with the new

iWork was long in the tooth: The last significant revisions to the apps were made four years before in 2009. But the underlying code that made the applications run was much older than that. Much had changed in the intervening years, including the explosive growth of iOS.

Apple developed iWork apps for iOS that worked and lived separately from their OS X counterparts, and there was no shared code between them. Apple erased that barrier completely by standardizing the new OS X apps on their iOS counterparts, but there were a host of changes that were at least initially unwelcome by long-time iWork users. The application interfaces changed dramatically. Transitions and builds in Keynote went missing. And most critically for some iWork users, AppleScript support suffered greatly. The initial release contained almost no AppleScript support, breaking automated workflows iWork users had depended on for years.

iWork users complained vociferously, causing to Apple to provide a six month roadmap of changes to the apps, not customary behavior for the secretive company.

Getting back to business

Apple's stuck to their promises, and has restored the apps as they said they would. A January update brought back a lot of AppleScript functionality. Another update this past week brought back most of what was missing. A common AppleScript vocabulary has been established between the iWork apps, too, making scripts more interoperable between applications.

Things aren't exactly at parity. Pages' changes were so radical that it's unlikely that will happen. But its most recent update lets you do a lot more with AppleScript than you could before. You can create a new document from a template and flow in custom text, for example, making Pages once again useful for AppleScript mavens for operations like mail merge.

Apple can and should do more to improve AppleScript support in iWork apps, but they've moved the needle enough to make Keynote, Pages and Numbers usable to the vast majority of users who were put out by the major changes implemented last fall. What's more, they've laid the groundwork for powerful integration and scripting capabilities to come.

While AppleScript support was central to the newest updates for iWork apps for Mavericks, the iCloud versions of iWork apps also got some improvements in early April. Retina display has been added, along with new sharing options, the ability to open documents from iCloud Mail, and more.

Still more work to do

More work remains to be done, however. Support for OpenType is still a sore spot for Mac iWork app users. The scalable font technology was supported in iWork apps prior to the 2013 updates, but has been missing from all new iWork apps since then. Some transition problems persist in Keynote, you can't work in print preview in Numbers, and you can't do non-contiguous text selections in Pages.

Those are just three of a long list of features that are missing or broken compared to previous iWork releases. And Apple hasn't given us any indication of if or when that functionality will return.

Apple's 2013 iWork rework certainly isn't the first time the company has gutted popular apps to rework them — just ask anyone who lived through previous iMovie or Final Cut Pro transitions, for example. Even iOS 7 was a radical and unwelcome change for many users. Apple's mantra seems to be that short-term pain is worth it for its long-term engineering goals.

Bottom line: Apple deserves an A grade for restoring AppleScript functionality to iWork apps, but doesn't get better than a D grade for restoring all the features that were removed when the new apps were introduced. Apple needs to do more to fix Pages, Numbers and Keynote before I'm willing to improve that grade.

Apple has updated the iWork suite today on both the Mac and iOS. The iCloud versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote now have Retina display support, a new design in the editor tab, and better sharing that allows for a "view-only" state to keep unwanted changes from happening. Also, documents can be opened directly via iCloud mail.

Other individual app changes, like chart editing in Keynote, better, more informative pop-ups in Numbers, and better page wrapping and chart editing in Pages.

The changes are live for iCloud right now, and updates to the iOS and OS X apps should be coming later today.

Numbers: What's New in Version 3.2

• New "view only" setting lets you share spreadsheets you want others to view but not edit
• Set margins in print setup
• Create headers and footers in print setup
• New printing options: page numbering, page ordering and zoom
• Create custom data formats
• Create custom table styles
• Drag and drop a CSV file directly into a sheet
• Automatically update an existing table by dragging in a CSV file
• Control the z-order of bubble chart labels
• Cell-based import feedback
• Improved text box behaviour
• Media Browser improvements, including search
• Improved Instant Alpha image editing
• Improved Microsoft Excel compatibility
• Improved AppleScript support
• Usability improvements

Keynote: What's New in Version 6.2

• New "view only" setting lets you share presentations you want others to view but not edit
• Improved Presenter Display layouts and labels
• New transitions and builds: Object Revolve, Drift and Scale, and Skid
• Improved Magic Move including text morphing
• Apply motion blur to animations
• Show rulers as a percentage of document size
• Improved Instant Alpha image editing
• Media Browser improvements, including search
• Directly specify start and end points of movies
• Create custom data formats
• Export to PPTX format
• Improved AppleScript support
• Control the z-order of bubble chart labels
• Support for animated GIFs
• Detailed presentation import feedback
• Improved animation performance
• Improved bi-directional support: switch direction for text, lists and tables
• Allow objects on slide to layer with master
• Improved text box behaviour
• Usability improvements

Pages: What's New in Version 5.2

• New "view only" setting lets you share documents you want others to view but not edit
• Delete, duplicate and reorder sections using the page navigator
• Inline images and shapes in table cells are preserved on import
• Copy-paste style improvements
• Better placement of inserted and pasted objects
• Improved Instant Alpha image editing
• Media Browser improvements, including search
• Improved AppleScript support
• New Arabic and Hebrew templates
• Improved support for bi-directional text
• Word count for Hebrew
• Create custom data formats
• Control the z-order of bubble chart labels
• Show rulers as a percentage of document size
• Improved text box behaviour
• Improved EndNote support, including citations in footnotes
• Improved ePub export
• Usability improvements
• $9.99 - Pages for iOS - Download now
• $9.99 - Numbers for iOS - Download now
• $9.99 - Keynote for iOS - Download now
• $19.99 - Pages for Mac - Download now
• $19.99 - Numbers for Mac - Download now
• $19.99 - Keynote of Mac - Download now

Of course, they are all free for new devices.

Source: iMore Forums

If you picked up a shiny new iPad Air today, be sure to drop by the App Store and download the free iLife and iWork applications from Apple! Recently made free with the purchase of a new iOS device, the collection of Apple applications is a great way to add productivity and creativity to your new iPad. And of course, with iCloud integration you get to share your content with respective applications on your Mac and iPhone.

So, grab them for yourselves using the handy links below, and if you're a first time downloader of any of them, let me know what you think!

• Free - Download Now - Pages for iPad
• Free - Download Now - Numbers for iPad
• Free - Download Now - Keynote for iPad
• Free - Download Now - iMovie for iPad
• Free - Download Now - iPhoto for iPad
• Free - Download Now - Garageband for iPad

On Tuesday evening Apple posted updates to its iWork apps for Mac - Pages, Keynote and Numbers. Featured during Apple's iPad and Mac event in San Francisco, the new versions of iWork apps sport new features, more thorough iCloud integration and an a unified file format compatible with their iOS counterparts. But there are some important pieces missing for users interested workflow automation, according to Clark Goble, who maintains Clark's Tech Blog. (Goble's post has been widely linked, so you can find a cached copy at Fireballed.org if the original doesn't load for you.)

AppleScript support went from bad to worse

If all this AppleScript talk is making your head spin, let's give you some concrete ideas of what I'm talking about. Opening the AppleScript dictionary of the old version of Pages yielded this:

Here's what opening the AppleScript dictionary of the new Pages looks like:

As you can see, the new version has a lot less functionality that the old version it replaces.

Eddy Cue pointed out on Tuesday that the new iWork apps are a complete rewrite from the replaced four-year-old versions (whose codebases are even older than that). So I'm reluctant to describe the relative absence of AppleScript support as removal, as much as it is omission. If this had been an incremental change to the codebase, removal would be a perfectly adequate word. But this isn't. The new iWork apps are totally new. And in some respects, totally different. The absence of most AppleScript functionality that was there before is what caught Goble's eye, but it isn't the only change.

And as Goble points out, even before now, iWork apps haven't been a shining paragon of AppleScript virtue. iWork apps aren't the only Apple-made products that suffer from limited automation support. On balance when it comes to AppleScript, Apple is a somewhat lousy and really inconsistent eater of its own dog food. I've never been able to figure out why.

Apple's decision to make iWork apps free with the purchase of new hardware is a shot across the bow of Microsoft, which gives away its Office software on its beleaguered Surface tablet. Clearly it helps keep Apple on competitive terms for new iPad and Mac owners who are looking for useful productivity software.

