iWork closing down ? doesn't sound good !

Re-read the email you got - carefully.

The iWork related features of iCloud are not closing down - iWork.com is closing down. It never made it out of public beta.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5042

It was never moved out of "beta" release.

iWork is the collection of apps (Pages, Numbers & Keynote) that are available for Mac OS X and iOS.

http://www.apple.com/iwork/

iWork.com was just a web-site that allowed uploading and sharing of documents created with the iWork applications.

Beta means unfinished, in the testing stages.

Nearly all software is "unfinished".

iWork.com (Beta) was a test of iCloud services. Now that iCloud is here there is no need for the Web based version of iWork.

One might want to add, that currently ONLY the iWork applications on iOS devices (like on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) can make use of iWork in iCloud and store their files there. The versions of iWork you may have on your Apple COMPUTER currently DO NOT support storing of files in iCloud. We'll have to wait for an update of these versions (which - I guess - might come before the iWork.com website closes) to get that support.

The versions of iWork you may have on your Apple COMPUTER currently DO NOT support storing of files in iCloud.

Well, you have to manually upload them via iCloud.com.

OS X Mountain Lion will support Documents in the Cloud: http://www.apple.com/macosx/mountain-lion/features.html

Release date and price have not been announced yet. It is still in private developer testing.

To my understanding uploading documents MANUALLY to iCloud is not possible (before it was possible with MobileMe's iDisk). Only if a program supports storing files in iCloud you may choose to store it there (or locally on your hard disk)

You would have to use a third party solution (like the free Dropbox or Wuala ) to share documents between computers (or computers and iOS devices as they also offer Apps for iPhone/iPad).

christian

PS: as Apple writes on their website once you habe an iWork app on your iOS device you should be able to transfer it from MAC to iPhone/iPad.:

Documents in the Cloud. And on your Mac or PC.

iCloud makes it easy to move Pages, Keynote, and Numbers documents between your computer and your iOS devices. Just sign in to icloud.com/iwork in any modern web browser, and all your iWork for iOS documents will be there — complete with your most recent edits. Click a document to download it in iWork ’09, Microsoft Office, or PDF format. You can also drag and drop any iWork ’09 or Microsoft Office document from your computer into one of the iWork apps on icloud.com, and it automatically appears on all your iOS devices, ready for you to review, edit, or present.

Message was edited by: Christian Theussl

> To my understanding uploading documents MANUALLY to iCloud is not possible

See the "Drag and drop a document from a Mac or Windows computer to icloud.com" section of: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2704