Anyone know any good alternatives to Microsoft Word?

Originally Posted by red1234blue

I use OpenOffice myself, what do I need M Word for then

Well, opening .docx files for starters. OpenOffice is ok as far as it goes but features and compatability wise it's not got much on Wordpad. If you're just after a text editor with some formatting options it's ok but if you're producing any sort of professional documents, especially if you're planning on sending them to anyone to look at by email then I'd seriously consider getting Office 2007. The other problem with open office is that if you send a document to someone with an older version of MS Office, the formatting will probably go all to shit in the process.

Even if you go with Office 2003, you can download a fix from the MS website to allow it to open .docx or .xlsx files.

Like I say, if you just need it for writing up essays then Open Office is probably fine for but it's just not up to the task of professional use (Although I suspect if you were doing anything professional with it you'd have just bought Office already).

Jam it back in, in the dark.