Best Free Word Processor

If you don't write novels, reports and documentations all the time, but like to use a Word Processor just for letters, memos and how-to's, you will love some of these word processors. They are mostly lightweight, load in a jiffy, and give you many more features than those you find in Wordpad that comes with Windows. That said, following are reviews of some free options that are good and suitable for general use.

If you're not in need of a standalone word cruncher software that is just to write, and are instead looking for something more akin to a full blown office suite, you might want to have a look at software mentioned in our Best Free Office Suite category.

Or if you are intending to write a novel, have a look at software mentioned in our Free Software for Aspiring Novelists category.

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Jarte deserves the word courageous for its clean fresh looks. Task oriented is in; and menus are out. In compact layout you're not more than one click away from everything you want to do. When you hover over a button (with clickless operations activated), the options pop up and await your command. There's also a classic layout, and a minimal layout, with all the nice menus.

Jarte gives you tabs and a wealth of options in formatting: fonts, paragraphs, page, header and footer. There's an outline function, indenting and outdenting, and a format brush to easily transfer formatting.

Some solutions are as simple as clever, e.g. when you mark a word and click the Encyclopedia button, Jarte looks that word up in the Wikipedia. Correspondingly Dictionary and Thesaurus take you online if you have not installed WordWeb, a free thesaurus that is integrated seamlessly.

Nevertheless, Jarte indulges in templates and tables. You can insert pictures and documents, manage files and folders without ever leaving Jarte. It remembers your clipboard and lets you take screen shots. Collaboration is also not a concern, as Jarte reads Rich Text Files (rtf), Word documents (doc) and even latest Word format (docx) with installation of Office Compatibility Pack from Microsoft. However, any editing changes made to docx  files must be saved in Rich Text File or Word file format. You can print all that, but even more intriguing and laudable is that you can export your document as a PDF-file.

There is a portable version for download on an USB-stick, have it on stand-by, minimize it to your system tray. It takes less than 10 MB RAM, and it is there, when you need it. A basic spell-checker is included, but extra features including background spell-checking are only available to the commercial version.

Version 4.3 contains a bug fix that prevented DOC files created with Word from opening properly in some instances.

PolyEdit Lite has none of the special layouts that are available to Jarte, but it's also a lightweight word processor complete with a basic spell-checker.

It comes with customizable toolbars which are useful and supports for tabbed document windows with a simple user interface.

Other features include the ability to insert pictures and objects, open as many documents as the user likes, no file size limitation, unlimited undo capability, and support for WordWeb as well.

Even though some extra features are restricted to the commercial version, the standard features in the Lite version are sufficient and suitable for most average users.

If you need a free word processor with no restrictions on commercial use, Crypt Edit is a good alternative. It is a decent word processor with a tabbed interface and configurable toolbars.

This program supports binary files encryption and compression, allows saving of files in protected text format (prt) with a user's password. Other features include multi-language interface, integrated e-mail client with an address book, clipboard viewer, drag-and-drop and other advanced editing functions.

A spell-checker is also available but it requires a separate download for dictionaries from the download page. Supported dictionaries include English, Russian, German, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.

WordTabs features tabbed interface complete with a spell checker quite similar to PolyEdit Lite.

WordTabs allows users to insert pictures and objects with rich text formating requirements. Saving of files in both txt and rtf formats are supported. Other useful features include drag-and-drop text editing, case conversions, find-and-replace, etc.

This program is developed by Skip Bremer. It is no longer maintained or supported but still available for download from other alternative websites.

AbiWord is easy to adapt to, especially since the interface is similar to that found in Microsoft Word and WordPerfect.

Its abilities include cut and paste, highlight, as well as the usual host of common formatting tools. Annotation is also possible. However, a grammar-checking utility is missing, if a plugin is not installed, though it can check spelling in many languages. In order to utilize checking of foreign languages, it will need to be specified at installation. Besides being able to save to Word format, its own proprietary file format is available. A plugin can be installed to open OpenDocument formats.

Sharing documents is possible with the integration of AbiCollab Web service in the latest version (2.8.6). This feature is especially welcome for scenarios such as remote collaboration.

Atlantis Nova is another option for people who are fed up with Wordpad. Those familiar with Wordpad should feel right at home with Atlantis Nova. Albeit in a more cluttered form. You can create and edit documents using a long list of tools and options, including fonts, sizes, paragraph setup, tabs, bullets, AutoCorrect, Spellcheck-As-You-Type, Power Type.

There is another download needed for the spellchecking in languages other than English. It also converts document into eBook format (.EPUB).

But Atlantis Nova saves files in the unpopular Rich Text File format and Text, and can not save to the more popular Word format, a negative mark. Also missed are things such as  multi-column capability, footnotes and endnotes. It attempts to compensate for these omissions with some good features such as the "Magnifying Glass" zoom tool for instant high/low magnification and an Excel-like calculation tool. Also, built-in backup of documents is another welcome feature.

You might want to check out these articles too:

Best Free Text Editor
Best Free Programming Editor
Best Free HTML Editor

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor wesman.

word processors, wordpad replacement, text editors, best free, light-weight word processor, wordpad, letters