There are lots of free Microsoft Word alternatives.

Microsoft's desktop software carries a subscription fee, but the company has noticed the threat posed by Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) and created its own set of free online apps. For those of you unfamiliar with Pages, it’s the Mac equivalent of Microsoft Word, except it’s free from the Mac App Store. It does everything Word does, but is free. Also, if you have a MacBook laptop or desktop computer that was made in the last few years, you’ll find that it comes downloaded with your computer so all you have to do is. Pages (by Apple): Pages is Apple's own word processor and hands-down the best Word-alternative for iOS. You can do amazing things with this little app, and it is absolutely worth its price. View and edit Pages ’09, Microsoft Word, and plain text files. Easily import files from Mail, the web, or your Mac or PC using iTunes File Sharing.

The primary version, called Excalibur, includes a word processor and a spreadsheet tool. Instead of downloading the whole Microsoft Office free alternative suite, you can get just the word processor, for example, or just the spreadsheet program. There's also a portable version on the download page called Blade Runner. LibreOffice is a replacement for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Access for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers, while adding a few extra features. Six separate programs are included that make up the suite: Writer (word processing), Impress (presentations), Calc (spreadsheets), Base (databases), Math (formula editing), and Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts).

I’m sure you don’t prepare business plans with charts and graphs. You don’t use online collaboration tools. You don’t schedule meetings for a group of directors.

I doubt if you would ever need to create business presentations with 100 slides.

You write your words down for blog posts, content articles, guest posts, short stories, and maybe poems. So why do you pay for MS Office to do these simple writing tasks?

You don’t need to pay for a word processor

Whichever option or version of Word you choose, you pay.

The Office suite is a bundled application of many programs that writers will never need.

Even with the basic personal Office 365 subscription and Microsoft Onedrive, you pay for Excel, Outlook, and Powerpoint, just to get MS Word.

It might be a good deal for a small business, but you only want to write, create, and edit text.

Why pay for all the stuff you will never use to write in Word documents?

There is an option to use Word online as part of Office Online, but you still need to pay.

If you only need to write, there many free Microsoft Word alternatives that will do the job perfectly for you.

I was a Word user for years, like all of us. But I can’t remember the last time I used it.

Sure, I have lots of old files in Word document format.

But I can open and edit almost any file format with a completely free Word alternative.

Long manuscripts can cause a lot of problems with any word processor, including Word.

You need to use software designed to handle the big job of writing a novel or a book.

Read our article that lists the best free and paid software choices for you if you plan on writing a book.

Free alternatives to Microsoft Word – You have lots of choices

Nowadays, you have so many options.

You can still download free word processor software, or you can use web-based and cloud-based applications.

All you need is a blank document. Then write your words. Add a little formatting and save your work.

Almost any free version word processor can do this.

Do you want to move away from using Word?

Try some of these free Microsoft Word alternatives to see if one is just right for you and your writing needs.

To get you started, here are ten free word processors to choose from.

