Best free word processor?

**EndobioticChaos** · June 11th, 2002, 01:28 PM

What's the best free word processor out there for Windows, and where can I download it? So far I'm trying Star Office 5.2, ABI word 1.0.2 and Atlantis 1.0 Nova.

One of the features that's basically a requirement here is footnotes, and so far only Star Office has the capability. Problem is, I don't want to install a whole office suite on these machines.

**THRUSH** · June 11th, 2002, 01:49 PM

I use openoffice.org at home. I like it a lot. I think Sun bought stardivision who owned staroffice and I think the next version of staroffice will be created using the same code,etc. as openoffice.org. I think I've used one version of staroffice a while back, but not the others you listed so I can't compare much.
For what I've done so far though openoffice.org has worked really well.
Anyway, just like it says, you can get it at http://www.openoffice.org

**CMonster** · June 11th, 2002, 01:59 PM

I second that www.openoffice.org -free for Windows it can also open Microsoft Office documents and save in MS Office format --and you can install it on as many computers as you like!

**EndobioticChaos** · June 11th, 2002, 02:05 PM

Do you know if it can do footnotes, paragraph formatting, and spell checking? We've got only a 56k connection here, so I don't want to take the time to download something that doesn't have all the features I need. Thanks!

**Mead** · June 11th, 2002, 02:25 PM

Yes. Openoffice can definatly do all of those. It has almost all if not all the features that MS office has, but also has the additional features of being able to save in many different formats and not crashing regularly.
I use Openoffice at home and at work. I just convert whatever file im working on into the comparable MS format before sending it on to whomever it is that needs to see my file.

**storm2k** · June 11th, 2002, 03:32 PM

open office is probably the most feature-packed office suite short of the real thing.

**e980238** · June 11th, 2002, 03:44 PM

Yeh i use open office and I would also recomend using that. Its only like 67 MB so it shouldn't take too long to d/l (maybe like 8 or 9 hours

)

**Bullion** · June 11th, 2002, 04:23 PM

i place another vote for openoffice

**hawkeye177** · June 11th, 2002, 04:29 PM

My friend made this little program.
It can do a lot and it is .1mb
http://hawkshardware.com/george/Sameer/Edit.exe
Note it is still in production. It can only open .edt files and .rtf i believe. and also only save in edt format.

**fosin** · June 11th, 2002, 04:41 PM

I like this one...

http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/

Supports continuous footnote numbering. Compatible with M$ office.

**EndobioticChaos** · June 11th, 2002, 04:45 PM

Thanks for the posts so far. Any more suggestions would still be very welcome.

**pbharris** · June 11th, 2002, 05:47 PM

fro pure word processing i liek abiword - it is very fast.

**deltaf508** · June 11th, 2002, 05:48 PM

I'll put in a good vote for the software 602 product as well. I have used it some and at only 15MB this is one good program for free.

I also use OpenOffice 1.0 and like that as well.

Gary

**Theophylact** · June 12th, 2002, 09:51 AM

I tried 602 (it came highly recommended by John Dvorak at PC Magazine). It certainly seems to work okay, but since I'm using WordPerfect and Word at home and at work, I never tested it out fully. But it is free.

**EndobioticChaos** · June 12th, 2002, 10:03 AM

Originally posted by pbharris
fro pure word processing i liek abiword - it is very fast.

Yeah, I like abiword too, only problem is the students here (yeah, this is a small educational facility) use these comps to write research papers, and they need footnote capabilities - something that's not available in abiword yet.