Tools
A bit about writing software or word processing applications, for those budding authors, playwrights or poets, from costly to free you can find what works best for you and your budget.
What are word processor applications? In a nutshell they are writing tools used by computers to translate your thoughts to paper/file or film. Over the years they have grown and improved greatly, with immediate access to blogging, grammatical management and dictionaries for those of us who are spell challenged.
Everyone knows about Microsoft Office, comes in several varieties, with different applications and varying prices. The newest version of Office 2010 adds more robust writing to blog tools, mobile apps and many features for media management. Comprised of Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook, this software suite empowers you to create high-quality documents and presentations, build powerful spreadsheets, and manage your e-mail messages, calendar, and contacts.
Personal Note: I have used MS Office for many years, I like it but for some it might be overkill for the price. While it does over some amazing tools and possibilities I have often thought it was more for people into the complete desktop publishing arena.
Across the spectrum from MS Office is Apache OpenOffice, described as the “Free and Open Productivity Suite”, and is the result of over twenty years’ software engineering. Designed from the start as a single piece of software, it has a consistency other products cannot match. A completely open development process means that anyone can report bugs, request new features, or enhance the software. The result: Apache OpenOffice does everything you want your office software to do, the way you want it to
Personal Note: I like OpenOffice a lot, I have installed and used it often, and recommend it to clients and customers that don’t have the cash for MS Office, it does the same tasks, jobs, and functions, all you need to do is translate them into OpenOffice speak and you are set! It is updated frequently and has lots of options available.
The third entry in our word processor applications is AbiWord, like OpenOffice, it is supported, maintained and grown by a community of volunteers. Enjoy your favorite Word Processor on the operating system you like to use – be it Windows, Linux, QNX, FreeBSD or Solaris. AbiWord has been designed to integrate perfectly with the operating system it runs on. It will take advantage of the functionality provided by the system, such as image loading or printing capabilities.
Personal Note: I have not used AbiWord yet; however I am told that it is a good as OpenOffice and maintained as well.
I hope this bit of information about word processing programs is helpful and gives you some insight about what’s out there. You can go to each of the products site to read more and try them out for yourselves to find what will fit for the type of work you are doing
