iWork for the Mac

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iWork is the Suite of software available on the Mac used to produce documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.  It includes Pages, Keynote, and Numbers.  Each program functions as follows:
  • Pages: Word Processing
  • Keynote: Slide-Based Presentations
  • Numbers: Spreadsheets
These three programs work very well with the other native components on a Mac computer.  They can easily import photos, videos, music, and sounds from the media libraries found on the mac.  They work very well with the programs in the iLife Suite (Garageband, iPhoto, and iMovie) and iTunes.  This allows you to easily utilize multimedia in your composition.

iWork in the Classroom

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The tools found in these programs are quite intuitive, making it very easy to teach students how to utilize them.  These programs are installed on all Canyons District Mac computers.  The advantage with using iWork is in the interface and the accessibility to the other multimedia components on the Mac computers.  iWork is very comparable to the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Powerpoint, and Excel).  Many Microsoft Office documents/presentations/spreadsheets can be opened in an iWork program.  Once students have finished a project, the result can be saved in a universal format that can be opened, but not edited on a computer that does not have iWork installed.  The formats would be: Pages (pdf), Numbers (csv), and Keynote (mov).

Uses:

1.  Very compatible with other Apple programs.
2.  Students and Teachers can create professional presentations and documents.
3.  Include great templates that are easy to edit and customize.

Limitations:

1.  Not available on PC platforms except through iCloud.
2.  Sometimes formatting can be a challenge when converting from a Microsoft Office document/presentation/spreadsheet.

Specific iWork Programs:

Links:

Tutorials for iWork Programs