I've made a hobby out of trying out different free word processors in hopes of finding my final replacement for Microsoft Word. Don't get me wrong Word is a good program, but the cost is ridiculous, and there are so many features cluttering the real useful ones that it's sometimes hard to do simple formatting. If you go over to your local office supply store you can get a cheap word processing program other than Word, but that's what you get, cheap.
I think the best replacement options revolve around the Open Office based Word processors, or LibreOffice from The Document Foundation. I need a word processor that is easy to use and with features that are readily available but not intrusive.
After a bit of reading I downloaded and installed IBM Lotus Symphony that is based on Open Office code, and was pleasantly surprised. Lotus Symphony takes advantage of modern wide screen monitors that we have today and puts a well thought out area next to the document with controls. I wanted to add spacing between my paragraphs, and I simply looked to the right and increased the spacing. I have yet to find the spacing controls in Word, that feature is buried someplace in the program, but I'm still looking for it.
At first I was a little worried that I might not be able to load a .docx Word document into Symphony, but I had no problems at all loading a .docx file. I can save the file in the older .doc format if I need to send the document to someone who uses Microsoft Word, or I can simply export the document as a PDF if the recipient doesn't need to modify it. Of course your document can be saved in .odt, .txt, or .rtf formats that are readable by anything.
The real value of using Lotus Symphony is the interface, it's comfortable and doesn't get in the way of my creativity. It has a wide variety of controls for formatting a document readily available, and clip art to jazz it up. It really isn't set up for creating a Web Page like Word is. But I don't care about that anyway, if I want to work on an HTML document I will use a program better suited for it than a word processor anyway, like KompoZer for web authorizing.
IBM Lotus Symphony is an office suit with a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program and costs nothing; it's free. All of the programs that I have mentioned here are free, except for Microsoft Word which can be purchased for the ridiculous price of $120 on Amazon. I used Symphony to write this article, and I think I'll keep using it.
Update: I wanted to add an update, I have really been enjoying using Lotus Symphony, but one thing was missing that I like, and that is a grammar checker. I like that feature in Microsoft Word but it isn't incorporated into Lotus Symphony as of yet. It is on IBMs list of things they want to add, but it's not available at the time of this post. But I did find a workaround, I did a bit of research and found that Abiword has a grammar checking option, and Abiword is also a free word processor. I downloaded version 2.86 and had to check a box on the install to have the grammar function installed, then I had to go into preferences under the spell checker, and turn it on. But the grammar checker works pretty good.
I'm not so thrilled about Abiword's interface but what I can do it create my document in Lotus Symphony then run the completed document in Abiword to make sure I put all of the commas, and semicolons in the right place. The grammar checker doesn't suggest a corrective action like Microsoft Word does, but I really just need the mistake caught, I can figure it out after that.
Dan
Update: I wanted to add an update, I have really been enjoying using Lotus Symphony, but one thing was missing that I like, and that is a grammar checker. I like that feature in Microsoft Word but it isn't incorporated into Lotus Symphony as of yet. It is on IBMs list of things they want to add, but it's not available at the time of this post. But I did find a workaround, I did a bit of research and found that Abiword has a grammar checking option, and Abiword is also a free word processor. I downloaded version 2.86 and had to check a box on the install to have the grammar function installed, then I had to go into preferences under the spell checker, and turn it on. But the grammar checker works pretty good.
I'm not so thrilled about Abiword's interface but what I can do it create my document in Lotus Symphony then run the completed document in Abiword to make sure I put all of the commas, and semicolons in the right place. The grammar checker doesn't suggest a corrective action like Microsoft Word does, but I really just need the mistake caught, I can figure it out after that.
Dan
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