iWork '09: The Missing Manual

What You Can Do with iWork ’09

You can use iWork to compose and design just about any kind of document. Although iWork’s programs fall outside the traditional definitions of these categories, you use Pages for word processing, Keynote for making presentations, and Numbers for spreadsheets. Here’s a brief tour of what awaits.

Pages: Word Processing Meets Graphic Design

When words are your game, Pages has you covered. As a word processor, Pages’ most basic job is to make it easy to get words onto the screen and, once there, coax and refine them into irresistible prose for the printed page. Use Pages to write letters, pen the Great American Novel, draw up contracts, or write a term paper. The program gives you all the power-editing tools you’re likely to need: spell checking, styles, footnotes, mail merge, change tracking, outlining, tables, and lots of other goodies.

But Pages has a whole separate career beyond word processing—the program moonlights as a graphic designer. Pages makes it almost embarrassingly easy to create gorgeous page layouts for glossy newsletters, catalogs, brochures, flyers, posters, greeting cards, you name it. Deck out any document with photos or graphics with drag-and-drop simplicity.

If you’re blessed with a keen sense of style, you can use Pages’ tools to build your own graphic designs from scratch; otherwise, lean on Pages’ collection of more than 180 templates. Pick the design that you want to use and then drop in your own pictures and text, as easy as filling ...