Sennadar Forums

ok, so here's the situation: I tried to install my old word XP on a new windows 10 machine, and it's saying I have to activate it...which it's never done before, so I'll chalk that one up to it being windows 10. It also seems that windows 10 doesn't have wordpad or any other default document viewing program except a trial version of MS Office.

So, given I know almost nothing about "new" word processing programs, can someone recommend a decent FREE word processing program that will read and save in my old Word XP file format? That way if I ever do anything on this new machine, it will be a consistent file format with everything else.

I like Open Office. It is a free suite of programs like M$ Office but not made by that evil empire. https://www.openoffice.org

Ah, you need to keep up with the changes, heustess. Open Office is no longer active. Its listed as dormant on wikipedia. OpenOffice was developed under the overview of Sun. When Oracle acquired Sun in 2010, it essentially sealed the end, Oracle being who they are. Several free developers, after loosing patience with Oracle, forked the software and it became LibreOffice. Since then, there has been constant work being done on LibreOffice whereas even after Oracle gave up on the OpenOffice trademark, laying of all paid developers and handing over the name to Apache, most everybody already moved over to LibreOffice.

So, if you want to use Office software similar to MS Office, open files you get send from other people who use newer MS Office versions that your old Word XP doesn't know what to do with then i would suggest LibreOffice. For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice and https://www.libreoffice.org/

What MartinK said, LibreOffice.

There's also a LibreOffice extension to export a document to ePub: http://writer2epub.it/en/download/ . That's the first thing I do when a new chapter comes out, for easier reading on my phone and tablet.

Radar wrote:There's also a LibreOffice extension to export a document to ePub: http://writer2epub.it/en/download/ . That's the first thing I do when a new chapter comes out, for easier reading on my phone and tablet.

Oh, interesting. I'm usually exporting to rtf, then it's added to Calibre since i'm managing my ebooks with that anyway and there it gets converted without me prompting it when i send it to the device i use.

If you are not afraid of continuing to use MS products, Microsoft has released Word Online that you can use for free. I have not really used it much myself, but the basics are there at least. As far as I know, all you need is a Live account to use it. Also, it works well with OneDrive which can be nice (again, if you are not afraid of the "evil empire") since you do not have to be concerned about losing your work if your computer breaks down or is stolen....

MartinK wrote:Ah, you need to keep up with the changes, heustess. Open Office is no longer active. Its listed as dormant on wikipedia. OpenOffice was developed under the overview of Sun. When Oracle acquired Sun in 2010, it essentially sealed the end, Oracle being who they are. Several free developers, after loosing patience with Oracle, forked the software and it became LibreOffice. Since then, there has been constant work being done on LibreOffice whereas even after Oracle gave up on the OpenOffice trademark, laying of all paid developers and handing over the name to Apache, most everybody already moved over to LibreOffice.

So, if you want to use Office software similar to MS Office, open files you get send from other people who use newer MS Office versions that your old Word XP doesn't know what to do with then i would suggest LibreOffice. For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice and https://www.libreoffice.org/

You can even install it via http://ninite.com

mjkj wrote:You can even install it via http://ninite.com

Hm, looks like a program to install and/or update other programs. Sounds like a security hole to me. After all, you have to trust them to actually only install exactly what you would download and install yourself. No additional bloatware, no malware, etc.

Besides, apart from firefox, which updates itself quite successfully, i tend to want to keep other programs on exactly the version i'm used to working with. 'Never touch a running system' i believe it was called. As long as it doesn't interact with the internet or otherwise becomes a risk to security, is inherently unstable or has bugs i noticed and want to correct i don't spent time running around the internet looking for this or that program to update.

Let us see, a good example of something i consciously did not update... uh... ah, right, the torrent thingie i'm using was filled with advertisement, big pictures that are simply annoying in the interface from one version to another. Other examples are free software that suddenly becomes 'free-with-a-payme-message' that pops up on every start.

MartinK wrote:After all, you have to trust them to actually only install exactly what you would download and install yourself. No additional bloatware, no malware, etc.

They've been around for years, and have a solid reputation. They install *just* the application selected, they unselect any additional toolbars/etc bullshit that far too many app developers require.
The moment they blow that reputation, they'll lose everyone that's been a solid advocate of theirs.

Also, the never touch a running system thing? Yeah, It's 2015, not 1995. If the system you're using is connected to any network - you'd better be patching it regularly. That includes all the apps on it unless you can provide complete isolation (eg virtualisation).

Windows 10 still has the old basic notepad to view documents with but I also recommend LibreOffice.

Another option is WPS office http://www.wps.com.

They have both a free and a paid version.

konman wrote:Another option is WPS office http://www.wps.com.

They have both a free and a paid version.

I looked a bit at their webpage. According to them, you are not able to print any pages without getting a watermark added onto it by WPS in the free version. According to wikipedia, thats only after the 30 day trial time. Ah, well, at least its one more alternative to MS Office. That is always a good thing.

Libreoffice is what I use to format Fel's chapters into pdf/book files these days. Way back in time, I used to use OpenOffice then NeoOffice.

It should be plenty good enough, and no nonsense about activation or free trials!

Another vote for libreoffice

XW

I also have switched to LibreOffice after using MS Word since ver 2.0. On my last book on Storiesonline (Shiloh) I collaborated with a bloke from Australia who was using the program and he had converted much of my work into the format preferred by some of the online publishing house. To make it easier to work together, I downloaded LibreOffice but kept my Word/Office. I have since removed MS Office from my computer, even though I have a version that is compatible with Win 10. It takes a bit of work, but there are features that makes Word almost like the old 'Write' program. If you don't need them, then set a few options (Where to save, default font and size, default format doc vs the default odt) and work away just like in Word, Excel etc.