Google Docs is a free office tool suite. The big contrast to MS Office, of course, is that Google Docs is free.If you know how to use MS Word, you will adapt to Docs in no time at all.The user interface, menus, and formatting options are almost the same.Docs has a word counter, so it’s easy to keep track of your writing goals.Many writers, including content article writers, use Google Docs due to the ease of sharing documents and collaborating.It is also fully compatible with importing and exporting docx documents.Writing projects are stored and saved to Google Drive. You get 5 gigabytes for free. It is usually enough storage space for most writers.Another advantage is that you can also set up Docs to work offline if you prefer.You are a Mac user, and all you need is a free word processor; it’s easy. Apple Pages can do everything you need to do.The page layout view is extremely easy to work with. All the fonts, text formatting, and editing tools are easy to find.It has a decent spell checker, word count, and track changes with a comments option.Pages also has a great real-time auto-save function. It saves your work automatically to your computer or your iCloud drive when you are online.There is a duplicate file function too. It allows you a lot of control over your edits and revisions.Almost all of the common features in Word are available in Pages documents.One area where Pages really shines over Word is that you have a lot more control over any images you use.I used Apache OpenOffice for many years. It is an open-source project and is still a great option.However, there is another very similar free office suite. Libre Office is a favorite for a lot of writers.The two office suites came from the same basic development, so they share a lot of things in common.Working with Writer, the word processor, is easy. It has clear traditional menus, icons, and toolbars. So it doesn’t have the sometimes confusing ribbon found in Word.This might be a useful feature for you. It allows you to get on with writing instead of endlessly searching ribbons for the right buttons.If all you need is a functional word processor, Writer in OpenOffice or Libre Office might be sound choices for you.If you are familiar with Google Docs or Microsoft Word, you will be able to work with WPS Office straight away.WPS is in the same vein as other free word processors. It has all the standard features you expect, and it works with most standard word processing file extensions.But one of its best features is that it gives you the facility to drag and drop paragraphs. It is a very practical idea.Another great feature of WPS is that it has tabbed documents. No need to keep hunting for open windows.WPS also comes with a complimentary cloud storage service that gives you 1G free space for PC and iOS.Calmly Writer lets you one thing well. Write.When you start typing, all of the distracting options disappear away from the interface. All you see are your words.Calmly also includes a focus mode tool. When you activate it, it highlights only the paragraph you are working on at the time.If you are a writing minimalist and hate distractions when you write, it could be a good choice for you.Calmly Writer is a browser-based app, and there is a Chrome extension available.Zoho Writer is a great free alternative to Word. It is packed with a lot of features.You can sync between your PC or Mac, iPhone, Android, or iPad.Almost everything you do in Word, you can do with this word processor. There are even collaboration tools.It also has Zia, a writing assistant to help with contextual grammar, readability, and style suggestions.You can import your existing Word documents and get to work. There is also a plugin to link your Zoho documents to Word.It’s not a bad deal at all for a free online writing tool.FocusWriter is another one of the minimalist distraction-free text editors.It uses a full-screen hide-away interface. You access the menus by moving your mouse to the edges of the screen.This option allows the program to have a familiar look and feel about it. But you can get all the clutter out of the way so that you can immerse yourself in your work.It’s available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.If you are looking for a clean, no-fuss writing web app, then iA Writer might be right for you.Forget about all the fancy keyboard shortcuts and lists of menu options.All you can do with this great little app is write.The NYT says this about iA Writer. “It creates a clean, simple, and distraction-free writing environment for when you really need to focus on your words. It’s delightful to use.”For article and blog post writing, it is one of the top free word processors out there. It will suit all types of writing styles.It is available for Windows, Mac, and apps for Android and iOS.Free Office gets a mention because it can do one thing many other word processors cant do.It can export directly to .epub. It’s a very handy feature for self-publishers.FreeOffice is a complete Office suite with a word processor, a spreadsheet application, and a presentation program.All of these are compatible with their counterparts in Microsoft Office.TextMaker is the free word processor in this office suite.It comes with advanced formatting options, the ability to create databases for bibliographies and footnotes, as well as track change.It is available as a free download for both Mac and PC.Scribus is a free program for desktop publishing.It gets a mention here because it is free, of course. But also because it is such a feature-rich cross-platform program.As long as you are familiar with using text boxes, you can use this program to design flyers, brochures, and newsletters.Scribus is a page layout and desktop publishing program.It works with Linux, FreeBSD, PC-BSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, OpenIndiana, Debian GNU/Hurd, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4, eComStation, Haiku, and Windows.So, well, that says you can use it on any operating system under the sun.Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK colors, spot colors, ICC color management, and PDF creation.Perhaps it is not a perfect choice for most writers and bloggers. But you might have a desktop publishing job you need to do one day.

Summary

No, you don’t need to pay a cent for a reliable and fully functional word processor.

There are a lot of free Microsoft Word alternatives.

Many of the programs listed above are full office suites. So you get a bonus with all the extras that come with them.

You definitely have a lot to choose from. So make your choices and save yourself some money.

While many people believe that they are 'locked' into using Microsoft Word for all their document creation needs, it simply isn't true. Over the past few years, there have been many Microsoft Word and Office alternatives that were released and that have gained traction. Now, there are alternatives to the costly application from Microsoft, many of which are free.

