# Word Processors Other Than Word? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 21, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968 "2016-06-21T16:57:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/21 "2016-06-22T03:07:08Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Unless you just hate it or have some other reason you could always just use Word, it’s free online: > [Free Microsoft 365 Online | Word, Excel, PowerPoint](https://products.office.com/en-us/office-online/documents-spreadsheets-presentations-office-online) For very large values of free. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/22 "2016-06-22T03:17:19Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > For very large values of free. ??? What’s not free about it? ETA: Hmmm…that link doesn’t go where I wanted it to go… ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/23 "2016-06-22T03:24:32Z")
Is the first result here free Office? [https://www.google.com/search?num=20&newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=office+free+online&oq=office+free+online&gs\_l=hp.3..0l2j0i22i30l8.1296.7051.0.7194.19.17.0.2.2.0.230.1969.10j6j1.17.0....0...1c.1.64.hp..0.18.1754.0..35i39j0i131j0i3j0i20.kxFLyDb34zg](https://www.google.com/search?num=20&newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=office+free+online&oq=office+free+online&gs_l=hp.3..0l2j0i22i30l8.1296.7051.0.7194.19.17.0.2.2.0.230.1969.10j6j1.17.0....0...1c.1.64.hp..0.18.1754.0..35i39j0i131j0i3j0i20.kxFLyDb34zg) ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/24 "2016-06-22T03:27:22Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Notepad cannot save as RTF. You just have to input all of the RTF markup yourself, and make sure you use the correct file extension. Yeah, fine, no WYSIWYG, but RTF is a text format. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/25 "2016-06-22T03:41:41Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Is the first result here free Office? > [office free online - Google Search](https://www.google.com/search?num=20&newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=office+free+online&oq=office+free+online&gs_l=hp.3..0l2j0i22i30l8.1296.7051.0.7194.19.17.0.2.2.0.230.1969.10j6j1.17.0....0...1c.1.64.hp..0.18.1754.0..35i39j0i131j0i3j0i20.kxFLyDb34zg) That has just a small subset of Office features. You’d be better off using Google Docs. The real deal is going to cost you, and if you’re in a position where you have to use Word, you’ll need the missing features… ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/26 "2016-06-22T13:04:23Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Gosh, yes! “Reveal Codes” was a godsend, and I got very good at programming WP macros. I wrote one very complex one that dealt out four bridge hands from a deck of cards. My wife loved WordPerfect for the “reveal codes”. Myself, I have never used either Word or WordPerfect since I need plain vanilla text as input to the markup language TeX that produces beautiful mathematics and use a general editing program for everything. AFAIK, every mathematics journal accepts only TeX input (and formats it based on its own style). On the other hand, my daughter is chief copy editor for a suite of scientific journals and they want all their input in Word, which they use as input to PageMaker that they use to prepare final output. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/27 "2016-06-22T20:42:07Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > My wife loved WordPerfect for the “reveal codes”. Myself, I have never used either Word or WordPerfect since I need plain vanilla text as input to the markup language TeX that produces beautiful mathematics and use a general editing program for everything. AFAIK, every mathematics journal accepts only TeX input (and formats it based on its own style). > > On the other hand, my daughter is chief copy editor for a suite of scientific journals and they want all their input in Word, which they use as input to PageMaker that they use to prepare final output. Real men use runoff - or the Bell Labs mm packages. (I did my dissertation in runoff, back before there were laser printers.) IEEE journals use Word. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/28 "2016-06-22T20:47:41Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Open [Office.org](http://Office.org) was the original program. It hasn’t been updated since 2011. LibreOffice and Apache Open Office are the main forks of the original. You could try both, neither is really “better.” I think Libre gets more updates. > > In my experience any of these are a good replacement for many Microsoft programs, _except_ Calc is a piss-poor replacement for Excel. At work we use Open Office on our PCs or Libre Office on Linux machines. I switched from OO to Libre Office at home when I switched machines. Libre Office has worked fine. The only incompatibility I’ve seen between Word and OO for non-complex documents is that OO uses a slightly different double quote character than Word. I’m using Word to edit something I started in OO and it sometimes looks odd. I’ll eventually do a massive search and replace. It might come from OO’s origin in Germany before Sun bought them. The Power Point equivalent in OO is by far the least compatible thing. That screws even simple things up. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/29 "2016-06-22T20:53:46Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Real men use runoff … Small correction: Real men use TECO as the text editor and RUNOFF as the markup language. 😉 I still say that TECO is the best non-WYSIWYG text editor that ever existed. Its macros could do absolutely anything with amazing brevity and simplicity. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/30 "2016-06-22T21:31:54Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Hari Seldon** : > > On the other hand, my daughter is chief copy editor for a suite of scientific journals and they want all their input in Word, which they use as input to PageMaker that they use to prepare final output. Ugh, what scientific journals use Word? Everything in physics is TeX filtered through a journal style template, like you described for mathematics. And in fact most of the journals have all agreed to use the same template as Physical Review, the dominant [set of] journal[s]. