{"id":11897,"date":"2010-07-05T17:42:02","date_gmt":"2010-07-05T16:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/three-free-alternatives-to-word\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T02:12:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:12:41","slug":"three-free-alternatives-to-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/three-free-alternatives-to-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Three free alternatives to Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ThreeThe complete Microsoft Office<\/strong> suite is quite expensive (with suggested retail prices<\/a> starting at $149.99) and not everyone can afford it. However, being the most widespread productivity suite, Office apps have become almost an industry standard \u2013 which means we\u2019re all forced either to use it or at least to use a program that\u2019s compatible with Microsoft\u2019s file formats.<\/p>\n

In the case of DOC and DOCX files, you should know there are a few interesting alternatives that let you work with them without having to buy Microsoft Word. Here\u2019s a selection of free apps for text processing that can meet your needs without costing you a cent. Ad if you use Mac, don’t forget to check also our list of Word alternatives on Mac<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Writer<\/h3>\n

Writer is the text processor included in the OpenOffice.org<\/strong><\/a> suite. It\u2019s probably the most used alternative to Word, though its interface is quite different from that of Word 2007 and may be a bit off-putting for some users.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Writer clearly has fewer features than Word, but it includes all the main tools and functions that most users need in a word processing tool. Plus, it supports both DOC and DOCX files.<\/p>\n

Abiword<\/h3>\n

Like OpenOffice.org, Abiword<\/strong><\/a> is also open source. As it\u2019s just a word processor it\u2019s lighter than a complete productivity suite, and it\u2019s the perfect solution if you only need a tool to work with text documents in Word format. Abiword includes all the basic text editing tools, as well as support for tables, headings and footers.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Abiword also supports plug-ins, which means you can extend its functionality to suit your needs: ability to import data from other tools, built-in translators and search engines, etc.<\/p>\n

Google Docs<\/h3>\n

Google Docs<\/strong><\/a> is the online text processor from Google. All you need to start using it is a Gmail account, and then you\u2019re free to start writing right on your web browser, without having to download anything or worrying about saving the file \u2013 Google does it automatically for you. Being an online suite, you obviously need an Internet connection to use it.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Besides creating and editing DOC files, and also sharing them with other users, Google Docs also lets you work with other standard industry formats such as PDF, TXT, RTF or HTML.<\/p>\n

[via OnSoftware FR]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The complete Microsoft Office suite is quite expensive (with suggested retail prices starting at $149.99) and not everyone can afford it. However, being the most widespread productivity suite, Office apps have become almost an industry standard \u2013 which means we\u2019re all forced either to use it or at least to use a program that\u2019s compatible … Continue reading “Three free alternatives to Word”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-11897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334885,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11897\/revisions\/334885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11897"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=11897"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=11897"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=11897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}