Daily 5: 5 word processors

By , Published June 13, 2010

Everyone needs to use a word processor every now and then (how 80's does the word 'word processor' sound? Hmm.) There are various ones to choose from – and not a fat deal of difference between then but nevertheless here is a selection of 5 to choose from.

AbiWord

The lightweight GNOME Office word processor AbiWord is an ideal candidate for simple word processing needs. Billed as €œsuitable for a wide variety of word processing tasks.€ is has most features your likely to need for writing letters, CV's or quick notes.image

AbiWord also allows you to collaborate with multiple people on a document at the same time via the AbiCollab.net web service. AbiCollab lets you store documents online, allows for easy document sharing and can perform format conversion.image

Google Docs

If you're always connected online (and who isn't these days) then Google's online office suite Google Docs presents a viable & convenient alternative to desktop based solutions.image

The online word-processor is speedy, can handle most file types – including Microsoft Office formats – and offers up a bevy of common task-orientated features. Like AbiCollab – but more advanced – Google Docs allows users to collaborating in real-time with other users on documents. image

OOo. Writer

image

The default word processor in Ubuntu – and for good reason. OOo Writer is much more capable than the previous entries on this list making it a prime candidate for the power-user and is pretty much on a par with Microsoft Word feature wise.image

KWord

KDE office suite 'KOffice' comes packaged with the word processor 'KWord'. KWord is a functional and capable word processor that, whilst lacking the advanced features of OpenOffice.org's Writer, has a unique text-layout scheme based on frames thus allowing for complex graphical layouts incorporating text, graphics and more to be easily achieved.image

Zoho Writer

Another web-based word processor, Zoho Writer offers many advanced features such a sharing and collaboration, blog posting and offline support. image

Zoho web suite links can be installed in Ubuntu. Note that they launch in a new browser window and require an internet connection.image

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. Microsoft Office web apps now available in the UK
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  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

    SoftMaker Office 2010 for Linux:
    http://www.softmaker.com/english/

    Not for free but a great tool.

  • http://orkutcidio.deliriocoletivo.org Peterson Espaçoporto

    There’s also Lotus from IBM… But it sucks anyway.

    • http://robjn.myopenid.com/ RobJN

      Ah Lotus. That was the first office suite I used. The new incarnation (symphony?) actually looks like there is a lot of promise there. I haven’t tried it yet but will keep an eye on it.

    • Christian Ide

      I just tried the new Beta 3 of Lotus Symphony 3 which looks very well. It is somehow an OpenOffice with a much more modern interface and some enterprise extensions minus OO Draw and Database.

      http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/SymphonyBetaHome.nsf/home

    • http://twitter.com/connorabruce Connor

      I use Lotus Symphony 3, works great, seems to be much faster and smoother than OpenOffice (but I haven’t used that for a while) and just looks a hell of a lot better than the 1990s OpenOffice.

      Also has tabs, which after tabbed browsing, tabbed file browsing, just seems to make more sense.

      • http://thealphanerd.wordpress.com/ Calvin

        Tabs anywhere except on a browser or text editor doesn’t make much sense for me.

        Symphony is dog slow here. Makes OpenOffice seem like AbiWord.

  • http://blastfromthepast.se/ Tommy Brunn

    Saying that OO.org is on par with MS Office is a bit of a stretch. It most certainly is on par with MS Office 2003, but it still has a long way to go before it becomes as usable and powerful as MS Office 2007.

    Still, what I would like to see the most in a desktop word processor is the ability to collaborate in real-time on a document – like Google Docs but with better overall functionality.

    • http://robjn.myopenid.com/ RobJN

      I’m glad you said that about OOo. I was thinking the same but dare not say it just in case. I get fed up of people saying OOo is on par with Microsoft Office. If all you need is to type up a quick 1 pager, OOo is fine (and being free makes it better than Microsoft Office), but for work / university / structured lengthy documents then you will struggle with OOo both due to features and collaboration with colleagues.

      • Anonymous

        I completely agree that Office is better than OOo, but you can’t say that OOo is only good for a ‘quick 1 pager’. I’ve used OOo Writer for all of my university essays so far, including a 20 page dissertation piece.

        You don’t always need every feature under the sun to do some decent work.

        • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

          I, too, used it for all my Uni work and never once needed a feature present in MS Office that wasn’t also available in OOo

          • Anonymous

            i use OOo for everything from a 1 pagers to a 15page essay and even powerpoints. people that say OOo isn’t on par to MS office doesn’t know how to use the program (maybe the UI needs tweaking to allow users to find features easily). also most people forget that theres a plugin framework in OOo that allows you to install plugins from http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/ which allows you to expand functionality.

