|
Download Microsoft Word Free Alternatives |
|
|
I get a lot of questions from students or people who work from home who either can't or do not want to spend the money for Microsoft Word. But what they forget is that you can always download Microsoft Word free alternatives to complete many of the same basic tasks that most people need or think they need Microsoft Word to complete. Here are a couple of alternatives that you can use and still get your work done.
Probably one of the first things to remember is that you can open most simple Word documents utilizing the internal program Microsoft WordPad. You should have already noticed that any .doc files that you have in your computer are already associated with Microsoft WordPad. You can open these Word documents and make simple edits to them including changing some basic formatting options as well as inputting information inside of a table format. Unfortunately that is about the most you can do. Limitation comes from the fact that Microsoft Wordpad only writes in what is called rich text format. Which gives you a number of basic formatting options. Any changes that you make to the word document can then be saved and then opened up by person that has to copy of Microsoft Word.
The second situation that I find users in who think they need to download Microsoft Word is usually they received in Microsoft Word 2007 format. Why this throws people off is the fact that Microsoft Word 2007 files do not open natively inside of Microsoft WordPad. There is a easy alternative to having to download Microsoft Word or purchase the product. If you go to the Microsoft website you can download a Microsoft word 2007 viewer.
Download Microsoft Word viewer Here
Now if simply viewing Microsoft Word documents do not fit your requirements there are solutions that are compatible with Microsoft Word. Generally the most used alternative to Microsoft Word is Writer from OpenOffice.org. writer is an amazing utility that lets you open and edit Microsoft Word documents and also gives you a competitive alternative to downloading Microsoft Word. With Writer you can:
# Write, edit, and review documents # Control page layout # Use templates and styles effectively # Get the most from using fields # Work with Tables of contents, indexes, bibliographies # Manage large or complex documents # Insert, edit and create graphics
I admit that using writer can take some getting used to and also the application seems to run a lot slower since the OpenOffice.org software suite runs inside of the Java environment. Unfortunately those of us on the sacrifices you have to make versus downloading Microsoft Word and having to pay for it.
Your final alternative to having to download Microsoft Word is the AbiWord software package. In my opinion in comparison to Writer from OpenOffice.org the program is extremely limited. But it is a much lighter running application and it seems to me that it would run a lot better when slower or older hardware versus the more robust software from OpenOffice.org. You can give your document that professional, scientific or fun-to-read look using AbiWord's advanced document layout options. Use tables, bullets, lists, images, footnotes, endnotes and styles to enhance the way your document looks. AbiWord comes in many different languages. AbiWord is available in most common and many not-so-common languages. You can Download Abiword here.
Trackback(0)
|