Documents in the Cloud is a way to sync documents and data across your devices. While it may seem like it takes the place of iDisk, it doesn’t replace it. There is no Finder-like access to a file structure. Each app has its data sandboxed, so it’s app-specific. If you open the same file in Pages and GoodReader, and tell each to upload that file to iCloud, you will have two copies of the file up there.

Setting up Documents in the Cloud

The initial setup of Documents in the Cloud is very easy. On your iOS device go into Settings, then iCloud, and make sure Documents and Data is set to “On.” You can also tell it to not sync when only on cellular networks.

To use the iWork apps with Documents in the Cloud, you’ll need to be running the latest versions of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. The first time you launch each of these apps, you’ll be asked if you want to use iCloud. If you choose to use iCloud, any local iWork documents you have will be uploaded to iCloud, so don’t worry about losing them. However, once you enable iCloud, you will no longer be able to use iTunes to add a document to an iWork app. Using “Open With” from an e-mail still works just fine.

Syncing between iOS devices

Right now, syncing between iOS devices is Documents in the Cloud’s strong suit. Changes made to a Pages document on my iPad show up within seconds on my iPhone. As a control, I performed a worst-case scenario for syncing: I deleted Pages from all my iOS devices and reinstalled it on my iPad. All my files were still there.

This service isn’t limited to just iWork, as games like Scribblenauts Remix will let you use iCloud to sync your saved games between devices. GoodReader for iPad also supports iCloud. The GoodReader for iPhone update is still in Apple’s review queue as of this writing.

Syncing between Windows and OS X

This is where Documents in the Cloud starts to fall down. While there is a Documents and Data checkbox in the iCloud Preference Pane in Lion, I can’t tell where the data is saved to. I also doubt it’s user-accessible.

The only way to get data from my Mac to iCloud right now is via the iCloud.com website. Unfortunately, the only apps that show up on the website are the three iWork apps. The good news is, you can upload and download either iWork or Microsoft Office files from here. The bad news is, if you have PDFs on your Mac you want to get into GoodReader and iCloud, there isn’t an easy option outside of iTunes syncing (that still works for GoodReader).

There are APIs available for developers to use on Windows and OS X that hook into iCloud. My bet is in the long run developers that want to make it easy for users to put data into their apps. Omni Group has said the next version of OmniGraffle for iPad will support storing documents in iCloud, but I don’t see any mention of OmniGraffle for OS X and iCloud. Omni Group tends to be on the leading edge of development, so I’m curious how they will handle this.

Final thoughts

Buyer Beware

I had little faith in iCloud retaining my data during yesterday’s craziness. My tests on seeing if a changed document was properly updated on the web and iOS were successful. However, at least three times when I went back to look at something on the web interface, my documents were gone. I would either have a web page empty of documents or one prompting me to get iWork for iOS. The first time this happened was during the afternoon and I was having trouble updating the apps. I thought maybe one of the apps got rolled back and threw iCloud off. The second time I had noticed my iPhone wanted to download the update again (I think I had deleted it) and I thought maybe something had gotten wonky again. The third time I didn’t do anything. I went to the web page, saw no documents and opened up Pages for iPad and watched three documents delete themselves.

Problems are ongoing. When I create a new document in Pages on iOS, it prompts me to either create a document, or import one even though iCloud is specified in Pages’ settings. This is how Pages worked pre-iCloud, and turning iCloud on and off doesn’t fix the problem.. When this happens, both the iPhone and the iPad can’t see iCloud. At which point I thought to myself: Yep, these are the guys that brought me MobileMe. It’s possible it’s related to all the iCloud launch issues, but I’m very scared to trust it with my data.

These issues aside, until there’s an easy way to always update documents on a Mac or a PC, Documents in the Cloud is of limited use to me. I’m not optimistic this is going to happen any time soon. All of Apple’s promo videos that show iWork on iOS being used with iCloud never show a Mac as part of the chain (the Mac does feature prominently when they demonstrate photo stream). I also don’t like that third-party iCloud-enabled iOS apps can’t register themselves on the website so you can drag files to them.

I was really hoping I would be able to round-trip files from OS X to iOS without doing the download/upload two-step. It didn’t seem like a fantasy to work on a document on OS X Pages, close it, and head to diner and have it magically appear on my iPad. Until Apple and other developers use those OS X and Windows APIs, that fantasy won’t come true.

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1. Full-screen apps. Especially on a notebook, the ability to quickly switch to full-screen mode and navigate between apps that are using it has absolutely changed how I use Macs for the better. It definitely helps you focus on one thing at a time, and it makes great use of Macs with limited screen real estate. It just feels like something we should have been doing all along.
2. Launchpad. Despite my complaints about aspects of it in my last post, Launchpad itself is a welcome addition to the Mac. I’m using it most on my iMac, where the large icons and full-screen navigation make it much easier to find that one seldom-used app I’m looking for. I also think Launchpad is the first stage of an evolutionary tale that will only see it improve dramatically with future iterations of Mac OS, with feature additions like greater control over app arrangement, and maybe even live icons that display dynamic info at-a-glance.
3. AirDrop. Before AirDrop, copying files from my Mac to a visiting friend’s machine was sometimes so much of a chore that we wouldn’t even bother. Now I never have to have that “Hey, you still haven’t given me that file” conversation again, at least so long as everyone involved is packing the right equipment.
4. Hold key for special characters. I’ve never been able to remember the character codes for Macs, and using the special character palette from the Menu bar still requires more steps than the classic Google, copy, paste method. Holding keys down to produce special characters, as you can do on iOS devices, actually makes my life a lot easier, even though I don’t use them all that often.
5. The price. I recently had to install Windows 7 on a Boot Camp partition for my sister’s Mac. Price of the OS (even after it’s been on the market for nearly two years)? $220. The price of OS X Lion (which I was able to install on all four of my Lion-compatible Macs)? $30. Pricing may be Lion’s most appealing asset.