The irony is that Microsoft supports AppleScript in Office more thoroughly than Apple does in its iWork apps. Perhaps that shouldn't be any terrific surprise, as you're likely to find Office in most business environments, especially corporate locations where IT departments are capable of whipping up and supporting AppleScripts to improve the productivity of the workers they support.

Getting back to iWork for a moment, clearly the priority on this release wasn't on workflow automation, or making sure iWork apps had every feature and function they did before - it was on aligning the Mac version of iWork much closer with its iOS counterpart, and creating a common user experience that translates well between devices.

Apple's succeeded on that point, and they've made plenty of embellishments to make some users looking for new features and functionality happy. But AppleScript and other long-standing features are gone. Take a look at this thread about Pages{.nofollow} on Apple's discussion site alone to get a sense of what diehard Pages users are saying.

Consumers versus professionals

I work part-time at an Apple reseller. "Does this include Office?" is one of the first questions I get from customers who come in looking at the iPad or the Mac. Up until now, I've had to say no, and then either try to sell them a copy of Office for the Mac or explain to them about the iWork apps and the Mac App Store. It's much easier to explain that Office isn't included, but Apple's own Office-style apps are (and they're capable of reading and producing Office-compatible files). It's one less barrier to entry for prospective buyers of new iPads and Macs.

Entry level consumers, by and large, aren't interested in AppleScript. It's too techy for them, it requires too abstract an understanding of how applications and the system work with one another. But that lowest common denominator consumer doesn't represent the entire spectrum of Mac users. A lot of people depend on Macs to help run their businesses efficiently. And for many of them, workflow automation represents improved productivity, better return on investment, and better usability. It's about getting better results with less process. AppleScript support can be a key differentiator for those customers.

Reversing the course

To be clear, unless you've done something unusual with your iWork installation, you should still have the old apps inside an iWork '09 folder in your Applications folder, and they should still be functional (at least they are in the two machines I've upgraded with the new software - as in all things, your mileage may vary). If you've upgraded to the new releases and you don't like them, you should still be able to use the old ones - albeit with the limitations they've always had, and without the new features like round-trip iCloud support between OS X and iOS.

But this whole issue unveils a more fundamental problem: by neglecting AppleScript support in iWork apps, Apple underserves customers who would otherwise use their products - not just big companies with IT departments, but freelance workers who want to save time, small and medium-sized businesses that benefit from workflow automation tools, and others. AppleScript may be techy, but it's pretty democratic - anyone who wants to use it should be able to use it.

Mavericks is plainly aimed at helping people who use Apple devices every day to get the most out the experience - besides the relatively mild interface adjustments and new apps, the underlying operating system has been bolstered to improve efficiency and performance.

If Apple's iWork developers aren't already hard at work restoring some of this functionality, they should be, for exactly that reason. By excluding AppleScript - and, quite frankly, dumbing down the apps - Apple's gone the exact opposite direction with iWork - they may have improved some core functions (like iCloud sharing and file interoperability) while completely demolishing others in the process, making it less efficient to use the new iWork apps.

I'm not one to trumpet the "iOSification" theory, that Apple is trying to make the Mac the same as iOS devices - in fact, I've been an outspoken critic of that idea. And I don't think that's the case here.

What I suspect happened is that Apple needed to streamline development of the new iWork Mac apps by making them as similar as possible to their iOS counterparts. They took the path of least resistance, and we're left with less capable software that's prettier to look at.

That's not something that Mac users should just roll over and accept. Our Macs are more capable than our iPads. And we should insist that developers of Mac apps - Apple and third-parties alike - help us get the most out of that experience, not get in our way.

As shown at the Apple Event earlier in the day, Apple late on Tuesday released updated iWorks and iLife apps for iOS. Those include Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand - all updated to version 2.0.

The new apps have been reworked to support the user interface changes in iOS 7 and a new unified file format that works across Mac, iOS and the web. All are free updates for existing users, and free with the purchase of a new iOS device.

Pages gets more than 60 Apple-designed templates; keyboard support for text formatting options, the ability to share documents through iCloud, AirDrop, ePub export, improved non-Roman foreign language support and much more.

• $9.99 - Download now

Numbers sports new interactive charts, faster calculation, export to CSV, file sharing with Mail, Messages, Twitter and Facebook, and more.

• $9.99 - Download now

Keynote gains new themes, new animation and effects, interactive charts and more.

• $9.99 - Download now

iPhoto gets redesigned, and supports the ability to order professionally printed hardbound books. You can create custom slideshows that can be controlled using gestures, new photo effects have been added, new widgets support national flags and currency, white balance will compensate for underwater shots, and more.

• $4.99 - Download now

iMovie sports a new iMovie Theater feature that makes it easier to watch your movies anywhere. Full-screen video browsing is new, along with an adjustments bar to make audio and video adjustments easier. Sixteen new title styles have been added, along iwth three new transitions, new trailers, slow motion support, new imaging effects and much more.

• $4.99 - Download now

GarageBand has gone free, but to use the full array of instruments and sounds, you'll need to unlock a $4.99 In-App Purchase. You can create songs with up to 32 tracks (on 64-bit equipped systems like the iPhone 5s, the new iPad Air and the new iPad mini with Retina Display). Inter-App Audio lets you record compatible third-party music apps, and you can drag and drop audio recordings to create your own custom Sampler Instruments.

• Free - Download now

Apple has updated their Built-in-Apps page on Apple.com to show off the new icons, and new descriptions for their iLife - iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand - and iWork - Numbers, Pages, Keynote - suites of creativity and productivity apps ahead of the October 22 iPad and Mac event. It includes this line, suggesting GarageBand might join its 5 companions in going free, although in this case free-as-in-freemium:

Looks like some new features and new templates are also coming along for the ride. It's not clear exactly what it all means, but here's the copy:

iPhoto for iOS:

iMovie for iOS:

Keynote:

Numbers:

The icons are, as you'd expect, gradients with solid white glyphs, completely unlike their previous, richly rendered versions and now matching Apple's current slate of iOS 7 apps. The screenshots, however, look the same as before so either those haven't been updated on the web yet, or Apple's engineers and designers simply haven't had time to work on them, given how busy they've been with the core OS.

New icons aren't shown for iBooks, iTunes U, Podcasts, Trailers, Remote, or other Apple App Store Apps, though presumably those, especially iBooks, are in the works. There's also no indication of new OS X versions of the iWork or iLife apps for the Mac and Mavericks yet, but given they were last updated in 2009, they're long past due as well.

Whether or not the new icons and new descriptions were meant to be pushed into production today, or whether it was simply a glitch in advance of Tuesday's update is uncertain. The pages linked to from the new descriptions come back as not found, so the latter might be more likely than the former.

Via: MacRumors

Apple recently announced that they would make the iOS versions of their iWork apps plus iPhoto and iMovie free for iOS 7 enabled devices that were purchased after September 1. That means you can download Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iPhoto, and iMovie all for free. We've been getting lots of questions from many of you asking whether or not you qualify and if so, how to actually get your free apps.

Here are your answers:

Download them the first time you launch the App Store on your new iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

The App Store should ask you to download all free apps made by Apple the first time you launch the App Store as long as you meet all the eligibility requirements. To do, follow these steps:

1. Launch the App Store from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad
2. On the popup that comes up, tap on Download All.
3. Enter any credentials you're asked to enter concerning your Apple ID.

That's it. Your downloads will begin.

Find and download them manually in the App Store

If you aren't sure if you want or need all 5 apps, or you accidentally dismissed the popup the first time you launched the App Store on your new device, you can also view all of them in one place in the App Store by following these steps:

1. Launch the App Store app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
2. From the Featured tab, scroll down and tap on the New to the App Store? tile under Collections.
3. Once again, scroll down towards the bottom and tap on the tile for Apps made by Apple.
4. Here you can see a list of all the apps Apple makes. Tap any one of them to view more information on them or tap on the price to download them.

It's worth noting that Apple does move collections around here and there so if you aren't finding the Apps Made by Apple section, simply search for either Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iPhoto, or iMovie individually to pull them up or tap on our download links below straight from your iPhone or iPad to download them directly.

