Katie Marsal
Apple's Web-based iWork suite was updated Friday with new languages for Pages, Numbers and Keynote, expanding international support for the beta iCloud productivity apps.
Users logging into their iCloud account and opening the browser-based Pages app on Friday were informed that support for Simplified Chinese, Hebrew, French, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, German, and Japanese. Pages has also gained bidirectional support for Arabic and Hebrew.
In addition, Apple has said that Pages for iCloud now has more than 50 new fonts, including options for Arabic and Hebrew. The cloud-based word processor has also gained the ability to undo deletion of section breaks, rename a document in the editor, drag wedges from a pie chart, and move and resize chart legends.
Both Keynote and Numbers for iCloud, meanwhile, are now available in French, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese. They also gains more than 50 new fonts.
With the November 2014 update, users of Keynote and Numbers can now show or hide the slide navigator, rename a document in the editor, drag wedges from a pie chart, and move and resize chart legends.
iWork for iCloud can be accessed through Safari 8 or later, Firefox 22 or later, or Google Chrome 28 or later on a Mac, while support is also available for Internet Explorer 10 on a Windows PC. Pages, Numbers and Keynote are all still in beta, and are accessible to anyone with a free iCloud account.
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14 Comments
Apple needs to promote this more. They've got it out there, but I don't think I've ever seen mention of it outside of the occasional keynote glimpse.
It's still beta, by definition not suitable for the general public. As a matter of fact, it's so beta that it didn't support any other language than English until today.
When it's out of beta, they will likely promote it to everyone with an Apple ID account.
But not today.
Plus, the three beta iWork cloud apps are quite prominent when you log into the iCloud website. It's not like Apple is hiding them or forcing people to jump through hoops to be able to try the beta cloud apps.
Yeah, I'd really like to know what keeps iCloud iWork in beta (not that it isn't).
But I – and many others – could easily tell why Mac iWork 5.5 is still in beta, although not officially. And that is a shame. I use it since about a decade on a daily basis. iWork 09 was rock solid, although not perfect. And now this ...
Well, I'd say the paltry language support (up until today) was one prime reason why it's still in beta. Perhaps the cloud apps are also short on features and/or reliability. Maybe Apple hasn't been able to scale the cloud service for a full load of regular uses. Maybe they don't have a support team in place. Maybe there are other reasons, like the development of an iCloud app API so third party developers can build their own iCloud web apps. Maybe the general release will coincide with a new device.
In any case, it's Apple's decision when to remove the "beta" tag.
It's just the iCloud iWork web apps that are beta anyhow. The OS X and iOS iWork apps are fully supported releases.
It's not like consumers are being underserved.
I use Numbers and Pages only for their respective purposes, though it is very unusual to ever need Pages. Keynotes, never. I haven't used anything else for a very long time. I am curious about the need for and use of iWorks iCloud. Who uses it and why? If I ever need to open a document when I don't have my Mac with me I can use my iPad, or even iPhone. iCloud apps just seem like so much the slower versions of the real thing so why even bother? I realize there is a use for these apps but I wonder how much they are used, and I can't help but think it is a lot of investment for very little.