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Ask HN: The best free alternative to MS Word?
- SamReidHughes 9y agoDude there's LibreOffice, Google Docs, Apple's Pages app, maybe some others. Why don't you try each of them and see how you like them?
- DanBC 9y agoWithout knowing what you use it for it's impossible to say. If it's just general word processing there are a few that are very good.
- tomohawk 9y agovim
- mhh__ 9y agoemacs
- atmosx 9y agoLibre Office, Google Docs and AbiWord are fine.
- gpresot 9y agoMy experience with Libreoffice is a bit dated (2 years), so take with a pinch of salt. If you don't need to work on the document with MS word (or do not need to exchange it with somebody using MS word) then Libreoffice Writer is more than fine. It will do whatever MSW does, with equal quality (I found that formatting was getting screwed when passing documents between the two). Also, because I use MSW so often at work, I got used to the ribbon menu, and LO menu looks outdated (to me). Apple's Pages is all you need if you are on Mac (and I have found it to be more compatible than LO with MS Word). Conversely, if you need to edit the document with other people (e.g. some school group work) Google Docs is hard to beat. Edit: typos.
- neurobot 9y agowps office, despite they're also offer the premium.
- mhh__ 9y agoIf you can stomach learning to use it, although it's much simpler (IMO) at scale!, LaTeX is very nice. https://www.sharelatex.com/ https://www.sharelatex.com/ is even nicer.
- ogfomk 9y agoLibreOffice is outstanding. I've used it since 1999 when it was Star Office. You can write anything and export to PDF easily. You can also share your work with MS Office users. Writing business letters is a simple discipline. Content and simplicity go hand in hand. LibreOffice will also work for you on Windows or Linux. Finally anyone who claims LibreOffice is dated probably doesn't know that humans have been writing for 4 thousand years and we have never had it so good as we do now!
- IC3BEAST 9y agoDefinitely give Libre office a chance it's a great free alternative office suite. When we have departments that aren't willing to fork out the money for MS Office we deploy Libre office to their systems often without anyone ever realizing they're not using Microsoft. These are non tech people too...
- Samon 9y agoIf you're after 'The Most Compatible Free Office Suite', in terms of file compatibility, user interface/experience, etc, you can't go past WPS Office (wps.com) for Windows or Linux.