• iPhoto - Download Now
• iMovie - Download Now
• Pages - Download Now
• Numbers - Download Now
• Keynote - Download Now

Why do all the iWork and iLife apps still show they aren't free for me?

If you are seeing an actual price instead of Free next to any of the 5 apps Apple is offering for free, it means you don't meet the requirements for the promotion, which are as follows:

• The device must have been purchased after September 1, 2013
• iOS 7 must be running on the device you're attempting to download them to

Also remember that GarageBand is not included in the offer.

Apple has just pushed out an update to all three of their iWork apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac: Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. The iPhone and iPad versions now have improved capability with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint as well as as the Mac versions of the iWork apps. iWork for Mac has simply been updated to support the new versions of the iOS iWork apps.

In Pages, you can now use Change Tracking to track changes to a bod text in a document, accept and reject individual changes when reviewing a document, and all these changes (and calculations) will be preserved with exported in Microsoft World or Pages format. You can also add reflections to shapes and lock/unlock objects.

In Numbers, now you can hide and unhide rows and columns (great news for me as a teacher!), import and export Numbers for Mac spreadsheets with filters and turn them on/off, preserve rich text in tables when importing and exporting. And just as in Pages, you can also add reflections to shapes and lock/unlock objects.

In Keynote, you can now import and export all Powerpoint and Keynote slide sizes and themes, play back all Keynote action builds including Move, Rotate, Scale, and Opacity, and new slide transitions including Shimmer and Sparkle, preserve calculations when importing and exporting to Keynote for Mac, and the option to print with present notes, with builds, and without backgrounds. Of course, you can also add reflections to shapes and lock/unlock objects just like you now can with Pages and Numbers.

I'm very excited about the compatibility improvements with iWork for Mac and really hope a lot of the errors I see when importing to my iPad go away. Has anyone had a chance to give any of these a test drive? Pleased with the updates?

Here's the links for the iPhone and iPad versions.

• Pages for iOS - $9.99 - Download Now
• Numbers for iOS - $9.99 - Download Now
• Keynote for iOS - $9.99 - Download Now

And here's the links for the Mac versions.

• Pages for Mac - $19.99 - Download Now
• Numbers for Mac - $19.99 - Download Now
• Keynote for Mac - $19.99 - Download Now

While some may still scoff at the iPad as a productivity powerhouse, thanks to spectacular software and, optionally, a kickass portable keyboard, the smart and savvy among us know the iPad can be the best way to get things done while on the go. Wether you're in business or in school, whether you need to create new documents, spreadsheets, or presentations from scratch or simply edit your words, numbers, and slides to perfection, a mobile office suite can quickly go from being a nice-to-have to a must-have to a real life (or career/class) saver.

And the iPad has several excellent office suite options to choose from. Apple's iWork comes as three separate apps, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. BlackBerry-maker RIM's Documents To Go is an integrated, Microsoft-like powerhouse. And Google's newly acquired Quickoffice Pro HD likewise offers everything all in one place. But which is the best for you and your workflow?

iWork vs. Documents To Go vs. Quickoffice Pro HD: User interface and workflow

Apple's mobile suite of apps is actually three separate apps, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. They are universal, however, so once you buy them they work for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Even though all three are purchased separately, Apple has done a good job of making the user experience and general workflow the same across all of them.

Upon initially launching Pages, Numbers, or Keynote on your iPad you'll be asked whether or not you'd like to sync your documents to iCloud. If you've already got documents stored in iCloud from another iOS device or Mac, they'll be right there ready for you to pick up where you left off. Tapping any one of them will open it.

Once you're inside a document whether it be a word processing document, spreadsheet, or presentation, you'll see a navigation bar along the top. This is where all of your commands and options will be located. While the menu style may vary slightly between Pages, Keynote, and Numbers the user experience is pretty consistent across all three and all the tools and options you'd expect to find are right there.

When working with word documents you can tap anywhere on the screen to start typing. A virtual keyboard will appear as well as a formatting bar along the top that allows you to change fonts, sizes, margins, indentation, and more. The same type of menu system is also available in both Numbers and Keynote as well but tweaked somewhat for each individual application's needs.

Once choosing the type of spreadsheet you'd like in Numbers you'll see a bar along the top to add more sheets to the current book as well as formatting and function tools. If you need to input data into a cell you can simply double tap on the cell you'd like to edit and the keyboard will pop up. Instead of seeing a formatting menu like you do in Pages you'll see a formula bar and quick links for common spreadsheet tasks such as auto-inserting time or date. You can manually start typing in formulas or click the "=" sign in order to access a functions menu which provides access to commonly used formulas and symbols.

Keynote will operate in a very similar fashion and open any documents you currently have stored in iCloud. You can also create a new presentation from a template or from scratch. Once you're inside a presentation you'll see the typical formatting bar along the top that consists of a formatting tool, add slide button, settings button, and play button.

Manipulating slides is also easy and can be done by dragging them in different positions. Tapping on an already highlighted slide will bring up a popup menu that gives you the options to cut, copy, delete, skip, and add transitions.

Documents To Go is a complete suite that has the ability to open and edit word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations all in one single app. Along the bottom you'll notice a row of tabs that consists of local files, desktop files, online files, recents, store, search, and settings.

The local, desktop, and online tabs give you access to documents in different places. The local tab will store anything that you've created and maintained on your iPad. The desktop tab will sync any documents between the free desktop application and your iPad. The online tab allows you to access and edit documents that you've got stored elsewhere on a cloud storage service. Documents To Go currently supports Google Docs, Box.net, Dropbox, and SugarSync. Once you're signed in you can navigate through all your folders and open and edit documents as you wish. Once you're done Documents To Go can save the file directly to where you already have it stored.

Editing word documents within Documents To Go is easy enough. Once you open a word document you'll be able to start adding and editing content immediately. The bottom toolbar will give you options to increase margins and change paragraph styles, customize fonts, and create different kinds of lists and bullets. Once you're done, Documents To Go will simply save the document so you can pick up from any other device or machine you'd like to work from.

Just like you'd open a word document you can open a spreadsheet. The bottom toolbar will be similar to what you see when editing word files but the controls will change to suit working with spreadsheets. You'll have options to edit and add sheets, move columns or rows, delete them, and more. The formula bar will stay stationary at the top of the app and allow you to start typing formulas quickly. If you need to add cells the the formula you can just tap on them to add the cell location.

While Documents To Go does offer the ability to create and edit presentations you'll only be able to edit presentations that are saved in Microsoft Office format. If you've saved all your presentations in Keynote, you'll have to either re-save them in .ppt format or you'll only be able to view them, not edit.

Once inside a presentation you'll see a screen that allows you to add notes and edit the main slide. The screen is split to allow you to view notes and slides at the same time. Along the bottom you'll find the typical toolbar that allows you to insert slides, duplicate them, delete them, or jump to different slides. The layout is easy to navigate but somewhat limited in terms of functionality. There are only a few templates you can choose from and none of them are quite breathtaking.

Quickoffice Pro HD consists of a main menu that shows everything currently accessible in Quickoffice that is stored on your iPad. Clicking the "+" sign in the lower left hand corner allows you to add syncing services so you can access documents stored to them. After you set up a syncing service it will show up in the left hand pane so you can navigate between local files and cloud files easily.

Navigate to the file you want to open and tap it to have Quickoffice open it. While Documents To Go uses a bottom navigation bar, Quickoffice Pro HD's navigation will be located at the top of the screen. Just like Documents To Go, the menus will change to suit the type of document you're opening.

When editing a word document you'll have quick access to common things like bolding, italicizing, and underlining. On the far right you also have another menu that will let you customize fonts, colors, and more.

Opening a spreadsheet in Quickoffice Pro HD is very much like opening a word processing document. You'll have the same bar along the top but again it'll be tailored to common spreadsheet tasks such as changing number formats, bolding, italicizing, and more. The top right menu will allow you to customize font type and size. To use formulas you can just start typing them in the top formula bar and commonly used options will start populating.

