What is the best FREE word processor for windows

[mikeleblanc413]

After looking for some time I finally purchased a little HP laptop computer and am pleased...HP came with Note Pad...a most basic word processor...I've used Office before and gave it some thought, but I believe it is way more than I need. I would like a word processor to change fonts, be able to make bold, underline, and change color.

Can I get a FREE program to do that...or one with a few more bells and whistles for minimal money?

THANKS!

[mikeleblanc413]

THANK YOU so much for all the replies. Before the question in this forum I had never heard of Open Office or Libre Office. I have downloaded and installed each; initial evaluation is that either would work, and I'm giving Libre Office the edge. The absolute best part is that they are FREE and relatively little learning curve.

[burlmart]

Mike, OP

If you have a newish version of MS Works Suite on a disk from somewhere, it may well run on W8, which I am assuming came w/ the HP

[mlts22]

As of last week, iWork (Pages, Numbers, etc.) is free to download if you need something for the iPad.

[Dtaylor]

Cy wrote:
Anyone got a good free word program for IPad?

Polaris Office, but not sure if it is free

[mlts22]

I've used OpenOffice and LibreOffice. They are quite good. Another option is Google Docs. The downside of that is that you are storing the info on someone else's server, but the upside is that you can write your stuff and edit it in any Web browser.

[tvman44]

I love open office. Who needs MS? 🙂

[wa8yxm]

Traver8 wrote:
Take a look at Open Office - it is an open source package that very closely duplicates Microsoft Office.

I will second that and add some comments.

I've had Open Office Suite on my computers for several generations (both of computers and software) Some years ago I did a bit of volunteer work where I wound up using my computer to generate or modify files the other volunteers would be using on their all Mickey Soft computers.

OPEN OFFICE was able to load, Display Edit and SAVE those files, and the Save was in any format I choose.

Microsoft (Several non-compatable formats,< Mcrosoft is nothing if not inconsistent)
Mac formats
Linux formats

Open office did them all.. So I choose the proper version of Microsoft and saved'em that way.

[1492]

I prefer LibreOffice, as it supports more file types than Open Office such as saving .docx, and tends to be more updated. I haven't tried Kingsoft as the free suite doesn't support macros as LibreOffice. Especially since I've setup macros that mimic the forum's formatting tags, such as for displaying photos or links, should I chose to use LibreOffice to compose forum replies.

[burlmart]

tenbear wrote:
Most of the Word files I receive are .doc. IMHO, a word processor that can't open .doc files is useless.

I agree this is a serious slap from MS (synonymous w/ .doc) -- they should be ashamed, just not sure if it matters for Mike. Otherwise, a few interesting liteweights - like AbiWord, and Kingsoft - may work.

[Cy]

Anyone got a good free word program for IPad?

[LewBob]

I switched from LibreOffice to Kingsoft Office. Like 'em both. Also for lightweight word processing Jarte uses the WordPad engine and adds features including a spell checker.

[tenbear]

burlmart wrote:

mikeleblanc413 wrote:
After looking for some time I finally purchased a little HP laptop computer and am pleased...HP came with Note Pad...a most basic word processor...I've used Office before and gave it some thought, but I believe it is way more than I need. I would like a word processor to change fonts, be able to make bold, underline, and change color.

Can I get a FREE program to do that...or one with a few more bells and whistles for minimal money?

THANKS!

Except for the doc/docx issue. Wordpad is simplest answer to OP

Most of the Word files I receive are .doc. IMHO, a word processor that can't open .doc files is useless.

[burlmart]

mikeleblanc413 wrote:
After looking for some time I finally purchased a little HP laptop computer and am pleased...HP came with Note Pad...a most basic word processor...I've used Office before and gave it some thought, but I believe it is way more than I need. I would like a word processor to change fonts, be able to make bold, underline, and change color.

Can I get a FREE program to do that...or one with a few more bells and whistles for minimal money?

THANKS!

Except for the doc/docx issue. Wordpad is simplest answer to OP

[tenbear]

If you want something to handle .txt files, I use notepad++, an open source free program.

[dsteinman]

tenbear wrote:
I just tried Wordpad. It wouldn't open .doc files but was fine with .docx. Was I doing something wrong? I tried it with 3 different .doc files.

Correct, I don't think current version of Wordpad will read .doc files correctly. Although the XP version does.

eubank wrote:
- Wordpad permits quite a lot of text control (fonts, etc.), all with hidden code. Crummy for coders, just fine for basic word processors.

I use Wordpad for plain text files because when reading scripts and text files from Linux, it will display the carriage returns correctly.

Visual Studio for coding.

David