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/31 "2016-06-22T21:40:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Ugh, what scientific journals use Word? Everything in physics is TeX filtered through a journal style template, like you described for mathematics. And in fact most of the journals have all agreed to use the same template as Physical Review, the dominant [set of] journal[s]. Perhaps any journal in which equations aren’t massively dominant. The leading journal _Nature_, for example, prefers submissions in Word, with initial review drafts in either Word or PDF. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/32 "2016-06-22T21:56:30Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > At work we use Open Office on our PCs or Libre Office on Linux machines. I switched from OO to Libre Office at home when I switched machines. Libre Office has worked fine. > > The only incompatibility I’ve seen between Word and OO for non-complex documents is that OO uses a slightly different double quote character than Word. I’m using Word to edit something I started in OO and it sometimes looks odd. I’ll eventually do a massive search and replace. It might come from OO’s origin in Germany before Sun bought them. > The Power Point equivalent in OO is by far the least compatible thing. That screws even simple things up. Word changes quotes to be curly rather than straight “quotes like this.” In some versions, you could Ctrl+Z to revert back to the straight ones, or turn off the conversion. Germans typically use outward-facing high/low quotes „just like this“ don’t they? I think some of the compatibility problems in Calc arise with formulas who get messed up (to be fair, when Office 2007 came out, previous versions were screwed up for some time because users didn’t get service packs). But Excel is just infinitely more intuitive and user-friendly. > [@wolfpup](#): > > Perhaps any journal in which equations aren’t massively dominant. The leading journal _Nature_, for example, prefers submissions in Word, with initial review drafts in either Word or PDF. Yeah, I’ve never encountered one that \*forbids \*Word, but many accept multiple formats. The copy editors may convert it, but that’s after it’s out of the author’s hands. Here, they also lagged when .docx came out with Office 2007, and many I’ve tried would only accept .doc for some time. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/33 "2016-06-22T23:26:23Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Real men use runoff - or the Bell Labs mm packages. Oh, yeah, runoff! First such software I ever encountered! But yes, WP Reveal Codes it’s a beautiful thing… In my work we use certain documents template-formatted in Word so at a certain point you begin line-numbering, and Word handles that through a section break. When you open them in OO or Libre, it applies numbering to the entire document. Annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/34 "2016-06-23T03:58:51Z")
I didn’t read all the replies. But Open Office has been taken over by the same group that supports Apache. Maybe this is a good thing. I have used Open Office for many years, and find it adequate for my limited needs. I can import most MS formatted things OK, but sometimes not perfect. I can then save them in MS formats that are used fine by those that sent me the MS things. But again. In my limited use and simple items. I have donated to the Open Office supporters as well as the Mozilla project, several times. $50 buck a shot. I recommend that all users do so as well. There is a price for freedom of choice. Much cheaper in the long run than losing that option to choose. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/35 "2016-06-23T06:33:06Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Here, they also lagged when .docx came out with Office 2007, and many I’ve tried would only accept .doc for some time. It might be worth mentioning that one of the rare good things that Microsoft has ever done for free is provided add-ons to older versions of Office to support these new XML-based formats in Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. Hence Word 2002 (Office XP) and 2003 can be enabled to both read and write .docx formats. I’ve installed versions for both, and though I haven’t used them very extensively, I’ve never had a problem with .docx compatibility. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/36 "2016-06-23T12:26:26Z")
As I’m in China, it’s no surprise that the alternative suite used by the staff and students at my school is [Kingsoft](http://www.kingsoftstore.com/), aka WPS. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/37 "2016-06-23T15:18:47Z")
> [@Kedikat](#): > > I didn’t read all the replies. > But Open Office has been taken over by the same group that supports Apache. Maybe this is a good thing. > I have used Open Office for many years, and find it adequate for my limited needs. I can import most MS formatted things OK, but sometimes not perfect. I can then save them in MS formats that are used fine by those that sent me the MS things. But again. In my limited use and simple items. > > I have donated to the Open Office supporters as well as the Mozilla project, several times. $50 buck a shot. I recommend that all users do so as well. > > There is a price for freedom of choice. > > Much cheaper in the long run than losing that option to choose. LibreOffice is the better developed branch of the old OpenOffice. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/38 "2016-06-23T21:24:37Z")
How does NeoOffice fit in there? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/39 "2016-06-23T21:47:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > How does NeoOffice fit in there? Same idea as LO/AOO, but it’s Mac only. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968/40 "2016-06-24T02:29:49Z")
I meant, how does it fit into the forked lineage? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-processors-other-than-word/757968.md?page=3)