FREE Alternative to MS Word

[PsychicWarVeteran]

Some people do not have the money to purchase Microsoft Word and others simply despise Microsoft (I'm looking at you, Berry). What's more, similar word-processing programs aren't any cheaper than Word.

And while I'm sure notepad-type text editors are perfectly suited for some purpose, I am not really sure what it is. Hand-coding HTML, I suppose.

Anyway, Google has just (re)launched Writely, an online word-processor that can do literally everything Word can do... free. It can even save its output as a .pdf! Sweeeeeet! It also lets you save out to a file in your blog, as opposed to your hard-drive, thus it is also great for bloggers.

It is Mac-compatible, depending on your browser.

Storage space is currently unlimited, but a single document cannot be more than half a meg and any embedded images (which are tabulated separately) must be under 2 megs each.

Of course, everything must have its balance. So, the drawback? Well, everything is stored on Google's servers, so if Google ever rolls over and exposes its belly to the NSA, anything you wrote in Writely may be scrutinized.

Via BoingBoing

[azande]

Not sure what the options are if you use Windows, but on Mac OSX Textedit can do most of what Microsoft Word does:

TextEdit reads and writes documents in Rich Text Format and Rich Text Format with attachments as well as plaintext, Microsoft Word document format and HTML. It also has access to the operating system's built-in spell-checking service. The version included in Mac OS X v10.3 added the ability to read and write documents in Word format, and the version in Mac OS X v10.4 the ability to read and write Word XML documents.

[devilchicken]

I'll have to take a look.

I've used Open Office before, but have had compatibility issues with some of the documents, so (unhappily) I still use MS Office.
What I really resent is that I own a professional copy of MS Office XP, but can only install it on one of my computers - causes rather more than annoyance whenever I have to switch files between the two.

[Reinart der Fuchs]

Thanks for the post PWV. I heard about the Writely thing a couple of months ago. Expectations were that Google would adopt OpenOffice.org, but I suspect the "imperial entanglements" between OpenOffice.org and Sun were the deal breaker. Writely seems to have spell-check, and since Google owns it, one might assume that the spell-check will remain/become robust, while OpenOffice.org is maintained by volunteers giving Microsoft a key advantage in the spell-check arena. They have people with degrees in English ensuring their product has the best, and it is the best.

My current resume was composed with OpenOffice.org and it has served me well. Writely seems like a slightly entangled, but viable MS alterantive. I'll check this out eventually.

[Pietro_Mercurios]

Open office, www.openoffice.org, started life as Star Office, I believe and was further developed by Sun Systems. It is brilliant and easily replaces Microsoft Office, almost seemlessly.

It is very good.

[redbeard]

I have to agree about Open Office.

I am currently running v2.0.2 and have had no trouble with it. Load times are finally up to scratch and it can read and write the most common formats. It can have some trouble with heavily structured word documents, clip art etc, but overall does a good job.

I've been using various flavours of *nix now for around 10 years. My server runs OpenBSD and my desktop is installed with RedHat's Fedora.

I do have a Winbloze box purely for online gaming and a bit of emulation, however I could not imagine working with it as a desktop.

[In_Loos_Ptokai]

FWIW

I've used emacs as my text editor to write a 130,000 word novel; I've used OpenOffice and MS Office to set the novel in a style that most people are comfortable reading. I've also used AbiWord to write a novella in Windows which I then rewrote in AbiWord in Linux. A friend suggested LyX for writing plays; I've found celtx to contain additional detail for actually setting up a film. Though I have yet to complete a play/screenplay - I've been thinking about making a docudrama from Cordwainer Smith's "The Dead Lady of Clown Town", since the Chinese novel style that Smith used for that novella fits the docudrama format better than the conventional three-hour filim.

I have never used vi or edlin to write anything of any length.

[Talisant]

[QUOTE=In_Loos_Ptokai;113856] I've been thinking about making a docudrama from Cordwainer Smith's "The Dead Lady of Clown Town"QUOTE]

Please do!

[invalid nickname]

I've used emacs as my text editor to write a 130,000 word novel;

Holy crap! That's almost as big as emacs, itself.

[Kyrinn S. Eis]

Which publisher picked it up?

[In_Loos_Ptokai]

Which publisher picked it up?

No one as yet. I parked it on lulu.com, and in between then and now, I seem to have misplaced my lulu.com password. I suspect it needs a rewrite, but I'd worked on it for over a four-year period, and needed it off my mind. I couldn't get started on anything new while it was just sitting there.

[The English Assassin]

I'm back on MS Office at the mo. To be honest I find MS rock solid - apart from the price that is! I did use OpenOffice quite a bit but got sick of the dictionary chaging back to US spelling at random intervals. A problem I've noticed on several different PCs. Is this problem fixed now because its very annoying.

[David Mosley]

To be honest I find MS rock solid - apart from the price that is! I did use OpenOffice quite a bit but got sick of the dictionary chaging back to US spelling at random intervals. A problem I've noticed on several different PCs. Is this problem fixed now because its very annoying.

Conversely, I have that same problem with MS Word on my work PC. I suspect it's down to either something in my PC's Regional Settings defaulting to US spelling (even though I have everything nailed down for the UK) or some configuration in my NORMAL.DOT file.

[In_Loos_Ptokai]

Conversely, I have that same problem with MS Word on my work PC. I suspect it's down to either something in my PC's Regional Settings defaulting to US spelling (even though I have everything nailed down for the UK) or some configuration in my NORMAL.DOT file.

I've lost count of the number of times I've had to manually correct MS Office's Letter to A4 settings. I've also lost count of the ways I have tried to ensure that once set to A4, it won't flip-flop back to Letter, but no luck. It seems MS Office is addicted to Letter.

[L'Etranger]

Alongside WORD I use Wordperfect. Although not for free, but you can obtain up to very recent editions of this wonderful software for very little money.

I already used Wordperfect 6.0 when it was still a Novell product and now I have 12.0 running on my computers. In case it is necessary you can easily "save as" .doc