Apple strengthens Keynote, Pages and Numbers with new features

is rolling out updates to its Keynote, Pages and Numbers suite on iPhone, iPad and Mac. The next time you give a presentation with Keynote, you can include live video feeds directly on the slides. You can resize the video stream and change the appearance with masks, frames, drop shadows, and highlights.

With the Mac version of Keynote, you can add feeds from multiple external cameras and share a connected iPhone or iPad screen, which could be useful for interactive demos. There are also more collaboration features. A new multi-presenter feature lets anyone control a shared slideshow and advance slides remotely using a Mac, iPhone or iPad. This could be useful for group presentations.

The changes to Pages are largely focused on the iPhone. The on-screen display feature organizes text, images, and other aspects of the document into a single column. Apple has increased the size of the text, while the images are sized to fit your phone screen. You can also view tables by scrolling left and right. Users will still be able to edit documents as usual when onscreen view is active. You don’t have to do anything to configure the feature, and it works with all word processing documents. Apple says you can turn off the on-screen display so you can see the proper layout before you’re ready to share or print the document.

As for Numbers, now you can get to grips with PivotTables on Apple devices. You will be able to summarize, aggregate and reorganize data to spot and study trends and patterns. There are options to view pivot tables with charts and to share pivot data without disclosing source data. You can also import pivot tables and export them to Microsoft Excel.

Elsewhere, there is a new type of chart called a radar chart. Apple says this “makes it easier to visually compare multiple variables with similarities displayed as overlapping areas, allowing differences and outliers to really stand out.” There are new filters you can use to highlight unique entries or duplicate data.

All three apps now support Apple’s new translation tools on iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey. The latest versions of Keynote, Pages, and Numbers are now available on the App Store and the Mac App Store.