Apple announces iWork

Apple announces iWork '06; 3-D charts, advanced image editing tools & spreadsheet-like tables highlight new features in pages & keynote.

M2 Presswire

January 11, 2006

M2 PRESSWIRE-11 January 2006-APPLE UK: Apple announces iWork '06; 3-D charts, advanced image editing tools & spreadsheet-like tables highlight new features in pages & keynote(C)1994-2006 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:10012006

MACWORLD EXPO, SAN FRANCISCO - Apple today announcediWork '06, a new version of Apple's suite of productivity software with new features designed to make it easy for users to create even more compelling documents and presentations. iWork 06 includes major enhancements within Pages 2 and Keynote 3 including stunning three-dimensional charts, iPhoto -like advanced image editing and masking tools, and spreadsheet-like tables that make it easy to get great results inminutes.

"By leveraging the power of Mac OS X and seamlessly integrating photos, movies and music from iLife, iWork 06 brings productivity software to life," said Rob Schoeben,Apple's vice president of Applications Marketing. "With great new features in both Pages and Keynote, iWork 06 offers even more ways to create, present and publish professional-looking documents and presentations."

iWork 06 is highlighted by a set of new features within Pages 2 and Keynote 3 that give users the ability to create more sophisticated documents and presentations. Tables with spreadsheet-like calculations can be inserted within any document or presentationgiving users the ability to add, multiply or average numbers in rows or columns. Users can also create stunning three-dimensional charts featuring realistic wood grain, metal and marble textures and fully control the viewing angle. iPhoto-like advanced image editing tools help to perfect photos directly within documents and presentations.Freeform shapes and curves, including Bezier curves and shapes with perfectly smooth edges are easy to create and use to mask images. iWork 06 also adds the ability toinclude reviewer's comments to slides and documents without affecting the layout.

The easiest way to create great looking documents from simple letters and flyers to professional-quality newsletters and brochures, Pages 2 features mail merge with Mac OS X Address Book, making it easy to personalise documents with predefined fields within templates and quickly drag and drop individual contacts into documents.Pages 2 also features two dozen new templates for newsletters, flyers, posters, school reports, scrapbooks, brochures, business proposals and invoices to give users a head start increating custom documents. New thumbnail and search views make it easy to work with large documents and quickly find any word or phrase within a document.

Keynote 3 offers more ways to create cinema-quality presentations and interactiveslideshows with new features designed to bring those presentations to life. Keynote 3features new cinematic transitions including vertical or horizontal blinds, revolving door, swoosh and more. Keynote 3 offers even more Apple-designed themes, including four specifically designed to take advantage of HD displays. A new Light Table view mode makes it easy to view an entire presentation at-a-glance and reorganize slides using drag and drop while flexible build animations provide more control of bullet lists, tables and charts including unique timing and sequence of individual bullets, rows, columns or series.

iWork 06 supports a wide range of industry standard file formats including Microsoft PowerPoint and PDF. Keynote 3 imports and exports PowerPoint files and exportspresentations to QuickTime , Macromedia Flash, HTML and iLife. Pages 2 imports andexports Microsoft Word, RTF, HTML and plain text files. Both Keynote 3 and Pages 2export to PDF and import associated AppleWorks files.

Pricing & Availability

iWork '06 is now available through the Apple Store (www.apple.com/ukstore), Apple's retail stores (www.apple.com/uk/retail) and Apple Authorised Resellers for a suggested retail price of GBP55 (inc. VAT). A 30-day iWork 06 trial will be available on new hardware and with copies of Mac OS X and iLife 06 sold at retail. After 30 days, the trial becomes an iWork 06 player. iWork 06 requires Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or 10.4.3 or later, aMacintosh computer with a 500 MHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5 or Intel Core processor, 256MB of RAM (512MB recommended), 32MB of video RAM, QuickTime 7.0.3 or later, and a DVD drive required for install. iLife 06 is recommended.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online music store.

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