iWork iPad Apps Updated: MS Office Export Improved & MobileMe iDisk Supported

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The iPad has made the consumption of digital media revolutionary and it is getting increasingly more useful for creating content. So today content creation took a small step forward with the release of updates to Apple’s iWork suite of apps:  Keynote, Numbers and Pages.

The apps have been updated to provide better support for Microsoft Office when exporting to Excel (.xls) or Powerpoint (.ppt)  and Apple has included a number of improvements in these app updates.

Additionally, the apps can now also directly access your MobileMe iDisk and other WebDAV servers:

With the latest Keynote, Pages and Numbers for iPad, you can now transfer your documents directly to and from your MobileMe iDisk so you can work on them anywhere you have an Internet connection. For example, create a new Pages document on your iPad and copy it directly to your iDisk. Then, when you are back at your Mac, open the document from iDisk and continue editing right where you left off.

Welcome changes to apps that I’ve found useful while on the go. If you haven’t tried them yet they are worth a look, but don’t expect them to replace their desktop counterparts. If you need to take them for a test drive stop by any Apple store for a peek, since according to the local store that I called, the iWork iPad apps are installed on all iPads on display.

Click the read link below to see Apple’s complete list of changes made to the apps.

Keynote – What’s New In Version 1.2

– Export presentations to Microsoft PowerPoint (.PPT) format.
– Copy presentations between Keynote and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service.
– Support for audio in builds when importing Keynote ’09 presentations.
– Ability to group and ungroup objects.
– Add animated builds to grouped objects.
– Lens Flare, Spin and Wipe build animations.
– Revolving Door, Swoosh and Wipe slide transition animations.
– Improved slide size conversion when importing Keynote ’09 presentations.
– Import and export Keynote ’09 tables with image background fills in cells.
– Improved export of tables with customized borders.
– Improved font matching when importing Keynote ’09 or Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
– Improved creation and editing of web hyperlinks.
– Improved text options for tables including font, size and color settings for individual cells.
– Improved usability and reliability when sharing presentations with iWork.com public beta.
– Improved reliability when importing presentations with large images.
– Improved reliability when importing and exporting presentations with overlapping objects.
– Improved reliability and performance when importing Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.

Numbers – What’s New In Version 1.2

– Export spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel (.XLS) format.
– Copy spreadsheets between Numbers and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service.
– Ability to group and ungroup objects.
– Open CSV files from Mail and other apps.
– Import and export Numbers ’09 tables with image background fills in cells.
– Improved export of tables with customized borders.
– Improved font matching when importing Numbers ’09 or Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
– Improved creation and editing of hyperlinks in text boxes.
– Improved text options for tables including font, size and color settings for individual cells.
– Improved usability and reliability when sharing spreadsheets with iWork.com public beta.
– Improved reliability when importing spreadsheets with large images.
– Improved reliability when importing and exporting spreadsheets with overlapping objects.
– Improved reliability and performance when importing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

Pages – What’s New In Version 1.2

– Copy documents between Pages and your MobileMe iDisk or a WebDAV service.
– Option to display the word count for your document.
– Support for opening .txt files from Mail.
– Ability to group and ungroup objects.
– Import and export existing footnotes, endnotes, sections and tables of contents.
– Import and export Pages ’09 tables with image background fills in cells.
– Improved export of tables with customized borders.
– Improved font matching when importing a Pages or Microsoft Word document.
– Improved creation and editing of hyperlinks.
– Improved text options for tables including font, size and color settings for individual cells.
– Improved usability and reliability when sharing documents via iWork.com public beta.
– Improved reliability when importing documents with large images.
– Improved reliability when importing and exporting documents with overlapping objects.
– Improved handling of fonts when exporting documents to Microsoft Word.
– Improved reliability and performance when importing Microsoft Word documents.

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