New Appleworks Version? Ever?

M

McMac

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Will we ever see one? 6 is getting so long in the tooth. Perhaps there is something completley new to replace AppleWorks ;)
 
There were rumours of this a while back, when iLife '04 was released, calling it "Document", and having it linked to Keynote and a program called "Spreadsheet", making a sort of iOffice/iWork. It obviously never eventuated.

I don't see Appleworks ever getting updated in its current sense - it's still essentially Claris Works, just made to look pretty. It just doesn't hack it in today's office environments.

Whatever they DO release, if anything, will almost certainly be backward compatible with Appleworks though. .cwk files are a real pig to open in Word.
 
texanpenguin said:
There were rumours of this a while back, when iLife '04 was released, calling it "Document", and having it linked to Keynote and a program called "Spreadsheet", making a sort of iOffice/iWork. It obviously never eventuated.

I don't see Appleworks ever getting updated in its current sense - it's still essentially Claris Works, just made to look pretty. It just doesn't hack it in today's office environments.

Whatever they DO release, if anything, will almost certainly be backward compatible with Appleworks though. .cwk files are a real pig to open in Word.
Click to expand...
Please, please, please. ClarisWorks was never an office suite. AppleWorks is not an office suite. The program, by either name, was never and is not intended to be an office productivity application. The very term "works" means that the application integrates features normally found in separate applications. Works programs have always been aimed at home users, college kids, and school children. Despite all of the wishing in forums like this one, Apple has never given the slightest indication that it intends to compete against Microsoft Office. And, wishing does not make it so.
 
Personally, I think it's a matter of semantics. Did Appleworks ship with something resembling a word processor? Yes. Did it ship with a spreadsheet app? Yes. What applications in the MS Office suite do people use most? Word and Excel. Powerpoint is mainly for businesses and people doing presentations and this is targetted by Keynote.

We could argue all day about whether 'works' type programs are office suites but for all intents and purposes, many have and will continue to see them as office suites.
 
Actually, Claris named it ClarisWorks Office back in version 5. ;-) But like Viro said: Doesn't really matter.

What we see is that Apple is a fan of single-purpose applications lately. We don't see them having a 'Media Center' like application that is used for videos, sounds, pictures etc. - rather we see iTunes, iPhoto etc. as single apps. We also already see Keynote as Apple's presentation software of choice.

AppleWorks clearly is outdated and not well-supported on Mac OS X. It gets the minimum of Apple's attention, they're only updating it when a new OS version makes that necessary. We haven't seen any feature update since it was originally brought over to the Mac OS X side.

We _have_ seen Apple evolving TextEdit. Or rather, we have seen Apple laying the grounds for text editing in Mac OS X, so that now today, TextEdit can handle MS Word files, because the _system_ can. Tiger will bring more of that: Apple has already publicly said that TextEdit will be able to handle tables in Word documents. Which basically could mean that Apple is bringing Excel compatibility via a framework.

I think it's really a marketing question. Quite surely, Apple _could_ do a better word processor than TextEdit and AppleWorks' text editor combined. And Apple sure could do some kind of spreadsheet application. But if they _do_ release good and Office compatible versions of a document editor (Document?) and spreadsheet application (Spreadsheet?), it would probably mean the end of Microsoft Office over time. The question is, whether Apple wants that. And I don't quite see them want that in the near future.

I'm a dreamer, sometime, and this is way off topic, but imagine this (this is not a rumour, only a wish...):

1.) Apple gets ready to kick MS' a** with Document, Spreadsheet and Keynote. They take years to get complete interoperability with MS Office, but finally succeed. The projects are still secret, only Keynote 'lives' publicly.

2.) Apple readies Mac OS 11 for 2010. (The year we make contact. Yep.) The OS will run on widely available hardware as well as Apple's own hardware.

3.) Apple releases Mac OS 11, Spreadsheet, Document and Keynote as well as new versions of iLife and their professional video & sound stuff.

4.) The world switches to the Mac - one way or the other. ;-)
 
"The year we make contact ... " I love it. And I think that day will come.

One way or another, I expect that Apple will at least have to plan or make a backup office type application, in case one day there is no Office on Mac. Or, they have such a great "Office" that is seemlessly compatible with MS Office documents, and absolutley great on Mac.

I get the feeling that Apple Works won't stay Apple Works though. Suprise me and prove me wrong Apple.
 
Viro said:
Personally, I think it's a matter of semantics. Did Appleworks ship with something resembling a word processor? Yes. Did it ship with a spreadsheet app? Yes. What applications in the MS Office suite do people use most? Word and Excel. Powerpoint is mainly for businesses and people doing presentations and this is targetted by Keynote.

