Alternatives to MS Word

For almost two decades Microsoft Word has been the default word processor of choice for millions. It is hard to imagine a time when “word processor” meant an electric typewriter with a tiny display screen that would allow you to see the document one line at a time. It is also hard to imagine that software like Word Perfect which dominated the MS-DOS market is non-existent now. But such is the dominance of Microsoft Word.

Even with the growing price tag attached to it, MS Word has grown in popularity and market share due several features that make it a versatile application of choice. In the same way that searching on the web has turned into the phrase “Googling”, using a word processor means “type it out on Word”. However, in recent times even that popularity and versatility has been called into question due to the massive price tag placed on it by Microsoft.

There has been a growing movement online to shift away from MS Word and towards free open source applications that perform the same task. With the global recession sparing no one, this option is now becoming more and more popular. As such there are several alternatives that you can use instead of this expensive and resource hungry software from Microsoft.

OpenOffice.org Writer, AbiWord, QJot and Jarte are some of the well-known replacements and need to be installed locally on your computer which is similar to MS Word. However, if you wish to work completely online you can try Zoho Writer, ThinkFree Writer, Google Docs and Ajax Write.