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1. Dashboard as a Space. Dashboard is one of the most useless additions ever made to OS X in my opinion, and Apple didn’t make it any better by now making it a mandatory Space all its own. Swiping left from your primary desktop could do so many useful things (activate a better full-screen Spotlight search interface, for instance), but instead it presents you with a bunch of widgets that do things Menu bar apps can handle, but with far less efficiency.
2. No simple clean install option. Every six months or so, I like to completely wipe and reinstall OS X on my Macs. It’s great that Apple is doing away with physical media in many ways, but it’s also aggravating that there really isn’t an easy way to do a complete erase and reinstall of OS X. At least there are workaround options, like reinstalling from Apple’s servers or formatting a bootable Lion flash drive, but both require extra steps.
3. Managing Launchpad. Launchpad in Lion suffers from some of the same usability issues that home screens in iOS used to have. Specifically, it’s quite a chore to reorganize apps and folders in Launchpad. Just give us a utility that lets users make the same kind of macro-level changes you can make in iTunes and this problem goes away.
4. Multi-touch quirks. Apple introduced new multi-touch gestures in OS X Lion, which means a lot of the gestures third-party apps were using for basic navigation are now broken, like back and forward in Chrome. Also, I’ve had more trouble using gestures like two-finger back and forward in Safari than I ever had in Snow Leopard, because the gestures appear to be more sensitive.  I love swiping between full-screen apps, but why isn’t that a four-finger action by default, leaving three-finger gestures to manage back/forward actions system-wide (especially in Finder)?
5. App window restore everywhere. Restore and Resume features are useful in OS X — in some applications. In others, like Preview, they tend to be more annoying than helpful. I would have liked to see some more judicious decision-making about which native apps got window restore features and which didn’t, or at least a central Preference pane where you can manually pick and choose which apps make use of the behavior.

These are my gripes so far with Lion, but in another article to come shortly, I’ll talk about the things that keep me using Apple’s latest OS, despite these problems. What are your top five (or any number, really) problems with the king of the operating system jungle?

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Specs and stats

The Mac mini I’m reviewing here is the $799 model, which comes with 4 GB of RAM, a 500 GB hard drive, a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and a dedicated AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics card with 256 MB of RAM. Connection options include 4 USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800, a Thunderbolt connector, HDMI, Ethernet, digital/analog line in and line out ports and an SDXC card slot. It also has 802.11n Wi-Fi networking, and the new low-power Bluetooth 4.0 specification.

The new Core i5 series processor pushes a lot of weight compared to previous generations. Running it through Geekbench revealed scores of 6902 on average in my tests, compared to 3627 for the Mac mini released in 2010 (higher is better). Geekbench measures the maximum theoretical performance, but those higher scores should translate to noticeable speed improvements in overall performance.

While all the new Mac minis are much better at CPU-intensive tasks, the $799 model should really excel when it comes to graphics. Thanks to the dedicated AMD Radeon HD 6630M card, which marks the first time the Mac mini has had a dedicated card (maybe made possibly by dropping the optical disk), tasks like video editing and gaming go more smoothly on this mini than on any before it.

Performance

For me, the new Mac mini is replacing a much older model (2007, the first Intel Core 2 Duo version) that acted as the nerve center of my home theater setup. Compared to that machine, the new Mac mini offers many advantages: The larger stock 500 GB drive means I can depend less on external storage; HDMI out provides a single cable connection option that doesn’t require any adapters when used with an HDTV; SDXC support means I should have no problem viewing home movies or vacation slideshows from the cameras of visitors; and Thunderbolt promises to eventually make it possible to use huge, fast external storage media libraries a possibility, thanks to devices like the Pegasus RAID array.

On the other hand, the new Mac mini does away with the built-in optical disc drive, so users looking to play back their DVD movies either have to pony up an additional $79 for the MacBook Air SuperDrive, or set about converting their existing media library. Personally, the DVD drive removal is a welcome change; I long ago abandoned physical media for the convenience and reduced clutter of digital purchases and rentals. But if you have an extensive DVD movie collection you aren’t eager to part with, look at Apple’s deals on previous-generation refurbished Macs for a media center PC that will better suit your needs.

If you’re looking to use the new Mac mini as a workstation or traditional PC, this update has a lot to recommend it. I found that — like the MacBook Air I reviewed last week — it deals well with the load caused by using multiple open apps simultaneously, including demanding apps like Photoshop CS5 and iMovie. What it doesn’t do as well as the MacBook Air is load apps quite as fast, or handle shutdown and startup with the same lightning speed. That’s due mostly to the spinning disk drive which the Mac ships with by default, but Apple does offer a (fairly expensive) SSD customization option.

There’s one area where the new Mac mini has quite a bit of unique niche appeal: it’s road-readiness. With just a couple of input devices and the Mac mini itself, which has just a power cord with no heavy and unsightly brick, it actually gives Mac notebooks a run for their money in terms of physical footprint. Frequent travellers could easily pack one for use with the HDTVs now common in most business hotel rooms. And if they want a device that’s a desktop at home and offers more screen real estate than a laptop on the road, it’s quite a bit cheaper than a MacBook.

Verdict

Apple’s newest Mac mini is the best yet, thanks to a lower price tag and processor updates that deliver big CPU performance boosts with even lower power consumption. If you’re looking for a fairly future-proof home theater PC, or a low-cost, moderately powered workstation that can follow you wherever you need to go, this is the Mac for you.

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While this article uses iWork as an example, any app that supports Versions, like OmniGraffle, should work the same way.

What is Versions?

Every hour — if the program supports it — a Version will be created. If you’re at all familiar with Time Machine, the concept is the same: a version of a document you can revert back to is created within the “sandbox” of that app and data file. It’s like doing a save-as every hour, but all the versions are contained within a single data file. However, if you send the file to another person, that person won’t see the previous versions.

This is completely separate from the new Auto Save feature. Logic would dictate an auto-save would create a new version, but it doesn’t.

How do I view my Versions?

First, a bit of warning: If you open a document created before you upgraded your app, you are likely to see it say “Locked” in the title bar. Don’t fret. Just click on the arrow next to the title and choose Unlock. A document unedited for two weeks will automatically become locked. You can change this timer in the Time Machine preferences. You can also force a lock if you don’t want to version a document.

To access your past history, from that same pop-down, choose “Browse All Versions.” This will bring you to a Time Machine-inspired view. On the left you’ll see the current document. On the right, you’ll see all the old versions.

The great thing is, you can go back in time and restore pieces of your document; not just the whole thing. If you’re working on a presentation and delete a section, then decide you did want to include that, you can just go pull those slides from a previous version. Same holds true for sections of text.

