Review: iWork 06

[Magnus]

Steve Jobs introduced the latest version of Apple's productivity suite iWork 06 at MacWorld Expo in early January. It has arrived in the Emirates and IMC Apple Middle East has generously provided a copy for EmiratesMac to take a look at.

Update: According to IMC Apple Middle East the price for iWork 06 is 329AED and you get the familypack (five copies) for 412AED.

iWork consist of Pages, a word processor/layout program, and Keynote, a presentation program. KeyNote is now up to version 3 and also comes across as the more mature of the two, while Pages is now at version 2. This is actually the first update of iWork since it was introduced last year when Apple released the first version of Pages and packaged it with Keynote which had existed as an application on its own before that.

The suite

Although iWork is sold as a kind of suite, it's two stand-alone applications that could very well be used without the other. In fact, there's nothing really tying them together to form a whole. Most news in iWork 06 are in place in both applications.

Perhaps the most noticeable new function in iWork 06 is the new 3D graphs. You can create different kind of graphs, twist and turn them to get just the right viewing angle, and put patterns and colors on them. For anyone creating graphs for print or screen, this new tool will truly make the graphs stand out.

As you would expect the new version also comes with a number of new templates for creating print publications in Pages and presentations in Keynote. We all know about the "Powerpoint-effect" when we sit and watch different presentations looking exactly the same because they were created with the same Powerpoint templates. That's not a risk with iWork since there are a lot fewer iWork users than Office users. This means you can more easily impress your friends and colleagues with your creations.

Document export seems to have been improved in both applications. For many it's important to know that iWork can co-exist to some degree with Office applications. Pages imports and exports Microsoft Word files, and Keynote imports and exports Microsoft Powerpoint files.

Another significant new feature in iWork 06 is comments. Many users are used to comments from Microsoft Office and now you can find this feature in iWork as well, which is a very welcome addition.

Pages

Now we'll move on to Pages, the word processor. In my view, Pages has been underestimated as a word processor. Sure it contains templates for creating good-looking documents but it also has some real good features for actually writing and styling text. Pages has style-functions similar to those of Office, meaning you can define styles for a document and then apply them throughout.

Something new in Pages 06 is the Image Adjustment feature a la iPhoto. It makes it real easy to adjust pictures you've included in your Pages document and make them look good.

Also new is the Auto Correction feature which lets Pages automatically correct text you write. This is similar to the feature in Microsoft Word. This is something you either love or hate, it seems. Personally I like the feature and welcome it warmly to Pages.

The table tool has got a welcome update and you can now do some simple spreadsheet functionality with it. You're limited in the number of formulas you can use, but what's available is probably enough for most users.

There are some updates to the drawing tools in iWork. Pages, for example, certainly isn't a match for something like Adobe Illustrator but it has some pretty neat drawing features. You can quickly draw basic shapes and alter their look and features. Photos can easily be "put inside" shapes whereby shapes "mask" the photo inside, which means you can accomplish some pretty neat effects.

Keynote

Overall it feels like Keynote got less of an update than Pages. Perhaps this is to be expected since Keynote is an older application and with age updates of applications tends to become less spectacular. Much of the new features of Pages also apply to KeyNote so I won't go over all them again.

Keynote has received some new effects and themes. Most anything you would need, from a slideshow of a new baby to a corporate strategy presentation is available. And in true Apple tradition all themes and affects are really cool looking. Why is it that Apple can make things look so awesome when most other companies just make it look dull and boring?

A strange limitation in earlier Keynote versions was that you could only add bullets to one box of text on a single slide. You couldn't for example create two lists next to one another on one slide and let them both have bullets. That's been remedied in the new version.

The Light Table function is a welcome addition to Keynote. It lets you see thumbnails of all your slides on one screen and you can drag and drop them into the order you desire. This has been available in Powerpoint for a long time and it's good that Apple has included it in Keynote.

Wrapping up

What's not to like about iWork 06? Not much actually. The 3D graph functions are nice but I wish they were a bit easier to work with and the graph function should work together with the table functions. Document compatibility with Microsoft Word is improved but it could still be better. There seem to be issues with comments translating back and forth, for example. It's easy to make stunning looking presentations with Keynote but styling text is still a bit too awkward. Styles are available in Pages, so why not in Keynote as well?

I can't get away from feeling disappointed that Apple still has not made a spreadsheet application. Without it, as good as iWork may be, it will never be a real alternative for the masses of Microsoft Office users out there who rely on Excel compatibility in their jobs. I'd love to see what Apple could do with a spreadsheet and they certainly have some experience from AppleWorks.

That said, iWork is an excellent package which most Mac users will find both fun and easy to use and pretty advanced in functionality. It can produce stunning documents and you can easily impress friends and co-workers with your good-looking documents. With Pages you can write your letters as well as design brochures, and with Keynote you can create photo slideshows for export to DVDs as well as lectures and presentations. There is no upgrade-path from the previous iWork so you will have to buy a new copy, but it's well worth the money.