iWork 2.0?

Ceroc Addict

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If iWork is to be a proper suite, it'll obviously need some apps added to it, but which apps?

Personally, I don't think these apps should be graphical applications - we already have Fireworks, Photoshop and the Gimp. This is more than enough. Plus, I thought the graphics capabilities of AppleWorks were lack lustre at best, in comparison to these three.

Spreadsheet? Maybe. Depends if you really see this suite as being a replacement for Office. Personally, a really great word processor and presentation program were all I needed to replace Office.

Database? Lots of database programs out there already. Don't see much point in integrating a database with the current suite.

Project Management tools?

None of the the above particularly grab me.

What other suggestions do people have? i.e.


  • What app doesn't exist yet that people feel needs to exist on the Mac platform? (or which app category really needs major improvement?)
  • How would this app integrate with Pages and Keynote?
Kap

P.S. At the moment I don't really see the need for Keynote and Pages to exist together in the first place (except that they probably share a fair bit of code).
 
Um. a spread-sheet from apple would be good. but also maybe a Pages Pro to replace the advanced formatting of word... maybe based on something with strong formatting control.. does Latex fit that measure?

um.. as much as i like fireworks, i wouldn't mind if apple were to have some kind of Pro apps for web-work.. maybe a tool for graphics, and a tool for code.. if they made an offer to buy skEdit, or perhaps employ the maker.. it's a cool app, and it is very much Apple-esque...

i guess these aren't likely to happen.. but we can always prey..
 
Pengu said:
Um. a spread-sheet from apple would be good. but also maybe a Pages Pro to replace the advanced formatting of word... maybe based on something with strong formatting control.. does Latex fit that measure?
Click to expand...
I honestly don't do that much word processing at the moment, but from what I saw in the Keynote, Pages looked like just the right app.

I didn't see it as a replacement for Word, I saw it as a word processor/page layout program that the average Mac user can use to quickly create their own great looking documents.

Pengu said:
um.. as much as i like fireworks, i wouldn't mind if apple were to have some kind of Pro apps for web-work.. maybe a tool for graphics, and a tool for code.. if they made an offer to buy skEdit, or perhaps employ the maker.. it's a cool app, and it is very much Apple-esque...
Click to expand...
Nah. There's already Macromedia MX 2004 - DreamWeaver, FireWorks, Flash. Perfectly fine suite for a web developer. Ok, it's not free, but why would Apple want to cut into this market?


Kap
 
I'd like to see iLife and iWork merger and offered as one package. Keep the costs down and integrate the playful stuff (Garageband) with the more serious apps (Keynote and Pages).
 
Randman said:
I'd like to see iLife and iWork merger and offered as one package. Keep the costs down and integrate the playful stuff (Garageband) with the more serious apps (Keynote and Pages).
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What would be the point of such a merge? The only crossover would be that you'd be able to import photos into your word processing documents (which you must be able to do already with a minimum of fuss anyway).

Kap
 
Personally, I'd loved a decent Project Management App. that intergrates fully with iCal, Mail and Address book, like Entourage, but better, obviously, with the usefulness of smart folders etc. And all possible to sync to my iDisk.

Now that would be something I'd be very interested in.
 
iLife and iWork allready offer So much for So little money.... and the integration into the system is just amazing.... i think we should be more than happy with what weve got!!!

as to iWork 2 id like to see an excel app... an app called Cells had been mentioned but dint show up....

and if u really wanna compete with windows. make an Access app... :)
 
Ceroc Addict said:
What would be the point of such a merge? The only crossover would be that you'd be able to import photos into your word processing documents (which you must be able to do already with a minimum of fuss anyway).
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Cost. If you add in the annual upgrade for iLife, iWork and a .Mac renewal, that's more than a couple of hundred every year.
And if that's not the case, give discounts for upgrades rather than gouging users every year.
 
Randman said:
Cost. If you add in the annual upgrade for iLife, iWork and a .Mac renewal, that's more than a couple of hundred every year.
And if that's not the case, give discounts for upgrades rather than gouging users every year.
Click to expand...

As it is now it's cheaper than it would be if they bundled it. If you only want iLife but not iWork, why should you be forced to pay more for stuff you don't need/want.
 
actually - for all the database tools there are out there i'd love to see a really simple and attractive database building tool - along the lines of where automator is.
 
Guess we'd need:

- Keynote 3
- Pages 2 (which'd actually also let us do just, erh, work...)
- Numbers (or whatever, some spreadsheet app)
- Files (a nice lil' database)

But the most important thing would be to 'tame' Pages, which right now looks and acts more like a game than a serious word processing application.
 
have u been using Pages fryke ? or are u saying this from articles uve read on the net ???

if u have used it i sure would like to know a few examples which show that its more like a game ...
 
I'm mostly disappointed that (as near as I can tell from the keynote) that Pages can't save as a web page. That'd be great....

And an Apple spreadsheet program would be great.
 
1) Spreadsheet (with a new generation interface)
2) Database (with a new generation interface)
3) Some way to integrate object based graphics (pixel based are ok from iPhoto and Photoshop Elements)
4) And of course equation editor !!!

Indeed the main word is "integration" like Photoshop elements can be integrated in iPhoto !
 
soulseek: I've had people reporting to macnews.net.tc. Apparently, Pages can't save a default font. It's _really_ laid out to be used with their templates. I'll have to try it out, of course, but I think Apple went a little to far and didn't think of how _most_ people use their word processor: Open it up and write away... Rather, from the reports, it's a bit like a "souped down" DTP than a "souped up" word processing app...
 
fryke said:
soulseek: I've had people reporting to macnews.net.tc. Apparently, Pages can't save a default font. It's _really_ laid out to be used with their templates. I'll have to try it out, of course, but I think Apple went a little to far and didn't think of how _most_ people use their word processor: Open it up and write away... Rather, from the reports, it's a bit like a "souped down" DTP than a "souped up" word processing app...
Click to expand...
That's definitely the feel I got from watching the demos. One of the things that went through my head while watching an image get dragged around, with text reflowing around it, was "Indesign has got nothing on this."

Wait, what — Indesign?? Yep, Pages seems a lot more like DTP than word processing. Although the templates look very good.
 
fryke said:
but I think Apple went a little to far and didn't think of how _most_ people use their word processor: Open it up and write away... Rather, from the reports, it's a bit like a "souped down" DTP than a "souped up" word processing app...
Click to expand...
I disagree.

I, like most people, do just open up a word processor and write away but that's not what I really want to do (and if it was, I'd just use TextEdit) and I don't think it's what others really want to do either.

What I want is to create beautiful and effective documents, with a minimum of fuss.

Some concrete examples of when I've wanted to use a word processing application in the last year:


  • Job applications
  • Creating a brochure for a dance company I go to
  • Creating a daily newsletter for a university summer school I was teaching at.
  • Putting together a user group magazine
What I really needed was a DTP with decent word processing facilities - something that would allow me to insert images, do great layout and generate a nice PDF file i.e. Pages (based on what I saw from the Keynote).

I don't think Pages will replace Word for business users (because the only thing that counts in this cesspool is compatibility i.e. how many users are have the word processor on their computer) and I don't think it's been targetted that way either - Pages is for the rest of us.

Kap
 
fryke said:
"The rest of us" is a bad term. Should not be used. At all. Ever.
Click to expand...
Maybe only when distancing oneself from moronic business types who are responsible for Microsoft's widespread use? ;)

Kap
 
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