Hey guys, I just got a mac and with the student discount I got $100 to spend on the app store. I was wondering if keynote or numbers would be worth if for engineering? I heard about notebook and heard it would be helpful.

Keynote = OSX Powerpoint
Numbers = OSX Excel

Both pieces of software could be useful in engineering. I personally use Microsoft Office 2011 instead, just because I'm more familiar with the interface. I don't think the MS suite is on the App Store though. If I were you I would spend the $100 on multiple cheap apps.

I would buy Keynote, it kicks PowerPoints ass for presentations.

But numbers is not great at all, your better off using excel

Keynote is good, except usually when you have presentations you do group work... Unless you want to do everything yourself, most other people in your group will probably have powerpoint.

I don't know how cross compatible the two are. I have keynote but don't use it so.

Keynote beats Powerpoint by a mile.
Excel is better than Numbers.
Pages is better than Word for a publishing, layout view, to make professionally designed documents (yes, even Word 2011's publishing option). For essays and normal write-ups, Word is better.

Compatibility between the two is awful. When importing Office files, the layout and formatting may be messed up in iWork. And you can't work natively with them, you have to import and export.

I find it awful how you guys say that Keynote is better than Powerpoint but you don't give specific examples.

Look on youtube? Ever seen Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth? Or any of the Apple keynote presentations?

ok thanks guys, so ill prob get keynote and forget about numbers. But what do you guys think about notebook?

I never use iWork and I've used macs since it used to be called claris works. Keep in mind Office is the standard and if you're sharing documents with others or getting stuff from the course website it will probably be in Office format. However, if you're really into doing presentations and like what Keynote has to offer compared to PP than go ahead and buy it, just keep in mind Office is the standard.