Just like Documents To Go, Quickoffice Pro HD plays a lot nicer with PowerPoint documents than it does Numbers. If you use .ppt files this won't be an issue but if you use Keynote you'll need to convert them in order to edit them.

When it comes to interface, the iWork suite of apps provide the most uniform experience while retaining the functions that are unique to each individual type of workflow. Pages, Keynote, and Numbers manage to utilize a familiar interface without taking away from any one type of task.

iWork vs. Documents To Go vs. Quickoffice Pro HD: Word documents

Pages for iPad makes it easy to edit documents on the go and will work with any native Pages file format or Microsoft Office file (.doc or .docx). The minimal UI combined with common features that you'd expect to find in a word processing app make it easy to use and easy to navigate.

Once you open a new document or choose a template you can immediate tap the screen in order to bring up the virtual keyboard and start typing. The formatting menu for texts, paragraphs, and spacing will stay on the screen as long as the keyboard is active for easy access to commonly used functions. The formatting tool works in conjunction with whatever you've got selected or highlighted. The plus sign allows you to add media, tables, charts, and shapes to your document.

Pages allows you to interact not only with text but with images too. You can add, cut, resize, delete, and replace images quickly and easily. Pages will pull from your camera roll, albums, and events already on your iPad. Just tap the plus sign and drop in an image. You can then resize it and drag it around as well as choose the formatting tool in order to change how text wraps around it.

Documents To Go will allow you open any .doc or .docx file. Once you've opened a document you can start typing and use the formatting bar along the bottom to add things such as bullet lists, double line spacing, different margins or paragraphs, and more. The settings icon will give you access to a word count feature, full screen mode, and a find and replace tool. The top menu also gives you access to undo and redo buttons.

While you can cut images out of documents there is currently no way to add or manipulate images. This means your documents will be strictly text unless you've added images from another Office suite on a different computer. They'll load just fine and you can work around them but there isn't much you can do with them.

Quickoffice Pro HD operates in almost the exact same way Documents To Go does except the formatting bar runs along the top of the screen instead of at the bottom. You'll have all the things you'd expect to find when it comes to manipulating text but again, there are no abilities to add or manipulate existing images in your documents. I even had issues highlighting to delete images in Quickoffice Pro HD.

When it comes to word processing, all three will provide the standard text input features you'd come to expect but Pages in the only option that allows you to not only manipulate and work with media such as images, charts, and graphs, but insert them natively.

iWork vs. Documents To Go vs. Quickoffice Pro HD: Spreadsheets

Numbers, the iWork counterpart for spreadsheets, will allow you to edit any spreadsheet made in either Numbers on Mac or Excel on PC. Once you've launched a spreadsheet you can immediately start tapping into cells and editing or adding new content.

Double-tapping will bring up the virtual keyboard and allow you to start punching in data. If there's already data or a formula in that cell, the formula bar will show you that information. You can also add tabs along the top of Numbers by tapping the plus sign next to the last sheet in a workbook. Just like word processing, the format paint brush will dynamically change to format anything that's currently highlighted or selected. This makes it super easy to grab large chunks of data and convert them into charts or graphs.

You can also add media such as photos to your spreadsheets as well. Clicking the "+" sign will allow you to add photos from your iPad and predesigned charts, tables, and shapes. While Numbers and Excel don't always use the same syntax for formulas I've found that Numbers handles most documents just fine. I've come across very few instances where Numbers broke formulas from Excel documents. You've got to be using extremely complex formulas in order to trip it up. Basic algebra and even most advanced formulas will transfer over correctly as long as the syntax was written correctly in Excel.

Documents To Go gives you the ability to both view and edit any spreadsheet with a .xls or .xlsx format. Once you've tapped into the spreadsheet you'll see your commonly used functions along the bottom and an undo/redo option in the top right. You can manipulate and resize columns and tables as you'd wish by dragging them into new positions.

The options along the bottom allow you to change cell formats or change number formats as well as format fonts. The formula bar will always stay stationary at the top of the screen for easy access. In order to input or view an existing formula just highlight the cell that you'd like to enter a new one or view a current one.

Adding sheets or removing them is easy within Documents To Go as well. To the right of the formula bar you'll see a sheet button. Tap it to view all the sheets in the current document. Tapping edit will allow you to delete sheets, re-order them, or drop a new sheet where you'd like.

Quickoffice Pro HD handles all file formats for Excel just like Pages and Documents To Go. Your menu along the top will be your go to place for all your formatting needs. Once you tap into a cell you'll be able to start typing on the virtual keyboard or view any formulas that are already in that cell. You can also use the top formula bar as a way to view the formulas by single tapping on a cell.

Along the bottom you'll see a list of tabs that currently exist that you can toggle between. Tapping the plus sign will allow you to create a new blank sheet. One thing I do particularly like in Quickoffice Pro HD is that when you've got the keyboard pulled up the tabs for sheets raises up so you can always switch between sheets without the need to hide the keyboard first.

When it comes to spreadsheets Numbers, Documents To Go, and Quickoffice Pro HD will all give you the ability to edit formulas and perform basic tasks. If you need to add images, charts, graphs, and easily manipulate anything other than text input, Numbers is the only program that allows you to do so natively.

iWork vs. Documents To Go vs. Quickoffice Pro HD: Slideshows and presentations

Keynote allows you to easily open any Keynote or Microsoft PowerPoint document and begin editing it immediately. Just like Numbers and Pages you'll have your formatting bar along the top that will allow you to add and manipulate content as you wish.

Keynote comes with quite a few templates to choose from that look rather good considering they're coming from a stock gallery. Once you're in a project you can add slides and transitions via the top menu or use the format paintbrush to work with anything you've got highlighted. You can also change slide order by just dragging slides around in the left hand navigation panel. Tapping on a highlighted slide will also give you the option to work with that slide in certain ways such as adding transitions.

Documents To Go will only read PowerPoint files so if you're a Keynote user on a Mac you'll need to convert your documents over to .ppt format in order to open them in Documents To Go. In my experience this sometimes results in losing transitions and other types of shadows and features that Keynote offers.

Nonetheless, you'll be able to edit any .ppt file by just tapping on it to open it. The page will show a split pane between the actual slide and note cards. You can tap the notes tab in order to hide it but your slide will still only occupy the top portion of the screen if you're working in portrait orientation. If you're in landscape it will allow the notes tab to hover on the side while showing full screen slides. Pulling out the notes tab in landscape will divide the screen left to right instead of top and bottom. While landscape mode gives you a bit more space to work with, it's still a bit funny when it comes to workflow and spacing.

Along the bottom you'll find all the functions you need to add transitions, insert slides, or jump to an existing slide using the slide picker feature. The one disappointing aspect of Document's To Go's implementation is that you can't add or edit images. This is a complete let down consider text only slides are more than boring and most people will rely on adding images to their slides.

Quickoffice Pro HD takes a bit better of an approach to handling presentations than Documents To Go. All your slides will show along the bottom or the side depending what orientation you're working in. Your main menu will run along the top and allow you to play the project or add media such as images, charts, and shapes as well as text bubbles and other things specific to slide presentations. The one downer I found in Quickoffice Pro HD is the lack of transitions. As far as I'm aware there are none and no way to add them.

Keynote not only handles presentations better than both Documents To Go and Quickoffice Pro HD but gives you access to beautiful designed templates that you can edit as much as you'd like as well as a better navigation system with well-placed tools. If you plan on putting together a lot of presentations on your iPad, Documents To Go is the worst choice due the not being able to add any kind of media into your presentation.

iWork vs. Documents To Go vs. Quickoffice Pro HD: Cross-platform and cloud syncing

Pages, Numbers, and Keynote all support iCloud which means any documents you've got stored will automatically be made available across any iCloud enabled device whether that be an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Mac. The iOS versions of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers are universal downloads for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch but you will have to purchase the Mac versions separately. There's also support for iTunes syncing and WebDAV.

If you plan on storing most of your documents in a service like Dropbox or Google Docs it should be no surprise that none of Apple's iWork apps support it since they offer their own native service.

Documents To Go supports cloud syncing with Google Docs, Box.net, Dropbox, and SugarSync. If you use any of these services you won't have any problem saving and pulling documents to and from them. You can also navigate to any folder you'd like and start a new document within it as opposed to storing it locally.