The “Save As…” command is gone from iWork now as well. You can duplicate the document from the File menu which does pretty much the same thing. It’ll be treated a virgin document until you save it, however, so you won’t be able to see past versions of the duplicate’s original source.

Recommendations

I think Auto Save is a fantastic, long-needed addition. Even documents with no save history at all still get restored. Relying on the one-hour versioning is a fool’s game, though. My recommendation is to manually save early, and save often. The reason for this is because I found it very easy to have a Version not be created. If I opened a Pages document, added some text, quit the app, re-opened it, added more text and then quit the app, the next time I opened the only version I saw was from a while ago. I’d like to see a version get created every time I quit a document, too. So, if you think you’ll be going back to previous versions a lot, save on your own.

In my limited testing, sending Pages documents to another user stripped the version history. That’s how it should work. You don’t want the sordid history of a project to follow it along. That said, if the document contains some sensitive material you’ve redacted, it’s worth duplicating or exporting the document to create a fresh copy just to ensure all the info is scrubbed.

So that’s Versions in a nutshell. Even if you aren’t using it yet, you likely will be soon as more apps add the feature. Feel free to let us know in the comments which ones you think will benefit most from the addition.

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1. Pages

Apple’s own apps will likely be among the first to bring significant changes that leverage the power of iOS 5. Pages will get support for iCloud’s document syncing services, which means that changes you make on one iOS device should automatically be available to on another (and eventually on the desktop too), without any arduous setup requirements. Numbers, Keynote and other third-party editing suites like Documents to Go should get similar improvements in addition to Pages, which will make working with productivity apps on iOS devices much, much easier. Slide presentation apps will also get more useful thanks to Apple’s AirPlay mirroring feature on the iPad 2 that outputs whatever is on the tablet’s screen to a display device attached to an Apple TV.

2. CNN

One thing I initially liked about CNN’s iPhone and iPad apps was that they would provide push notifications for breaking news. Unfortunately, because of the way Apple implemented its notification system, breaking news updates became just another part of the stream of notification alert windows I had to dismiss to get to the home screen. Now, with the new notification bar and Notification Center, CNN’s breaking news updates will act as an unobtrusive daily record of key developments around the world. The best part is, this one doesn’t even require any action on the developer’s part; it’ll just happen when the new notification system is implemented.

3. Instagram

IOS 5 introduces Core Image, a new API that lets developers have access to hardware-accelerated video and photo enhancement as well as editing features. Built-in filters, color correction and facial recognition should make any photo app more versatile, but I think that if properly integrated in Instagram, it could help the photo-sharing service reach the next level. Used alone, or in tandem with Instragram’s existing filter set, individual user photos will look even more distinct, reducing the similarity that photos shared on the network can sometimes suffer from.

4. Real Racing HD 2

This one’s also a sure thing, as Real Racing HD 2 developer Firemint has already said it plans to support wireless AirPlay two-screen gaming once iOS 5 arrives. If you haven’t seen what playing this game on the iPad 2 and your TV with a wired connection is like, check out my video of the process. Doing the same thing without having to worry about yanking the Apple Digital AV Adapter out of your iPod’s dock connector is an exciting prospect, and it should make even more adventurous two-screen gaming applications a reality.

5. iMockups

I really could’ve chose any design or idea notebook app for this one, but iMockups is a particularly good example, because it’s designed with sharing in mind. In iOS 5, developers will have access to iMessage, so that apps can launch iMessage conversations between individuals or groups directly. For teams which have all members using iOS devices, it should make sharing mockup images for feedback with collaborators and stakeholders that much easier, and that much cheaper, too, since iMessage provides the convenience of MMS without the cost.

Have any other suggestions for apps you think will get a major boost from iOS 5?

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Apple released a fresh update of its iPad productivity suite iWork yesterday, and what makes it worthwhile is that it finally makes Keynote a useful presentation tool. This update supports core iOS 4.2 features such as AirPrint and multitasking. The update also brings better PDF exporting, and provides some fixes for font issues that arise on export.

As mentioned, the update finally brings the iPad into the arena of truly powerful presentation tools: Keynote for iPad 1.3 now supports a presenter’s view of sorts. However, you’re limited in your choices: you can choose to display current, next, current and next, and current and notes. There’s no option for current and next, and notes, which a setting I use on OS X Keynote all the time.

Since previous versions only showed a black screen with slide advancement buttons, though, even this limited implementation is wondrous news. There’s still no support for any sort of Bluetooth remote, but since that would require an update to the core iOS, we’re not likely to see it introduced anytime soon. Allowing an iPhone or iPod touch with Keynote Remote installed to do the job is technically feasible, however, and something I’d like to see in future iterations.

Numbers, the iWork spreadsheet app, now supports formula entry via keyboard, including predictive function selector. You can also set pagination settings to select how a sheet prints across multiple pages, or choose Auto Fit to let the program choose for you. The best part is, PDF exporting also honors those settings, so you can export them and send them to others without fear of sharing a garbled final product. While I’ve never really needed to print from my iPad, this will make sharing PDFs a whole lot easier. Apple also claims “improved reliability” when exporting Numbers ’09 and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

Changes to Pages, iWork’s document editor, are more modest. Support for automatic pagination of tables that cross page breaks has been added, as has the ever-popular “improved reliability,” which probably amounts to a handful of bug fixes.

I’m thrilled with these changes — especially the ones to Keynote. I have a dream of limiting the times I need to drag my MacBook Pro around with me, and these updates go a long way towards achieving this goal. I’m not getting too excited over printing, what with its limitations, but the fast-app switching works great. The updates are available now.

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The iWork 1.2 update for iPad brings about a whole host of welcome improvements, the best one in my opinion being the ability to import and export directly from iDisk, or any WebDAV-supported virtual disk. Dropbox isn’t WebDAV, unfortunately, and I wouldn’t hold my breath for Dropbox support.

Until now, Pages was the only one of the three apps that could export to its MS Office counterpart, but now, all three can export to Office-compatible formats. I’m curious to see how well this will work with Keynote, since most Keynote files I’ve exported to PowerPoint look like they were victims of a vicious assault.

The apps now support grouped objects as well. For Keynote especially, this is a big plus for me, as you can define builds on grouped objects, and the groups remain intact when imported from the desktop version.

