Bye Apple works, hello iWork
16/08/07 20:35 Filed in: Software
Apple 'retires' AppleWorks: "
Apple has finally put its venerable AppleWorks integrated productivity software application - a package it hasn't updated for more than three years - out to pasture.…"
(Via The Register.)
Ye Olde Appe dropped for brand spanking new iWork 08
Apple has finally put its venerable AppleWorks integrated productivity software application - a package it hasn't updated for more than three years - out to pasture.…"
(Via The Register.)
I've taken a quick look at Apples new iWork package already
here. I've
been playing with the demo and so far I like it!
And with all of this power on offer, it's maybe not so surprising that Apple works is being dropped. It's been 3 years apparently since it last had an update and it's interface certainly shows it. It's one of those Carbon apps, which really shows it! It probably looked up to date in the days of OS9, but it looks very past it now.
Not that looks are very thing, of course, but also being carbon it lacks the things you've come to expect in a modern mac application, like spell checking on the fly, use of the common system dictionary (so all of the words you added are available across all apps) etc.
Now don't get me wrong I have fond memories of using Apple works. Since it came with my first mac and I didn't have MS word at the time (I never liked using that on the mac, it just didn't feel right), works was what I did my first writing on the mac in. Then a few weeks later I discovered TextEdit was pretty powerful and better than works for what I was doing, so I stopped using it.
But I still have a copy of it on my drive and it still works on 10.4 so I fired it up today and reveled in the nostalgia of my first weeks as a mac user. Ah happy times.
Anyway, now I've been using iWork for a week or so what do I think of it! Well if I tell you I've paid up the £55 pounds to buy it...you probably wont be very surprised!
But yes I'm very impressed with Pages and Numbers so far, I've not really touched Keynote and some how I don't think I will.
Like a lot of mac software they just work the way you expect them to. The tables concept in Numbers is just brilliant and it makes me wonder why it has been thought of before. For home use and probably small businesses too, where you don't need the 16 million cells that Excel gives you access to, it's just perfect. Easy to use, yet still with lots of power under the bonnet.
I've started to move my finances over to it and the fact I can set it up just the way I want means that I don't think I'll be using my accounting program any more.
Pages is great for page layout (and apparently always has been) and now it's word processing mode is more than enough power for my word processing needs. Letters are about all I use a word processor for now days, dedicated writing apps like Scrivner and Montage and note takers like Jounler have seen to that. And pages can do letters with real style and what's more the templates that come with it don't look like templates from MS word!
Pages even comes with a template for writing movie scripts, which is kind of cool (but not as good a Montage).
So every things is perfect then? Well not quite. Numbers is a version 1 product and it feels like it in places. Most irritating is that if you move the cursor backwards to quickly while editing with in a cell, you end up moving backwards through the cells, them selves. Also oddly there is no Applescript support in Numbers at all and no marco language either which seems a little odd, but so far nothing that I've wanted to do with it has called for it (yet!)
But overall I'm very happy with my new purchase.
And with all of this power on offer, it's maybe not so surprising that Apple works is being dropped. It's been 3 years apparently since it last had an update and it's interface certainly shows it. It's one of those Carbon apps, which really shows it! It probably looked up to date in the days of OS9, but it looks very past it now.
Not that looks are very thing, of course, but also being carbon it lacks the things you've come to expect in a modern mac application, like spell checking on the fly, use of the common system dictionary (so all of the words you added are available across all apps) etc.
Now don't get me wrong I have fond memories of using Apple works. Since it came with my first mac and I didn't have MS word at the time (I never liked using that on the mac, it just didn't feel right), works was what I did my first writing on the mac in. Then a few weeks later I discovered TextEdit was pretty powerful and better than works for what I was doing, so I stopped using it.
But I still have a copy of it on my drive and it still works on 10.4 so I fired it up today and reveled in the nostalgia of my first weeks as a mac user. Ah happy times.
Anyway, now I've been using iWork for a week or so what do I think of it! Well if I tell you I've paid up the £55 pounds to buy it...you probably wont be very surprised!
But yes I'm very impressed with Pages and Numbers so far, I've not really touched Keynote and some how I don't think I will.
Like a lot of mac software they just work the way you expect them to. The tables concept in Numbers is just brilliant and it makes me wonder why it has been thought of before. For home use and probably small businesses too, where you don't need the 16 million cells that Excel gives you access to, it's just perfect. Easy to use, yet still with lots of power under the bonnet.
I've started to move my finances over to it and the fact I can set it up just the way I want means that I don't think I'll be using my accounting program any more.
Pages is great for page layout (and apparently always has been) and now it's word processing mode is more than enough power for my word processing needs. Letters are about all I use a word processor for now days, dedicated writing apps like Scrivner and Montage and note takers like Jounler have seen to that. And pages can do letters with real style and what's more the templates that come with it don't look like templates from MS word!
Pages even comes with a template for writing movie scripts, which is kind of cool (but not as good a Montage).
So every things is perfect then? Well not quite. Numbers is a version 1 product and it feels like it in places. Most irritating is that if you move the cursor backwards to quickly while editing with in a cell, you end up moving backwards through the cells, them selves. Also oddly there is no Applescript support in Numbers at all and no marco language either which seems a little odd, but so far nothing that I've wanted to do with it has called for it (yet!)
But overall I'm very happy with my new purchase.
|