When it comes to computer counterparts, Documents To Go doesn't have one but that probably isn't a huge deal to most users as the app is made to compliment either the iWork for destkop apps or Microsoft Office on the desktop. Documents To Go does, however, offer a sync client for both Mac and PC to sync your documents back and forth between your computer and iPad. It works very much like Dropbox or any other online service would work by creating a folder on your computer to sync to your iPad. You can create sub-folders inside of it and drag any documents you'd like available on your iPad to it.

The only catch is that to sync these documents you'll have to be on the same Wi-Fi network and have the Documents To Go app open on your iPad before attempting to sync. Considering the app offers cloud sync options, the desktop app really doesn't serve a point anymore anyways.

Quickoffice Pro HD supports even more sync services than Documents To Go when it comes to cloud storage. It's compatible with Google Drive, Dropbox, Box.net, Evernote, Catch, SugarSync, Huddle, and Egnyte. Regardless what service you use you should have aboslutely no issues hoooking it up to Quickoffice Pro.

Again, Quickoffice Pro HD doesn't have a suite for Mac or PC but no one should really expect them to. Most users already have a workflow with either iWork or Microsoft Office and only want an iPad app as a companion and on the go option.

When it comes to syncing, the iWork suite of apps consisting of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers is hands down the best option if you're an iCloud and Mac user and don't have an issue storing all your documents in Apple's highly abstracted pool. It works seamlessly and effortlessly. Wherever you have a connection you have all your documents. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

If you don't use iCloud, or you're a PC user that doesn't have the option to use iWork on your computer, QuickOffice Pro HD offers the most options when it comes to syncing.

iWork vs. Documents To Go vs. Quickoffice Pro HD: Pricing

Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are three separate app purchases in the App Store and will run you $9.99 each for a total of $30 for the entire suite. This will get you access from any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch you own. If you're a Mac user and would like to use the Mac versions in correlation to the iOS versions, they're also sold separately in the Mac App Store and will cost $19.99 a piece. All in all you're looking at around $100 after tax to own the entire collection. This isn't bad considering what Microsoft Office on its own costs for Mac or PC. The best part about iWork being sold as separate apps is that you can always choose to only buy the ones that you know you'll use. If you never have a need to create spreadsheets, don't buy Numbers. If you never create presentations, you can get away with not buying Keynote. It's an easy way to save you some money.

Documents To Go Premium will run you $16.99 in the App Store but it's a universal download for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The desktop application is free to download for both Mac and PC but if you're using any kind of cloud syncing service you probably won't have a need for it anyways.

Quickoffice Pro HD goes for $19.99 in the App Store and it's an iPad only app. If you'd like the regular version of Quickoffice Pro for iPhone and iPod touch as well it'll run you an additional $14.99. Still not too bad when it comes to a complete mobile office suite.

Pages, Numbers, and Keynote will obviously cost you the most so if you're concerned about price, one of the other two is a better option. Documents To Go offers the lowest price with a universal app but the other two may be better options in terms of functionality and feature set. When it comes to value, the iWork suite of apps will offer the most bang for your buck.

iWork vs. Documents To Go vs. Quickoffice Pro: The bottom line

If you're a Windows user, and you want to be able to sync between your iPad and your Windows PC, Quickoffice HD Pro is best choice for you, even if it's not the best choice overall. Until Microsoft does the right thing and releases a native version of Office for iOS. (Write Steve Ballmer, use a lot of exclamation points!)

If you're a Mac user with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote on the desktop, or if you just want to work and sync between iPad and another iOS devices, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are the best apps for creating, editing, and sharing any kind of document on your iPad. The complete suite provides a streamline experience and interface that just can't be matched.

The iWork suite of apps which includes Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are getting some updates on both OS X Mountain Lion and iOS for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The new versions of the apps appear to add iCloud support across both and dictation support for Mountain Lion.

If you've got a Mac running Mountain Lion, which was just released today you'll want to check the Mac App Store for updates to the iWork suite. Mountain Lion and iOS will now keep all your documents synced across all your devices via iCloud.

The update on the Mac App Store says the following is included in the update:

iWork Update 9.2 adds support for the following features available on OS X Mountain Lion:

• iCloud: Store documents in iCloud and keep them automatically up to date across your Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and the web. Changes made to a document on one device automatically appear on all your other devices. Requires iWork for iOS 1.6.1 or later installed on your iOS device.
• Dictation: Speak words, numbers, or sentences and watch them appear in your presentation, document, or spreadsheet.
• The iWork apps are also enhances to take advantage of the Retina display on the new Mac hardware so presentations, documents, and spreadsheets appear sharper and more vibrant.

So far we see updates for all three iWork apps on iOS and the update for the entire suite in the Mac App Store. No word on the iLife suite yet in terms of new features or functionality but a couple of us have seen some bug fixes and compatibility updates coming through for Mountain Lion. If you don't see the updates yet, keep checking the iOS and Mac App Stores.

Anyone seeing any other interesting updates on iOS or OS X other than bug fixes?

• Pages for iOS - $9.99 - Download Now
• Pages for Mac - $19.99 - Download Now
• Numbers for iOS - $9.99 - Download Now
• Numbers for Mac - $19.99 - Download Now
• Keynote for iOS - $9.99 - Download Now
• Keynote for Mac - $19.99 - Download Now

One of the huge disappointments of Pages for iPhone and iPad is there are only two paper sizes available: US Letter and A4. Even worse, is that you can't even create a document with these sizes in landscape! However, if you first create the document in Pages for Mac and open it with Pages on your iPhone or iPad, the document size and orientation will remain unchanged.

This workaround works fine for users with a Mac and iWork, but what about Windows users or even Mac users who want to create a document without planning ahead and creating the appropriately sized document first? That's where we come in!

I've created blank templates of all the popular document sizes and added them to my public Dropbox folder for iMore readers to download directly to their iPhone or iPad. Just simply tap the links with your iPhone or iPad and select Open in "Pages" for each one you want. Yes, it's a bit tedious, but unfortunately, this is the best we can do for you.

• Grab the Pages templates via the iMore Forums

After picking up the ones you want, I recommend grouping them up into a folder so they don't clutter up your main document screen.

When using any of these templates, make sure you duplicate it first before making any changes so that you don't lose the original template.

So there you go! Hopefully this makes Pages for iPhone and iPad more useful for you.

See also: Pages for iPhone and iPad review

Apple’s Pages is the word processing component of their iWork productivity suite of software, and a companion app to Numbers for spreadsheets and Keynote for presentations. Universal apps that work on iPhone and iPad, all three have proven to be popular choices for document management on the go and have just recently been updated to support iOS 5.1 and the new iPad‘s Retina display.

If you’re a new iPad or iPhone owner and need a way to create and edit documents on the go, Pages is Apple’s iCloud integrated solution.

Document organization

The documents screen of Pages displays your documents as a grid. You can create folders that contain multiple documents, similar to how you create folders of apps on your home screen. From here you can also delete, rearrange, and duplicate documents, add documents from iTunes, iDisk, or WebDAV, and create new document.

Templates

Pages comes with 16 different templates to help you get started with your project.

• Modern Photo, Classic, Formal, and Personal Photo letters
• Modern Photo and Classic Resume
• Project Proposal and Visual Report
• Poster and Flyer
• Term Paper and Syllabus
• Party Invite and Thank You Card
• Recipe

All of them are fully customizable so that you can make them your own.

Formatting

When creating a document, you'll find a bar with formatting options you use most often: font type and size, bold, italics, underline, justification, and tabs. You can also easily adjust your margins and paragraph indent by dragging the arrows on the ruler at the top of the screen.

Tapping the paintbrush icon will give you more formatting options like paragraph and list styles, font color, columns, and line spacing.

Inserting media, tables, charts, and shapes

To insert media, tables, charts, and shapes into your document, just tap the + sign and choose what you'd like to insert. From the media tab, you can select photos from your Camera Roll, Photo Stream, or albums. The Tables tab has 24 different table designs to choose from. In the Charts tab, you'll find 9 different 2D and 8 different 3D charts, each in 6 different colors, and in the Shapes tab, you'll find 15 different shapes available in 6 different colors.