A small, but welcome change is support for importing .txt and .csv files for Pages and Numbers, respectively. You can’t export them, but at least you can work with them. These are all supported via the “Open As” command, so any app can inbound the files.

Pages gets another halfway-done feature with support for footnotes, endnotes, and sections on import and export. You can’t create these, but files you copy onto the iPad to work with won’t get mangled as part of the process. I’m hoping 1.3 allows users to create them.

I’ve always believed the feature set of the iWork suite was the best available for the iPad. The sticking issue for me was transfers. With the 1.2 update, I feel Apple has made some serious progress towards creating a fantastic productivity suite. So far, the only thing I can say is missing from Pages is creation of footnotes.

I also think Apple needs to address importing fonts since I use non-standard fonts for all my presentations. Now, with iDisk support I hope Apple also fixes general syncing issues, since it looks like I’ll be storing more mission-critical data up there in the cloud.

Full release notes for Numbers, Pages, and Keynote can be read via the App Store.

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I solved this problem by defining for myself what Serious Writing was.

Back in my printing days, projects had three stages: pre-production, production, and post production. After mulling my quest over, I realized most of my writing falls into this as well. Pre-production is the point where you have your feet up on the window sill watching the birds and truthfully answer, “Why, yes, dear, I really am working. Why?” You don’t even need an iPad for this; pen and paper is probably the best choice anyway. Post production is where you get your writing into final form. You format it to meet your publisher’s requirements; get it into that godawful corporate template you loathe; or maybe drop it into a web-based CMS system for publishing. Most likely, the iPad isn’t ideal for this, either.

[inline-ad align="right"]However, the production portion is where the iPad can come in quite handy. The production stage is where I feel Serious Writing happens: the act of simply putting one word after the other. I am a big fan of Merlin Mann’s Making the Clackity Noise article, and the iPad helps me make the noise.

OK, before I go any further, I’m not for a minute suggesting an iPad is a suitable replacement for a laptop, desktop, typewriter or quill pen. However, I am finding the iPad is a decent balance of portability and functionality. While the debate over whether the iPad is a content creation or content consumption device will be everlasting, I’m willing to bet most of your every day writing can be done on an iPad. Working on that Executive Summary for your report on a crowded train? The iPad is great in cramped writing conditions. I’ve gotten work done in doctor’s offices, coffee shops, commuter trains, waiting for a conference session to start, and sometimes while I’m curled up on my comfy chair working while watching the Red Sox cough up a five run lead in the ninth inning. While at least 80 percent of my time spent with the iPad is consuming content, I love that I can keep current projects with me to work on when I need to.

That’s not to say it’s all beer and pretzels. The on-screen keyboard isn’t at all ideal. If I know I’m in for an extended writing session I’ll throw the Apple bluetooth keyboard in my bag. Getting files to and from the iPad is a needless pain. If your work requires heavy footnoting or citations, you’re pretty much hosed. I’ll often put the proper MLA citation in there, and link it to Endnote on OS X later. If I’m footnoting something on the iPad, I’ll cheat and put the whole footnote as a parenthetical (1 – Diet Coke tasted much better cold) and later in OS X Pages I’ll use the footnote command and paste the note in.

How exactly have I integrated the iPad to my work flow?

Outside of accepting the limitations of the platform, the big decision I made was deciding on a program I felt excelled at the “getting writing done” part of the process, and accepting the hassles of file transfers. After giving all them of more than careful consideration, I chose Pages to do my work. It doesn’t have parts I use a lot, like word counts, but I liked the writing interface (the file browser is kind of a mess) and felt it met my needs. Which is a nice way of saying it didn’t crash on me. To aid in file transfers, I just use the iWork.com beta since I also use Pages on OS X. While the other writing programs excelled at using cloud services, I felt they let me down when I wanted to get actual work done.

Nowadays, most of what I write passes through the iPad. The fiction projects I’m working on all have current versions on the iPad. This article was written predominately on the iPad, if for no other reason than to eat my own dog food. Sure, the post production stuff all happens off the iPad. This post was edited on WordPress in Firefox. A fiction manuscript will receive the proper editing and formatting in OS X. If I’ve kludged citation management on the iPad, I’ll fix it then.

The biggest reason I write on the iPad? It’s always with me. I want to have an excuse to write; not use a missing tool as an excuse not to write.

At first, I resisted getting the dock, opting instead for the Apple iPad case. When using the iPad in the case, it is possible to set the iPad on its edge and use the bluetooth keyboard to type. Possible, but not elegant. The case is malleable and unstable, so while the case can balance the iPad on its edge, to interact with the touch interface still requires both hands. If you don’t use one hand to steady the iPad, the first time you try to tap on a word in Pages you’ll knock your iPad onto its back. I’ve done this more than once and it makes a sickening sounding “whack” noise.

The case isn’t all bad. Using the case in its other, more stable position, laying down with the small edge at the back, lifts the iPad up to a perfect reading angle, and a good angle to type using the software keyboard. Once you try to use the bluetooth keyboard at this angle though, it becomes much more awkward, since the screen is sitting farther back.

There is no way to dock the iPad while it’s in the case, but sliding it out of the case is fairly easy. The dock is small, and at first I was worried about how stable the iPad would be resting in it. It turns out that its much more stable than I expected. The dock is surprisingly heavy and solid, reassuringly so, and most importantly it doesn’t distract with worry about the iPad tipping over like it does with the case.

I’m not convinced that the Apple dock is the best stand for the iPad, but I am convinced of the usefulness of the dock for the purpose of writing. Combining the dock with a bluetooth keyboard and Pages is one of the most elegant and relaxing writing experiences I’ve ever had. I’m looking forward to many long hours with this setup.

I’d love to hear your opinion on the case, the dock, or the software keyboard. Let me know your favorite way to interact with the iPad in the comments!

Like other iPad applications, Pages is fast. Loading almost instantly, the first thing you’ll see is a Welcome document, ironically created in Pages itself. The My Documents is area where you’ll see all of your synced documents, accessible by flicking left or right. It seems like managing a large number of documents in this area could be cumbersome, so it will be interesting to see how Apple addresses this UI concern with future versions. There’s also options here for exporting documents to iWork.com or email, deleting documents and importing new documents.

Creating a new document is simple as well, though you are limited to 15 templates besides a blank document. I’m honestly surprised Apple hasn’t brought over the full arsenal of templates.

