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Anyone use a good free word processor?


razz

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I have tried a few.  Been a year of two. 

Two I remember as pretty good are Apache Open Office and LibreOffice. 

It's hard to beat microsoft office, mostly because it is now positioned as the "industry standard". 

And deservedly so.  Its a very good office suite. 

But those two freebies produce documents and slide shows that are (mostly) compatible with ms office.

If you want to check them out: 

Apache:  
http://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html
LibreOffice:
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/

Edit: You might consider making an image file or a backup or something before installing, because every office suite I know of is huge and the installer is intrusive.

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Libreoffice is what I use, used MS Office for years, and decided against going further than Office 2007.  While MS Office is the "industry standard", IMO, that term while it meant something once, doesn't mean a great deal with regard to office apps these days.

 

Also yeah the installers for these things are pretty atrocious, but to be honest MS Office is definitely the worst in this regard, the others mentioned will clean up after themselves a lot better than MS Office will, but there will be leftovers.

 

It dawns on me however you're possibly after a word processor only and don't really want/need the rest of the stuff traditionally in an office suite.  There is naturally WordPad, which you'll already have assuming you're on windows and then there are quite a few free downloads available which are based on wordpad, enhancing, changing certain things, and Google Docs if you're happy to do it all online (which I'm not).  It really depends on how much functionality you need, and I can't recommend any of these as I haven't really tried any of them, but mention them as options you could try, other than fully fledged office suites.

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AbiWord. The Windows version is older due to a lack of developers for it. I dumped Microsoft Word and switched to AbiWord (the installed version, not the portable because I wanted it registered with file types) maybe three years ago, all because Word kept stealing file associations I didn't want it registered to handle and the only way I found to remedy the problem was to uninstall it. You'll of course need to download a dictionary for it if you want one, I have but I've never been able to get any of them to work correctly with it

 

AbiWord Installer: https://www.abisource.com

AbiWord Portable: https://portableapps.com/apps/office/abiword_portable

 

To understand AbiWord better take the online tour: https://www.abisource.com/tour

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I believe OpenOffice has officially been discontinued and the developers are going to be combining LibreOffice and OpenOffice into one. All the work has moved to LibreOffice. OpenOffice actually suffers from some security holes that the few remaining developers that stayed behind before it discontinued couldn't patch out.

 

Anyways, I like LibreOffice and I use to use that when I was in school.

I am a maintainer for Winapp2. I also have a open-source group on Steam.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/opencommunity

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I've been using Softmaker Free Office for a number of years now. (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint clone).

 

Works fine, very compatible with MS office (and the other clones).

 

I don't use PowerPoint, but the Word and Excel versions have given no problems whatsoever when opening documents in the 'real' MS Office.

 

You don't have to install the full suite, just the parts you want, so could just install the Word clone, and not Excel or PP, if that's all you want.

(Personally I install the lot and just delete the desktop icon for the PP, its then there if I do want to look at a PP slideshow for any reason).

 

http://www.freeoffice.com/en/

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Thank you all for your input.  I feel Andavari's suggestion of AbiWord is the most lightweight and because of my basic needs I don't need a complete suite - thus AbiWord will likely suit me perfectly.

 

@ Andavari, thanks for the links.  I chose the installer vs. the portable.

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@ Noesis, I agree, the idea of an industry standard is not so important now. 

 

My reason for checking out these office suites is to find alternatives to microsoft products. 

They might soon become too expensive or too snoopy.

 

'Course, ya gotta remember, I still use word 97.  :lol:

Works great, by the way. 

 

Version 4.1.3 of Apache came out in October 2016.  I have tried V. 4.1.2, it works well.

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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I would check out the free online version of word. I use it regularly on computers that don't have office and it's pretty good. The files it makes are much more compatible with word than anything else out there.

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For those who may be interested, I'm now using the following:

 

- AbiWord for word processing - Folder size 21.7 MB & only uses 7.8 MB memory

 

- Spread32 for spreadsheets  -  Folder size 1.86 MB & only uses 1.6 MB memory (Spread32 only comes as portable).

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You said lightweight which was one of the reasons I originally chose it over an office suite. It's a shame I can't get a dictionary to work it in, however I also use the very lightweight tinySpell Free (a program rridgely recommended a long time ago on here that I still update and use) to make corrections in it

 

AbiWord for word processing - Folder size 21.7 MB & only uses 7.8 MB memory

 

On my 32-bit OS it's using in:

Program Files = 16.6 MB

AppData = 9.41 KB

RAM (idle, with no document open) = 13 MB (approx)

RAM (with a very small RTF document open) = 20 MB (approx)

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 I also use the very lightweight tinySpell Free (a program rridgely recommended a long time ago on here that I still update and use) to make corrections in it

 

Great little program that tinySpell.  My wife and I have been using it for many years.  In fact I included it in the "Personal Tools" section within my program A-Z Freeware Launcher.  Speaking about my program, I've been working on a much improved up-to-date version.  That's one reason I've been asking a lot of questions regarding programs and such.   :)

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Well Razz my "two penneth worth" as a user of MS Office Pro & LibreOffice (previously I used OPen Office before the creation of LibreOffice) I find that for both personal & part time business use I tend to use LibreOffice for word processing & spreedshet work and MS Office for Powerpoint.

