iWork 09 released

Apple announced on Tuesday the release of 2009 version of iWork.

The thrust of new features seems to be towards making iWork, including Pages, the word processing and layout part of iWork suite, easier to share, including over the internet.

iWork seems to move steadily into the mainstream

- There is enhanced interoperability of Pages with Word. Pages documents can be emailed in Word format straight from the onscreen menu. And Word documents can be opened - and edited - in Pages. The same applies to other applications in iWork. It remains to be seen how seamlessly this interoperability will work. There have been issues before, with formatting being lost or changed. However, the direction Apple has taken with iWork seems to move this software steadily into the mainstream of office applications.

- Word count is now displayed at the bottom of a document, similar to MS Word. In the 08 version word count is in Document Inspector or submenu.

- A new trial service, iWork.com, is introduced to allow team-working on Pages documents over the internet.

- There are about 40 new templates bringing the total to over 180. Elements of templates can, of course, be used as clip art.

- Mail merge in Pages now works with Numbers, the spreadsheet application of iWork.

- Charts created in Numbers can be linked into Pages and Keynote, the presentation programme. Updating charts in Numbers is reflected in Pages and Keynote documents.

iWork ’09 is available now for 79 dollars/euros. There is also a Mac Box Set coming later in January. It includes iWork ’09, iLife ’09 and OS Leopard - for 169 dollars/euros, which saves about $/€118 compared to standalone prices.