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TheFallGuy

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 20, 2003
73
0
I'm looking for an alternative to MS Word for writing. I plan on doing all sorts of writing with it - papers, letters, manuscripts, etc. Does anybody know of an alternative to Word that would suit me?
 
there are plenty of alternatives out there

Openoffice.org
NeoOffice
Pages (to an extent)

check out VersionTraker.com and do a search for word processors and you will get a lot of different results


for me though word works the best
 
I'm happy with Pages at the moment, but I evaluated Mellel a while back as an alternative to AppleWorks. I never made that jump, but the application looked very promising and is still being developed quite actively.
 
Thanks,

I've heard of Mellel before. For those of you who use it how does it scroll (when you type and get to the bottom of the document does it give a little white space at the bottom, or does it give a page of white space)?

Is there any way to fix that in Word?

I'll check out versiontracker. Thanks.
 
TheFallGuy said:
I'm looking for an alternative to MS Word for writing. I plan on doing all sorts of writing with it - papers, letters, manuscripts, etc. Does anybody know of an alternative to Word that would suit me?
Out of curosity, why not Word? Don't like it/cost/hate MS? All of the above? :)

I ask because I'm a professional writer and Word on the Mac is simply the best word processing program I've ever used on a computer.

Yes, you can change the whitespace handling in Word. You're in Print Layout view which replicates what the document would look like on a piece of paper. Try Normal View for just text and no page/space formatting.
 
spaceballl said:
For the best compatibility without buying MS Office, you should get NeoOffice/J. Free and constantly being updated.
-kevin

neooffice is the biggest ram hog i have ever seen. last time i tried it took me about 45 seconds just to start the dang thing on a G4 1.33ghz powerbook. multiple times. no other app performs that badly either, everything else works like butta.

i use word and Mellel (great app btw, i love it)
 
I have both Pages and Word

I use word in some classes because i still can't figure out if pages has an outline mode :/

Pages i use for other things
 
DXoverDY said:
neooffice is the biggest ram hog i have ever seen. last time i tried it took me about 45 seconds just to start the dang thing on a G4 1.33ghz powerbook.
There's no arguing that it's slow. Mellel is quite fast. However, Mellel's compatibility is questionable at best and it isn't free. Too much brushed metal for me too.

Actually you should re-check out NeoOffice/J though. Within the past few months, it's gotten exponentially faster. Still not Mr. Efficient, but hopefully on its way there.

-Kevin
 
spaceballl said:
There's no arguing that it's slow. Mellel is quite fast. However, Mellel's compatibility is questionable at best and it isn't free. Too much brushed metal for me too.

Actually you should re-check out NeoOffice/J though. Within the past few months, it's gotten exponentially faster. Still not Mr. Efficient, but hopefully on its way there.

-Kevin

i won't try it until they actually make a full fledged port to os x. sorry, none of this java blah blah blah garbage they're pulling in neooffice. it's one fugly application. I have word and mellel.

fundamentally the argument that mellel isn't free is kinda bogus. just about any decent word processor is going to be costly. openoffice is not bad in windows, but it's lacking in consistancy and pizzaz for sure. so is word for windows though.

i just like mellel though, each person will have their own opinion. i use word for most of my work, i had mellel before i bought word ($45 through college)
 
if you just want to do creative writing... i HIGHLY recommend using a Wiki..

i use VoodooPad Pro for my creative writing needs. totally kicks butt and allows me to jump all over :p
 
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