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Word Processor Advice

James Godfrey

James Godfrey

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 13, 2011
2,074
1,713
Hi all,

I have just converted from PC to Mac, and I am just wondering what is the best word processor available for the mac, both free and paid for.

I want to use it for basic word processing and also tables etc... pretty much how I would use microsoft works word processor (as that is what I am used to).

Thanks

James
 
James Godfrey said:
Hi all,

I have just converted from PC to Mac, and I am just wondering what is the best word processor available for the mac, both free and paid for.

I want to use it for basic word processing and also tables etc... pretty much how I would use microsoft works word processor (as that is what I am used to).

Thanks

James
Click to expand...

LibreOffice is free and has pretty much all the features you would find in Microsoft Office.
 
The best, well that's probably MS Word because of its compatibility with its window's brother, its near universal acceptance and features.

Apple's Pages is nice but I found Word to be better. LibreOffice (and before that OpenOffice) was ok but returning to the office suite was a good move
 
I use Microsoft Word 2011 on the Mac because I've had issues when opening documents in Pages that I've done on my Windows PC, for some reason I have found Word 2010 for Windows to be superior than the Mac version. Both Microsoft Office 2011 and Apple iWork '09 have trials that you can use. Try them both, along with LibreOffice and other free suites, to see what works best for you.
 
I came from PC but I find Pages is better than MS Word which is just too much/complicated. It's so much easier (and more enjoyable) to have a nice looking word document by Pages than MS Word. Being compatible with Pages on iPad is also a plus.
 
As someone else has suggested both Apple and Microsoft have free trials.

Apple's Pages is available here as part of the iWork suite, but can be purchased separately in the Mac App store. It is a well respected word processing application and comes with a lot of high quality templates and has some great desktop publishing features. Not quite as full featured as Microsoft Word 2011, but if you are used to using works then this is probably all you need. If you have an iPad then Apple also do a iPad App that can read and edit documents created with the Mac version of Pages.

Link to free trial http://www.apple.com/iwork/download-trial/

Microsoft Word 2011 is the best choice if you need all the whistle and bells of a full business class word processing application, or if you want to ensure the best compatibility with sharing files with people using the Windows version of Word.

Link to free trial https://www.microsoft.com/mac/trial

I can't comment on the free options as I don't use them myself.
 
There's a little app available at the App Store called Bean. It's free.

It's a very simple, uncomplicated word processing app. It may be too simple for your purposes, but it's worth a look. :D
 
I would say MS Word. It comes with both PC and Mac versions and seems mostly compatible between the two.

Shrink said:
There's a little app available at the App Store called Bean. It's free.

It's a very simple, uncomplicated word processing app. It may be too simple for your purposes, but it's worth a look. :D
Click to expand...
Bean is cool. :)

As many have said, there are free trials.
 
sushi said:
I would say MS Word. It comes with both PC and Mac versions and seems mostly compatible between the two.


Bean is cool. :)

As many have said, there are free trials.
Click to expand...

I just went to App Store to double check that Bean was still free (not free to try, free free) and when I entered Bean in Search - no Bean!

I don't know what's up :confused:

I'm going to try to go to Bean website (if I can find it), but wanted to post ASAP in case OP tries to find it.:)

Edit: Went to bean website (www.bean-osx.com). They had a software update available Jan.1, 2012. Perhaps it's off App Store temporally while updating software???
 
Last edited:
Hi

Thanks for all the replies, iWork looks really good, but I don't understand why iWork works out more expensive to buy on the free trial link you provided (as a licence key) than what it does on the mac app store??? Any ideas is it better to get it as a licence key or better from the mac app store?

Thanks again all and keep some recommendations coming :)

James
 
James Godfrey said:
Any ideas is it better to get it as a licence key or better from the mac app store?
Click to expand...

Weird. I tried the link from the trial and it took me to the App Store.

Depends entirely on you which is better. If all you want is Pages (not Keynote or Numbers) MAS is definitely cheaper. Otherwise the differences are in the way it is licensed and you should read the details of those licenses before you buy.

B
 
Hi

the price of iWork suite is at the following link for £72.00

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB942Z/A/iWork-09

But on the mac app store its price at 3 x £13.99 = £41.97, then £6.99 for the iOS apps each =£20.97, which is £62.94 total.

Don't know why it is so expensive on the Apple website???

Can I ask, if I was to purchase from the Mac app store could I re-download for free ilk the iOS app store?

Thanks

James
 
you can always re-download your purchased applications. both from the Mac App store as well as the iOS App store.
 
James Godfrey said:
Hi

Thanks for all the replies, iWork looks really good, but I don't understand why iWork works out more expensive to buy on the free trial link you provided (as a licence key) than what it does on the mac app store??? Any ideas is it better to get it as a licence key or better from the mac app store?

James
Click to expand...

I suggest you get the App from the Mac App Store rather than buy a licence key. Apart from the fact that is cheaper, it comes with a Mac App Store licence that lets you download to other Macs that you own. I know you only have one now, but you may end of with more later :)

Apple are trying to push distribution through the Mac App Store rather than have physical boxes (I know you looked at buying a licence key, but that is a one licence per machine that is similar to the licence that Apple still sells via physical boxed product).

The only (slight) disadvantage of buying from the Mac App Store is the licence is permanently linked to the Apple ID that you bought it under.
 
rocket9005 said:
I have used Abiword, and have been very happy with it's features. You can download it @

http://abiword.en.softonic.com/mac

It's cross platform, so there are versions for Mac, Windows and Linux.
Click to expand...
AbiWord is an excellent Word/WordPerfect-compatible word processor. However, the application is at version AbiWord 2.4.5 and has not been updated since 2006. This has several consequences. The two most important consequences are as follows:
  1. AbiWord 2.4.5 is PPC-only. It works fine on PPC-based Macs or on Intel-based Macs running Rosetta. However, Macs running MacOS X 10.7 Lion do not run Rosetta and cannot run a Mac version of AbiWord.
  2. AbiWord 2.4.5 cannot open Word .docx files.
AbiWord 2.8.6, the latest release version, is available as source code for download on AbiWord's website. AbiWord 2.9.2, the latest development version is also available.
 
Thanks for all your suggestions, I think I am gonna to go for the iWork suite as this syncs across my iPad and iPhone too.... any issues with the syncing of documents in the cloud?

Thanks

James
 
James Godfrey said:
Thanks for all your suggestions, I think I am gonna to go for the iWork suite as this syncs across my iPad and iPhone too.... any issues with the syncing of documents in the cloud?

Thanks

James
Click to expand...

James,

If you have not got it already I suggest you get a Dropbox account ( which is free up to 2 GB). Apple have dropped the ball a little with iCloud as there is not an easy way to Sync documents from iOS devices back to your Mac. At the moment to get the document on your Mac from the iOS device you need to use a Web page. No doubt the next version of iWork for Mac will have proper Sync support, but we are not there yet.
 
James Godfrey said:
Thanks for all your suggestions, I think I am gonna to go for the iWork suite as this syncs across my iPad and iPhone too.... any issues with the syncing of documents in the cloud?

Thanks

James
Click to expand...

Be wary though, while Pages and Numbers work well with being compatible with Office, Any visual effects you do in Keynote WILL BE LOST if saved as a file for Office. Keynote needs some good reworking if you ask me.
 
If you need to share your work, I highly suggest going with Office 2011. iWork has good, but not great Microsoft Office compatibility.

iWork is nice for some things, but it's 3 years old and doesn't have iCloud support. If you ask me, we'll see a new version of iWork soon enough.
 
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