I downloaded the new versions very quickly; there hadn’t been much info about the upgrade previously & thought I didn’t have a choice. I only upgraded Pages & Numbers, I don’t use Keynote. Didn’t like the upgraded versions of either. I saw dialog boxes that encouraged me to delete Numbers & Pages 14.5. Instead, I deleted the upgraded Creator Studio versions of Pages & Numbers. Now use only Pages & Numbers 14.5. Hoping I can stay w/those for awhile as my Mac is less than a year old.
If there are more changes to the Creator Studio that do detract from versions 14.5, I will consider one of the other suites previously mentions. Will not stick w/the Creator Studio versions, will not go back to Microsoft suites, nor rely on Google/gmails document/spreadsheet apps. I will look at others that were previously mentioned.This had turned into a big mess and feels very far from the early days of apple. Highly disappointingl
I experienced the same confusion you discuss. But I’m a heavy user of the iWork suite (I like it SO much better than the MS suite). So, as an educator, I have subscribed to the “freemium” Creator Studio product, with a very substantial discount which made it an easy decision. My exploration of the so-called “premium” content is disappointing. Apple’s newly added templates for the iWork suite are simplistic, brash, inelegant. Maybe there are creators who would watch a Keynote presentation in those dizzying neon background patterns and colors, but for some of us, a fresh look would be easy-on-the-eyes, rich with soothing colors and clean, elegant fonts. (I create those myself all the time, but Apple has artists much more talented than me.) And the clip art is simplistic.
The easy-to-navigate “shapes” menu has been “simplified",” but that’s thrown most shapes into the “Content Hub,” requiring extra steps to locate. And despite the “premium,” there’s still no “search” function within “shapes;” we’re required to scroll through rows of black-and-white objects and icons sorted into groups which should be intuitive, but often aren’t (You’ll find a bra and computer objects under “objects",” but a camera or microphone shapes are under “arts.”)
Attempting to use a photo as a slide background now offers the choice to select a photo from outside Keynote… but not to select one from the product’s own premium “Content Hub.”
Just a few observations which I think suggest this “freemium” concept was hastily conceived and remains essentially in "beta” status.
(I’m not a user of the other high-end paid Creator Studio apps - yet. So I’m offering only comments about the iWork components.)
I am clamoring for new features. Specifically, I have recently become a hardcore Numbers user, to the point that I am wishing for far more advanced books on the subject than I have been able to find. What I want—a lot—is a built-in AI that knows Numbers back and forth and can tell me how the heck to do what I want to do (very much in the How Siri Could Become the Mac’s New Help System - TidBITS vein, which I had not yet read when I posted this). This is how all complex apps are going to be built in the future (until AI just does it all for us), and I would like it right now. I’d be happy to pay $30/year (though probably not $130) for that feature, if it actually worked.
Apple is evidently so blinded by greed that they don’t realize what a bad taste it leaves in the mouths of their customers when they are squeezed for a few extra dollars by a company that is already making more money than they can count.
I am becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Apple software (the hardware is still very good, although they are slipping there too, e.g. no LED on MacBooks to tell if it’s on, sleeping or off). The bundling of these ‘productivity’ apps with ‘creativity’ apps seems illogical to me and certainly not customer satisfaction driven.
I am holding off upgrading any of the ‘works’ apps for now, as I am holding off upgrading the OS on my iPhone, iPad and MacOS devices for as long as I can. Although I use Numbers a lot, I can always move my spreadsheets to Excel as I have MS Office 365 as part of a family plan (that doesn’t cost nearly as much as Apple’s creator studio subscription) in case Apple decides to make Numbers paid only.
I hope someone at Apple will come to their senses and make the company more customer satisfaction driven as they were in the (far) past. Good products attract loyal customers which creates profit in the long run. Profit driven products create dissatisfied customers that leave, lowering profit in the long run.
I’m extremely disappointed with Apple. It’s almost like it’s a personal insult aimed at all those of us who’ve spent years defending the company and thinking that only Apple had the users interests at heart.
It’s obviously very naïve of me, but I’m beginning to question if I will even get an Apple product again. Wasn’t it enough that they sold the hardware and we were happy to pay the “premmium” because we remembered when Apple nearly disappeared. I have been using the company’s products for years - since I was in school and all the way through to a PhD … anyway. Who cares. The accountants have completely taken over Apple like every other company. What happened to the engineers? (I remember as a child it was touch and go if Apple would even survive - I know I’m talking a long time ago)
Sorry for the personal “rant”, but I felt this personally. I think my relationship with Apple has changed forever. (And not for the better, certainly it’s better that I am more cynical).
Speaking personally, I’ve never found the iWork apps to be of much use. Whenever I’ve tried them, they always displayed mayor defects, such as Pages not supporting linked graphics, resulting in massive files, or Numbers not supporting cell protection, rendering it useless for all but the most trivial cases. Mind you, some of these issues may have been fixed: I am well behind the most recent upgrades.
I still maintain my old Adobe pre-subscription apps under emulation. After all, I paid (a lot) for them, so why should I pay all over again?
