As expected, Apple releases iWork '09 at Macworld Expo

During today's Macworld Keynote Phil Schiller announced the immediate release of iWork '09. We previously reported this was fairly likely given the slip-up over at Apple.com. The updated version of iWork is definitely more evolutionary than revolutionary.

Keynote
The first new feature of Keynote are the "Magic Move" transitions. Essentially, you set up your slides and Keynote automatically animates your objects and moves them from slide-to-slide. Additional text and object transitions have been added as well. For example, the text from one slide can morph into the text on the following slide.

The Theme Chooser has been updated as well. It now allows you to easily and quickly view and apply a theme as well. The Theme Chooser also makes it easy to quickly apply a particular slide size. The 3D charts and graphs have been updated as well to include additional textures and new animations.

The killer new feature in Keynote is the introduction of the Keynote Remote application for the iPhone or iPod touch. Using Wi-Fi you can view your slide as well as notes on the slide wirelessly from your iPhone or iPod touch. If you rotate your device into a landscape orientation you can view the current slide as well as the next slide. In true touchscreen form you can swipe your finger across the screen to advance to the next slide.

Click the read link for more information about iWork '09.

For full Macworld Expo coverage, bookmark the TUAW Macworld Expo 2009 landing page. If you missed our liveblog coverage, you can review it here.

Pages
It's now possible to "work without distractions," because Pages features a full-screen view for complete focus on writing. If organization is more your cup of tea, than you will be happy to know that Pages now features a new outline mode. Collapsible topics and drag and drop re-organization make it easy to outline quickly and efficiently.

If you send out newsletters or other mass-mailers, than the mail merge integration with Numbers will be right up your alley. It's now possible to create custom documents that sync addresses from table in Numbers or from your Address Book.

Similar to Keynote, Pages now features an enhanced Template Chooser with the goal of making it easy to preview and re-size templates. Pages also includes integration with MathType for easy equation composition, and EndNote for quickly choosing and inserting a citation from over 3,800 bibliographic styles.

Numbers
Everyone was pretty excited at the release of Numbers in iWork '08 and while it may not be the most fun application to use, Numbers geeks will be pleased with the new features. The most-asked for feature is the addition of new formulas and functions. As a result Numbers now includes over 250 new functions for wetting your spreadsheet whistle.

Additionally, "table categories" have been added to Numbers. If you are familiar with pivot tables in Excel then the idea of this feature is pretty obvious. Essentially you can now group categories of rows or columns for the purpose of summarization.

Charts has received an update in the form of additional charts as well as the ability to link charts between Numbers and Pages or Keynote. The appearance of the data can be dynamic between the documents while keeping the actual data linked.

iWork.com
Phil also announced today the availability of a new beta service "iWork.com." The focus is on sharing documents rather than online collaboration. The idea is to easily show off your work to friends and colleagues without having to worry about what platform they are using or whether they have a particular application installed.

In addition to hosting the files in the cloud, iWork.com allows users to download the file in either iWork, Office or PDF format for offline viewing at a later time. It is also possible for viewers of your documents to leave time-stamped comments on the documents they are viewing.

While iWork.com requires iWork '09 it is not bundled with the application. Currently the service is a free, public beta; however, when it is officially launched there will likely be some sort of fee for the service. If iWork.com is not bundled with MobileMe in its final form I would really like to see some sort of online collaboration/editing for this service to really be a value.

iWork '09 is available now as a free 30-day trial or you may purchase it from Apple online or in-store for $79 ($99 five-user family pack).
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