Mike Wuerthele
Alongside the iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and iTunes update, Apple has also released the iOS version of the iWork suite, now with cross-platform collaboration features.
The collaborative editing feature revealed for iWork at the "See You on Sept 7." event is still in beta, and syncs document changes across devices in real-time. Document editors can easily distinguish who is modifying a spreadsheet, word processing file or presentation based on user color-coding.
The addition arrives as a competitor to existing productivity software suites including the web-based Google Docs and Microsoft's Office 365, both of which have boasted collaboration features for years. The feature is reminiscent of long-time collaborative macOS text editor SubEthaEdit, by the Coding Monkeys available since 2003.
Other listed changes include improvements to display on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, improved iCloud downloading, and support for Wide Color displays.
The new iWork collaboration feature is now available for iOS devices. A Mac version will arrive with macOS Sierra on or around Sept. 20. Windows users can contribute in a browser version of iWork.
All three iWork applications cost $10 each, but have been included with new iOS devices for some time. All three apps require iOS 10.
Numbers is a 407 MB download, with Pages coming in at 430 MB, and Keynote hitting 645 MB.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
7 Comments
So they still haven't returned all the features they killed when they back-ported iWork from iOS to Mac OS...?
So I have to pay $30 if upgrade to macOS Sierra?
Poor article. Apple's web-to-web iWork collaboration works fine and has since release. The problem was web-to-native collaboration which took a while to sync and often resulted in collisions - just like MS & Google (when they're even available).
With realtime collaboration across web/desktop/touch iWork Apps Apple are not catching up but are well ahead of the pack.