Apple updated its iWork suite of productivity applications Tuesday with improvements related to shared documents, HEIC photos and iPad keyboards. The updated apps in iWork 14.0 — Pages, Numbers and Keynote — are all available free on Mac, iPad and iPhone.
iWork 14 is out for Apple computers
Apple’s iWork applications don’t include all the advanced features of Microsoft Office software (which includes competing products Word, Excel and PowerPoint). But Apple’s software suite is free, and it offers basic and midrange capabilities for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.
Plus, Apple keeps improving it, like it did with Tuesday’s updates.
New features for collaborative work, HEIC photos and more
All the major changes in Pages 14.0, Numbers 14.0 and Keynote 14.0 are the same, no matter the application. According to Apple’s release notes, these iWork 14.0 updates include:
- Streamlined in-app notifications inform you when a person joins a collaborative document for the first time
- On iPad, press and hold the Command key on a connected keyboard to select noncontiguous words, sentences, or paragraphs using a trackpad or mouse
- Preserve file format and full quality when adding HEIC photos taken on iPhone or iPad
- Additional stability and performance improvements
Obviously, these are mere tweaks. Apple launched iWork in 2005. The productivity suite’s component applications long since acquired all the standard features.
That said, it’s possible that iWork version 15 could be a game changer. Apple committed to adding AI to a range of its products starting later this year, and Pages seems like a particularly obvious potential beneficiary.
Install iWork 14 today
The new version of iWork 14.0 is available now. You can download Pages 14.0, Numbers 14.0 and/or Keynote 14.0 for iPad/iPhone from the App Store. Or get Pages 14.0, Numbers 14.0 and/or Keynote 14.0 from the Mac App Store. They are free for Mac, iPad and iPhone.
