THATSTHEWAY  A few words about Keynote...

Yes, Keynote does have some really great features and impressive effects. Name another application that has the wonderful new transitions introduced in iWork 09. The application is also fairly easy to use. Having said that, the program doesn't have an ounce of stability.

I've been using Keynote to produce presentations for my employer since iWork 08. There were quite a few bugs in '08 that have yet to be addressed in '09. For a while, I was working on one of the older white MacBooks (2,1). Upon pressing the 'Play' button to view my project, my computer would often restart. This would cause me to lose any unsaved changes, and quite frankly, that is just a huge pain to deal with. Luckily, I'm not on a powerful, new MacBook Pro and don't have that problem anymore, as that bug is only MacBook specific.

The other problem with the program is the timing. With Keynote, ten seconds is not ten seconds. But that is fairly easy to get around with a little trial and error. I can deal with that, right?

What I cannot deal with is the fact that the same project played several times produces results of different links. As an experiment, I recently took one project and played it three times. I captured each one with ScreenFlow to compare. The project was three minutes long. Up to the 30-second mark, everything was in-sync. From there it was just downhill, as nothing lined up. One ended at 2:57, another at 2:58, and the last at a whopping 3:00. This can create real problems if you creating your soundtrack after gathering the project, as nothing lines up. Using a weak computer could explain this, but Apple, I'm using one of your new MacBook Pros.

Ok, so maybe that isn't so bad, right? I mean, a few seconds can be made up for with some third-party editing tools. But what about when your project is in the final stages and you realize that you need to change the timing of the transition between slides one and two? Well, changing the transition time between one and two may make slide six stay onscreen for more of less time. I've often changed the timing of a transition only to find that another slide stays onscreen for up to ten seconds less! And then, when you fix the timing on slide six, you have to fix the timing between slides two and three again.

Sorry, Apple, but you guys are losing my trust. I can't believe you released a new version of this buggy program without fixing these major bugs. We understand that you have a lot on your hands, but don't forget that for many of your users, iWork is a part of their work. And believe me, we also have a lot on our hands.

Keynote just does not cut it.   
(Version 9.0.3)

TSARKON  (Note: I am only going to review Pages 09. iWork includes Numbers and Keynote as well).

If you have the need for a word processor to open, print and save text-only documents, you will be fine with free alternatives from other developers: OpenOffice, Bean, TextEdit (Mac OS X built-in) or any other great word processor application.

On the other hand, if you're looking for an easy-to-use and visually pleasing and productive word processor you do not need to look any further. Pages simplifies formatting of text and still adds several features to make the document look more appealing to the eye. It's compatible with several text document formats, even though you might need a complementary word processor to support them all.

Pages started out as a page layout application. You can do beautiful page layout with it, because the application comes bundled with ready-to-use templates. They make it easy for just about anyone to accomplish nice looking page layouts. Adding photos to your page layout document is easy, especially if you're using a template since they are built for drag and drop in mind.

There are however some things Apple need to work on in terms of features to make their suite better:

- Print layout view (something which Microsoft Word users take for granted)

- Support for more document formats, even the slight obscure ones

- Add the capability to make your own, proper layout for a book or magazine. Integrate it with iPhoto in iLife.

All in all, while Pages 09 accomplishes most things that people want to do with their layout and word processing, it still isn't the best choice for every user. iWork 09 is a capable page layout application and word processor for the private household, but advanced office users and people who are paid to work with layout full-time need to look for Microsoft and Adobe products respectively.  
(Version 9.0.3)

WEBMOTIVA.COM  Why not 64-bit?  
(Version 9.0.3)

MYSTERY TRAMP  I use Pages and Numbers regularly and find them to be robust apps, able to perform all the tasks I've asked of them.

Folks who are considering Microsoft Office should ponder if the extra features are necessary. If you need them, great. But if you're only buying the Microsoft name, you could be wasting your money.

While Excel snobs might be able to point to a range of functions MS can do that iWork can't, I think they'd be very surprised at just how much Numbers can accomplish.

And I use Word at work. It can do a great many things, 99 percent of which I'll never do. Having a word processor like Pages that's slim, trim and works like a charm would be a great asset.

mt  
(Version 9.0.3)

ANON BUD  Still lovin' it! I said bye-bye to Office when iWork '08 came in and I've never looked back!  
(Version 9.0.3)

RICHARD TAYTOR  Apple seems to target those who wish to use their computers as heaters. I'm disgusted with their software. Look for yourself, at the effect on your system resources (Activity Monitor will show that). It's quite simply negligence. Demand better! Don't put up with this crap!  
(Version 9.0.2)

PUNKISH  Pages '09 4.0.1 (build 746) has a major bug. Its entire Endnote integration is missing. I have verified this with Apple, filed a bug report, and they have "escalated" the report, whatever that means. If your life depends on Pages+Endnote integration, do not, DO NOT, upgrade to the latest iWork update.  
(Version 9.0.1)

EASER  However trivial this sounds, I'd really like to know. Does this newer version allow for a "Save" icon in the toolbar? I haven't found one in the previous version, and it would be very handy for me. Thanks.  
(Version 9.0.1)

153957PHOTOGRAPHY  Ah, very helpful and informative description (what's new)

Isnt there some kbase article which more specifically tells us what's new?  
(Version 9.0.1)

APPLEDOGX  iWork 09 is a good upgrade to the iWork suite. I find myself using Pages more than anything. It's easier than ever to share with Word users, though I find that the email as a Word document is not adding the file extension that Windows users need, even though I select to do so for saving the documents. Pages is easier to use than Word, and very flexible. It still cannot do footnotes in a table for some reason and Apple has not responded to add this feature from the previous version.

Numbers is quite usable now. It is the most improved of the three applications for iWork 09. I hate the odd implementation of the new transpose function, though. You have to combine it with index for it to be useful. This is one thing that Excel definitely does better. For the most part, Numbers is very easy to use, and developing a Numbers based mindset and forgetting the way you work with other spreadsheets, opens you to its great possibilities.

Keynote's magic move is great, but when you have transparency in a magic moved photo, the magic seems to disappear. It becomes tiny, moves and then springs back to size. This magician needs some serious bug fixing. Flash export is also gone, but all in all, Keynote is easy to use and makes superior presentations to the competition.

I upgraded from iWork 08, and I'm glad I did. The changes were worth the outlay.  
(Version 09)