I am surprised to learn this new Mac Mini does not come with a word processor. Nor is there one on the Ipad Mini.
This leaves, not tech savvy, Me wondering how on earth I will access all the Appleworks documents from my last Mac Mini?
I discovered this when I loaded everything I wanted on a jump drive only to discover I couldn’t open any of it. When I search I get too many results, and I’ve no idea what to look for, to be honest. My needs are few, I assure you.
So what about all you new Mac for Christmas people, what are you using to view Appleworks documents?
I am putting MS Office, and LibreOffice on my computers. (The latter more for Base, because I deal with a lot of documents with complex formatting that gets chewed to shreds if I don’t stay with MS Office for the word processing.)
TextEdit is a low-powered word processor that will already be on your Mac, but it won’t handle AppleWorks.
I haven’t actually used a word processor for years, so: nothing. On the rare occasions I need to read a word file someone else has sent me, I upload it to Google Docs.
Any word processor that serves your needs is the right one… as long as you have to serve only yourself. The argument for all of the freeware and alternative products is just that; from the typing side, they all look and work pretty much alike. Use whichever one works for you.
However… if you are going to work with shared documents and other users, you have to work within the established standard, which is (overwhelmingly) Word. Compatibility between Word and other tools is theoretical at best and tends to blow apart the minute any document uses a feature more complicated than headers or footers. It’s bad enough maintaining document integrity when the circle of users has different versions of Word; add in a *cough cough Harley-compatible, basically the same engineering *and watch your docs explode in colorful gibberish.
I’ll make no judgment about what individuals use, especially in these days when documents can, should be and are delivered in PDF. But after almost 30 years spent laboriously fixing documents that went through someone’s “compatible,” sometimes repeatedly, I make the sincere plea that working groups use a single, standardized tool, even if it means shelling out a few bucks to Microsoft.
(By the way, Word can be hot-rodded into an excellent tool by shearing away all the marketing-driven selections for menus, settings etc. There’s a damned good tool under all the chrome and plastic frippery and the settings that make things sooooo E-Z.)
I have Word 2011, but it’s something I use very rarely. Since the vast majority of my business communication is via email, I find that I have little need for a word processor these days. Text Wrangler is an excellent text editor, but it’s really designed for geeks. Open Office or Neo Office should meet most folks needs if they have to deal with Microsoft Word documents. Pages is also good, but it’s not free.
Tell me about it. I used to teach a class to college students that included using Word for flyers and brocures. Our first lesson: turn most everything off (especially autoformat as you type) and make most everything visible (tabs, spaces, paragraph marks). Suddenly, students who had struggled for years with Word were now happily being productive.
I didn’t realize it was so cheap. I agree, this would be the best way to go. Compatibilty wise, the others really do have issues. It’s unfortunate that MS has been able to lock that market in, but it is a fact. If it is available on the app store I’ll put it on my list of things to get.
If you use Office at work, your employer might participate in the Microsoft Home Use Program, which will let you buy a copy of Office Professional Plus 2010 or Office:Mac 2011 for ten bucks.
Pages, in the bundle of Pages plus Numbers plus Keynote, which cost $49 when I bought my iMac almost 2 years ago. It’s just fine, it works right, and it has a mobile version for your iPhone or iPad if you like.
I also like TextWrangler, but not for word processing!
It’s cheaper than that; for about $120 you can buy a three-license copy for “home and student use.” It’s not supposed to be installed in a commercial/business environment, which is no hurdle even if you’re an ethical software buyer. That makes Word-Excel-Powerpoint (and the fairly useless OneNote) about $40 a seat.