I feel similarly - check out my Logic Pro 12 rant elsewhere where Apple has un-abled my sample sets (i can’t instantiate them but they should play in old projects however - that is half baked) built on their OWN sample architecture. …Also Subscription services are sold like a have/have not thing. Memory (for hardware) and cloud Disk space from stingy old Apple is expensive! It’s elitist and I would bet Steve Jobs would be on the rampage to find this happening. Very disappointing. (bear in mind, for what it’s worth, - windows is worse…)
I think that’s right. Despite the lip service toward “elegance” and “beauty”, Apple seems to have been pushing garish wallpaper and templates for the past few years, starting around Big Sur.
I still think of Steve Jobs remarking that Microsoft had “no taste” long ago, and the moment years later when I was sitting in front of a new Windows 11 desktop and a Big Sur desktop, thinking that the roles had reversed.
I just opened all the docs in my Open Recent list in the new apps (while having Recents open in Finder to help what was just opened, or maybe taking a screenshot might help. ;-), before deleting the old apps. Took only a few minutes.
Classic Apple method of pulling people onto newer OS’s via other means other than Software Update in settings app. Inevitable obviously, but still annoying if you want to remain on the earlier OS for whatever reason on a machine.
The new 15.1 versions are exactly the same as the 14.5 old ones in free features as well as look and feel, just with the additional options for the subscription stuff highlighted in purple (you can delete them if they’re in the Toolbar).
A more sensible idea would be to keep the new 15.1 versions and use them for free just as you used the previous 14.x versions, as you’ll at least get new free features and more importantly the important security patches as they arrive in future. That’s what I’m doing as a regular user of them (without subscribing!).
Anyway, my main gripe with the subscription model here, is that some features should have been offered for free outside the subscription for very little or no cost for Apple, while keeping the content options behind the subscription.
For example, features like Magic Fill could have been included, perhaps along with the templates, for very little to no cost for Apple. While those items that cost more serious amounts to Apple, like Content Library features (stock photos, etc.) and heavier on-server AI features, could have been in the subscription.
But let me guess, that wouldn’t have been enough of a pull factor for users to subscribe, would it Apple?!
My problem w/the new versions was the amount of customization I’d need to make to have the toolbars & overall screen appear as they did in the older version. A lot of what felt, to me, like clutter needed to be moved/hidden/deleted. I don’t use Word or Numbers for anything very complicated - all personal use - have used both for approx 25 years, & they fit my needs.
Maybe I’m too old or too lazy; don’t really want to put so much effort into using something I’ve used for so long. Yes, there have been updates/upgrades over the years & I appreciate that. But not such a big visual change. It felt as if I was using completely new word processing & spreadsheet applications. Yes, I’m that old that I still think of apps as applications, that’s what they used to be called; you wrote a program to develop an application. Don’t want to go thru such massive customization & hunt/search for the features I use regularly.
The other concern is what does this bode for the future? Is “freemium” temporary & eventually customers will have to pay for Pages & Numbers?
While I agree with your concerns, I really don’t think Apple will suddenly pull the app from being free with its core functionalities at any point, as they full well know that users will need to access their current and older docs forever and they offered the apps as completely free for years (even MS Office docs can be viewed/edited online for free and in other non-MS apps easily). These paid-for features are all stock libraries and or AI features that cost Apple money to provide (photographers/videographers get paid for those stock pics/vids, and the in-cloud AI features require server costs), which most people won’t need and can easily ignore.
I too don’t use the iWork apps for heavy stuff really either, and they look almost identical to the 14.x versions, so I’m not sure what you mean by them being full of clutter that causes problems, because the few extras in there can easily be simply ignored.
My plan is to stick with the 14 branch until Apple adds to the 15 branch some features I actually want. Or bug/security fixes that are documented so that I know what I’m actually getting. That’s when I’ll hop over (or if they break doc compatibility).
I’m not looking forward to having to recreate my highly customized toolbars (as @sf.ross indicates above). I sometime wonder if perhaps I rely on that a whole lot more than most others. Especially, when folks suggest the “nuke and pave” approach to trouble, I always wonder how they can accept the massive fallout that comes from having to re-adjust so much just to get your productivity back to where it was. But perhaps not everybody has spent endless hours configuring each and every one of their apps and their app toolbars to be exactly as they want. I always thought that might be more of a Mac thing compared to the Windows world, but perhaps times have changed and these days the majority of the professional Mac world just doesn’t do that as much as I’d think or I do. Maybe this is all just me wading around in consensus bias.
That’s indeed the plan.
This is actually an advantage of the way Apple is doing this. You’ll end up with two apps so you can actually use one as the template for setting up the other.
The toolbar in Pages 15 was completely different than my toolbar in 14.5; never bothered downloading Numbers 15. Several things I didn’t needed were in the toolbar, much of what I routinely use wasn’t there. There were also big differences in what appeared in the Menus at the top of the page.
I did try, as you suggested, opening both apps side-by-side & started to “fix” Pages 15 to meet my needs. It was still cumbersome & time-consuming. Once I understood the upgrade to Pages 15 wasn’t necessary, I stopped configuring it & just deleted it.
Like Simon, I have spent a lot of time (over the years) configuring Pages, Numbers, & other apps to meet my needs. But that was generally done slowly & over time; either my needs changed or there were slight updates in an app. Having toolbars & such customized are a big time saver to me. But unless an app is a completely new one for me, spending lots of time customizing just doesn’t work for me.
Don’t want to go thru such massive customization & hunt/search for the features I use regularly.
