The wife recently got a new laptop and unfortunately it didn’t come with MS Office. She has about used up the trial version and the want something like $130 now. She really doesn’t need everything Office has just Word.

Any recommendation on a cheap, maybe free, Word type program she could use?

Which features of Word does she absolutely need?

Well, I know she will need to open Word document, insert tables I believe for formatting columns, insert graphics, text boxes, text colors and font changes. I think that's about it.

Would KOffice for Windows work? It is based off an older version of the Linux suite, but it should have that functionality (I believe, I haven't used it outside of Linux).

http://windows.kde.org/download.php

Just about any of the free office suites would do then, none of them are awful....

http://www.libreoffice.org/download/
http://www.oxygenofficepro.com/downloads.htm
http://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

etc, etc

She could also go for one of the online ones, like Google Docs maybe ?

Come to think of it, Wordpad that comes with Windows probably does all she needs.

I take it back, Wordpad doesn't seem to do tables

Thanks guys

I encouraged her to try WordPad but she says it didn’t do all she needed. I think it may be that she doesn’t know how to get WordPad to do those things. She’s not the best at exploring the capabilities of software. However whenever I try to help her it always turns into an argument. Our relationship works best when she has her tasks and I have mine. Working together on the same thing rarely turns out good.

Well in this case she is right, as Wordpad doesn't do tables.

WordPad was what I was thinking when I asked about capabilities.

I think a big part of this is that she also needs to be able to open up documents from other Word users and maybe make some changes or at least import it to her word processor.

Office Web Apps (SkyDrive) can insert tables and open Office documents. It's free.

Microsoft, interesting, I noticed it says "Get Started Free." In the terms it mentions billing and "if" there is a cost. I don't see anywhere that it's a trial. Are they just leaving their options opened to charge later or do you know if this is really free, at least for now.

It has been free for a while. I have been using it for about 2 years. I don't think there is any intention of charging a fee as long as Google Docs is free. SkyDrive is also used throughout Windows Phone 7 (and 8, I assume). When you create a document on your Windows Phone device, this is where it gets stored. I doubt Microsoft would start charging those people, but you never know.

You can download the documents created in SkyDrive as standard Office files (.docx, etc.). I would try it out for now and if there's ever the threat of a fee, you can just take your files and then worry about what to do then.

I think Office '97 is their best effort. For example, it doesn't open a copy of word for every freakin' doc file you have open... For some reason, Excel has pretty much stayed good thru later versions, but Word just gets worse ans worse. You could probably pick that up for a song.

I keep Open Office installed so I can open .xlsx and .docx files, but OO has it's own issues, so I just use it to convert to the pre X file and use '97. It's surprising how seldom I run across the X file versions, as my clients send me stuff about weekly.

Yea, I'm not a big fan of any MS Office tools. Just simple things like searching for text in MS Word is awkward. Plus I’m spelling impaired and the suggestions MS Office comes up with are not anywhere near as close as what Google suggests.

I would use UltraEdit for everything if I had my way

Unsurprisingly, I would recommend Google Docs as an alternative. It's nowhere near as powerful as Word is, but their aim is to offer the 10% of the application that 90% of the population needs. Actually, to be fair that's only where they're starting, but it's a good start.

Other than that, there are tons of free word processors. Abiword is another that I don't think has been mentioned here.

I used to use OpenOffice, but now prefer LibreOffice.

Actually, I have OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Microsoft Office 2010, and Abiword all installed on the computer I'm using right now. But I use Google Docs because it does everything I need it to do, and is far more convenient.

I use "Drive" (Why did they change it to that stupid name) now for a lot of my personal stuff. I find it a bit slow and sometimes I get ahead of the program and unexpected "stuff" starts happening. Maybe it's just my connection speed.

The easy sharing between my android and laptop is basically why I use that. Thanks, I’ll pass Abiword on to the wife too.

I moved various non-techie friends/relatives of mine over onto OpenOffice and now LibreOffice, as OpenOffice appears to be impossible to get updates for.

Easy to configure to pretty much look and feel like MS Office (if that is useful) and fully compatible. And handles .doc better than MS!

Thanks compatibility is going to be a key. I sure don’t want to hear “See that stuff you loaded on my laptop won’t open Betty’s document. I should have spent the $130 now I can’t see her recipe to make pea and liver soup tonight.”

No chance of a HUP license (Home Use Program)? I got Office 2010 and 2013 via work for $15 each.

I didn't know there was such a thing. I'll have to look into that if she complains.

Currently I have her setup with LibreOffice and she already had SkyDive. She was upset she could do "Labels" (I guess MS Word has a Labels insert or something) so I told her to just open a prior document with labels and use them. So far no threats of spending $130.

Word has a label function, it's more than just a template for a sheet. I use it all the time.

http://www.microsofthup.com/ and provide them your work e-mail address. Validation is done based on that.

For Mac users, they do also sell the newest Mac Office. Even though I don't use it, I keep a HUP copy around just in case the need arrises for document compatibility.

Wow, I had no idea they had a website for that. At work, I think we still use the 'fill out this form, mail it in, wait 4-6 weeks' method.

Thanks. That would be way cool if it worked for me unfortunately I get this....

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