iWork '07 nears release with new spreadsheet app

iWork '07 nears release with new spreadsheet app

By Ryan Katz, Senior Editor

January 5, 2007 - Apple's launch of iWork '07 next week is expected to be touted as one of the company's more significant product launches of the year, most notably due to the addition of a new spreadsheet application. This third component will better enable Apple to compel Mac users to forgo Microsoft Office and consider its offerings instead.

As first reported by Think Secret in July, the application, referred to internally as Lasso and expected to be titled Numbers or Charts, will offer more than 200 hundred functions and full support for importing and exporting Microsoft Excel documents.

In addition, countless templates will offer easy, first-rate options for many popular categories, from personal planning and finance to business marketing and sales.

Since our initial and follow-up reports on Lasso, sources have managed to provide images of the application's icon and default blank interface. It is uknown, however, from what stage of Lasso's development these images date from, and sources caution the final shipping version may differ considerably.

Sources have also passed along additional notes regarding features in Lasso, including many that will transcend all iWork applications, such as conditional formatting in spreadsheets, enabling images to be treated as content in table cells, and an iPhoto-like "heads-up display" interface offering image editing options. Other improvements will focus on the interface, improving how documents are viewed and navigated and allowing multiple inspectors to be snapped together and moved as a group.