The things that dismay me each time I buy a computer is the fact that none of the computers comes pre-installed with word processing software. I am not sure about Apple computers but the one I have been buying — the usual, mass produced IBM-compatible computer — comes only with pre-installed Windows operating system.
Windows does come with Wordpad and Notepad but these two hardly qualify as word processors.
The thing is, word processor is important and in the Windows legacy system, word processor means Microsoft Word, which you must buy along with other software packaged as Microsoft Office.
And Microsoft Office is not cheap; the full version of Microsoft Office 2007 in Malaysia is price over RM1,500 and furthermore, in my case at least, I hardly use any of the other software, except maybe the Excel and PowerPoint. Even then, very rarely.
So I am left with little option except to do one of these three things — buy a pirated copy of Microsoft Office; buy the cheaper but scaled-down Microsoft Office Student Edition, or scour the Internet for a Microsoft Word substitute.
I am not a fan of pirated copies and the student edition is still too expensive to my liking. I can choose, however, to purchase the Microsoft Office XP Standard for Students
So the only option is to look for a Microsoft Word substitute.
There are numerous substitutes available but AbiWord stands out among the crowd. It has the Microsoft Word look and feel, and though not as real as the real thing, it is good enough for my word processing requirement.
Click on the screenshot above to see the AbiWord 2.6 interface. You can download the latest version of AbiWord 2.6.5 here for free.
Link to this page
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
What about OpenOffice? In my opinion, it is the best substitute for Microsoft Word. And it’s free! Plus, it works on both Windows and Linux.
I totally agree with you Danish989. This entry is written several days before I discovered OpenOffice.org.
In fact the text document in OpenOffice.org is so good, I no longer feel like using Microsoft Word. I’ve also posted a review of OpenOffice.org here:
http://www.jaxons.org/2008/12/19/openofficeorg-offers-real-alternative-to-microsoft-office/
After reading through this article, I feel that I really need more info. Can you share some resources please?
I only have 128mb on my laptop. It would have taken me 40 hrs. to download Open Office. How long will it take to upload it from a disc? My friend is burning one for me.
Hi,
It won’t take long. I think it will take less than 10 minutes to burn the file onto a disc. You can also copy the file into a thumb drive.
Did you try free Microsoft Office alternative?
http://www.angelicsoftware.com/en/angel-writer.html
I’m always interested in anything that gives MS a run for their money, and I thought the Angelwriter looked pretty good – it’s very fast and does most of the things you would want, but sadly doesn’t read or write in .doc format. I know this is a tall order, as MS is famously secretive about its file formats, and I suppose one could argue that now they’ve changed it again (to .docx) it shouldn’t matter, but most people have things in the older Word format that they need to read. Openoffice is amazingly comprehensive, but a bit clunky IMO, especially on older hardware. Perhaps we should all go back to using Rich Text Format…
Hohn, James: Thanks for the info on the Angel Writer. Will give it a try.
Abiword does handle DOC files, so it has my vote at present for a good Word substitute. I suspect that new users are tempted to dismiss it as lightweight when they see the simple controls, but there are plenty of options in the pull-down menus – it’s a lot more powerful than it looks.
On-line WP is interesting, too. My son uses Google Docs for his homework so he can call it up on any school computer!