I have mostly been using free word processors software for typing documents like essays, articles, letters, resumes, and book reports for a few years now. I mainly use free word processors to save money, and time by not needing to go to a store to buy an Office suite program. Plus, free word processors work great for my needs because they have most of the features I use like bold, underline, italics text, insert picture, fonts, paragraph formatting, inserting charts, links, and diagrams into my document files, spellcheck, and auto-save.
I also think using a free word processing software like LibreOffice is safer and more reliable than using an outdated version of a paid office suite which may have security vulnerabilities which are no longer being fixed because the paid word processor maker is no longer supporting their older Word Processing software because it is too old.
I have used OpenOffice Writer, LibreOffice Writer, Focus Writer, and Kingsoft Office Free for typing up my homework for English, Biology and other classes which require me to type out homework.
There are some Word Processors like WordGraph, Jarte, FocusWriter, and AbleWord which uses very little system resources like RAM, and CPU cycles, so you can even run them on very old computer which are not as fast as modern computers with more RAM, and a faster CPU.
I find most of the free office suites to work well on Windows, and Linux on my PC. A lot of Word Processors now also have a Google Android version like Kingsoft Office, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Polaris Office. In the future, I think most word processors even Word Processors made by smaller companies will have a version for Google Android because Android is one of the most used operating systems now.
Apache’s OpenOffice Writer
OpenOffice Writer is one of the most famous free open sourced Word Processors with many important features like saving a document as a PDF, or .doc/.docx file, so document files can be open with a PDF viewer, or MS Word. You can also save document files as ODT files which is the new international standard for office documents. This XML based format means you’re not tied in to Writer. You are not tied into one Word Processor, and can use other Word Processors which can open ODT document files. Writer comes bundled with OpenOffice which also includes a spreadsheet, presentation, database, drawing, and other programs. Writer supports document templates for creating letters, resumes, envelopes, and more. It has spellcheck, text and paragraph formatting, page numbers, and support for embedding pictures into a document. I have been using OpenOffice for a few years now, and it is one of my most favorite word processors because it rarely crashes, and has most of the text formatting features like bold, italics, and underline text which I regularly use. I can also insert images, charts and diagrams into documents, change fonts, perform spell checks, auto word complete for faster typing, and do many other word processing tasks in Open Office Writer.
I like the classic design of OpenOffice where it looks like older Word Processors from the year 2003 and later.
Download OpenOffice at https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html
There is AndrOpen Office which is a ported version of OpenOffice made for Google Android which can be downloaded at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andropenoffice
LibreOffice Writer is a word processor which is based on Open Office Writer. LibreOffice is as reliable, and easy to use as OpenOffice. LibreOffice rarely crashes, and freezes in my experience.
LibreOffice has templates, spellcheck, text formatting, and the ability to save documents as ODT,DOC/DOCX, and other document formats like OpenOffice.
LibreOffice User Interface very similar to OpenOffice Writer as well. A lot of Linux based Operating Systems like Raspbian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint comes with LibreOffice pre-installed with the LibreOffice Office Suite software package which includes Writer, and other software like a presentation, spreadsheet, drawing and database software. If your operating system comes pre-installed with LibreOffice, you can use it as your main office suite instead of downloading and installing OpenOffice.
I think the main advantage of using LibreOffice instead of OpenOffice is that LibreOffice will most likely always be free and open sourced in the future, and always maintained by LibreOffice. OpenOffice was owned by Sun, and acquired by Oracle. Now OpenOffice is part of Apache which is more known for making web server software.
LibreOffice works for most desktop operating systems like Windows,Mac and Linux.
Download LibreOffice at https://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/
Kingsoft Office 2016 Free
Kingsoft Office 2016 Free comes with a word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation program, and other programs. It supports multiple document tabs, templates, PDF viewer, and many document file formats. It has Paragraph adjustment which can adjust paragraph’s indentations and line spacing. It can open .doc, .dot, .docx, .dotx, .docm, .dotm, .xml, .rtf, .wps and .wpt file formats, and save document files as ord (97/2000/2003/2007/2010) .doc, .dot, .docx, .dotx, .docm, .dotm; .rtf, .txt, Kingsoft .wps and .wpt formats. Kingsoft Office has Eye Protection Mode/Night Mode to improve the readability of the document for long periods of time, and in darker computer rooms. Kingsoft Office uses less RAM, and CPU resources when it is open, so you can run it even on slower computers which uses Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 1 and 10. I like the easy to use design of Kingsoft Office, and simple installation.
