iWork '06 updates Apple's AU$119 productivity suite that debuted last year; the new product still includes only two apps: Pages, the text document application, and Keynote, Apple's presentation software. But both Pages 2 and Keynote 3 up the ante, moving each application a little bit closer to industrial strength.
New to Pages 2 is the ability to create free-form curves and shapes within a document, complete with masking. This makes much more interesting and cleaner designs for brochures, newsletters, and the like. Pages documents now include 3D charts, a feature it shares with Keynote 3, and embedded Adobe PDF-like reviewer's comments.
There were rumours that this version of iWork would include a new spreadsheet application; though this didn't pan out, Pages 2 does include placed tables, complete with calculations. For those who use Microsoft Excel just to make lists, this could make Pages 2 a viable replacement.
In addition, Pages 2 can use Address Book, Mac OS X's built-in contact application, to create mail merges. With a few clicks, Pages 2 can send out customised letters, for example, to groups already in your Address Book. Pages 2 also ships with new themes from Apple.
Keynote 3 also gets new Apple-designed themes, many of which are in a high-definition format, and the ability for reviewer comments. Like Pages 2, Keynote 3 supports 3D charts and can include free-form shapes and curves with masking. These look especially nice next to slides made in PowerPoint, which does not offer anti-aliasing.
In addition, Keynote 3 gets new cinematic transitions; all look smooth, and none look cheesy. It may just be a matter of presentation, but that's what this type of application is all about.
Upside
For AU$119, iWork '06 offers two applications for a third of the price of Microsoft PowerPoint. Although Pages 2 still is far from a professional-level application, as a free addition to Keynote 2, it offers an easy-to-use desktop publishing tool to create brochures, flyers, newsletters, business letters, resumes and similar documents. Particularly nice is Pages 2's ability to save to PDF, even when compressing file sizes. And Keynote 2, with its PowerPoint compatibility (and the ability to save presentations to QuickTime movies for further compatibility), is a powerfully seductive alternative to PowerPoint.
Downside
Unfortunately, Pages 2 is still a bit clunky in its execution: font menus are difficult to access, the palette-based interface can get in your way, style control will never match that of Adobe FrameMaker, and some simple actions lack keyboard shortcuts. Importing and exporting content from and to other applications doesn't always go smoothly. Past versions of Keynote have had some problems in sharing presentations with Windows-based computers; it's not clear if Keynote 3 fixes this.
Outlook
iWork '06 is no Microsoft Office killer. But it's become clearer as Apple refines the suite that it was never meant to be. Instead, Apple is focusing on making iWork '06 stronger in the areas Office is weakest: creating good-looking documents and presentations, well suited for business and personal use alike.
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wow, having written several school reports so far with pages, i can officially conclude that i would not recommend it to anyone. every time you put a picture in, or even move a picture you have to adjust everything in your entire document because the picture screws things up. deleting spaces and adding extra spaces can be annoying because it tends to want to shift the things that your trying to space apart either way far apart or right next to eachother. just overall, if your getting a new mac get microsoft word with it. even with the pricetag, its worth it over this pain.