We could argue all day about whether 'works' type programs are office suites but for all intents and purposes, many have and will continue to see them as office suites.
Click to expand...
Ah, no. Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect Office, Lotus SmartSuite, Open Office and the others differ in two fundamental ways from works programs. Although some people think of Office as an application, it is not. Microsoft Office for Windows, for example is composed of MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Access, MS Outlook, MS Publish, and several others. These are bundled in package named "Office." However, most applications in Office are standalone applications that are also available as separate purchases. Works programs are not a collection of standalone applications. You cannot separate the database component of AppleWorks from the word processing component. Neither can you separate the drawing component from the spreadsheet. AppleWorks and every other works program with which I am familiar is a monolithic application. The other thing about works programs is that each component is a subset of features found in full-featured applications. AppleWorks can process words, but it has less functionality than MS Word. AppleWorks can draw, but it has less functionality than Canvas or Corel Draw. AppleWorks contains a database component, but it has less functionality than FileMaker. I can go on. For Apple to develop an office suite, it would have to devote a substantial fraction of its resources to developing several full-function applications. Currently, Apple's application developers are working on best-of-bread content creation and editing applications. Development of office productivity applications would require the company to double its number of applications programmers. And to what end? To be more than a niche player, even on the Macintosh, Apple's office applications will have to be more functional than Microsoft's competing products, but also be fully compatible with them. It ain't gonna happen.
 
I dont have much use for a word processor since i dont make many documents of that nature, but i know alot of people that do. several of them use appleworks and it does everything they need it to do, so why would this not be able to be used as an office suite?
 
Jeffo said:
I dont have much use for a word processor since i dont make many documents of that nature, but i know alot of people that do. several of them use appleworks and it does everything they need it to do, so why would this not be able to be used as an office suite?
Click to expand...
Word processor ≠ office suite. Nobody ever said that there are not people out there--a lot of them, in fact--for whom AppleWorks does everything they need. For these people, buying an office suite is a colossal waste of money. My personal opinion is that office suites are a waste of money for most users who buy them. However, just a works program satisfies your needs does not make it an office suite.
 
MisterMe said:
Word processor ≠ office suite.
Click to expand...

yes i know there is more to a office/works suite, that was just an example. as bad as it might have been expressed, that was the intension.
 
Microsoft Word was not always part of Works. Originally, Microsoft Works was a consumer-focused "integrated" application. One executable. The word processor component was a subset of Microsoft Word that used a different document format.

So MisterMe was correct in saying both it and competitor ClarisWorks targeted consumers.

With Microsoft Word now included, I think it's a much better deal. Then again, it's not available for the Mac, so I really don't care :).


Doug
 
You're actually looking forward to a new release of Appleworks? You're one patient guy... ;)
 
fryke said:
However, MS Works for PC includes Microsoft Word, for example, as the word processor. ;) It _is_ a semantic difference - at least from a user perspective. - Actually, MS makes quite a mess here (surprise, surprise...). There are at least two Works Suites available. Looky: http://www.microsoft.com/products/works/products.aspx
Click to expand...
Reread the list of functions and applications. Microsoft is selling Microsoft Works 8 and Microsoft Works Suite 2005. Works Suite 2005 is a suite that includes Works 8, Word 2002, and several other applications. Works 8 includes a wordprocessing component, but it does not include MS Word. Word is a separate application.
 
The fact that you need to reread the information on the two Works suites shows something wrong with the way they are marketed. Imagine how annoyed your average Joe user would be if he bought MS Works thinking it would come with Word and later found out he needed to buy MS Works Suite.
 
I wish Apple would do something with Appleworks. It is obviously outdated. I believe they (Apple) is happy with M$ office for mac, and don't want to piss off Microsoft. Most PC users I have talked into switching ask if they have Office for MAC.
On the other hand I wish there was some competition for Office. I been pathetically hoping for Lotus for the MAC (LOL).
 
for most word processor users apple works is all they need. people talk as if its useless or something.. far from it. its a perfect app for its intended market. the plus is that it comes with the new systems. even in the pc world if a system comes with a free works or office suite its something obscure like lotus notes. at least apple works has a tidy interface and it gets the job done. ms word is more powerful but has become very bloated with unnecessary crap.
 
I believe it was someone in this very forum who stated (and presented some sort of link, too) that Microsoft Office's market penetration is much higher on the Macs than the PCs, since it's the definitive office application, and every switcher feels the need to be just that little bit more cross-platform.

I don't see a problem with it. Appleworks just needs a few things to be updated to an OS X feeling interface. Like the document-type selector and anti-aliased text
 
Personally, I like using office. The latest patch for Office X makes it run much faster on my iBook. I don't think Apple will try anything soon in the realm of Office competition. Why update AppleWorks when people can get OpenOffice for free? Yes, I know that OpenOffice is slow as death, but there are alot of developers that are interested in making this the defacto standard for a Productivity suite. This should put some pressure on Microsoft to create better products. They did a good job (in my opinion) on Office X and I can't wait to get Office 2004. And when 2006 comes out, I shall be excited to purchase that too.

Joshua
 
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