Today we're going to explore ten alternatives to Microsoft Word that you can quickly and easily start using today. Some will be online and some will be downloadable applications that can be installed on your local computer, but all will enable you to wean yourself off of Microsoft Word and still be productive.

This is because they can all work in conjunction with the applications you already use with MS Word. Take your everyday PDF converter tool, for instance. Working with PDF documents is difficult and you may think it even harder if you swap out an application in your usual software lineup. This simply isn't true, though. Able2Extract Professional, for instance, lets you work easily with any MS Word alternative there is. Simply convert your PDF to Word and then import or upload your converted results into any one of the Word processors in this list. You won't miss a single beat!

So if you need a good list of free alternatives to MS Word, look no further. Let's get started on our tour of ten free alternatives to Microsoft Word.

Online Microsoft Word Alternatives

Sometimes it's easier to create and collaborate online in real-time than by editing and managing multiple versions on your local hard drive and sending the files via email. The web-based word processing applications below will not only let you create the documents online but also quickly and easily share them with others.

Dropbox Paper

Dropbox Paper is a free online word processor offered by the online cloud storage provider. To start using it, you will need a Dropbox account. Once logged in, you get full access to the online suite. The minimalist interface is very intuitive and its simplicity allows you to focus on your content. You can also do a number of things that go beyond creating a textual document. You can add rich media, such as audio, video and images. Dropbox Paper also allows you to access apps that let you embed Trello cards, Youtube videos or SlideShare decks. Other collaborative features include document link-sharing, creating and assigning checklist items to members or embedding one of your Dropbox documents. Dropbox Paper, overall, does an excellent job at creating dynamic documents you can share and access online.

Office Online

For Microsoft Word and Office aficionados, the best possible free online alternative for their document editing needs is definitely Word online, which comes as part of the Office Online suite. Although free MS Word web app is not a full-fledged version of its paid counterpart, it allows you to open, create and edit Word documents online. Also, it offers some additional benefits of online software tools. For example, the ability to access and see updates from co-authors to your docs literally from anywhere in real time with only an Internet connection and the latest 2016 version. You can share and collaborate on documents. An equally alluring feature of Office Online is its cross-platform compatibility. So, if you're a Chromebook or Linux OS user, MS Word web app is the most elegant way to get access to Microsoft's document editing features - for free!

Google Docs

App Similar To Microsoft Word For Mac

Google Docs allows you to create, collaborate and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and even forms. Google Docs is packed with features, which can be further extended with various add-ons. While it will automatically save the file online and store it there, you can also have the documents published as a web page, downloaded or emailed as an attachment in Word, ODT, PDF, plain text or RTF formats. You can invite collaborators to work on the document with you or only allow others to view it without the ability to edit. And if you are apprehensive of having to depend on the Internet connection for document processing, don't worry. You can enable Google Docs offline access and keep editing your documents even when you are disconnected from Internet. All it takes is a free Google account.

Etherpad

Etherpad is an online document editor primarily intended for collaborative editing in, as the site claims, 'really real time'. It's an open source, highly customizable tool for online document collaboration with friends, fellow students and classmates, or colleagues at work. One of its advantages, especially appealing to users who are reluctant to use services which require email registration, is that there is no sign up with Etherpad. All you need to do is start a new pad and share the link to it with your collaborators. You can also invite them by email if you prefer. After that, you can start working on the planned writing project together, in real-time, even if you are miles apart.

Zoho

Zoho offers around 20 free online applications including Writer for word processing. You can link your Zoho account to your Google and Yahoo accounts, as well. The Writer's interface shouldn't cause anyone problems as it is comfortably familiar. When working online there's always the risk of losing data due to a lost network connection, accidentally closing your browser or having your browser crash. Luckily Zoho automatically saves your documents for you, as you finish typing. Zoho Writer is well-equipped with features that allow you to work easily online: two-way desktop sync, large file transfer, encryption, file recovery, two-step authentication, in-app chat, and more. You can import and work with MS Word documents, allowing you to insert images, and edit content as needed. Zoho Writer offers all the standard text formatting and document creation features and can export to DOCX, ODF, PDF, Latex, RTF, TXT and even HTML. It can plug into Echosign for digital signatures, publish the document to a blog or make it public for all to see. Zoho Docs is completely free to use.

