Apple released updates for all three members of its productivity suite yesterday – Pages, Keynote, Numbers, for both iOS and Mac – with a host of new features and enhancements, including native audio recording, editing and playback capabilities.
Each of Apple’s productivity applications receives the ability to add audio directly to documents. Now, using your device’s microphone, audio can be recorded, edited and played back directly in a project.
In addition, there are enhancements to Smart Annotation, a relatively new feature that debuted at Apple’s education-focused event in Chicago earlier this year. Smart Annotation lets you draw, with your finger or an Apple pen, into an iOS document.
The novelties, application by application, are as follows:
Pages 4.1 for iOS
- Easily record, edit and playback audio directly on a page.
- Now the marks of the smart annotations extend and adjust to the text as you edit.
- Switches quickly between drawing mode and smart annotation mode on iPad.
- A new option in Settings > Pages allows you to use the Apple Pencil to select and scroll.
- Activates the control of changes in the text of figures and text boxes.
- Adds colors and images to the background of page layout documents.
- Changes the appearance of graphs with rounded corners in columns and bars.
- Adds mathematical equations to page layout documents with LaTeX or MathML notations.
- Improves documents with a wide variety of new editable figures.
- Adds gradients and image fills to figures and text boxes.
- Search for templates by category easily.
- Saves a different automatic scrolling speed per document when using the presenter mode.
- Improved support for Arabic and Hebrew.
Numbers 4.1 for iOS
- Easily record, edit and playback audio directly into a spreadsheet.
- A new option in Settings > Numbers allows you to use the Apple Pencil to select and scroll.
- Changes the appearance of graphs with rounded corners in columns and bars.
- Add mathematical equations with LaTeX or MathML notations.
- Improves documents with a wide variety of new editable figures.
- Adds gradients and image fills to figures and text boxes.
- Search for templates by category easily.
Keynote 4.1 for iOS
- Edit master slides or creates new ones.
- Easily record, edit and playback audio directly on a slide.
- A new option in Settings > Keynote allows you to use the Apple Pencil to select and scroll.
- Export a presentation as a video or as images.
- Changes the appearance of graphs with rounded corners in columns and bars.
- Add mathematical equations with LaTeX or MathML notations.
- Improves documents with a wide variety of new editable figures.
- Adds gradients and image fills to figures and text boxes.
- Improved support for Arabic and Hebrew.
Pages 7.1 for Mac
- Activates the control of changes in the text of figures and text boxes.
- Adds colors and images to the background of page layout documents.
- Changes the appearance of graphs with rounded corners in columns and bars.
- Adds mathematical equations to page layout documents with LaTeX or MathML notations.
- Improves documents with a wide variety of new editable figures.
- Improved support for Arabic and Hebrew.
Numbers 5.1 for Mac
- Changes the appearance of graphs with rounded corners in columns and bars.
- Add mathematical equations with LaTeX or MathML notations.
- Improves documents with a wide variety of new editable figures.
- Improved compatibility with Microsoft Excel.
- Import of CSV and improved text.
Keynote 8.1 for Mac
- Add mathematical equations with LaTeX or MathML notations.
- Changes the appearance of graphs with rounded corners in columns and bars.
- Improves documents with a wide variety of new editable figures.
- Enhanced support for Microsoft PowerPoint.
- Improved support for Arabic and Hebrew.