Small business owners and employees know the value of working across multiple devices. This allows you to access your documents from where ever you are without needing to lug a laptop or other device with you. Apple recently opened a beta of its iWork for iCloud free to all users with an Apple ID account letting you do just that.
The office suite package lets you create letters and other documents, create professional looking graphics and presentations, and edit document pages easily, according to reviews.
Comparable to Google Drive or SkyDrive
The new iWork suite is comparable to Google Drive or free Word, Excel and Powerpoint features available free through Microsoft’s SkyDrive. (iWork is compatible with Microsoft Office, by the way, meaning you can drag your Word, Excel and Powerpoint files into iWork’s file manager and edit them there.)
Reviews are mixed about how iWork stands up to these competitors. PC Magazine suggests the new suite doesn’t offer much not available already from the other two services.
Although Apple has apparently already had to limit the beta due to overwhelming public response. Apple is expected to formally launch the service in the fall.
The Important Thing About iWork
The most important thing about iWork for iCloud may be that it adds yet another tool for businesses of all sizes and professionals in many fields to work on documents from any computer or device.
In fact, as Apple points out in its introduction of the service, you can even do a presentation on another computer by simply accessing your iCloud account.
To get started with iWork you will need to either sign in to iCloud from your Mac or other Apple device or follow setup instructions for your Windows PC. See a demonstration of iWork for iCloud below.
Image: Apple
iWork for iCloud seems pretty impressive. The flexibility to drag and drop images, add frames, resize on the go, etc certainly makes it worthwhile to check it out during launching period. The beta version already looks attractive and I shall be looking out for it for the full version.
I love the versatility. At this age, it is nice to have everything in one place. Flash drives can get lost and hard drives can get corrupted. It feels safe that you can have all your files in one place and access it on the go.
Joshua Sophy
I’m sure that it’s going to be difficult for some loyal Google Drive users to up and switch overnight. I’m one of those and I think I may have to just stay envious of some of the capabilities with iWork until they’re eventually added to Google Drive apps.
Then again … some of the page design features shown in the preview video look pretty slick and could sway some users from Drive.
The drawback, if you don’t have iOS you cannot create an account. Some people said “what would be the reason to sign up for an iCloud if you don’t use iOS” but I have plenty of reasons to do that.