Free Alternatives to MS Word

In the years I spent as a student monkey and as a corporate monkey, MS Word was the go-to word processing software. Before that, from when I was about eleven, I used MS Works, or Notepad or WordPad. After my first couple of laptops crashed and died on me, I decided that I needed a cheaper alternative to Word that would still give me more features and better control than Works. I hadn't even started looking for word-processing software when I stumbled across a link for OpenOffice.org.

I love it. When I did my initial research on self-publishing, I thought that I would have to shell out for a new copy of Word, or at the very least dig out my old copy. But once I carefully read the Smashwords Style Guide and used OpenOffice to implement the instructions successfully, I realized that I didn't need Word at all. 

When I format The Cowboy Next Door, I'll be sure to do screenshots so I can share how to format in OpenOffice. It's so easy that I got it right in one try.

There is another free alternative out there called LibreOffice. I've read some good things about it but I haven't switched.

OpenOffice and LibreOffice are both Mac-compatible. I've never used them on a Mac, but I have a friend (and phenomenal beta reader) who has; she has never reported any problems.

Documents can be saved in Word's .doc and .docx formats and you can create HTML and XML files, which makes them easier to share. You can do almost everything in these programs that you can do in Word, they're free, they're easy to download, and they have tons of excellent reviews. If you're programming-inclined, you can even help to update it.

If you're wanting to self-publish with little-to-no startup cost and you don't have Word already, these programs are worth downloading and learning to use.