When inserting your media, you can scale it and move it around your document. If you drag it to an edge, the text will wrap around it, and if you put it in the middle somewhere, the text will separate above and below it.

Tables can be easily editable by just tapping on them. You can type information into each cell (even copy/paste from a spreadsheet app like Numbers) and adjust how many rows and columns your table is made up of.

Charts are treated the same way, except that you can rotate 3D ones around a little bit. Since charts require a set of data to have any sort of value, Pages allows you to edit the chart data (similar to a table) and select if you want to plot the rows or columns as a series.

Shapes are actually pretty fun to add to a Pages document because they are also adjustable. For example, if you select a star, you can add more points to it and adjust how skinny the points are.

Document Setup

If you tap the Tools button, you'll find options for sharing, searching your document, settings, help, and Document Setup.

Tapping Document Setup will bring you to a new screen that shows a blank document page with a header, a footer, and margins. Dragging the margin lines will adjust the margins and tapping the header or footer allows you to edit them with page numbers, line breaks, or with your own pasted information.

If you take a look at the bottom right corner of the page, you'll notice that's it's turned up a little. Tapping here will fold up the bottom of the paper and reveal two different paper size choices: US Letter and A4. Unfortunately, those are the only sizes available.

In the upper right corner, you'll find a + sign. From here, you can add media, tables, charts, and shapes, similarly to how you enter them into your actual document. The difference is that if you add these items from the document setup screen, they actually work as the background of your document so that text will appear over them. This is how you can change the color of your page, add borders, and get creative when designing things like posters and flyers. Each item you add can be further edited by tapping the paintbrush icon.

Sharing

Once you're done creating your document, you can email it, print it, share to iWork.com, send to iTunes, or copy to iDisk or WebDAV. Surprisingly, you cannot share (or "Open in") iBooks. Although, if you email it yourself, you can then "Open in" iBooks from the email.

Pages also has support for iCloud so that you can keep all your documents synced between iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This works fabulously for iPhone and iPad, but the experience is a bit clunky for the Mac - it doesn't "just work". To get your document onto your Mac, one would think you'd just have to launch Pages and be able to find it under the File menu. No such luck. Instead, you have to go to iCloud.com and download your document from the iWork section. This is very inelegant to say the least. Most 3rd party apps with iCloud support handle syncing to the Mac better than this. Apple should be embarrassed.

The Good

• Easy to use
• 16 nice templates to choose from
• Photos, graphs, charts, and shapes are very easy to edit, customize, and insert
• Document Setup is a great way to design the background of your project and is great for posters and flyers
• iCloud between iOS devices works great

The Bad

• Syncing with iCloud to your Mac is, for lack of a better word -- lame
• Can't "Open in" iBooks without emailing it yourself first
• Only US Letter and A4 paper sizes
• No Dropbox support

The bottom line

If you're looking for an easy to use, well designed word processor for you iPad, Pages is an excellent choice. But if you are a big Dropbox user or want to sync with MS Word, you're going to want to look elsewhere. Personally, I'm happy with Pages and I've never felt the need to shop for a different word processing app.

$9.99 - Download Now

Keynote is all you need to create, edit, and give stunning presentations straight from your iPhone or iPad

Apple's Keynote is the presentation component of their iWork productivity suite of software, and a companion app to Pages for word processing and Numbers for spreadsheets. All three are universal apps that work on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and popular choices for document management on the go. They've also just been updated to support iOS 5.1 and the new iPad's Retina display.

If you're a new iPad or iPhone owner and need a way to create, edit, and give presentations on the go, Keynote is Apple's iCloud integrated solution. It was designed for Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, and the desktop version was used to give every one of his presentations, including the original iPhone and iPad introductions.

Does it work just as well on iOS?

Keynote isn't Powerpoint, and that's a good thing

While most of the iWork apps pale in comparison to Microsoft's Office suite, Keynote is the possible exception. Again, it was made for and used by arguably the best corporate presenter in a generation, and that says a lot.

However, because Keynote and Powerpoint are both intended for the same purpose, there's a lot of overlap in features, and if you've used Powerpoint, or Keynote on the Mac, you shouldn't have any trouble getting used to Keynote for iPhone and iPad.

If anything, the layout and controls on iOS are even more intuitive than desktop presentation software. Once you've gotten the basics down, you'll be creating amazing presentations that you can share with co-workers, friends, and family with just a few taps.

From the main Keynote screen you can open, edit, delete or create a presentation. To create a new one just tap the "+" sign in the upper right hand corner and select Create Presentation. You'll be presented with several templates that you can choose from.

While Apple hasn't added any new ones since Keynote was released, there are still quite a few different selections which should suit most users just fine.

Keynote's user interface is simple and streamline. In the upper right hand corner are four icons.

• Format brush: You'll use this to change the different properties of texts and objects such as font style, colors, and size.
• Insert button: This is where you'll tap to add content to your slides. You can input many objects such as images from your camera roll, tables, charts, and several shapes.
• Tools: This menu allows you to add different transitions to your slides, share your presentations, add presenter notes, and many other options.
• Play button: This does exactly what you'd think, plays your slideshow. To exit play mode, just pinch the screen to go back to editing mode.

To add a slide to your project, tap the add slide button in the bottom left hand corner. There are a good amount of slide types to choose from such as title slides, bulleted slides, and more. You can also choose to use a blank slide and build your own custom content.

To change the order of slides within your project, hold your finger down on the slide you'd like to move and you can drag it up or down to the position you desire.

There are a good selection of built-in transitions in the tools menu. Once you select Transitions and Builds, your slide will get a marker next to it. Tap the "+" sign to add a transition to it.

You can also tap on options to adjust timing of transitions.

You can also add photos, tables, charts, or shapes directly to your presentation from your iPhone or iPad. To do so, tap the insert button in the top right and choose what kind of media you'd like to add.

Once you insert a chart you can double tap it to bring up the editing menu. You can choose to edit data which will bring up a table format that allows you to change the data and labels for your charts or graphs.

Once you've added an object, you can continue to manipulate them further with the format brush. Select an object, select the format brush, and Keynote will then bring up format options based on what you have highlighted.

If you have a chart or graph highlighted, it will allow you to edit the color and dimension of the chart as well as many other elements.

Resizing an object is easy. Just tap the object and blue anchors will appear. You can then use the grid lines to resize and straighten or off-center an object to your liking.

Moving objects is just as simple. Tap and hold on an object and move it around. The same yellow grid lines will show up to assist you with centering it with the rest of your text and content.

Keynote gives you a few ways that you can share your presentations directly from your iPhone or iPad. You can share your work via e-mail, send it to iTunes, and print it.

Currently all of the iWork for iOS apps still give you the option to share it to iWork.com or iDisk. Given iDisk and iWork.com will be discontinued this summer, I’m not quite sure why Apple is still allowing them as options. I’d advise new users to stay away from them and just enable iCloud from the beginning to avoid having to transfer documents over before Apple turns off these services.

If you currently have data stored on iWork.com or iDisk, you should probably transfer it over to iCloud before this summer.

You can also use the optional VGA or HDMI out dongles sold by Apple to connect to a projector at work, or use AirPlay to mean a presentation to Apple TV and show it off on the big screen.

Upon first launching any of the iWork for iOS apps on your iPhone or iPad, you'll be asked whether or not you'd like to sync with iCloud. I'd recommend doing so if you plan on editing and accessing documents from multiple iOS devices. This way, if you make changes to a document on your iPad, your changes will be synced with all your devices.

There are, however, a few flaws to this system. I'm not a fan of the fact that I have to log in to iCloud from a browser and download files and re-upload them when at a computer. I was really hoping Apple would have implemented a better solution by now.

If you only have the need to edit iWork documents on the go, iCloud is just fine but we have to be practical - most users need to be able to easily edit them on a computer whether in iWork or Microsoft Office as well. The integration just isn't that great when you've got to download a document from iCloud, edit what you need to, and re-upload it in order for it to sync the current version to all your devices.

