Is there an alternative to Word?
 

Since the purchase of our new PC, the "trial" period for Microsoft Word has expired and we do not want to purchase it.....it used to be entirely free. Do any of you use a free alternative? Many thanks!

I used Open Office for a while, but have switched to Google Drive. Gives you lots of options (I always save and download to my PC as PDF's so they are more universally readable). Google Drive is accessed through Gmail. I mainly do just general correspondence and of late application letters and resumes. Worth a look anyway.

I can't get the link to work.

How do I access Google Drive through gmail?

I use google drive too: when you are on your gmail side: have a look on the right above, there is a little sign made from 3x3 little squares, click on it and then opens a little window with several apps and there you find google drive!! I hope that this is the same all over the world because I'm here in Germany...

While reading online, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that WordPad is already installed on our new computer! Mission Accomplished. THX everyone!

I do several monthly newsletters for groups I'm in. I use Apache Open Office. It's free to download. One reason is it will covert the files to pdf in one click. Everyone can open pdf files but not everyone can open .doc files if they have older versions of Word or don't have the Word reader installed. Open Office makes it easy for me to get the newsletters formatted and sent with just a few edits and updates to the past one sent out.

I use Google Chrome browser and just type in google drive in the search window.

Just google free word processing programs and you will get plenty to choose. It amazes me that you got Word for free. We pay through the nose for everything.

My son put open office on my computer. He is an IT guy, so I trust what he says. It works well for me.

My computer man installed Libreoffice on my computer. It works fine but I haven't yet learned how to change the extension so I can send copies of spreadsheets, etc. to others.

All MS operating system computers come with free Wordpad program. Use to be Notepad but upgraded.

I like Open Office, it is free. It will do Power Point presentations, Excel type documents, etc.
http://www.openoffice.org/

Here's a link to the article about the 10 free alternatives (I have not tried any of them because I still use Word 2007 on my Vista computer): http://www.investintech.com/articles...dalternatives/

Both are still there :) Notepad is really good for us geeks. The lack of formatting helps us with admin tasks. There would be a rebellion if they took away notepad. ;)

That said, as a geek.... former geek. Former. Why can't I drill that into my head!!

I don't use Google Drive because they weird me out. The "We probably know more about you than you do" comment someone at Google made a few years ago creeped me out. Yes, it's probably true. They sell the info they data mine, that's why their services are free. They don't need to know everything about me. I'll let them work for some of the info, and my clients' info.