Kingsoft Office 2016 Free fir Windows : http://www.kingsoftstore.com/software/kingsoft-office-freeware
Kingsoft Office for Android : http://www.kingsoftstore.com/software/office-for-android
Kingsoft WPS Office for Linux : http://wps-community.org/
SSuite WordGraph
WordGraph is a free word processor for Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10 32 Bit and 64 Bit, Mac and Linux operating systems. It uses very little system resources and does not require you install Java, and the .Net runtime to run it on a PC. It has spell check, text, and paragraph formatting. Users can insert graphics, tables, charts, and insert spreadsheets into documents created in WordGraph. You can open and save documents as rtf, doc, txt, rtc, ssp text and document files. It is also possible to export files as PDF and image files like jpg, bmp, png, gif, and WordGraph presentation ssp file format. The user interface has
Thumbnail Previews of documents, advance table creation, direct online cloud access, tab document window, dual monitor support, Create WordArt and Math Equations / Expressions in WordGraph, and presentation maker.
Download WordGraph at http://www.ssuitesoft.com/wordgraph.htm
AbleWord
AbleWord is a free consumer and corporate Word Processors with most of the features you need to create document files. It can also edit PDF files. It has text, paragraph, and image formatting, tables, headers & footers, spell checking and print preview built-into AbleWord. AbleWord can open and save files as Microsoft Word® (doc, docx), Adobe® PDF (pdf), Rich Text (rtf). Plain Text (txt), and HTML (html, htm). AbleWord’s user interface is also very simple to use. AbleWord works with Windows XP SP2, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, and 10.
Download AbleWord at http://www.ableword.net/downloads.html
Jarte Free Word Processor
Jarte is a free Windows-only word processor which is based on the WordPad word processing engine built-into Windows. Jarte is fast, easy to use, and lightweight like WordPad. Jarte’s document files, which you created in Jarte, can be open by MS Word, and WordPad. It can open files with file extension RTF, file extension DOC, and file extension DOCX. Jarte is mainly designed for students, writers, small business people, and home users. Jarte has tabbed documents windows like a tabbed web browser, export to HTML and PDF, text and paragraph formatting, large buttons, spellcheck, thesaurus, bookmarking, font bookmarks, mouse scroll wheel shortcut for copying and pasting text, and a simple to use interface. Jarte works with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, or 10. Jarte works on both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows, and its installer file size is 3.02 MB in size, and the portable version of Jarte which you can run from a USB drive is 3.94 MB to download.
Download Jarte for Windows at http://www.jarte.com/download.html
Scribus Desktop Publisher
Scribus Desktop Publishing software is a free desktop publisher program for making newsletters, flyers, banners, and posters. It has features which include color separations, CMYK and spot colors, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation. It is available for many operating systems which include Linux, FreeBSD, PC-BSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, OpenIndiana, Debian GNU/Hurd, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4, eComStation, Haiku and Windows.
Calligra Words
Words is a simple to use Word Processor and Desktop Publisher program designed for Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and Linux. It also comes bundled with KOffice which is the office suite which is part of the KDE desktop environment for Linux. Words features include Frame-based editing which allows embedding of Documents, Customization to user interface, text, image, and paragraph formatting, and support for ODT (Open Document Text) file which is used by popular word processors like LibreOffice and OpenOffice. It can also Open and save ODF used by OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Google Docs, etc. It can open and save MS Word .doc and .docx files. Users can easily embed images, and charts to your document files.
Download Calligra Words at https://www.calligra.org/words/
Microsoft Word for Android
Word for Android is free, and similar to the PC version of Word with most of the same features you find on the PC version of word. You can use MS Word for Android to create, view, and edit documents. It has text and paragraph formatting tools. You can access files which you have stored in OneDrive, One Drive for Business, SharePoint, Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox online storage accounts. Files created in MS Word for Android will be compatible with MS Office for PC.
Download Word for Android at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.office.word&hl=en
MS Word Online
MS Word Online is a free version of MS Word which runs in your web browser it has most of the features of MS Word, and looks like newer versions of MS Word. It can be used on most modern web browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.
If you have an Outlook.com e-mail account, you can use MS Word free online word processor called Word Online after you sign-into Outlook.com.
You can try out Word Online at https://office.live.com/start/word.aspx by signing in with your free outlook.com account which you can make at outlook.com
Google Docs
Google Docs is a office suite which come with some Google Android devices. It can also be downloaded in the Google Play app store for Android. It can create new documents, or edit documents which you created on other devices. Google Docs can easily share documents, or work together on one document at the same time. Docs can open, and save Microsoft Word files. The Android version of Google Docs also works offline without an internet connection. Everything is saved to your Google account as you type in Google Docs. It is possible to share and reply to comments.
Download Google Docs for Android at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.docs.editors.docs&hl=en
You would need to go to https://docs.google.com/ to login to your gmail.com account with a web browser to use Google Docs on Windows, Linux, Mac, and other operating systems which can run a web browser.