Navigating around Pages is quite simple. In portrait mode, you’ll have a menu bar across the top with quick access to My Documents, an Undo button as well as an Inspector, Media, Settings and a Full Screen option.

Cool Pages Tip: Tap and hold the Undo button to initiate a Redo.

Tapping the lighter colored bar beneath the toolbar will present you with a traditional ruler, justification options and options to make your type bold, italicized or underlined. Landscape mode is primarily used for creating content in your document, so the toolbar remains hidden.

The Inspector

The Inspector provides an additional method for adjusting alignment, support for columns (limited to 4) and line spacing (limited to quarter line increments). In this view there are also options for formatting lists and applying (but not redefining) the default styles for titles, headings and subheadings. This particular view also changes, depending on what content you are editing. For example, if you’ve tapped a table and then open the Inspector, you’ll see related options here.

Media Browser

The Media Browser functions similar to the desktop version, showing photos and videos that have been synced to the iPad via iTunes. Unfortunately, none of my TV shows or movies were accessible through here, even the ones that aren’t restricted with iTunes DRM.

Options for tables, charts and shapes are included as well, allowing a user to select from a wide variety of default looks, then allowing them to use the Inspector to further fine tune them. Manipulating objects is very user friendly by just tapping and interacting as you would be naturally inclined to do. Tap two fingers on an object, pause and rotate your fingers to rotate an object. It’s simple.

Fine Tuning

Document Setup mode allows you to format your document with custom dimensions simply by tapping a margin and dragging it. You can also set watermark images as well as format the header or footer of your document. Unfortunately, documents are limited to a size of either US Letter (8.5 x 11) or A4 (8.27 x 11.69). There were no apparent options for adjusting the orientation to landscape.

Selecting text works the same as it does on Pages for the desktop, except you’re using finger taps instead of mouse clicks. Double tapping a word will select it while triple tapping will select the entire paragraph. In the pop-up menu, you have your usual options for copying the content as well as the option to copy the style if you wish to copy and paste formatting styles between areas. There is also an option to define the word you’ve selected.

Other options include a traditional spell checker which functions just like the desktop counterpart by underlining the misspelled word, allowing a user to tap and see a suggested replacement.

Syncing Files with Pages

Contrary to original rumors that suggested the iPad would mount a folder and allow for easy syncing of documents, you have to sync specific documents to the iPad through iTunes. Undoubtedly Apple realizes that this process is quite cumbersome and hopefully future iterations of iTunes or iPad software will make this process easier.

Pages documents that you receive through Mail on the iPad or browsed via iWork.com can be opened, saved and edited within Pages. Conversely, documents created in Pages can be exported and sent via Mail or uploaded to iWork.com in addition to being synced back through iTunes.

The Downside

Pages on the iPad is a great application, but it’s not without its share of missing features and limitations. Unfortunately, Pages is limited to a rather small collection of typefaces. While there’s still enough to create content that is unique, the lack of support for adding your own typefaces means Pages won’t let you easily move any document from your Mac and see the exact same thing on your iPad. In fact, you’ll get document warnings if you try and open a file that includes a typeface that your iPad is missing. This is an issue that Apple needs to address before people really begin to consider the iPad as “the laptop replacement.”

Additionally, more advanced features of Pages are missing. Here’s a quick list of some of the features that aren’t present.

• Inserting Table of Contents & Footnotes
• Inserting Section or Layout Breaks
• Inserting Merge Fields
• Tracking Changes
• Saving as Templates
• Adjusting Styles
• Adjusting Type (Tracking, Ligatures, Baseline, Capitalization)
• Printing
• Document Statistics (Word Count, Number of Pages, Page Location)

Pages is a very functional app but for those who really wanted it to replace the desktop version, you’ll be desiring a more featured packed update from Apple. Originally I’d planned to use the mobile version to put the finishing touches on documents (if I’m on the go) but it looks like the best workflow is to create your documents on the iPad and apply finishing touches when you are back on a Mac.

One last little bit to note about this application, and everyone is mixed on this, but typing on the iPad keyboard, even in landscape mode is still awkward. Personally, I’m comfortable with the full size keyboard layout on my Mac and so I find myself aiming for certain keys that just aren’t there. I strongly recommend investing in the bluetooth keyboard if you’re planning to use Pages or any of the other iWork apps on the iPad.

Check out our gallery of Pages below. Have you used Pages for the iPad? What are your thoughts?

Related TechUniversity Screencasts: Pages 101 and Word to Pages

iLife X

Probability: Guaranteed
When the last version of iLife launched, it adopted the moniker “iLife ’09.” Recently however, Apple has modified most of its website to drop the date from the title. Now simply called “iLife,” I wonder if Apple will be quick to release a new “yearly” iteration at the outset of 2010.

Based on previous versions, the next iteration of iLife will require Mac OS X 10.6. By requiring Snow Leopard, this does make iLife an Intel-only release. Though some users will be left behind, significant performance gains should be recognized by taking advantage of 64-bit technology included in Snow Leopard.

Within the apps themselves, I believe we’ll continue to see significant updates. Here’s the roundup.

iPhoto

Probability: Possible
The addition of Faces and Places to iPhoto ’09 was just the beginning. The next version of iPhoto will support more accurate facial recognition and integration with Twitter. Those who enjoy the photo slideshow themes that were added to the last version will enjoy a larger selection of new themes that will be added in the new version. I also predict that the next version will bring support for bulk renaming of files (similar to how Aperture can do this upon import) and better performance when dealing with larger libraries. I also predict revised or better photo editing controls with additional effects.

iMovie

Probability: Possible
I believe the next version of iMovie will boast support for posting videos directly to more Internet services, such as Facebook and Flickr. An expanded set of new themes as well as more advanced title options will be present as well. The user experience of the application will be refined, for those who are still frustrated by the intense switch from iMovie HD to the last two versions.

iDVD

Probability: Guaranteed
iDVD will likely see one of the most significant updates that it has ever seen in quite a while. 2010 will mark the beginning of new ways of enjoying media. From the possibility of the first out-of-the-box Blu-ray drives on the Mac to iTunes Extras & LPs to the elusive Apple Tablet, the presentation of digital content remains a key focus for Apple.

