Okay, the battle for the best word processing app for Windows and Mac OS’s is on. The criteria for the best word processor that will win the war are based on: the app’s cost, ease of usage, availability of tools to edit documents, accessibility to updates and absence of a compulsory add-ons.

And Office for Mac 2011 is here to help you do more with your Mac, your way. Use familiar applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to help you take your ideas further. And since Office for Mac is compatible with Office for Windows, you can work on documents with virtually anyone on a Mac or PC. The official home page of the Apache OpenOffice open source project, home of OpenOffice Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw and Base.

Without further ado, in no particular order, these apps made the cut:

Mac

Byword is a text editor for Mac, Ipad, and Iphone; it’s simple and efficient. Documents can be written in Markdown or rich text, before being saved locally or to an iCloud account. It also offers full screen mode.

iA Writer Another word processing app similar to byword has a major feature – focus mode, which dims everything but the last three lines a user is working on. The app also supports Markdown formatting (which enables preview any time in a separate window); Documents can be saved to iCloud and also exported as a Microsoft Word, PDF, HMTL and .docx file for Pages.

Scrivener is an app that prevents the back-and-forth scenario when writing a dissertation due to difficulties in organizing workflow. The app has a well-designed straightforward interface tailored to working on a long-form piece of text. Features include a document hierarchy split into three default folders called ‘draft, research and trash’. The draw-back of this app though, is the absence of formatting options; hence users may need to transfer finished document(s) into another word processor i.e. MS word!

Storyist is a popular alternative, which offers similar experience to previous apps, but with a simpler design to wrap your head around. Might be a problem though for users as it’s mostly geared towards novelists and screen writers. If you’re aspiring author, this may be a good place to start, at $59, this is an investment that may be worth its weight in “gold”.

Pages Is an app that some users love using as an alternative to MS word; this app allows documents to be edited from the iOS version (including on icloud.com on any browser) and makes file sharing via the messaging app/formatting pane easier and faster to use. Drawback for pages is the removal of features such as ability to duplicate, delete/manage pages, using bookmarks and the import/export of .rtf files.

Windows

OpenOffice.Org is a free word processor that rivals the traditional MS word. It contains six applications that include Writer, Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw (graphics), Base (Database manipulation) and Math (mathematical equations). This app also offers users the magnanimity of opening PDF files without the addition of a plug-in or commercial add-on. Maintained by a large online community, help and bug fixes are created freely and available.

AbiWord, a free word processing application platform (similar to MS word) with full cross-platform program, meaning, users can run it on Linux, Mac OSX and Windows. The software is fully compatible with MS word, OpenOffice, Word Perfect and Palm OS. It has advanced document layout capabilities and can mail merge as well, allowing users to automatically fill in specific forms in documents with information from databases and comma separated or tabbed text files. Furthermore, the software can be enhanced and expanded with freely available plug-ins that will give it more features and functions; a very pertinent feature if there are many forms to work with in the office.

Jarte is a WordPad engine with features that include Windows Vista compatibility, ergonomic tabbed interface, small resource requirements and a quick loading time. It has built-in spell checking and can export to HTML and PDF files; it also allows you to insert images, tables, hyperlinks and other features expected in word. There’re no ads, trial periods or crippled features; it’s funded through user purchases of the Jarte Plus version, which has a paid version with extra functionality.

Neo Office is an office software suite made for Mac OS X users. The NeoOffice suite allows users to view, edit and save OpenOffice documents, PDF files, and most Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets. The free edition of NeoOffice can’t save documents, but users can open, edit and print.

Zoho offers around 20 free online applications including Writer for word processing, it enables a linked ability with the user’s Google and Yahoo accounts. The Writer’s interface shouldn’t cause anyone problems as it is comfortably familiar. Working online can be hazardous and there’s always the threat of losing data due to lost network connection, accidental closing of the browser window or browser crash, but luckily Zoho automatically saves your documents for you, as you finish typing. You can also insert images from your local computer or from the Web. The app offers all the standard text formatting and document creation features and can export to DOCX, ODF, PDF, Latex, RTF, TXT and even HTML. It can plug into Echosign for digital signatures, publish the document to a blog or make it public for all to see.

The best word processor in my perspective would have to be OpenOffice.Org because it works both on Mac and Windows. It also has a vast array of abilities that cuts across most of the features that traditional MS word offers. My score for this app would be a 4 star on a 5 star scale, while the every other app scored below the 4 star yardstick.

Photo Credit: Ben Adamson via Compfightcc

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I’m sure we are all used Microsoft Word, the most popular Word Processor on the market. Microsoft Word is almost a complete Word Processor there you can add Images, tables, charts, SmartArt, footnotes, equations are all there, nicely formatted.

You need to purchase a full office suite to get maximum from Microsoft Word. If you aren’t a fan of Microsoft Word and not interested in purchasing a full office suite, need just a Word Processor this article is just for you.
Here we go with the best free word processors to try in 2021.

1. Google Docs

Google Docs comes first into our list as one of the best free word processors. You can easily Create, edit, and collaborate with others on Google Docs documents easily.

Google Docs comes with a clean layout, it makes distraction free and easy to use. You can type up to 1.02 million characters on a single Google Docs file and you can convert a text document to Google Docs format with the maximum file size of 50 MB.

2. Quip

Quip is the productivity suite currently I’m using to get my work done. If you never heard about Quip, I highly recommending you to try and I’m sure you love it.

You can create documents and spreadsheets with Quip. One of the major highlights I love on Quip is we can easily import our existing documents from Evernote, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Hackpad, and Basecamp.

Quip is free for unlimited personal documents and folders, and a 1,000 message archive. Quip already released native apps for Desktop that runs on both Mac (version 10.8+) and Windows (version 7+).

3. Jarte

Jarte comes next into our list. Jarte is a lightweight and fast word processor that is fully compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10.

Word Processor For Mac Os

Jarte boots really quickly can be run as a portable word processor directly from a USB flash drive, CD, or DropBox folder. Jarte comes with a quality spell checker with custom user dictionary included spelling dictionaries for languages like English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Dutch.

4. OpenOffice

Apache OpenOffice included 6 suites like Word Processor, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Graphics, Database Manipulation, and Mathematical Equations. Apache OpenOffice is easy to learn and entirely free to use of any license.

5. AbiWord

AbiWord is another word processing program similar to Word. AbiWord is a cross-platform program that you can run on Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux.

6. WPS Office

WPS Office comes next into our list. WPS is a free office suite comes with a word processor, a spreadsheet program and a presentation maker.

Best Free Word Processor For Mac 2011

WPS Office supports English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Polish languages. WPS Office has a PDF converter, spell check, and a word count feature makes WPS Office great for writers.

7. Etherpad

Etherpad comes next into the list. Etherpad allows you to write articles, press releases, to-do lists, etc. Etherpad is an open source project main development happens on Github.

Through Etherpad, you can edit documents collaboratively in real-time together with your friends, fellow students or colleagues, etc.

8. LibreOffice

Best Free Word Processor For Mac 2011 Pro

LibreOffice is a powerful, user-friendly office suite that available for free to use even for commercial purposes. LibreOffice recently released their latest version 5.1 that feels better and works better with other Office Apps.

Best Free Word Processor For Mac 2019

You can create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations with LibreOffice and can save in Microsoft formats.