iWork '09: The Missing Manual

What’s New in iWork ’09

iWork ’09 introduces several new features that apply to all three programs:

• iWork.com. Apple’s new Web-based service lets you share your Pages, Numbers, and Keynote documents online with invited guests. Although you can’t edit the file online, you and your reviewers can browse and comment on it at iWork.com, which displays a pixel-perfect replica of your document right in your Web browser.

• New themes and templates. All three programs get a healthy update of new templates, giving you lots of slick new starter documents to work with.

• New chart features. iWork offers two new flavors of charts—two-axis charts and mixed charts—both of which let you display your data series in different styles (columns, areas, or lines) in the same chart. Error bars and trendlines are also available for the first time.

• Enhanced Template Chooser and Theme Chooser. You can now preview the contents of template files before you open them by skimming your cursor across each template’s thumbnail image. The new choosers also remember the last template you used and let you open recent documents directly from the chooser window.

• Font preview. The Format Bar’s font pop-up menu now lists each font in its own font face.

• Password protection. You can require a password to open any iWork file.

• Connection lines. Add flexible lines to point from one object to another.

• Equation editing with MathType 6. iWork doesn’t have its own equation editor, but if you have the MathType program installed, you can now use it to add mathematical expressions to your iWork files.

• Citations and bibliographies with EndNote X2. EndNote is a program popular among researchers for creating a personal database of readings and sources. If you have the program installed, Pages can insert EndNote citations into your documents for footnotes and bibliographies.

• Support for multitouch gestures. Got a newish laptop with a multitouch trackpad? You can resize objects by “pinching” them on the trackpad, or rotate them by making a twisting motion.

New in Pages ’09

• Full-screen view. Shut out distractions by drawing a virtual curtain behind your document window, handing your screen over to Pages for your exclusive attention.

• Outline view. Draft and browse your document by topic heading. Drag and drop headings to move entire sections of your document, or hide and reveal the text below.

• Mail merge from Numbers. Use the columns of any Numbers spreadsheet as a data source to print mass mailings or any bulk-generated document.

• Live word counts. The word count is always displayed at the bottom of the document window. (Pages used to show the count only in the Document Inspector.)

New in Keynote ’09

• Magic Move. This new slide transition lets you gracefully animate an object from one slide to another while the rest fade away.

• Text and Object transitions. Instead of moving all of a slide’s objects as a single unit, these new slide transitions animate every object individually, so you can make words from one slide morph into those on the next, for example.

• New 3D chart effects. New animations include the radial and crane effects, letting you fly, twist, and zoom into a chart. The Chart Colors window features new 3D textures and colors, too.

• Keynote Remote. Use your iPhone or iPod Touch to drive your slideshow.

New in Numbers ’09

• Over 90 new functions. iWork now offers over 250 formula functions, including new Engineering and Duration categories.

• Linked Numbers charts. When you paste a Numbers chart into a Keynote or Pages document, iWork automatically creates a link to the original Numbers spreadsheet. When you update the Numbers data, you can refresh the chart in Keynote and Pages to slurp up the changes.

• Table categories. Group rows together based on shared column values to create table categories. Each category includes a summary row that lets you collapse, expand, or rearrange the categories and their included rows.

• Freeze headers. When the first row or column of your table scrolls off screen, the header labels stay behind, making it easy to keep track of which column is which.

• Improved Formula Editor. The Formula Editor now color-codes cell references and displays cells with their header names, making it easier to understand what formulas do at a glance. New keyboard shortcuts let you add cell references without using the mouse.

• Improved Function Browser. Every function gets a clear explanation, including copy-and-paste example cells. Adding a function from the Function Browser also inserts argument placeholders to help fill in your function variables.

• New table cell formats. Tables can now display numbers as durations (weeks, days, hours, and so on), numeral systems (binary or hexadecimal, for example), or your own custom format.

• Formula List. Display or print all the formulas in your spreadsheet.

• Multiple header rows, header columns, and footer rows. Go up to five cells deep.

UP TO SPEED: File Format Follies

All three iWork ’09 programs save their files in a new format that earlier versions don’t understand. When you first go to save changes to a file created by a previous version of Pages, Keynote, or Numbers, iWork lets you know that the saved file will be readable only by iWork ’09 and asks if you want to proceed. If you later change your mind, never fear: All the programs offer the option to save a copy as iWork ’08. That option also comes in handy when you want to exchange files with lollygaggers who haven’t yet updated to the latest and greatest. (Sorry, no options to save for versions earlier than iWork ’08.)

Among other things, the big change in the new file format is that iWork no longer saves its files as packages. Under the hood, a package is secretly a folder instead of a single file. This distinction, invisible to you as you browse your files, confused some programs and made it difficult to upload iWork ’08 files to websites, for example. iWork ’09 fixes that problem.

If you happen to fall into some category of extreme nerdery that gives you an irresistible urge to browse package contents, iWork lets you continue saving your files as packages. Each program has an option in its Preferences window to “Save new documents as packages”. Turn that option on, and all freshly created files will get the pseudo-folder treatment. (If you have no idea what a package is, just leave that preference turned off.)