Alternatives to Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word has become THE word processing application, being used in businesses, schools and other establishments alike. Its popularity has caused it to carry a hefty price tag, and it’s one that many people frankly do not wish to pay. If you are just writing a small flyer or letter to a friend, you shouldn’t have to pay for Microsoft Word, so what do you do? This article will explain a few of the alternative programs you can use instead of Microsoft Word.

OpenOffice.org Writer

Open office is a free alternative to Microsoft Word, often being touted as the ‘free word’ it has most of the features and capabilities that word has. In fact, Open Office has many advantages over Word such as more understandable header and footer tools, bulleted and numbered lists, and general ease of use. When you combine these positives with the fact that it’s open source you have one very powerful tool at your disposal. Open source refers to the fact that any with the knowledge to do so can code their own changes into the program and make it better for everyone.

AbiWord

AbiWord “wording processing for everyone” as their slogan suggests is a free word processor that has been gaining popularity over the years. AbiWord features just about every special feature word does including the ability to save to all different sorts of file types. AbiWord is also designed based on earlier versions of Word making is very easy for previous Word users to switch and instantly begin typing. Although it’s similar in style, AbiWord has an extremely clean interface that may be refreshing for older word users.

Qjot

Qjot isn’t a word processor like OpenOffice.org and AbiWord in a sense, but it can be used to edit Word .Doc files. This makes it an invaluable tool for people who are receiving Word documents but don’t have Word themselves to read and edit them. It’s important to note that this is all you can really do with Qjot, it’s not meant to be a program that can convert Word documents to .txt files and other extensions. Other features of Qjot include the ability to add images and other forms of multimedia into the document. While this isn’t meant to be a total replacement, it’s definitely worth mentioning.

Microsoft may have a monopoly on businesses and schools with its word processor, but that doesn’t mean that it’s required of you to use it for everyday tasks. Check out all of the above alternatives, especially considering that they’re free.

Photo Credits: tmolini

Originally posted 2009-11-06 03:35:33.

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