Word Program For Mac At App Store
There are literally hundreds of thousands of great software programs compatible with MacOS in the App Store — not to mention the thousands more that are scattered across the web. Best free Mac apps: best free Word processor for Mac. Writer is the word processor element of Libre Office’s free office suite. It will open.doc and.docx files and offers all the styling.
Windows has a few good word processors available, but when it comes to the majority of users, the free LibreOffice should serve any word processing needs you have.
LibreOffice Writer
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux
Price: Free
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Features
- A familiar interface for anyone that's used a word processor, featuring basic formatting like font, bold/underline/italics, tables, bulleted lists, and more
- Compatible with all major file formats, such as Microsoft Word DOC and DOCX, RTF, ODT, and more
- While-you-type auto-completion, auto-formatting, and automatic spell checking
- Easily move toolbars around and tweak the interface to your liking
- Tons of advanced options that let you customize how LibreOffice works
Where It Excels
LibreOffice's biggest advantage, of course, is that it's completely free. While lots of office suites like Microsoft Office are advanced, they also cost a lot of money. LibreOffice does a great job of being a Microsoft Word 'clone' without the $120 price tag. Anyone who has used Word can immediately jump into LibreOffice and should be able to find everything pretty easily—all the toolbars look pretty similar, the menus are familiar, and it can read and edit Office documents like a champ without causing any formatting issues in Word. When it comes to word processing, LibreOffice Writer has everything most users could ever need, and at an impossible-to-beat price.
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Where It Falls Short
LibreOffice is slow. I mean really slow. Starting it up for the first time on my laptop (which, for what it's worth, has a super fast SSD in it) still takes a good 20 seconds. Once you get into it, it isn't so bad, but that startup time can be pretty annoying. The interface also isn't the prettiest, and the menus can be a bit more confusing at times, especially if you delve into its deeper options (though the options inside are plentiful). Writer also doesn't have some of the smaller, more convenient features that Word has, like a word counter at the bottom of the window, which can throw some people off who are more advanced word processors.
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The Competition
Microsoft Word is the most obvious competitor to LibreOffice. As I said above, Word is a bit more polished and has a few smaller features that, if you've become reliant on them, will throw you off in LibreOffice. If all you're doing is word processing (that is, you don't use spreadsheets or create presentations) Microsoft Office isn't really worth the $120 price tag—but if you have the money to blow and you just need those Word-specific features, Word is obviously where you'll have to get them. In addition, if you are a student (or somehow have access to student discounts), you can get it for a lot cheaper, where it becomes much more worth the cost. For a bigger explanation of the differences between Microsoft Office and LibreOffice, check out our comparison.
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Read moreMicrosoft Word Program For Mac
ReadWordPad is a simple word processor that comes free with Windows. It solves LibreOffice's biggest problem—slowness—since it's so lightweight and fast. However, that light weight comes at a big price in features. WordPad is extremely simple, almost to the point where I'm hesitant to call it a word processor. It can do basic text editing and formatting, but if you're looking to add a header to your pages, use a template, or even check your spelling, WordPad won't be able to help you. If you need something quick and simple, though, WordPad is a great alternative.
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Google Docs is also a bit simpler than most people might like, but it has some incredible collaboration features that make it perfect for working with other people on a document. Plus, you can access your documents from anywhere, no Dropbox-like file syncing program required, which is fantastic if you jump from computer to computer.
Lastly, if you're looking for a distraction-free writing tool, the free Q10 does a good job of making you focus without skimping on word processing features. It's more geared toward writers, so it has the advanced features they'd want—like word counts, page counts, a spell checker, an alarm, and stuff like that—but it doesn't have a lot of the extra formatting tools you'll find in a normal word processor. This is our 'left field' pick for word processor, since it isn't a word processor in the strictly traditional sense—but it's worth a look if that's what you're using word processors for.
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There certainly other good word processors out there, but these are our go-to picks. If you have a favorite we didn't mention, share it with us in the comments.
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Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.
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