i am helping a friend set up his new pc computer. he is a newspaper columnist. would like to know what is the most used word processing program and why.
my guess is Microsoft “word,” which drives me nuts but I know of no alternative. I originally used ami-pro but few could open my files.
MS Word is definitely the most used. At one time, Word Perfect was the most used, but Microsoft overtook them and now is first. Ami Pro is good if you have the latest version, but MS Word outshines it by a mile or more. Good luck and learn it well, it will serve all your needs.
I’m a freelance writer and so have to send files out to all and sundry. The only format universally accepted other than .txt files is Word.
As for why, the only real answer is that Microsoft bundles Word (and Office) with virtually every computer that carries Windows, which is 90% of computers sold. Sheer numbers wore everybody else down.
Most all word processor programs are MSWord compatable. You might check out Abiword and Open Office. They’re both freebies.
Man, there’s a question on which word processor is the most popular? I’d guess MS Word has over 99% market share. In fact, I can’t think of any currently-updated program that would even come close. Are WordPerfect and other competitors even updated and sold at this point?
The modern version of AmiPro is WordPro. You can convert Microsoft Word documents to and from WordPro using ConversionsPlus from http://www.dataviz.com which can also do the same chore for Corel WordPerfect, which is still around and available for the PC.
AbiWord is quite nice and can open Microsoft Word documents natively, and I believe can Save As that format as well although it isn’t AbiWord’s native format.
I’m pretty sure Open Office’s word processor uses the exact same file format as MS Word as its own native format. It’s also a lot like Microsoft Word in look and feel, so if you detest Word the way I do you probably won’t care much for it.
Nope, oowriter’s native format is zipped xml files.
Stay with OpenOffice. Fight the power.
I’ve not used it, but how about PC Suite?
Daizy
Oh! And Easy Office.
(Ok, I’m done. 
)
Daizy
StarOffice *the commercial version of OpenOffice) and older versions of OpenOffice use Yet Another Pointless Opaque Format; however, all versions of both programs have extensive facilities for converting between different incompatible incarnations of this same basic idea (as used by WordPerfect, MS Word, etc.) Recent versions of OpenOffice do indeed use XML as the basis of their native format, which is much more portable - unless the person you’re trying to send your docs to only has Word, in which case only that will do. I’ve used the *nix version of OpenOffice to manage Word-to-sane-format conversions (and the reverse); It’s not perfect, but it’s good and getting better. If you really want to avoid paying MS for a broken legacy interface, that’s what I’d use.
Exapno Mapcase
you say microsoft “bundles” word (part of office) with windows? are you telling me “word” comes with windows? i thought you had to buy office separately?
what drives me nuts about word is it is always trying to do something i don’t want done. i have shut off every default i can find but it still has a mind of it’s own. also when i type invoices the decimal tab keeps disappearing?
Whenever I’ve looked for a computer from any major company, the package always seems to include Office or some part of it, although there may be an extra charge. You can always go out and buy one of Word’s competitors but you’ll have a hard time finding it conveniently loaded onto your hard drive when you buy your machine.
People who don’t want to fuss with computers just go ahead and use Word and Office as their default. With many if not most companies having Word and Office as their standard there is little incentive to go out and learn a new product.
And somebody like the friend in the OP who needs help in setting up a PC will probably be best off with the product that 99% of the professional world uses.
Not PDF’s? To me, the only formats which I share with people are txt, rtf html and pdf. These are all universal. Word has an annoying habit of displaying differently on different computers depending on the envrionment.
The preferred format may depend on the industry. I’m a freelance writer and most editors I work with use MS Word and want .doc files.
I think while some Windows machines come with Word, more have MS Works. Like most word processors, Works can save files in .doc format, it just takes an extra step.
Also, MS Word can open .wps files, the default word-processing format for Works, but a writer should make things as easy as possible for an editor.
PDF is not a text format. The Acrobat software for editing (as opposed to viewing) PDF files is obscenely expensive, and the PDF format itself is bulky and takes forever to print.
MSWord is all over the place, and most word processing software can open its files. That is the only answer to the OP’s question. However, I avoid Word like the plague – I dislike its poor menu design, its abrupt and nanny-like automated editing, and the embedded formatting that keeps coming back after you think you’ve finally killed it. I use WordPerfect, which is still being updated (although, quite frankly, I’ve been happy with every version I’ve seen since WP4 back in 1986), for all of my internal work, and I only use Word when I’m sending files out.
No, generally, I do all of my editing work in Word but I always present final copies in PDF and never word. There are simply too many variables associated with word to ensure that it will look the same on everyones computers. PDF is usually reasonably reliable in that regard. I use a small graphical front end to Ghost script which converts my postscript printed word documents to PDF files.
Mine. I seem to spend my entire waking life using it.
Shalmanese, I don’t know what kind of work you do but in my experience only the art director or production manager would ever work with a .pdf file. All a writer needs is a file format that creates double-spaced text, perhaps with a few other features. All work should go to an editor in standard manuscript format anyway. An editor needs to be able to edit the work, and darn few editors of my acquaintance can edit .pdf files. Nor should they ever have to.
Life is simple. If you are a professional writer and not a experienced computer maven, use Word. Then the only thing you ever have to think about is your writing. 
Same here. For one thing, it’s much easier to find and edit formatting codes than in Word. Also, it’s much less intrusive in trying to “fix” supposed errors. I convert WP files to Word when I have to send them to others.