The next version of iDVD will help push this agenda forward, allowing users to create Blu-ray discs or optimize their video content into formats like iTunes Extras. Such a dramatic update would likely warrant changing the name of the application, but that’s also within the realm of possibility. iDVD has definitely been late to the party for the past two years, seeing only small maintenance updates. While many speculate that Apple plans to axe DVD creation altogether (foreseeing the death of the digital disc in favor of digital distribution), I believe Apple has been working on a successor application to take advantage of new forms of distribution (a la Blu-ray or iTunes Extras-styled media).

iWeb

Probability: Possible
iWeb is one of those apps that is difficult to pack full of compelling new features every year. I predict the next version of iWeb will support more themes and a few more widgets, including a widget that provides a live feed of your Twitter stream on your website.

GarageBand

Probability: Possible
GarageBand will likely see an expanded music lesson store with more artist lessons and lessons for drums and bass. I also predict Apple will make it easier to share GarageBand creations beyond iTunes and iWeb. Similar to the other apps, I believe we will see support for exporting to other web services such as Facebook or YouTube.

iWork X

Probability: Possible
I predict the biggest improvement to the iWork suite will be a tighter integration with the iPhone and iPod touch. On the short side, I see iWork.com coming to the iPhone as an app to allow quick browsing of documents. In an ideal world, Apple will eventually build lightweight mobile versions of its iWork apps to allow users to create and edit Pages, Keynote and Numbers files on the go.

I believe we’ll see an update to the “beta” of iWork.com, including a paid plan if Apple deems the project a huge success, or inclusion with MobileMe if Apple feels the product isn’t strong enough to stand on its own footing.

All three applications will see new templates and a refined Inspector palette. It seems very un-Apple like to mandate users bring up a palette for colors, a separate one for fonts, another for media and yet another master Inspector to control everything else. Additionally, I predict the Media Browser will be updated across all apps to support Faces and Places from iPhoto.

I also predict Pages will provide support for (or perhaps work directly with) third-party applications like bibliographic software such as Endnote or Refworks for academic publications.

iTunes

Probability: Guaranteed
iTunes is an interesting application as every version seems to bring about a large number of extra features that many people don’t expect, or at first glance, really need.

I predict the next major version of iTunes, iTunes 10, will bring support for syncing with the mythical iTablet, as well as better syncing support (including over the air syncing of content if on a Wi-Fi network). Furthermore, iTunes 10 should feature better support for managing larger libraries of content and the need to split those libraries across multiple hard drives in a simple but effective manner.

Conclusion

Finally, I’d like to see iWork and iLife dropping in price back to the familiar $49 from years past. In light of economic conditions and Apple’s vocal attempts of providing quality products to more and more users, a price drop seems wise as it would also help generate better market penetration.

Again, many of these predictions are pure speculation and hopes and dreams on my part. What do you think we’ll see in these areas over the coming year?

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This time of year, it seems almost inevitable. There’s a forum post somewhere, a plea for help in the middle of the night, asking a time-honored question. No, it’s not “the answer to Life, the Universe, Everything!” It’s more profound than that: “I’m starting school this fall and I want to know what to get, iWork or Office. I’m going to be writing light papers.”

So, I’m going to compare the two programs when writing a research paper to MLA standards. While there are a plethora of other options — I can see the “use LaTeX” comments in my head now — I’m focusing on Word and Pages. Word and Pages both support EndNote X2 and Math Type 6, but since I’ve never used Math Type, I’m not going to be able to comment on it.

The Price Myth

On the surface, any comparison of price comes out in iWork’s favor. iWork lists for $79. The Home and Student version of Office 2008 is $150, but that version is crippled for enterprise support, so if you want to connect to your school’s Exchange server, you’ll need the Standard version, which is $399. Wow, that’s a lotta leaves.

However, since we are talking about academic pricing, it’s important to note Microsoft is very generous with its educational pricing — through my school, I can get Office 2008 Standard for $80. With an educational price of $71, Apple is less generous, but the price gap between the two suites is now negligible.

Built-in Templates

Neither package had any templates I felt adhered to the MLA standard, but it’s short work to create your own. Usually, I end up needing to massage the styles every now and then since professors have different requirements.

Citation Management

It’s unlikely you’re going to get through a semester without hearing a teacher say, “Give me 10 pages on the Middle East; cite your sources.” If your major isn’t one that requires heavy citations usage, you can get away with just about any word processor out there. In my mind, however, any topic of academic writing tools lives and dies by citation management for one simple reason: I’m too lazy to build the bibliography myself.

While there are multiple choices for citation management, I’m going to focus on EndNote X2 and Microsoft’s built-in citation manger. I’m focusing on EndNote because it’s the sole manager with native support for both apps. I’ll get the sticker shock out of the way early: EndNote costs around $109 from an educator’s web site. However, my university has a volume site license and I can download it for free, legally, off my school’s intranet. So, before buying it, check with your school.

One of the nice features in EndNote is its ability to search any school’s library. I find this invaluable when starting a research paper. For the Middle East paper, I fired up EndNote, connected to Northeastern’s library, and typed in “Israel” as a keyword. I could look through books I felt might be useful, note if they are available, and print out their location in the stacks. For the rest of this article, I’m going to assume you’ve built your EndNote library.

Endnote's Online Search Screen

Citation Management: Pages

In Pages, go to the Insert menu and choose “EndNote Citation.” It’ll then bring you to the EndNote search screen; type in the author or title you want to add and click insert.

Pages Insert Citation

Pages Inserting Citation

As you add each citation, EndNote will automatically create the bibliography.

Citation Management: Pages Conclusion

Pages citation management requires EndNote X2. If your university doesn’t have a site license for EndNote, and you want to use Pages to write papers, you’re on the hook for the EndNote license, or do citation management by hand.

Citation Management: Word 2008 & EndNote

Word 2008 handles EndNote citations similar to Pages. Go to Tools → EndNote X2 → Find Citations. Then type in the search criteria and click Insert.

Word 2008: Fnd Citation

Word 2008: Insert Citation

Word 2008: Citation Inserted

As in Pages, EndNote in Word also auto-adds the citations to the bibliography.

Citation Management: Word 2008′s Built-in Manager

While Word’s Citation Manager offers no connectivity to library databases, or the ability to import from EndNote, once I’ve created a citation it’s very easy to add it. Granted, EndNote’s method isn’t exactly suffering, but in Word it’s simply a double-click. Also, each citation is added to a master citation database, so if you use the same source on multiple papers it’s easy to add them to your document.

