iWork.com beta adds Keynote animations, presentation embedding
Users of Apple's iWork.com public beta received an email this morning with an "important service message" about new features and enhancements to the service.
In the email, Apple notes that it's now possible to play back Keynote '09 presentations on the Web with videos and animations. Over 15 animations work as expected, and video, hyperlinks and audio are all usable in the presentations. This new capability provides a way for iWork.com users to display Keynote presentations in such a way that they can be viewed by anyone running the most recent version of Safari on a Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. On the iOS devices, swiping the screen advances slides. To see a demo of a Keynote '09 presentation on the Web, click here.
Apple also announced new publishing options for public sharing and private online storage of iWork '09 documents. Documents can be uploaded for private storage and then accessed from anywhere, while documents can be shared on social networks using a public link created by iWork.com. For those who wish to embed presentations into websites or blogs, iWork.com will now create an embed code.
The service is still free of charge during the beta program, and it's unknown whether Apple will charge for the service when it comes out of beta. It's also uncertain if this new capability is part of a buildup to a rollout of the long-awaited iWork '11.
