With the release of iOS 12, Apple has released updates for the iWork suite of apps including Keynote, Numbers, and Pages. They are all updated to version 4.2
• Use Smart Categories to quickly organize and summarize tables to gain new insights.
• Group your data based on unique values and date ranges, including day of week, day, week, month, quarter, and year.
• Instantly show count, subtotal, average, maximum, and minimum values for columns in each group.
• Create charts of your summarized data.
• Easily reorder categories to see your data in a different way.
• Easily save drawings to Photos or Files, or share them with others.
• Support for Siri Shortcuts. Requires iOS 12.
• Numbers now supports Dynamic Type.
• Enhance your spreadsheets with a variety of new editable shapes.
• Performance and stability improvements.
Keynote has the following updates:
• Adjust text size in presenter notes and invert colors while presenting.
• Easily save drawings to Photos or Files, or share them with others.
• Support for Siri Shortcuts. Requires iOS 12.
• Keynote now supports Dynamic Type.
• Enhance your presentations with a variety of new editable shapes.
• Performance and stability improvements.
• Animate your drawings and watch them come to life in a document or book.
• When using Smart Annotation, lines connecting text to annotations in the side margins stretch and move with edits.
• Annotations now anchor to table cells.
• Easily save drawings to Photos or Files, or share them with others.
• Support for Siri Shortcuts. Requires iOS 12.
• Adjust the line spacing before and after a paragraph, and set the width for columns of text.
• Pages now supports Dynamic Type.
• Enhance your documents with a variety of new editable shapes.
• Performance and stability improvements.
Apple has released an update to Workflow, the productivity app Shortcuts will work with iOS 12 and Siri. The app allows you to create personal shortcuts or a series of steps from your favorite apps. There are over 300 built in actions that work with Contact, Calendar, Maps, Music, Photos, Camera, Reminders, Safari, Health and other apps that support Siri Shortcuts.
According to Apple, you can use the Shortcuts app to:
* Get directions home, send your ETA and start listening to the news, just by asking Siri
* Add a home screen icon that calls a loved one
* Make animated GIFs
* Make PDFs from Safari or any app with a share sheet
* Get directions to the nearest coffee shop in one tap
* Tweet the song you’re listening to
* Get all of the images on a web page
* Send a message including the last screenshot you took
The app works with iPhone and iPads that support iOS 12. To learn more about the the release, you can review Apple’s support page.
OmniFocus 3 is a tool to allow your mind to dump all the little reminders it has into one organized place. If you try to keep up with tasks, projects and events, OmniFocus 3 is an invaluable tool. Version 3 for iOS just launched after being available for pre-order.
The developer is offering a 2 week free trial and there are upgradeable features with in app purchases. If you bought earlier versions of OmniFocus for iOS, there are discounted prices.
“Use OmniFocus to accomplish more every day. Create projects and tasks, organize them with tags, focus on what you can do”
The app works with iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch devices.
If you already have a prior version, the below video describes some new features.
Apple has updated Keynote, Pages and Numbers for iOS.
According to Apple “For the first time, users will be able to draw, sketch or write with Apple Pencil directly in the Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps. With Apple Pencil, advanced yet easy-to-use tools allow all users, from students to professionals, to bring their documents to life with drawings, illustrations, diagrams and more. Apple Pencil can also be used to easily and precisely add color, texture and more to any drawing.”
Book creation is now possible in Pages for iOS and macOS allowing users to collaborate in real time.
You can read more about the various updates including Box integration, Donut Charts and more here.
If you use the Lexis legal research service, you will find the updated Lexis Advance® HD app a useful tool to allow you to research on the go.
You can search the various services you have access to including State, Federal, Practice Areas and more.
The information is displayed in an easy to see format and you can easily filter the information. When you find a case of interest, you can see it displayed along with the citation and various hyperlinks in the case will take you to the cases and statutes cited.
One helpful feature is the ability to download cases, statutes and other files and store them locally for reference later.