You can access the Citation Manager from the Formatting Toolbar. To create a citation, click the “+” button and enter in the details.

To add a citation to your paper, simply select it from the list and double-click it. The citation will appear in-line. One nice thing about Word’s manager is if you select the citation you get a pull-down menu that lets you customize the citation. If you choose Edit this Citation, you can select the page range for the citation.

Unlike EndNote, the bibliography is not automatically created; you use the Document Elements tab. From there. you can choose the bibliography style.

Citation Management: Word Conclusion
While both EndNote and Word’s manager work well, I find myself using Word’s more than EndNote for lazy reasons: I like having everything in one program. If the paper I’m working on has a plethora of library sources, that’ll tip the scales towards EndNote as my manager of choice. If your university doesn’t have a site license for a citation manager, Word’s tool is very usable.

Additional Features

Citation management is all you’ll need for run-of-the-mill research papers. If you’re writing basic papers, and have a license to EndNote, feature-wise they are a wash. If your paper is more complicated than that, however, you can start widening the gap between Word and Pages.

One notable difference between the two programs is how they handle figure captions. In Pages, you can link a text box to a figure, and type in “Figure 2-1: A very nice screenshot.” Word, however, can auto-number the figure and use that to create a Table of Figures.

Word also has an impressive array of Smart Art graphics which will let you create quick graphics.

Playing Well With Others

Once you’re all done with the paper, now comes the crucial moment: handing it in. If you’re simply handing in a printed copy, there’s no difference between the two. However, in four years of night school I think I’ve only handed in one paper physically. Most of my classes are online and my classroom professors often just want the paper emailed to them.

Based on my experiences, you’d be hard-pressed to find a teacher that can take a Pages file; I’ve found exactly zero teachers who can take one. Fortunately, Pages can export as a Word document so it’s easy to get the teacher a Word file. Any form of file conversion makes me nervous, though. I subscribe to the theory that Murphy was an optimist, and the file you export from Pages to Word and email to a professor at deadline will be the one file that beats all odds and is an unreadable mess. Now, it’s never happened to me, and I’ve found for simple files like research papers Pages export function is quite good. However, it’s like juggling chainsaws. Sooner or later you’re gonna drop one in a bad area.

That said, Word is not always fine wines and nice cheeses. There’s one teacher I frequently have who cannot accept .docx files (the new default format Word saves in). Again, I can “save as” to an older format, but tend to sweat the dialogue box that comes up and says, “Some features specific to the .docx format may not transfer properly. Since this is your thesis paper, and your teacher is still in the stone ages of computing, I’m going to choose this paper to come out as Ancient Mandarin. Have a nice day.” OK, it’s not quite like that, but I tend to get a little nervous.

When it comes to sharing files with others, I trust Word over Pages. While I’ve never had any noticeable problems on research papers, I feel I’m eliminating a possible danger point by using Word.

The Moment of Truth: Which do I prefer?

I’ve flip-flopped for a while between the two programs. Pages won out for a while because of its quick launching speed, but Service Pack 2 for Office 2008 has significantly improved launch speeds. Small features like easily handling captions and lesser chances of file conversion weirdness make me prefer Word over Pages. If your writing needs are modest, and simple essays are the norm, Pages will do just fine. However, even my Technical Communications classes require some sort of source citation, so it’s wise to plan on needing one.

There’s one area I think iWork wins over Office 2008: Keynote. If your major is heavy on giving presentations, and you can use your Mac to give them, I think Keynote is much better than PowerPoint. The focus of this piece is Word and Pages, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Keynote as a strength of iWork.

Like most things, it can come down to price, but I think Word wins on this one. If the worst-case is your school offers no special educational pricing on Office or EndNote, buying the Home and Student version of Office 2008 is still cheaper when you factor in the extra $100 for EndNote. While a lot of people tend to complain that Word is bloated, I’ve found various school projects require me to use those features.

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Having used Microsoft Office for many years, despite my utter disdain for it, nobody was happier than me when Apple launched the iWork applications. For my light office application needs, Pages, Keynote and Numbers are just perfect. Here are a few tips I use to make my time in the iWork apps a little easier.

Multiple Inspector Palettes

If you use any of the iWork ’09 apps on a daily basis, you’ve no doubt been frustrated by the fact that you’re forever clicking different Inspector tabs to get to various features. Wouldn’t it be handy if you could have more than one Inspector palette open at a time, with different tabs displayed? Thankfully, Apple offers a way to do just that in all the iWork applications.

Multiple Inspector palettes in iWork apps

Hold down the Option key while clicking any of the tab icons at the top of the Inspector palette to have a new palette open with that group of settings showing. This works in Pages, Keynote and Numbers.

Saving Palette Locations

Open and arrange multiple iWork Inspector palettes in all three iWork apps and they’ll be “saved” for the next time you launch an app, opening in the same location as you last left them. As obvious as it may seem, many users never even notice this feature.

Using Document File Info

The Document tab of the Document Inspector palette in Pages contains some great features. Here you can view raw stats of your document, such as word and character count, enter author, title, and keyword info, and file comments.

At the bottom of the palette, just below where Pages indicates how many times the document has been printed, you’ll find a Show File Info button. Clicking this button opens the File Info box of your document in the Finder. From there, you can adjust permissions, hide the file extension, view more data about your file, and enter Spotlight comments for easy searching.

Saving Spotlight comments in Pages '09

The one thing that I’m left wondering is why Apple didn’t have Pages automatically place the Comments from within the Document Info palette into the Spotlight Comments area in the Get Info box, instead of forcing you to copy/paste.

Keynote and Numbers offer the same feature in their Document Inspector palette.

Protecting your files

Password Protecting Files

In iWork ’09, Apple added the ability to password protect your documents. Microsoft Office apps have had this feature for quite a long time, so it’s nice to finally see it in iWork’s applications.

In the same Document tab of the Document Inspector at the bottom, you’ll find a checkbox, which when clicked will pop open a dialog box where you can enter a password and hint for your file. This is a great addition to the iWork suite, especially if you work in a server/multi-user environment.