Downloadable Microsoft Word Alternatives

Some people are reluctant to cut the ties to their local computer and put all their work and business documents online. If you're one of them and don't want to rely on an Internet connection, here are several free word processing applications to round out our list. These you can download and install on your local computer. Take advantage of all the desktop features of MS Word without the hefty price tag!

Apache OpenOffice

The Apache OpenOffice package actually includes six programs that all use the same engine making them inherently the same and extremely easy to learn and use. The 6 applications included in the Apache OpenOffice suite are: Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (diagrams and illustrations) and Base (database manipulation) and Math (mathematical equations). Writer can even natively do some things that Word cannot, like open PDF files without the addition of a plug-in or commercial add-on. As the software is open source it is maintained by a large community meaning help and bug fixes are freely available and quickly created. The downside to Writer is that it can only open DOCX files without the ability to edit and save them. You can install this suite on Windows XP to Windows 10, macOS and Linux.

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is another open source Microsoft Office alternative and a successor of the OpenOffice.org project (in 2010, Oracle/Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice projects went separate ways). LibreOffice is distributed as a “monolithic software” consisting of seven components: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base, Math, and Charts. LibreOffice Writer is a free and powerful word processor available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. This Microsoft Word alternative can edit and save DOCX file format meaning that if you often collaborate on documents with Microsoft Office users, LibreOffice Writer is your best choice. It offers multi-language support, a spelling and grammar checker, ability to export in PDF and EPUB ebook format, AutoCorrect and AutoComplete features, a lot of extensions and document templates, and more regular updates and major and minor releases than Apache OpenOffice.

Jarte

Jarte is based on Microsoft WordPad Engine, but is still free. There is a paid version of the software that adds on some extra functionality, but the free version is more than adequate and fully compatible with Word and WordPad documents. Features include an ergonomic tabbed interface, small resource requirements, portability, support for touchscreens, and quick loading time. It also has built-in spell checking and can export to HTML and PDF files. Jarte allows you to insert images, tables, hyperlinks and everything else that you have come to expect from Word. Jarte contains no ads, trial periods or crippled features and is funded through user purchases of the Jarte Plus version.

WPS Office

WPS Office is a free document processing suite whose WPS Writer app will serve you well as a Microsoft Word alternative. WPS Office 2016 Free can open and save to a long list of popular file formats native to those applications like docx, doc, and more. You can get the application in languages other than English: French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Russian. The suite has the same familiar look and feel of MS Office with one exception--it has a tabbed viewing window, so you can open more than one document at a time. And also worth mentioning is WPS Cloud, the company's cloud document storage service that offers up to 1GB of free storage that you can use. This is perfect if you're trying to find a free Word alternative that's not only scalable for teams, but can also be as collaborative and seamless as its Microsoft counterpart.

SoftMaker FreeOffice

Apps Like Microsoft Word For Mac

SoftMaker FreeOffice is another great free suite that offers a full featured Microsoft Word alternative. The suite's TextMaker application allows you to focus on creating documents just as you would in MS Word. This suite offers up essential editing features and even a handful of basic templates for creating and editing documents. Tables, charts, shapes and graphics are available along with standard text formatting options. This application provides you with everything you need. The entire suite is available for Windows, Linux, and Android, so you can keep your document processing tasks going even while away from your desktop.

Whether you are looking for a free locally installed Microsoft Word alternative or an online one for easier collaboration and online file storage, there are many available. The ten that are covered in this article are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, but should give you a good starting point. The obvious giants in the arena are Google Docs and Openoffice.org which are probably also the most popular, though Zoho does offer a wider selection of applications. In the end, the one that best suits you will be the one that offers the features you need the most.

No matter which one you pick, you're guaranteed a fully functional, robust word processor at zero cost. If you also want a completely free PDF viewer with powerful features for Windows, Mac, or Linux, give Slim PDF Reader 2 a chance today!

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