iWork '08: Preliminary Upgrade Report

Last Updated 08.29.2007

Apple's iWork '08 package, containing Keynote 4.0, along with Pages 3.0 and the new Numbers spreadsheet application, became available August 7th, 2007. We've since had an opportunity to perform ongoing evaluations of the new features, along with any potential compatibility issues with our themes and templates built for prior versions of Keynote and Pages.

We're pleased to report that you shouldn't encounter any issues running your older Keynote themes or Pages template files in the newer iWork '08 versions - in fact there are even fewer issues in this upgrade as compared to the iWork '05 > iWork '06 upgrade path, with a few lingering issues being addressed along the way.

This Upgrade Report will be updated as more information comes to light - check back often if you encounter questions that we have not yet covered.

Notable Changes: Keynote

Keynote 4 has introduced "Picture Frame" stroke styles - a nice, albeit currently limited leap forward from the Photo-Mask paradigm used in previous versions of Keynote. This feature allows you to move and resize your photos on the slide with masking effects/styles intact as you do so - surely a highly requested advance over the standard mask-based approach of earlier versions. Older Keynote themes using the mask-based approach (any theme or presentation created in Keynote 3.x or earlier) still operate as expected in Keynote 4.0 - though newer themes built using the new Picture Frame strokes will lend a bit more flexibility to any slide-level customizations moving forward. As noted by Brian and Ken at KeynoteUser.com, however, the real limitation thus far to this approach, for theme-building purposes, appears to be the nature of how these frame styles are stored within the application itself - not as a folder-level extension that can be installed with a theme, but rather a part of the program package itself. This means that for the time being, any themes built to take advantage of this new approach are limited to the built-in Picture-Frame styles installed in Keynote 4.0 - more complex photo styles that veer from these generic frames (like our new Pavilion '08 theme, for instance) will have to rely on the tried and true photo-masking style of earlier releases. Hopefully Apple will clarify or implement a process by which we can install custom Picture Frame styles in future theme releases.

Also new to Keynote 4.0 is "Export to iPod" functionality. This allows you to export your presentation as an iPod compatible Quicktime directly into iTunes for syncing in a single step. This is a great convenience to anyone using our EP Themes, as it's a single-step export process from Keynote to iTunes. We'd recommend using this feature with caution, however, on non-EP optimized themes - the export process does not address font scaling or title-safe issues inherent in scaling down standard-sized presentations for viewing on the iPod's small screen, making it little more than novelty when used with presentations that aren't built specifically for that scale unless you're not concerned about readability. But using an EP theme as your base produces great looking files with no additional tweaks necessary - Keynote exports it directly to iTunes, ready for your next sync. We hope similar functionality is added to enable simple export to the iPhone as well, but for the time being, if you're using one of our iPhone-specific themes you'll need to go the Quicktime export route.

Keynote 4.0 also adds both Photo and Text placeholders - you'll see stock photos in place throughout any of Apple's new themes, as well as assorted 3rd level text placeholders in some of the new themes. While we'll address the photo placeholders aspect in future releases, we're quite pleased to see the Text Placeholder functionality added at long last. Text Placeholders on slides allow us to finally jump beyond the Title/Text-only aspect of slide masters - in short, specialized or utility slide masters can be built directly into a theme, rather than stuffed into a Supplemental file for Copy + Paste. For PitchBoards users - this will allow, for instance, all of the Supplemental Slide information to be built directly into the theme so you can edit directly on your new slide rather than dragging or copying the information from the Supplemental file each and every time. This should prove to be a real time saver for workflow, and allow us to shake the dust off some shelved theme designs that would have proven cumbersome in previous Keynote releases - a big Thanks to Apple on this one.

A quick note re: Photo Placeholders. We were planning to include these in the Pavilion '08 release, but ran into a minor snag: photo placeholders default to the front of a slide on Master Slide level. As a user, you can send them to back, etc via the Arrange menu - you're in control there - but on a design like Pavilion, where we're relying on Photo Masking to add the Post Objects, you'd then have to send your photo to back on each and every slide, sort of defeating the purpose of adding the convenience in the first place. This is really only an issue in legacy-style photo masking themes, but it's worth noting for any future releases that might rely, even partially, on photo masks.

Mixing themes into a single Keynote document is now VASTLY improved. As some of you may know, when you copy slides from one theme into a presentation created with a different theme altogether, the masters behind the slides you're moving in get copied as well. In Keynote 3, this created a lot of confusion as you never knew quite which theme you were them selecting from when you went to add a new slide. In Keynote '08, each theme gets its own icon in the Masters list, with that theme's masters becoming a child list from the theme itself. So let's say you're using Tokyo RPG, and you want to include slides from all 3 colors. In your presentation, you can paste in slides from the other 2 colors (adding their masters to the presentation), and when you add a new slide, you can then go to the Masters button, then select which color library to draw from, then select the master you want. Masters from pasted-in themes are limited to the slide types you've pasted in, of course, but that's easy enough to get around. All in all - this is one of the best little touches added to this Upgrade if you're the type to mix things up a bit.

Notable Changes: Pages

On the Pages side of the equation, the new version brings subtle but important changes. Our templates built for Pages 1 & 2 will continue to work the way you're used to, though they are now considered "Word Processing Mode" templates. Apple's own Brochures and Newsletters have migrated to the new "Page Layout Mode," meaning they work more like true page-layout templates (no running Body, linkable text boxes, etc) than the hybrid we were used to in previous versions. This should make new templates much faster to produce (yes, we hear you), though there may be further subtleties to this difference that we won't see until we're building entirely new templates with Pages 3. Either way, they a **lot** easier to use in terms of building brochures, newsletter, or any type of complex non letter-style document. This should really open up the valves on our Pages production, so keep your eyes open.

The new Pages '08 template/document model includes another subtle change that should improve template distribution at the very least: US + ISO template specifications now live in the same physical template file. So, no more selection of US vs ISO format when you're installing one of our templates - just a single group of files to place. While we'll still need to do additional testing to see any potential ramifications of this change on final document distribution, it looks promising thusfar.

Moving Forward

Themes created in Keynote 4 contain an enhanced document structure that is not readable in Keynote 3.x or previous versions - the same is true for templates created with Pages 3. Our current library (as of 08/08/2007) is compatible with earlier versions of Keynote and Pages as noted on each pages Requirements section - these are all of course compatible with the new iWork '08 versions as well. New themes released after this date will be compatible with Keynote 4 / Pages 3 only - so if you're haven't upgraded, be sure to check the Requirements section of any theme you're considering for purchase. If there is sufficient demand for themes and templates to be iWork '06 compatible, we can explore the option thanks to the "Save for iWork '06" feature - but we would prefer to keep our focus on the latest version of iWork moving forward so that the assumed baseline feature set for any given theme or template is universal in nature.

We're now going to be moving to a date-based naming system for all of our themes and templates, a-la the Pavilion '08 release. We've seen a bit of confusion over the last couple of years as to which theme or template goes with which version of Keynote or Pages respectively, and have sought to address this in a few different way on the site - but it seems that moving to this date based approach will make it as clear as we possibly can. We'll be migrating the library over to this nomenclature as each theme goes through its usual upgrade cycle.

This page will be updated as more information is available. Last Updated 08.29.2007