The developer states:
With the Lexis Advance app, you can:
• View and annotate documents while offline with ability to sync changes!
• View alerts instantly
• Stay organized with remote access to saved files and folders
• Access favorites, previous research results quickly and search within results
• Ensure your research is “good law” with Shepard’s®
• Browse Sources and access Table of Contents
• Highlight and annotate text within documents
• Deliver documents via email, wireless printing or one-click PDF options
So, if you already have the service, you should try the app to take your research on the go. This app works on the iPhone as well.
Apple has released an update to iOS 11 to address an issue with the keyboard auto-correct and where “Hey Siri” stops working.
To update, connect to a Wi-Fi network and tap on Settings > Software Update and download and install. As usual, it is always best to back up your device first. You can read more about the update process here.
Workflow is an app that lets you string together steps or actions you may perform on your iOS device into a single tap. The steps allow you to manage your media, share content, create and send notes, tweets and more. The app is now an Apple product.
There are 3 basic concepts for the app. Creating, running and managing workflows.
Creating
A workflow is a series of actions that accomplish a task.
credit Workflow
The app allows you to organize the actions and tap once to begin them with each step like a falling domino that leads to the next until the task is complete.
credit Workflow
A single action could be Get Latest Photo, Edit Image or Post on Facebook. If you combine the three, you can tap once and perform all three together to get an image, crop it and then post on Facebook.
Running
You can run a workflow from within the app or from outside the app by using Spotlight, the Today Widget, your Apple Watch and more.
Managing
Each workflow is represented by a button like icon.
Credit Workflow
You can arrange or rearrange them similar to your home screen. You can even choose to have workflows appear in the widget.
Advanced Steps
You can learn about more advanced steps, like using variables, choosing from a list or menu in the advanced workflow documentation.
The “documentation” for Workflow can be found here.
A YouTube video posted by AppChasers walks through the process in about 12 minutes.
The app had a bunch of updates recently that include:
Optimized for iOS 11 and iPhone X
Drag and drop content onto a workflow to run the workflow with that input
Added HEIF support to the Convert Image action
Added HEVC support to the Encode Media action
Added support for iOS 11 Health data types: Insulin Delivery, V02 Max, Waist Circumference, Resting Heart Rate, Walking Heart Rate Average, and Heart Rate Variability
Added the ability to retrieve and save multiple files at a time in the Get File and Save File actions
Added the ability to specify a default “From” address for the compose sheet in the Send Email action
Add TaskPaper to OmniFocus now supports adding TaskPaper under specific folders, projects, and tasks
Bug Fixes
Fixed the Tweet and Post on Facebook actions on iOS 11
Fixed an issue where text items could unexpectedly be converted to image metadata dictionaries
Fixed an issue where granting access to Ulysses may not work
Fixed an issue where workflows launched from the Complication would not run on watchOS 4
Fixed an issue where the Text action may randomly scroll to the top while typing
Fixed an issue where the Send Message via WhatsApp action contact field did not work properly
Fixed an issue where the Convert Image action may crash in the Today Widget or Action Extension
Fixed an issue where the Show Directions action may not use the correct travel mode when opening Google Maps
Fixed an issue where messaging the attendees of an event may include yourself
Fixed an issue where VoiceOver may not focus on an action after it’s added to a workflow
Fixed an issue where the Select Photos action did not work with VoiceOver when “Select Multiple” was turned on
Fixed an issue where a Workflow Input variable may not be editable after being added from the variable bar
Fixed a crash when inserting variables into the List and Dictionary actions
Fixed an issue where some files may not be selectable in the Dropbox and Box file pickers
Fixed an issue where a ghost workflow may appear while workflows are being reordered
Fixed an issue where passing a comma-separated list of email addresses into the Send Email action did not work
Fixed an issue where the Get Contents of URL action did not support passing a JSON body in DELETE requests
Fixed an issue where saving a file to Dropbox when a file already exists with the same name did not properly append a number to the filename
