Alternatives To Microsoft Word

Anyone who does a lot of writing is familiar with word processing software. One of the more popular is Microsoft word, which is part of the Office Suite of Tools. You can buy this suite of tools, (for a monthly fee) or you can use them for free online.

Of course there are a few alternatives to Microsoft word, that you can download for free, and you basically have the same programs, just using different names.

The Basic tools of Microsoft office are:

• Word-for word processing
• Excel-for spreadsheets
• Outlook-emails and contacts, etc.
• PowerPoint- making online presentations

I won't go into each of them or how to use them, I'd be writing for hours, besides, we want to talk about alternatives to Microsoft Word!

One of the best and easiest to use alternatives to Microsoft word, is included in Libre Office. It has the same type of tools that are included in Microsoft office, but the names are different!

• Writer- word processing
• Calc-For Spreadsheets
• Impress-Online Presentations
• Draw- For diagrams
• Base-working with databases
• Math-working with calculations

So basically you have the same set of tools, but just different names, and you can download the whole suite of tools for free!

One of the first alternatives to Microsoft Word was included in the Open Office suite of tools. It is of course called Writer, and they are the same as the tools in Libre Office, because they are close cousins, as is Neo Office!

Unfortunately, When I first began using this program, I had a lot of problems with Open Office, freeze ups, and even crashes, so it was short lived on my computer. I uninstalled it very quickly after I started having all these issues. I never did check it out completely, so I don't know if it was my old computer at fault, or the program itself.

That was several years ago, and I'm happy to say, I have a new version on my laptop at this very moment, and so far the only problems I have with it, is my continuous bad spelling!

Google Drive has a whole suite of tools, similar to the above mentioned suite of tools, but one of my go to alternatives to Microsoft Word is Google Docs. It's very easy to use, has most of the same features as Microsoft Word, it is FREE, and your work is stored online and can be accessed from anywhere, provided you have an internet connection available to you. You can also use Google Docs, even if you are offline!

I put the above tutorial here for anyone interested in getting started with Google docs. I would have created one myself, but videos are not my thing. If you follow the video, you will see for yourself, just how easy it is to use Google docs!

Let me just say i'm not a fan of word pad, but it can be useful, and can be used as a free alternative to Microsoft Word. I don't use it often, but when i do, it's usually to find, and replace words in a document I am using from one site, to put on another.

It makes it very simple, and convenient. You can type out blogs, articles, what have you in Word pad, it just doesn't have the features of the other alternatives. Of course we know it's fee, and I'm pretty sure it comes with Windows 10 as a standard feature, much like notepad.

So there you have a few alternatives to Microsoft Word, all free, and easy access to get any one of them. Like I've already said, Google Docs is my favorite, and that is for two main reasons, one, I can access my work from anywhere, and two, I find it is much more easy to use, it has a very small learning curve. Also, there isn't anything to download, it's all online!

So if you do a lot of writing and were looking for a word processing program to make your work easier, I hope the above free alternatives to Microsoft Word will be something that you will find useful!