A syncing solution that better integrates documents with iCloud will hopefully be a big part of what OS X Mountain Lion will bring to the table. Right now Keynote gives you the ability to download your presentations to your computer in the following formats:

• Keynote
• PDF
• Powerpoint

What's new in Keynote 1.6

Not too much has changed in the new version of Keynote. There aren't any new templates from what I can tell. While iWork did get a few new features across the board, most enhancements were done under the hood.

This is probably a bigger deal to spreadsheet user but there's no denying the new 3D charts make presentation look a lot more interesting than the standard 2D charts. And since it only takes a few taps to turn a boring table into an animated 3D one, why not?

You can also rotate the chart and change it's orientation and position. This is especially convenient when working with line graphs that overlap each other. You can stretch the graph outwards so you can easily see the difference between them and they don't seem so bunched up against each other.

Stability improvements

All three iWork applications received performance enhancements that really seem to show on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. I hadn't really noticed as many lag issues in Keynote as I did in Numbers to begin with. Probably due to the amount of formulas and data Numbers loads in comparison.

Sometimes when adding slides or paging through charts, I'd notice a bit of a lag but not anything worth getting frustrated over. Unfortunately the lag was noticeably present on the first generation iPad.

The good

• The enhanced interface makes it even easier to format and edit data quickly and easily
• Performance enhancements seemed to decrease the amount of time it takes to edit larger presentations and move slides around
• 3D charts and graphs make presentations more visually appealing than their 2D counterparts

The bad

• Lack of iCloud integration on the Mac is highly frustrating
• Limited presentation and slide templates to work with

Conclusion

I use Keynote to prepare workshop presentations and use AirPlay to show them iva Apple TV without ever having to worry about connecting a computer to a projector. I also haven't found much the Mac version of Keynote does that the iOS version won't do. For many, Keynote is all you will need to create, edit, and give stunning presentations straight from your iPhone or iPad

There's no denying that Keynote for iPhone and iPad is an amazing way to create beautiful presentations without ever touching your computer. It's so good on recent generation iPads and iPhones, in fact, you may never want to create a slideshow in any other program again.

Numbers for iPhone and iPad is a great way for casual users to manage spreadsheets but may not offer enough power for professionals... yet.

Apple's Numbers is the spreadsheet component of their iWork productivity suite of software, and a companion app to Pages for word processing and Keynote for presentations. Universal apps that work on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, all three have proven to be popular choices for document management on the go and have just recently been updated to support for iOS 5.1 and the new iPad's Retina display.

If you're a new iPad or iPhone owner and need a way to create and edit spreadsheets on the go, Numbers is Apple's iCloud integrated solution. The question is, how easy is it to use and how much can you really do with it?

Numbers isn't Excel, and that's okay

Apple's Numbers isn't Microsoft's Excel. That's the first and most important thing to remember. Apple's goal wasn't to copy Excel, Lotus, or Visicalc, but to come up with a spreadsheet program that was easy to use and could produce great looking documents fairly quickly.

That said, if you've used Excel in the past, you should feel pretty comfortable with Numbers as well.

To add content to a spreadsheet in Numbers -- whether it be text, a table, an image, or something else, you simply tap on the Add button (looks like a + sign) in the top right corner.

Once you add an object, you can move on to editing and formatting it.

Numbers also makes it easy to format content with the formatting brush. It's represented by a paintbrush icon in the upper right hand corner. In order to use it, you'll need to highlight something you'd like to format. From there it will smartly choose options based on what kind of content you'd like to edit.

For example, if you select a table full of data, it will give you the option to turn that data into charts or graphs quickly and easily. If you're selecting a block of text, it'll give you options for format that text as a header, change the font, place borders around it, and many more options.

If you've used past versions of iWork on your iPhone or iPad, you may have noticed that the formatting icon and menu have changed a bit in the updated version.

Numbers gives you a few ways that you can share your content directly from your iPhone or iPad. You can share your work via e-mail, send it to iTunes (where you can open it via the desktop Numbers app for Mac), and print it.

Currently Numbers still gives users the option to share it to iWork.com or iDisk as well. Given iDisk and iWork.com will be discontinued this summer, I'm not quite sure why Apple is still allowing them as options. I'd advise new users to stay away from them and just enable iCloud from the beginning to avoid having to transfer documents over before Apple turns off these services.

Upon first launching any of the iWork for iOS apps on your iPhone or iPad, you'll be asked whether or not you'd like to sync with iCloud. I'd recommend doing so if you plan on editing and accessing documents from multiple iOS devices. This way, if you make changes to a spreadsheet on your iPad, your changes will be synced with all your devices.

There are, however, a few flaws to this system. I'm not a fan of the fact that I have to log in to iCloud from a browser and download files and re-upload them when at a computer. I was really hoping Apple would have implemented a better solution by now.

If you only have the need to edit iWork documents on the go, iCloud is just fine but we have to be practical -- most users need to be able to easily edit them on a computer whether in iWork on Mac or Microsoft Office on Windows or Mac as well. The integration just isn't that great when you've got to download a document from iCloud, edit what you need to, and re-upload it in order for it to sync the current version to all your devices.

A syncing solution that better integrates documents with iCloud will hopefully be a big part of what OS X Mountain Lion will bring to the table.

While iCloud does allow you to download documents to your computer in Excel format, there's no escaping the fact that Excel and Numbers handle some types of data differently. If you use a lot of extensive or custom-built formulas, switching between Numbers and Excel probably isn't too pretty.

I've come across a few occasions where I'd created extensive formulas or functions in Excel or Numbers and when I'd try to cross-edit, the formulas would break or output an error. This has a lot to do with how each handle formulas and syntax. Unfortunately, it's probably not something Apple can overcome easily.

What's new in Numbers 1.6

Numbers 1.6 is a free upgrade to existing Numbers for iOS users, and comes with a few new features.

Anyone who previously used iWork on the iPhone or iPad may have noticed that some of the main interface elements were switched around. I've found the new layout to be much more productive than the old one.

The main controls have been brought down from four to three. Within these three sections, you'll find a lot of your options have been condensed or re-organized.

The new layout took me less than 10 minutes to get used to and where I logically thought something would have been moved was typically where it ended up. Existing users won't need to worry about re-learning the program and new users will benefit from the more intuitive layout.

One of the most talked about features in Numbers 1.6 is the ability to easily add 3D charts and graphs to your spreadsheets. While the 2D charts were good enough for most, the 3D charts really do make spreadsheets created in Numbers pop.

Let's face it, no one really likes staring at spreadsheets during a meeting or presentation for very long. It's essential that you have a way to convey your information in a way that's fun and engaging. I find the 3D charts and graphs to be a way to do exactly that.

Once you've got your data set up in a plain text chart, Apple has made it drop dead simple to turn that data into an easy to read 3D pie chart or graph. To add a chart to a spreadsheet, tap the "+" symbol to add an element and choose 3D charts. From there you can highlight the content from your spreadsheet you'd like to appear in the chart and you're done.

Customizing and editing things like color, font, what data to display on what axis, and other design elements is easier to access with the new formatting icon (hint: it's the paintbrush in the upper right hand corner). You can also drag individual contents around such as the title or chart key for easy placement and adjustment.

While the addition of 3D charts and graphs is welcome, the thing I was most happy to see in action were the stability and performance improvements. I'm normally pretty skeptical of companies releasing an update with a generic "performance enhancements" description. This time, it really is noticeable.

I've always found the interface of Numbers on iPhone and iPad to be somewhat difficult to work with as it always seemed to lag behind. I'd attempt to highlight a few cells and the cursor could sometimes not keep up with my finger. This seems to be less of an issue this time around. If you're working with spreadsheets that contain a lot of data it could always be rather tedious to use your iPhone or iPad to edit them or make changes. I always experienced lag. With smaller spreadsheets that don't contain a tremendous amount of data or formulas, it's probably a non-issue for most.

Using my iPad 2, I do still experience some lag when typing content into cells and trying to switch between them. Sometimes I find myself having to tap twice in order for Numbers to realize I'm trying to switch between cells. I tested out Numbers on a first generation iPad and unfortunately, a lot of the lag still seems to be present. It'll be interesting to see how the new iPad will handle large spreadsheets.

