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Improved iWork file sharing coming in Mountain Lion

15.06.2012
If you've ever tried to share an iWork file between Macs and iOS devices via iCloud, you know that it doesn't work very well. The essential problem, as , is that iWork documents on the two platforms use different file formats. This means that when you edit an iWork document on one platform (an iPhone, for example), the matching document on the other platform (a Mac, in this example) is not automatically updated to reflect the change. There is no true syncing of iWork documents between platforms.

Exciting news! This is all about to change...for the better. At Monday's , Apple vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi revealed a new feature of : iWork automatic syncing via Documents in the Cloud.

Surprisingly, aside from the Keynote demo, Apple has barely mentioned this coming change. The tech media have similarly not given the new feature the attention I believe it deserves. So here I am to correct this oversight.

In Mountain Lion, you will be able to live update an iWork document across platforms. That is, not only will there be automatic syncing of files, but the syncing can take place even if the same file is simultaneously open on more than one device. About 50 minutes into the keynote, Federighi showed this new feature in action: After editing a Pages document on an iPhone, the same document, already open on a Mac, updated itself on the Mac's display. Very slick!

Although cited as a new feature of Mountain Lion, I assume this live syncing will also require updates to other components before it kicks into gear. It will certainly require new versions of the iWork apps for both the Mac and iOS platforms. It will likely also require changes to the iCloud software and possibly the release of iOS 6.

A few questions remain unanswered for now: