How soon? It's scheduled for release next year. I know you'll probably say that's too long a wait for the improvements, but I'm telling you, it's going to be worth the wait.

Apple's Pages software will contain significant improvements come version 3. These "improvements" include the introduction of two new modes - Layout and Word Processing. The current Pages software handles these two types of documents with only one common set of tools and templates, but in version 3, the new modes will be utilized and optimized for their respective tasks.

Document creation is expected to become easier with the new Word Processing mode. Features of this mode include a thesaurus that will be integrated with Wikipedia, Spotlight and Google, and a "robust grammar checking engine" for Pages.

Another improvement which will be in Pages 3 is the Inspector's "Mini-Inspectors" which will allow users to get to frequently accessed settings with just one click.

Mail Merge's functionality will also be dramatically improved as it will support mail merging to e-mail.

Pages 3 will be included in iWork '07 which is expected to be released January next year. Other softwares contained in iWork '07 are Keynote 4 and a new spreadsheet application.