M.I.A.: Drag & Drop

Much of the Mac OS offers the ability to drag and drop files, text, and images from one app to another. For some inexplicable reason, iWork apps are different. Though you can drag text from one app to another, you can’t do the same with objects and images. For this reason, you should keep the Media Browser palette open to make it easy to drag images into your documents from iPhoto, or folders located on your hard drive.

Adding More Shadow

You probably know you can add a shadow to your text simply by selecting the text container and clicking the Shadow button in the main toolbar. If you’re looking for a bit more from your shadow, try adding a second one.

Adding a second drop shadow to text in Pages

Once you’ve customized the appearance of your shadow using the Graphic Inspector, select the text itself (rather than the text container) and apply a second shadow using the Fonts palette Shadow button. A second shadow will appear beneath your text, which is completely customizable separate from the original shadow.

While these tips are certainly not Earth-shattering, I hope I’ve been able to share at least one tip you didn’t know about. How about you, do you have any handy tips for using any of the iWork applications?

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When iWork was first announced, I will admit that I had a sinking feeling there was a strong danger that the suite wouldn’t see a second release. I wasn’t particularly optimistic about Apple’s chances of producing a word processor and a presentation app that would survive, especially when Apple skipped releasing an update in ’07. Today, I’m quite happy to see that iWork has not only survived, but is thriving in a third release, iWork ’09.

Keynote

Apple broke out the polish for Keynote this year, adding several new features that pretty up your presentations and make advanced animation techniques even more accessible. There are several new themes, graph types, and textures for charts, including some chrome, wood and stone textures that just look beautiful.

Magic Move tracks objects from slide to slide so that Keynote can build transitions from one slide to another and animate the movement of the object across the page. This feature shows up when creating transitions that involve images for some very polished object transitions, but also works on text where it treats letters as individual objects that can be animated across the screen. One of the impressive demonstrations involved a pile of scattered playing cards that then flew around into neatly fanned stacks of cards in the next slide. Text effects included an “anagram” transition that reused the letters by rearranging them into a new word, flying unused letters off the screen and flying in new letters to complete the word.

Also new is a Keynote Remote iPhone app that gives you control over your presentations from the iPhone. The app is smart enough to present you with the slide and speaker’s notes when in vertical orientation and it switches to the current slide and the next slide when horizontal.

Pages

Pages adds a new full-screen view, outlining, mail-merge with Numbers, new templates, and integration with MathType and EndNote. I’m not a huge fan of full-screen — I see it as more of a gimmick than a real feature. If you want to write uninterrupted, quit IM, close Twitter, and turn off notifications of new email.

Outlining is a welcome addition and quite useful for longer documents. Dynamic outlining means that rearranging sections in outline view moves that the changes are reflected in the document view in realtime.

The best part of the new Numbers integration isn’t just being able to mailmerge from a list outside of Address Book, but rather the dynamic linking of charts and graphs between the two. Changes in a graph that was copied from Numbers will update the graph in Pages.

The MathType and EndNote integration reaches a smaller audience, but support for these two programs will be enthusiastically received by the academic and scientific communities. I actually like Sente for academic citation management, but EndNote is the most recognized brand in that space.

Numbers

Numbers has two big additions — functions and categories. Schiller mentioned that Apple’s goal for this release was to add more features that power-users were clamoring for. The number of functions has been increased to 250 and have been made easier to use with a new function view that lists the available choices with a plain language description of what each does and the variables accepted. Formula list view will show you all of the formulas in your spreadsheet. I imagine that this will be tremendously useful for tracking down an error through a long chain of formulas.

Categories are a simple way of creating a summary from a list that is organized by a particular field. In the example provided in the keynote presentation, Phil Schiller showed a baseball roster grouped by position with a count of players for each position. Creating this summary is as simple as selecting “Categorize by This Column” in the pull down menu in the column header.

iWork.com

iWork.com is a new public beta from Apple that allows you to share your iWork documents online. iWork.com does not go as far as Google Apps in allowing online editing and creation of documents. It is just a way to share documents and allow others to annotate directly on the page, or to comment on the document as a whole. While all the comments and annotations are tracked online, iWork adds a menu item under Share that allows you to go straight to the page for that document to find new posts from your friends or colleagues. It can also act as on online repository of your working documents that you can reference from anywhere.

The overall functionality is a little limited, but it provides a really simple way to share Pages documents that PC users cannot open directly. Along with the web version for viewing, iWork will also upload PDF, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint versions to allow others to download a document that they can edit on their desktop. There’s no easy way to incorporate someone else’s edits or comments back into the document directly, but I’m hopeful for the future. I was really hoping for an online editing app that would be more like the MobileMe apps for email and Address Book. The first step is a small one, but a step that might entice some PC users to check out the native apps that created the nice-looking previews they can see online, but look a little funky when downloaded and opened in Office 2007.

Should I Buy It?

This upgrade isn’t the no-brainer that iLife ’09 is for most people. If you need any of the features in Numbers or Pages, then I would say go for it. If you’re a Keynote maven, or in the financial, academic or scientific communities then I would think the new features would be really compelling to you and worth the cost of the new version. For anyone outside that community, iWork.com isn’t that exciting (yet) and the new features just expand on what you already have.

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Today, Jumsoft released their All-in-One Business Packs for Apple’s Keynote, Pages and iWeb.

Maintain the same style among your documents, Web site, e-mails, and even presentations.

With the great experience of developing various templates, Jumsoft has finally created amazing All-in-One template packs for your personal or small business. For the first time, there are three themed packs to choose from—Craft, Elite, and Rich. Our intuition has whispered us to provide the templates for all the applications you are likely to need in your business—iWeb, Keynote, Pages, and even Apple Mail. Be noticed among the rival firms and demonstrate your modern attitude towards your business image.

What is great about these packs is that small businesses can now easily brand themselves with high-quality templates and visuals. Many individuals and small businesses can’t afford outside design services let alone have the design skills to make their own templates. Thus, these All-in-One packs make their lives simpler.

As an owner of other Jumsoft products — I have the Keynote Quartet FX as well as their iWeb and RapidWeaver Themes pack — I know Jumsoft makes quality products. It’s also nice to see software companies provide value-adds to Apple’s iLife and iWork offerings. Apple does provide some basic templates for these products, although nothing that ties them all together in one seamless look and feel.

Of the three choices, I personally like the Rich business pack. Which one do you like?

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