There was massive speculation in the run up to Macworld that iWork was about to enter ‘the cloud’. To a certain extent that prediction came true in the form of iWork.com. This article is an easy step by step guide for anyone thinking of jumping to iWork 09 and using iWork.com. It should be noted that iWork.com is still currently in beta and therefore some of the features mentioned may change when it goes live.
During the Macworld Keynote there was mention of a paid subscription but I am hoping the service is included with the MobileMe service. Currently during the beta users have 1GB of data.
Sharing via iWork is a very simple process. Firstly open the iWork file you want to share. Apple are going to great lengths to promote the iWork.com service by putting the icon right the centre of the toolbar, you really can’t miss it (see the screenshot above).
The first stage in sharing is to login with your AppleID.
We used out MobileMe account to login to iWork.com and if you don’t have MobileMe then your AppleID will be your iTunes username and password. The next screen offers a range of sharing and naming options. I have opened the ‘Advanced’ settings to show what is on offer.
I think the ability to download the file in a range of formats is a really nice feature especially if you plan to share with users who are not using a Mac.
Clicking the ‘Share’ button starts the upload to iWork.com
Once the upload is complete you will prompted that the file will be available for 120 days. I am assuming this is down the fact we taking in part in a beta and would hope to be able to store files for indefinitely on final release.
Both you and the person/people you are sharing the document with will receive a similarly formated email and a link to the file.
The iWork.com offers a really nice graphical user interface. Remember though it offers the ability to share iWork files it doesn’t (at this stage anyway) offer any formatting tools so users are limited to adding comments or downloading the file to their own computer.
iWork.com responded well to changing the slides and there was little or no load time. I think I would go as far as saying that I wished my MobileMe web galleries responded equally well.
The interface itself is very like iWork so it is easy to predict we are likely to see more tools added to the interface as it develops. By visiting http://publishing.iwork.com you can view a list of the current files you are sharing and how much of the 1GB you have left.
Certainly iWork.com has limits when compared to the massive collaboration features offered by Google Docs. That said if you produce a lot of iWork documents that are shared with others this service could offer some really great potential.
There are plenty of occasions when an important Keynote presentation has to be previewed by a number of people. Now instead of having to visit people with a Macbook a single email (and the ability to comment) will make life much easier. For this reason alone iWork.com is a real benefit !
You can download a trial of the new iWork now from the Apple site or buy it (and pre-order iLife) from the Apple Store You can also get the iPhone / Touch Keynote remote application here.
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