Apple to return features to iLife, iWork

When Apple released its latest product line—including new iPhones, iPads and Macs—the company also announced some software upgrades. 

Some of that news was enough to make customers cheer. For example, Apple announced that anyone who buys a new Apple product will receive the iWork and iLife suite of apps for free. Previously, this software had to be purchased separately.

Consisting of three office apps, iWork allows for word processing, spreadsheet creation and presentation design. On the other hand, iLife is meant for home use and features programs for photos, videos and music editing.

Although many were happy with this news, others, especially heavy users of Apple's software, were less enthused. That's because in redesigning the programs, Apple ended up removing some key features.

For example, Pages, the word processing program included with iWork, used to have a customizable toolbar, endnotes and many different templates. All of those were removed when the program was updated.

However, this did not remain the case for long. Faced with numerous complaints from users, Apple announced recently that it would be updating the software again to return many of these features. 

"In rewriting these applications, some features from iWork '09 were not available for the initial release," read a recent post on the Apple website. "We plan to reintroduce some of these features in the next few releases and will continue to add brand-new features on an ongoing basis."

These changes will likely make Apple's software more appealing to Mac owners who have never tried it before. Though they may need help from Apple consulting to learn it, they should find it useful.