At its education event, Apple has announced new versions of its iWork suite. Updates to Pages, Keynote and Numbers for iPad will bring rich integration with Apple Pencil.
Pages will also integrate book authoring features, as a replacement for the iBooks Author Mac app.
With the new updates, users will be able to add drawings and annotations to Keynote, Numbers and Pages documents just by writing on it with the Apple Pencil stylus.
Pages has a special version of this inking tech called Smart Annotation. The underlines and annotations are not just sitting free-form on the page, they are attached to the words around them.
In this example, you can see how the circled word ‘about’ flows when the text around it changes. The annotation moves with the words it relates to.
Pages will also integrate a facility to make digital books for classrooms. Previously, teachers required a Mac with iBooks Author to do this.
Now, it’ll be built into the Pages app available on iOS, macOS, and iCloud.com. Book authors can include photos, videos, graphics from Apple Pencil and more. Share finished books into iBooks.
The book authoring can be created collaboratively as a group project. Teachers can annotate sent in documents to mark work.
Aside from annotation, Pages will add a new Presenter Mode essentially transforming the iPad into a teleprompter. You can set a screen of text to autoscroll at an adjustable speed.
The updates are coming soon to the App Store. As always, iWork is free for all iOS users.