I personally use Google Docs to type out document on my Chromebook laptop with Chrome OS because there are no good alternative Word Processors with offline document viewing and editing options for Chrome OS. I also sometimes use Google Docs to backup my important documents, files, and spreadsheet to Google Drive online storage, so I don’t lose my important documents if my computer breaks.
How to make Google Doc’s work offline in Windows, Linux, and Mac?
If you need to use Google Docs offline on Google Chrome for Windows, Linux, and Mac, you need to use the Google Chrome web browser for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux for offline access. Learn how to turn ON offline document editing at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6388102?hl=en&rd=1
You basically need to go to drive.google.com/drive/settings with Google Chrome Web Browser when you are connected to the internet, and sign in with your Gmail account if you are not signed in.
In the “Offline” section of the settings, check the box, and wait a few minutes for the setting to be saved.
I think Chrome OS’s version of Google Docs have offline document viewing and editing turned ON by default, so you can open and edit your documents even when you are not connected to the internet with your Chromebook computer.
Polaris Office
Polaris is an office program which let you open, and edit MS Office, PDF, TXT and other document file formats. It is available for free for Windows, Apple iOS and Google Android devices. Polaris can access documents which you uploaded to online storage accounts like Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, etc. Polaris also let you chat with other users by sending a link. I like the modern design, and simple user interface of Polaris Office.
https://www.polarisoffice.com/
Writing Programs which can be used as Word Processors for basic writing tasks like writing a poem, paragraph, and short stories.
FocusWriter and Q10 are mainly designed for people who write plain text articles, and don’t need more advance features like image editing, animations, wordart, insert chart and diagram, and media embedding feature which are found on more advance Word Processors like MS Word and LibreOffice.
FocusWriter is a fullscreen distraction-free writing environment program designed for people who mainly type articles with no pictures, charts and graphs. It is good for writing articles for a website, or text e-mails, but it is not a full-featured word processor like LibreOffice writer where you can insert images and graphs. But, FocusWriter can run very quickly even on very old and slow computers with limited performance like the Raspberry Pi 1 which has a 700 MHz Single-Core mobile CPU, 512MB of RAM, and uses a SD card for storage. I personally used FocusWriter on my Raspberry Pi 2 mini computer, and found FocusWriter to be very stable, fast, reliable, and easy to use for writing text articles which I usually post to this blog. Users can install a spellcheck plug-in like hunspell for FocusWriter to add spellcheck to FocusWriter. The Spellchecker works pretty well at finding spelling mistakes in my experience. FocusWriter has useful features like Auto-save, word statistics, multi-document support, and custom fonts which are found in bigger word processors. You can open and save files as TXT, basic RTF, and basic ODT file formats. The install size of FocusWriter is very small, and is under 30MB to download for the Windows version of FocusWriter. FocusWriter is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X operating system.
Download FocusWriter at http://gottcode.org/focuswriter/
Q10
Q10 is a simple Windows text editor which is designed for writers. It has features like Spellcheck, word statistics, auto-save, typing sound effects, notes, writing goals, autocorrect, and other features which are not found in more basic text editors like Notepad for Windows. The file size of Q10 is under 1MB, so it should run very fast even on slower computers with very little RAM, and a slower single-core CPU which runs at under 1GHz.
Download Q10 at http://www.baara.com/q10/
There are a lot of good free Word Processing programs which work great in Windows, Linux, and Google Android. Most free word processor programs which I used have important features which I need like PDF conversion, spellcheck, autosave, document templates, text and paragraph formatting, custom fonts, and support for opening and saving documents to different types of document file types like doc, docx, rtf, and odt document files.
What is your favorite Word Processor Software for Windows, Linux, and Google Android?
Just wanted to thank you for the great post and to add that SSuite now also has a browser based word processor called Fandango Desktop Editor. It runs on any HTML5 compatible web browser and on any device, that’s ANY device! – Linux, Android, Windows, and even Apple Mac OS X. Check it out here: http://www.ssuitesoft.com/webapps.htm or http://www.ssuitesoft.com/ssuitefandangodesktop.htm
Thanks again. 🙂
I am glad you like my post. Thanks for the comment
Wow, HTML5 and Web browsers are very powerful these days where users can run a word processor like Fandango Desktop Editorin a web browser with HTML5 support on any device with an internet connection.
Thanks, for the link. I checked out Fandango Desktop Editor, and it looks like a nice, and simple to use word processor for users who need to type out a document on a more basic PC like a Chromebook or mobile device like an iPad which both support HTML5 web browsers.
I used Libre Office for a couple of months and I was pretty pleased with it. The problem is that compatibility issues eventually came up with MS Word. So, I really had no choice but to switch back.
I agree, compatibility issues may come up when sharing LibreOffice documents with MS Word users. Hopefully, MS Word and LibreOffice are compatible with each other.