iWork for iCloud Updated With Retina Support and Design Improvements, iOS and Mac Updates to Follow

Following the launch of Microsoft's Office apps for iOS, Apple is updating its iWork apps for iCloud, Mac, and iOS, adding some major improvements to compete with Microsoft's Excel, Keynote, and Word.

As noted by 9to5Mac , Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for iCloud have gained updated designs for their document, spreadsheet, and presentation editors along with support for Retina displays. All three apps have also been updated with the ability to share view-only documents and to open documents directly from iCloud Mail.

Individually, Pages has also been updated with new templates, the ability to edit charts in imported documents, and improved text wrap. Numbers now has improved pop-up menu support, and Keynote also allows charts to be edited in imported documents.

A pop-up within the iWork for iCloud apps indicates that Apple also has plans to update Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for both iOS and Mac, with the updates being required to open documents edited in iCloud.

Apple last updated its iWork suite of apps across all platforms in January, adding several new features to improve the software and return functionality that was removed when the new iWork apps were introduced back in September. Apple pledged to improve the apps back in November after facing significant user criticism from power users.