          • Albe

            Argumentations are quite funny here, but if someone simply doesn’t like OOo without ever trying to use it at a proficient level… Well maybe not posting would be ideal, as a general rule, when we’re talking without a bit of experience.
            I workend in OOo since its introduction, both at work and at home, to produce every kind of document, from business presentations, to single page letters, to my 250 pages doctoral thesis, so frankly I don’t understand many of the statements here and I suppose that most of them derives from little or no OOo use at all.
            Regarding Microsoft Office, Word in particular, which I’ve used a lot until the XP days, I remember that every time I bring a .doc file from one pc to another it used to change all the page layout, loose a lot of format settings and so on, a “feature” that often leads me to frustration.

          • http://www.google.com/profiles/Christian.Ide.de Christian Ide

            I use OOo since the old StarOffice times on OS/2 and think the menu structure is much more intuitive than MS Office (e.g. “page format “is under “format” not “file”) and the context menues always are in context in contrast to MS Office. Also in OOo all components look and feel the same in the whole office suite. In MS Office even after over 12 years all parts use different interfaces and share only few components. On my job I have to use MS Office 2007 for over two years now and I still have to search for the functions I knew ten years before without looking…

          • http://www.google.com/profiles/Christian.Ide.de Christian Ide

            Ups, just tried openid via google…

        • http://robjn.myopenid.com/ RobJN

          OK that was probably a bit harsh of me, but if you are working with a group then it is a lot easier if everyone is using the same software. As part of this year I have used Microsoft Words commenting, track changes, equation editor, styles, title pages, TOC, endnote reference plugin, export to PDF, and object plugins with other software (minitab, spss) to be able to copy in objects that are editable instead of simple pictures. Also in excel key needs are Solver and VBA. Now I know some of those features are available in OOo but the difficulty comes when you pass documents to others or are required to submit in Microsoft formats (as with my excel VBA work).

          Its great that you managed to do your dissertation in OOo. Keep up the good work.

          • http://blastfromthepast.se/ Tommy Brunn

            What we generally do for group assignments at my university is write everything in Google Docs, and then publish it using MS Office 2007. That way we can easily collaborate and don’t have to worry about version and file type incompatibilities, but still get a nice, polished end result – complete with semi-automatic bibliography, table of contents, and all those other goodies. The only problem is that if you have to make several revisions, you have to go back to Google Docs to make them, and then paste that into the MS Office document (unless you’re just making small revisions).

            What I find to be the biggest hurdle in using OpenOffice isn’t that it lacks features that MS Office has, but that the features are so much harder to to use. Setting up automatic bibliography in MS Office 2007 is crazy easy and only takes like two clicks. In OO.org I have to spend 15 minutes googling to figure out how to do it. Hopefully the UI revamp solves this.

          • http://robjn.myopenid.com/ RobJN

            Some good points Tommy. Yes ease of use is an issue. Hopefully Renaissance can help out here.
            I haven’t tried Google Docs yet. I introduced a website for sharing files, arranging meetings, and struggled to get people to use this. Ended up reverting to email. But we use google provided mail, and being a big name player I am looking forward to what the future holds for Google Docs. Should be interesting.

            I’m going to stop now. I think there has been some interesting discussion on the topic. And d0od’s blog post is a great way to try out different software. Has anyone tried Zoho? What were your impressions?

          • Coppertop

            “Now I know some of those features are available in OOo but the difficulty comes when you pass documents to others or are required to submit in Microsoft formats (as with my excel VBA work).”

            Ok, but you will hopefully agree that this is not actually a drawback of OpenOffice. I have the same problem in my work, but I don’t say it’s because of OpenOffice. It’s rather the question of faulty compatibility between the two packages. And in this regard the fault lies more on the MS Office side. Sure, if OOo actually lacks some feature that you need, and it does sometimes — that’s the OOo’s fault. But “everyone else is using MS Office” or “people want me to submit in ms office formats” hardly qualifies as OpenOffice bug… More like human error…

          • http://robjn.myopenid.com/ RobJN

            I totally agree. In fact I HATE that I have to use Microsoft Office because I know that they have me caught in a lock-in. If Microsoft had used the open xml file formats instead of making their own docx then life would be some much easier. OOo is up against that and a culture of unwillingness to change. It will be incredibly tough without some significant support (a good step would be for governments to stop using propriety formats but thats getting beyond the scope of this blog post).

          • http://bartbes.myopenid.com/ Bart Bes

            When collaborating there is the problem that OOo can’t flawlessly read the files created by Word, I know it’s Word’s fault, but it doesn’t help. Another thing is that I miss certain fonts as well, I have no calibri..

          • Otternox

            “Another thing is that I miss certain fonts as well, I have no calibri.. ”

            then… install calibri!
            download some win7 or vista ttfs and copy them to your fonts folder

  • CruelAngel

    Random stuff: the online Ms Office works too, lol d:

  • http://robjn.myopenid.com/ RobJN

    I find it incredibly hard to change between word processors, due to both significantly large and seemingly small things:

    1. As a uni student the university uses Microsoft office 2007. I upgraded from 2003 to 2007 for this academic year because we had a course teaching VBA in excel 2007. (main campus has OOo, but the business school does not – name and shame Warwick Business School).