 

One thing of note is that LibreOffice provides regular updates, Curently my Ver is 5.3.1.2

 

Other than much cheaper than MS Office which would cost me heaps to upgrade from 2003 to current LibreOffice is cross platform compliant, open source, works well on Windows, Mac OSX & Linux.

 

PS: I just looked and found that I also still have Open Office Ver 4.1.1 installed on my PC........go figure. 

Always With Kind Regards

Tasgandy

"one is never too old to listen & learn"

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I find that for both personal & part time business use I tend to use LibreOffice for word processing & spreedshet work

 

LibreOffice is cross platform compliant, open source, works well on Windows, Mac OSX & Linux.

 

Thanks for your input Tasgandy.  I agree that for someone looking for an office suite, LibreOffice seems like an excellent choice. Any program that works great and is free to boot, for sure qualifies as an "excellent" program.   :)

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how is it with:
 
Kingsoft writer/spreadsheet free or the complete office personal free?
 
english
 
german

 

 

and of course not to forget the free word 2010* and excel 2010* from microsoft ;)

*works only on vista and 7 as far as i know

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the most compatible part to microsofts office is word.

 

but for example many text-formattings does not showing the other compatants correctly or very well. (openoffice and libreoffice in my case)

and the other office parts (spreadsheet/powerpoint) are more even bad compared to ms office. (if there are created with ms office)

 

 

so you should decide for an office vendor and then create everything with this program, then there are no problems (compatibility).

 

 

 

i have nukecads softmaker too :-) on a cd

 

 

 

I believe OpenOffice has officially been discontinued and the developers are going to be combining LibreOffice and OpenOffice into one. All the work has moved to LibreOffice. OpenOffice actually suffers from some security holes that the few remaining developers that stayed behind before it discontinued couldn't patch out.

 

openoffice was taken by oracle from sun and goes on. but the developers were different opinions. one part works on openoffice and the other on libreoffice. the libreofficeteam has more innovations and compatibility implemented in his office. but not everything for the benefit of the user as i mean (for example the menu bar is now full of unsightly symbols perhaps to be different from openoffice style) i dont know how it is in version 5.x.x, i have yet the version 4.4. with libre and version 4.1.2 with open.

Versions of CCleaner Cloud; Introduction Ccleaner Cloud;

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Es ist möglich, keine Fehler zu machen und dennoch zu verlieren. Das ist kein Zeichen von Schwäche. Das ist das Leben -> "Picard"

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Trium, that agrees with my experience for LibreOffice and Apache Open Office. 

Sometimes there are fonts that don't work, and some of the things in the presentation software are different. 

 

In my former life I had to make presentations (powerpoints). 

We officially used microsoft, but I experimented some with the free alternatives and they would be OK. 

 

There are sometimes reasons to avoid doing one's work "in the cloud" so to speak, so that a standalone office suite is better

Overall, there was enough compatibility with LibreOfice or Apache Open Office so they would work fine.

 

I tried a couple of versions of Kingsoft office, finally gave it up.  As I recall, it tried to phone home, it said free but had an expiration date, and it ran pretty heavy.  That may all be changed by now. 

 

Just my 2 cents.   :) 

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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I tried a couple of versions of Kingsoft office, finally gave it up.  As I recall, it tried to phone home, it said free but had an expiration date, and it ran pretty heavy.  That may all be changed by now. 

 

I very recently uninstalled Kingsoft Office, specifically for the exact reasons you outlined.  I got so tired of them pushing to upgrade to the paid version.

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That's when you can have some fun with them if during uninstall they open a feedback page asking "why did you uninstall us", then tell them you're upgrading to something else that isn't a nagging nuisance. :lol:

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how is it with only kingsoft writer free? 42 MB size

 

 

http://www.computerbild.de/download/Kingsoft-Writer-Free-2012-7942854.html

or

http://www.chip.de/downloads/Kingsoft-Writer-Free-2012_52026790.html

 

 

 

dont forget MS WORD FREE with advertising on the corner right below B) but it works only on vista and 7

Versions of CCleaner Cloud; Introduction Ccleaner Cloud;

Ccleaner-->System-Requirements; Ccleaner FAQ´s; Ccleaner builds; Scheduling Ccleaner Free

 

Es ist möglich, keine Fehler zu machen und dennoch zu verlieren. Das ist kein Zeichen von Schwäche. Das ist das Leben -> "Picard"

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how is it with only kingsoft writer free? 42 MB size

 

Sorry, never tried it that way. 

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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