Cupertino-based tech giant Apple has updated its iWork suite of productivity apps with new features. Apple’s suite of productivity apps includes Keynote, Pages, and Numbers which compete with Microsoft and Google’s set to productivity apps. Keynote gets new tools to make presentations more engaging, with the ability to show a live camera view of the presenter directly in slides, and more collaborative with multi-presenter control. Pages — Apple’s word processing app — makes it easier to view and edit documents on the go by automatically displaying text and images in a single-column flow that is optimised for iPhone. Numbers — competitor to Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets — gets pivot tables that bring powerful data analytics capabilities to iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

What’s new in Pages

With the latest update, Screen View automatically displays text, images, and other elements in a single-column, continuous flow optimised for the iPhone screen. Text is enlarged to improve readability, photos and drawings are sized to fit the display, and tables can be scrolled horizontally. Screen View is available for all word processing documents and doesn’t require any additional setup. When enabled, users still have access to the complete set of editing tools in Pages. And Screen View can be switched off at any time so users can see the page layout for their document before printing or publishing.

New features in Keynote

With the option to use the front-facing camera on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, users can now add live video directly to their presentations. This allows the presenter to appear alongside the content in their slide — ideal for lectures, how-to videos, and remote presentations through video conferencing apps. Live video objects can be easily resized or styled with masks, frames, drop shadows, and reflections. Mac users can connect multiple external cameras to further enhance the live video experience, and they can even show the screen of a connected iPhone or iPad right on a slide for live, interactive demos.

Numbers gets new tools and features

With pivot tables, users can quickly summarise, group, and rearrange data to identify and analyse patterns and trends. Users can easily select the data to include, choose how to group and summarise it, and access other display options from the sidebar. The resulting pivot table appears in a clear layout that makes it easy for the user to read and gain insights. Users can visualise their pivot tables with insightful charts, share pivot data with others while keeping the source data private, and even import or export pivot tables to and from Microsoft Excel. Numbers is the first app to bring full-featured pivot tables to mobile, with the same set of features across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Radar charts are a new chart type that makes it easy to visually compare multiple variables with similarities shown as overlapping areas, allowing differences and outliers to really stand out.
Apart from this, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers also support the new translation features introduced in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey. Users can select text and quickly see a translation, hear it read aloud, and instantly replace the selection with the translated text.

When will the new features be available?

The updates are available to download on the App Store and Mac App Store. Keynote, Pages, and Numbers come free on every new iPhone, iPad, and Mac.