New updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for iPad coming with creativity in mind

iPad Pro Magic Keyboard
iPad Pro Magic Keyboard (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Applen says new updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are coming.
  • They're designed to unleash our creativity.
  • Support for improved collaboration is also coming

Apple announced a ton of new hardware today, but hidden at the bottom of its iPad Pro announcement it also noted that new updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are also coming. Although we don't know when.

What we do know is that we can look forward to updates that will take advantage of the trackpad that will be part of the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. And the whole shebang is meant to make us more creative.

Updates coming to Apple's iWork suite of productivity apps — Pages, Numbers and Keynote — take full advantage of the trackpad and open up a whole new way to work with documents on iPad. Writing and editing text is a breeze in Pages, working with multiple objects in Keynote is easier than ever, and added levels of precision make working with even the largest spreadsheets a snap. Additional new features include gorgeous new templates in Pages and Keynote, giving users a head start on creating beautiful documents and, for the first time in iWork, users can add a drop cap to make a paragraph stand out with a large, decorative first letter. Collaboration will also become easier than ever with support for iCloud folder sharing and the ability to edit shared documents while offline.

Apple hasn't said when the new updates will be available, but given the fact the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro will arrive in May, we'd expect them to come before then. If they're already when you read this, you can ignore this last paragraph!

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.