The good

• 3D charts and graphs are extremely easy to create and manipulate
• Enhanced speed and stability are noticeable
• The integration with iCloud between iOS devices works without a hitch
• Menu system is easy for new users to grasp

The bad

• Still no landscape support for iPhone which is more than annoying when trying to edit spreadsheets that are wide
• Having to download and re-upload new versions to iCloud while on a computer is cumbersome
• While Excel is supported as a downloadable format, extensive formulas and functions still may break when cross-editing

Conclusion

Numbers for iPhone and iPad is a great way for casual users to manage spreadsheets but may not offer enough power for professionals... yet. The power of the Apple A5X processor in the new iPad will no doubt make handling larger spreadsheets smoother and easier, and the Retina display will make them look better than ever.

Aside from some minor improvements, however, I really don't feel iWork received as much attention as the iLife suite this time around, namely GarageBand, iMovie, and the all new iPhoto for iOS.

Numbers 2.0 should be a priority for Apple if they want the iPad to continue to convert people to mobile productivity. In the meantime, I'll continue using the current Numbers for basic spreadsheets that I need access on the go.

It will also be interesting to see what, if anything Microsoft brings to the table if they decide to pull the trigger on Microsoft Office for iPad.

$9.99 - Download Now

CloudOn, a free iPad app that offered Microsoft Office functionality with Dropbox support, appeared briefly in the App Store yesterday before going up in a puff of smoke a short time later.

CloudOn has responded saying their app has "sold out", but we think this may have had something to do with server overload.

The fact that CloudOn came with full Dropbox support for storing and managing office files on-the-go was a great idea for power users, and the overall offering is unique in respect to beating Microsoft to the punch at their own game. This could be another reason the app is no longer available, as Microsoft could have called shenanigans if CloudOn didn't go through the appropriate channels before release.

I gave it a quick whirl when it was actually up and running, and noticed the app was somewhat sluggish from the get-go (probably due to how much it relies on the cloud backend to get things done paired with the influx of users hammering their servers).

We'll let you know as soon as CloudOn is back in the App Store. In the meantime, here's its description:

• Use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint on your iPad to create or edit documents.
• Rename, delete and manage documents with your Dropbox account
• Display, edit or create charts, change formatting, spell check, insert comments, into any Word, Excel or PowerPoint files
• Track changes while reviewing Word documents
• Use pivot tables and insert formulas in Excel workbooks
• Display and edit animation or transitions in PowerPoint presentations
• Present in full PowerPoint mode (not in PDF)
• Open files directly from your iPad email accounts or Dropbox account
• Automatically save documents to avoid losing changes

Source: CloudOn

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

iOS 5 brings a lot of great new features to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad but more than that -- it lets developers bring us even better apps and games! Whether it's a great old app that's been updated with amazing new functionality, or a brand new app that never would have been possible before, they now get access to everything from Documents in the Cloud to AirPlay Mirroring to Twitter integration to Newsstand, to persistent location and more.

There will no doubt be a flood of them soon but for right now, right this minute, here are a list of our favorites, the ones we think are the best -- TiPb's Top 5 apps that support awesome new iOS 5 features!

iWork Numbers, Pages, and Keynote (Documents in the Cloud)

Apple's iWork productivity suite includes the Numbers spreadsheet, the Pages word processor, and the Keynote presentation maker. While not as powerful as Microsoft's ubiquitous Office suite, for smaller jobs they can make for even more beautiful, better laid out documents. And now, Documents in the Cloud. It only makes sense that Apple is right out of the gate with iCloud support for their own apps, and that the support is pretty good. Any Numbers, Pages, or Keynote document that you start on your iPhone or iPad is stored up on iCloud and pushed back down to all your other devices, including -- eventually -- the iWork apps on the Mac.

There's no file system, no file management. The idea is for you to simply open your apps and find your documents there waiting for you, up to date and ready for more. If editing on all your iOS and OS X devices is important for you, iWork is now a powerful, easy way to do it.

Note: iWork apps are universal, so you only have to buy once to use on all your iOS devices, including iPhone and iPad. However, each app needs to be bought separately, and the Mac versions need to be bought separately as well.

• Numbers - $9.99 App Store link
• Pages - $9.99 - [App Store link](mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pages/id361309726?mt=8&at=10l3Vy
• Keynote - $9.99 App Store link

Magazine and newspaper apps (Newsstand)

While many people seem to hate even the presence of Newsstand on their home screens, it actually manages to very neatly solve several problems previously associated with subscription media like magazines and newspapers. It's really just a custom folder, and magazines and newspapers are still served up as apps, but Newsstand keeps them all in one place, updates automagically when new issues "come out", and takes you to a subscription section of the App Store so you don't have to wade through games and novelty apps to find your periodicals.

Those magazine and newspaper apps had to update for iOS 5 to support Newsstand, but many already have and many more will update shortly. If subscriptions are your thing, Newsstand, if not perfect, is certainly better.

Note: Some apps are universal, many aren't. Check for the + symbol on a case-by-case basis.

• Variable - App Store link

Real Racing 2 and Real Racing 2 HD (AirPlay Mirroring)

FireMint is always at the cutting edge of iOS gaming and iOS 5 is no different. They've already updated Real Racing 2 for iPhone and Real Racing 2 HD for iPad to support the new AirPlay Mirroring feature. It lets you stream your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 interface -- including any app or game -- through an Apple TV to a big screen HDTV. FireMint takes it to a whole new level -- they offer full on Party Play. What that means is you and up to 4 people total can each use an iPhone 4S or iPad 2 to race, multiplayer style, on the big screen. Not only is that a whole lot of fun -- it's a shot across the bow of every console in the casual gaming space.

Hopefully soon we'll see all sorts of board games, shooters, and other great titles support to feature. Until then we'll be busy playing Real Racing 2.

Note: It's not a universal binary, so you'll have to buy it separately for iPhone and iPad if you want it on both, but right now it's on 40% sale so it's as close to a no brainer as you can get.

• $2.99 on sale - iPhone App Store
• $3.99 on sale - iPad App Store

iQuick Tweet (Twitter Integration)

iOS 5 has built-in Twitter integration so you can rapidly tweet a photo, YouTube video, etc. iQuick Tweet smartly took that rapidity and made it the focus of a dedicated app. You launch, you type a Twitter status, you hit send, you're done. It's just that simple and it's just that fast.

If you want to read timelines, search through @mentions, explore profiles, check trends, or do a lot of other stuff besides tweeting, there's an embarrassment of full fledged Twitter clients on iOS, but if all you want to do is blast off a message, iQuick Tweet has you covered.

• $0.99 - iPhone App Store link

foursquare (Location)

For iOS 5 users, foursquare now offers the new Radar feature, with ability to alert you when your friends are near and doing something fun -- even if your iPhone is in your pocket. This awesome -- or terrifying -- new feature means you don't have to have your iPhone out and foursquare open all the time, in constant fear you might miss out on what's happening around you. While it's not as granular as Apple's new Find my Friends app, if your goal is to know where the cool stuff is happening, foursquare Rader is a lot more powerful.

• Free - iPhone App Store

Bonus: Instapaper (Brightness and Dictionary)

Favored as the best way to devour web articles by geeks everywhere, Instapaper proves that it's not just the big, flashy iOS 5 features that can make a difference -- the little ones matter too. Support for the built-in dictionary and native brightness controls means downloading the app is faster, and reading your saved articles is more comfortable than ever. (The UI has also received an excellent overhaul.)

Note: Instapaper is a universal app so you can buy it once and use it on all your iOS devices.

• $4.99 - App Store link

Addenda: Jailbreak apps

A lot of Jailbreak apps and tweaks are also being updated to support iOS 5. If Jailbreak is where your heart lies, keep your browser locked on TiPb.com/Jailbreak for all the updates.

Your favorite new iOS 5 apps?

iOS 5 is only a week old and we've only just begun to scratch the surface of what iOS 5 apps and games will bring to our iPhones and iPads. Did we miss any of your favorites? Did we leave any of the best new apps and updates out? Is there anything else that should have made our top 5 list?

If so, speak up and let us know in the comments!