<p>Apple issued a number of updates to its iWork suite of productivity apps today, in a move that added some key functionality for competing with Microsoft Office.</p><p>The new updates have filled in a few missing features, including improved compatibility with importing documents from Office 2013, so that it's easier for users of Apple's suite to open up files produced by Office and have them maintain their formatting and composition. All three of the apps also got the ability to export files as password-protected Office documents, so that it's possible for users to share sensitive information with their Windows counterparts.</p><p>Numbers, Apple's spreadsheet program, has gotten all of its AppleScript support back, something that users had been missing since its upgrade in October. Until today's update, Excel was the only option for spreadsheet users who wanted to automate tasks using Apple's venerable scripting language.</p><p>iWork for iCloud, Apple's web-based document collaboration service, also gained the ability to password-protect documents, which means that it's fairly easy for users to now share a secured document that can be edited in the cloud.</p><p><a href="http://www.geekwire.com/2014/apple-updates-iwork-across-platforms/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/iwork-update-for-ios-os-x-and-icloud-brings-ability-to-share-password-protected-files-and-more-475075">iWork update for iOS, OS X and iCloud brings ability to share password ...</a> (NDTV)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=db9_hbzwzlJImkMiE83eqKyXWdAYM&authuser=0&ned=us">32 additional articles.</a></p>