Most of us use a word processor on a daily basis. In this article, I share five of the best word processors available and why you should consider each one for use. There are so many word processing programs out there that it would be ridiculous to say these are the only five you should consider; however, these are five of the best. Which ones did I miss?
OpenOffice.org Writer
OpenOffice.org is an open-source office suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases, and more. Writer, the word-processing application that comes with the suite, is the result of user feedback and constant improvements over the years. I really like OpenOffice.org and would switch to it if I didn’t already have a Microsoft Office license.
Download OpenOffice.org
Google Docs
Google Docs is an online suite that comes with all the features you’d expect from an office suite. I use Google Docs mainly for online web forms to collect survey responses etc.
Here’s a video that does a great job of explaining what Google Docs is about:
Try Google Docs
Microsoft Office Word 2010
Microsoft Office Word 2010 is Micrsoft’s latest release of thier popular word-processing program. This software is, in my opinion, the best word processor available (and also the most expensive.)
From Micrsoft’s site:
Microsoft Word 2010 offers the best of all worlds: enhanced features to create professional-quality documents, easier ways to work together with people, and almost-anywhere access to your files.
Designed to give you the finest document-formatting tools, Word 2010 also helps you easily organize and write your documents more efficiently, and stay within reach so you can capture your best ideas whenever and wherever they occur.
Watch a demo of Office Word 2010.
Office Word 2010 is available from sites like Amazon or from your local store (Which version should I buy?)
Jarte
Jarte is a simple word processor that I’ve used to write posts for this site with in the past. The program is super simple, uses next to no system resources and comes with the following features:
- Fully compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7
- Tabbed interface to provide easy access to open documents
- Opens files with file extension RTF, file extension DOC, and file extension DOCX
- Fast start up
- Compact screen size
- Hot Connect lets you use Jarte with other programs
- Optional “Clickless Operation” feature greatly reduces clicking
- Can be run as a portable app directly from a pluggable USB flash drive
- High quality spell checker with custom user dictionary
- Included spelling dictionaries: English (American, British, & Canadian), Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Dutch
- Link to, or import, your existing custom Word spelling dictionaries
- Support for templates
- Export to HTML or PDF
- Single click bookmarking and bookmark navigation
- Send documents via e-mail
- Full drag and drop file support
- Instant access to recently opened documents and folders
- Instant access to documents and folders designated as favorites
- Adjustable document zoom
- Detailed Help documentation
Download Jarte (Read the Windows Guides review of Jarte)
Q10
Q10 is a feature-packed freeware editor with the following features:
- Full-screen to help you focus on your work
- Live text statistics of word, page, and character counts–updated live as you type
- Change the colors, line spacing, first line indent, paragraph spacing, font…
- A single self-contained executable file. That’s all. Easy to use with a pendrive, so you can carry your writing environment with you everywhere.
- Built in spell checker
- Any paragraph starting with “..” is considered a note. You can get a list of all notes in the current document and jump instantly to any of them
- Type writer sound effects
- Many more features listed here

About Rich
Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.
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None are quite as good Wordperfect X3 or X5 for that matter
Thanks for the suggestion.
I'm not sure about Wordperfect x5 because I've never tried it but I'm sure it's good like you said. However, I did a search for Wordperfect X5 and found that it's not a freeware program. The ones that Rich has listed are free and work really well. I totally love Jarte and have been using it for quite a while. I use it for all my document writing as well as exporting my documents to PDF. I also use Jarte as a test pad for HTML.
I've also tried Q10 and liked it a whole lot. Rich, I appreciate the writeup and video about Google Docs. I may give it a try, too, in the future! :)
oops! My mistake. I just noticed that Microsoft Office Word 2010 is listed. I've been reading several good reviews on it, lately, and may decide to upgrade to it pretty soon. :)
How about notepad++
Its open source.. and has superb functionalities like no other word processors i have seen…
Definitely a good one — something I use every day too :)
Microsoft word!!! ad notepad is bad for writing essays and letters, but useful for coding stuff.
Check out DevVicky Word – I posted about it here:
http://newsandtips.carputers.net/2010/07/10/dev…