August 07, 2007

Apple's new iWorks 08... closer and closer

The newly released iWorks '08 is gaining in functionality. The addition of a spreadsheet program is fantastic.

I perused the documentation available so far for the word processor Pages and could find no reference to advancements in Unicode support, particularly pertaining to Right-to-Left Hebrew Unicode support. It is possible there could be improvements without it being a touted feature. But I doubt it.

Update: You can look at the tutorials here: www.apple.com/iwork/tutorials/

4 comments:

Christopher Heard said...

Joe, since Pages uses the OS's Unicode support, any improvements or enhancements will come in OS updates rather than the Pages update. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote all handle RTL exactly the same way, just like the OS itself. I would love to see Pages implement a system like Mellel's, where you can tell it to switch to a particular font when you switch keyboards. That would be b-e-a-utiful.

Joe Weaks said...

Chris,
Thanks for that reminder. As I test things out in my current version of Pages, I see this is the case.
I remember figuring out some limitations, but can't seem to find where I documented what those are.

Targuman said...

Hi folks! As keen as I am to support Apple, I have to encourage folks to look at Nisus Writer Pro. It too read/writes Word.doc and has very good r-l support. It even imported relatively cleanly all of my old Nisus Writer documents (including my book and thesis). http://www.nisus.com/

Joe Weaks said...

Supporting Nisus IS supporting the Mac platform! I'm glad to hear a good word about the new Nisus Writer Pro. Nisus lost their way since the switch to OS X (or rather had the rug pulled out from under them). It's nice to hear that they're back on track. Come January, it'll be time for a good scholars' review of Word 08, Pages 08, Open Office (NeoOffice), Mellel and Nisus Writer Pro.