    2. Since upgrading to Office 2007, I have adjusted to the ‘ribbon’ which I personalty quite like. Going back is now even harder.

    3. And little things like in Microsoft Word you can have the styles appear on the right of the screen in the same style as in the document. In OOo I can’t figure out how to do this (they appear only as plain text). All the small things quickly add up :-(

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/C6S22ANL35LHAH27EX43XFQKTQ Klau3

      Maybe you will like more the new ways OOo is going:
      http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Renaissance:Prototyping

      (try the live prototype online)

      • http://robjn.myopenid.com/ RobJN

        I have been checking in to the UX blog every now and then so knew of the Renaissance project. Somehow however I didn’t know about the live prototype. I have just had a go and it looks great. I especially like the 3D view which I can see as being a great way of presenting on widescreen as the audience can see (half of) the previous slide.

        Basically they just need to get on with it. The sooner the better.

      • http://el-bhm.myopenid.com/ el-bhm

        If it’s going to be another jumpy interface that most likely has seizures – no thanks.
        In current version, toolbars extend, strech and jump for no reason.

    • daas88

      I hate the ribbon design, because I have to make too many clicks to do everything. I prefer to make my custom toolbar with the stuff I usually use.
      And the ribbon interface is horrible for small screens, because it takes too much of the vertical space…
      Of course, this is only my opinion.

  • https://launchpad.net/~om26er Omer Akram

    I hate OO.o UNE should remove it.

    • Anonymous

      OO.o is the best! Used it ever since introduction to open source software, haven’t had any problems and its a very powerful suite!

      • Anonymous

        agreed, the only thing i don’t like about OOo is that it’s written in java. i wish it was written in c to improve speed but other than that it’s the best word processor for linux.

        • Anonymous

          as far as i know, it’s not in java, java is only required for advanced stuff in one of the ooo programs

      • Anonymous

        It has an awful Spanish translation team and there’s nothing to do about it (I tried it, believe me). And it’s not just about the user interface translation, the Spanish spell checker is a PITA too, but that’s not just OO.o. There’s no good Spanish spell checker in the open source world. The spell-checking in MS Office is light years ahead, which is very sad.

  • maryn

    There’s also Microsoft’s Office WebApps, seems OK, though it’s terribly limiting (Office OpenXML only -.docx, xslx, pptx). Haven’t check it thoroughly yet and I don’t think I become a fan, even though I don’t bear a (big) grudge against Softies. Al in all, it’s worth mentioning. May come handy one day, even for a Linux user as myself.

    • Dsa

      how does liveoffice work on ubuntu?
      when i log in theres a notice about the OS not being supported

      • Lun47ic

        login on “office.live.com” and not on the “live workspace” then it works. even chromeium works. But I’m with maryn its somehow just a very limited editor that would be more useful as pure viewer. Maybe Microsoft will integrate more functions in time.

        • Dsa

          thanks for the tip!

  • lunamystry

    I use Kile for my document processing needs. I found once I got the hang of it I can concentrate on content and leave formatting to latex. I get proffesional looking documents and i don’t spend too much time on it.

    I openoffice for viewing and quick documents like a page or something. I REALLY DON’T LIKE IT. I am not connected to the internet a whole lot 3hrs a day maybe and I am looking forward to koffice maturity. I hope they make it a little faster.

  • Juancarlospaco

    Get Lyx

    • http://dylanmccall.blogspot.com/ Dylan McCall

      Lyx changed my life. I can now act on my dislike of how word processors are designed by Never Using Them Again! Next step: spreadsheets :)

    • Anonymous

      I didn’t know about Lyx. It really looks interesting, I’m trying it next week.I wish Abiword used ODT by default and without a hickup. I love how fast it is.

      • Bill

        ya, abiword is freakishly fast

  • Anonymous

    Is Oxygen office still around? A more feature rich OpenOffice.

  • Ssw

    I use the open office writer for all my documents. For uni-papers and even for my book. It does all it should, but still I wish something like http://pagehand.com/ or http://www.papyrus.de/Autor.htm

    I havent used office for a long time so I do not know if it is better nowadays.
    What I wish most is a better spell check, really. If you write much, it is a pain in the ass to look for all the typos and errors.

  • Nico Burns

    Office 2007 runs flawlessly in Wine – what more do you need?

  • Anonymous

    Pretty soon we’ll have offline access for Google Docs in HTML5.

  • Anonymous

    Is that the new Ambiance theme for Maverick? I notice it doesn’t look “orangy”/whatever…

 
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