Apple wants you making keynotes people can climb into

by Jonny Evans · September 21, 2023

The expression “climb into a good book” is likely to get even more meaningful in the next year or so – why else would Apple have just added augmented reality support to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote?

iWork, now with USDZ

No, you’re not hearing things, this is the deal. That deal is that new versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps are available in the App Store now –

Can anyone out there remember the slight frisson of excitement we felt when we though eBooks would carry video, sound and other content designed to make them even more impactful in a digital age? Now we’ll get books we can literally climb into, because what starts with pages turns into chapters and ends up being a global encyclopaedia you can explore in AR.

The big deal is that 3D objects in the USDZ format are now available in Pages, Numbers, and Keynote across all platforms.

What about presentations?

Even better, in Keynote, you can now play embedded animations within USDZ files or use Magic Move to animate 3D objects across slides on all platforms. Think about the ways people will be able to use visionOS to make presentations that pop.

With that in mind, Keynote will also let you export your presentation in ProRes formats on iPhone and iPad. You also gain new dynamic themes and live video slide layouts.

Across all three apps, additional features available with platform updates will enable adding Stickers using the keyboard or drag and drop, see inline predictions for text as you type, begin collaborating on a document, spreadsheet, or presentation with others while on a FaceTime call, and find and open suggested documents when searching with Spotlight.