Some of us are old enough to recall life before word processors. (It wasn’t that long ago.) Consider this sentence:
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How did we survive in the days before every last one of us had access to word processors and computers on our respective desks?
That’s not a great sentence — it’s kind of wordy and repetitious. The following sentence is much more concise:
It’s hard to imagine how any of us got along without word processors.
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The purpose of this mini-editing exercise is to illustrate the splendor of word processing. Had you produced these sentences on a typewriter instead of a computer, changing even a few words would hardly seem worth it. You would have to use correction fluid to erase your previous comments and type over them. If things got really messy, or if you wanted to take your writing in a different direction, you would end up yanking the sheet of paper from the typewriter in disgust and begin pecking away anew on a blank page.
Word processing lets you substitute words at will, move entire blocks of text around with panache, and apply different fonts and typefaces to the characters. You won’t even take a productivity hit swapping typewriter ribbons in the middle of a project.
Before running out to buy Microsoft Word (or another industrial-strength and expensive) word processing program for your Mac, remember that Apple includes a respectable word processor with OS X. The program is TextEdit, and it call s the Applications folder home.
The first order of business when using TextEdit (or pretty much any word processor) is to create a new document. There’s really not much to it. It’s about as easy as opening the program itself. The moment you do so, a window with a large blank area on which to type appears.
Have a look around the window. At the top, you see Untitled because no one at Apple is presumptuous enough to come up with a name for your yet-to-be-produced manuscript.
Notice the blinking vertical line at the upper-left edge of the screen, just below the ruler. That line, called the insertion point, might as well be tapping out Morse code for “start typing here.”
Indeed, you have come to the most challenging point in the entire word processing experience, and it has nothing to do with technology. The burden is on you to produce clever, witty, and inventive prose, lest all that blank space go to waste.
Okay, got it? At the blinking insertion point, type with abandon. Type something original like this:
It was a dark and stormy night
If you typed too quickly, you may have accidentally produced this:
It was a drk and stormy nihgt
Fortunately, your amiable word processor has your best interests at heart. See the dotted red line below drk and nihgt? That’s TextEdit’s not-so-subtle way of flagging a likely typo. (This presumes that you’ve left the default Check Spelling as You Type activated in TextEdit Preferences.)
You can address these snafus in several ways. You can use the computer’s Delete key to wipe out all the letters to the left of the insertion point. (Delete functions like the backspace key on the Smith Coronayou put out to pasture years ago.) After the misspelled word has been quietly sent to Siberia, you can type over the space more carefully. All traces of your sloppiness disappear.
Delete is a wonderfully handy key. You can use it to eliminate a single word such as nihgt. But in this little case study, you have to repair drk too. And using Delete to erase drk means sacrificing and and stormy as well. That’s a bit of overkill.
Use one of the following options instead:
- Use the left-facing arrow key (found on the lower-right side of the keyboard) to move the insertion point to the spot just to the right of the word you want to deep-six. No characters are eliminated when you move the insertion point that way. Only when the insertion point is where it ought to be do you again hire your reliable keyboard hit-man, Delete.
- Eschew the keyboard and click with the mouse to reach this same spot to the right of the misspelled word. Then press Delete.
Now try this helpful remedy. Right-click anywhere on the misspelled word. A list appears with suggestions. Single-click the correct word and, voilà, TextEdit instantly replaces the mistake. Be careful in this example not to choose dork.
A collection of essential free word processor software for writing and editing text documents in any format. You can use these free word processors as an alternative to Microsoft Word.
These free word processors below can create, edit, and print documents. You can open and edit Word documents, automatically check your spelling, use a wide selection of free MS Word templates, create tables and columns, and much more.
Best Free Word Processing Software For Mac Download
Let’s take a look at top Microsoft Word alternatives free word processors for windows and mac computers.
Best Free Word Processors for Mac, Windows, Linux
Best Free Word Processing Software For Mac Os
WPS Office Writer
This is the best alternative free word processor for windows 10 or other windows versions come with cloud storage and support for all text files. WPS Office Writer has pre-installed templates that give you everything you need for common document types, and you can easily create your own for bespoke tasks.
WPS Office Writer free word processor compatibles with all text file format out there including current versions of Microsoft Word dating back to Office 97. It has launched a free PDF to Word converter as well, which is a great companion for its word processor. DOWNLOAD
Kingsoft Free Writer for Windows
Kingsoft Writer is an easy to use free word processor with clean design, and uncluttered menu. This free word processor highly compatible with Microsoft Word doc and docx, with built-in free PDF converter, word count, spell check.
It introduced lots of useful functions including a built-in Word to PDF converter, automatic spell check, web layout view, etc. DOWNLOAD
LibreOffice
LibreOffice is a free and open source office suite of apps for creating text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more, which you can then save in Microsoft Office formats.
With LibreOffice, you get nearly all the functionality of paid word processing and other programs without the hefty price tag. It supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. DOWNLOAD
OpenOffice Writer
OpenOffice Writer includes necessary features what list of good word processors have. It is simple enough for a quick memo, yet powerful enough to create complete books with contents, diagrams, indexes, etc.
OpenOffice Writer is a lightweight app that lets you view and edit Microsoft Word documents. DOWNLOAD
Word Graph
WordGraph has some unique tools that help you to produce PDF, create a table of contents and index, and access files stored on online storage services like OneDrive and Dropbox.
AbleWord
AbleWord opens documents quickly, has a really simple design, and supports editing and saving to popular file types.
AbiWord
AbiWord is a free word processor with automatic spell check, plugin support, and common formatting options.
RoughDraft
Free word processor RoughDraft works with RTF and TXT files, provides automatic spell check, and allows shortcut keys from nearly every command.
WriteMonkey
Best Free Word Processing Program
WriteMonkey is a portable word processor that’s centred around providing an interface with the least number of distractions as possible so you can focus on writing and nothing else.
Jarte
Jarte is a free word processor that has a tabbed interface to keep all open documents easily accessible on one screen.
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FocusWriter
FocusWriter has basic formatting like bold, strikethrough, and aligning text. You can also edit the foreground and background text, page margins, color, and line spacing to produce custom themes.
Judoom
Judoom has a similar look and feel to Microsoft Word, and you can even use some of the same file types, like DOC and DOCX.
AEdit
AEdit lets you password protect documents and provides a spell check function, though it doesn’t check for errors automatically. It works with files in Microsoft’s popular DOC format, but not their updated DOCX format.