Reference Post - Freeware Word Processors

[socrtwo]

I'm interested in recovering corrupt MS Word files. One strategy is to
try to open the non-opening files in another Word processor. I have a
list of the freeware ones, which perhaps others are interested in:

Word Processors That Are a Part of a Free Office Suite

* 602 Office Text - http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/ - Free
for personal use.
* OpenOffice Write - http://www.openoffice.org/.
* Applixware Words - http://www.vistasource.com/vs2/en/applixware.php
- Free for developers?
* Budgie Office Word processor -
http://web.archive.org/web/20040407062220/.
* http://www.modesoft.com/Budgie16Setup.exe - programmer has ceased to
make available. Can also still be downloaded from TUCOWS.
* Thinkfree Online Beta Write - http://online.thinkfree.com/ - owned
by the company that makes the Korean Office Suite HaanSoft?
* EasyOffice Tiny Version EasyWord -
http://www.download.com/3000-2079-* 10058181.html?legacy=cnet - I've
never been impressed by the programs Word compatibility, but it might
do in a pinch.

Stand Alone Freeware Word Processors

* WordPad - C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe
[Usually found here] - You can usually get to it on the start menu by
clicking the Start Button -> Programs -> Accessories -> WordPad.
* Atlantis Nova -
http://www.rssol.com/shared/download/exec/atlant10n_en.exe - Not
supported by the company anymore and no link is visible on their site,
but the download link still works and they keep it alive on purpose for
some reason.
* AbiWord - http://www.abisource.com/ - Great program, beloved by the
freeware and open source community.
* Qjot - http://www.xtort.net/xtort/qjot.php - Nice little efficient
Word processor.
* Jarte - http://www.jarte.com/index.html - Different from any other
interface. May be intimidating or may be your cup of tea.
* RoughDraft - http://www.rsalsbury.co.uk/rd.htm - Designed
specifically for the writer by a talented generous programmer. Appears
to be an excellent general purpose freeware Word processor too.
* Hieroglyph - http://www.adelaida.net/hieroglyph/ - Competent
freeware Russian programmed Word processor with many features. Don't
let the Website fool you, the program has an English and Russian
interface, and you can choose between them (I think in the setup).

Online Word Processors

* Thinkfree Online Beta Write - http://online.thinkfree.com/ - May be
owned by HaanSoft a Korean Software Maker. It may be an English version
of HaanSoft's Hancom Office.
* Writely Beta - http://www.writely.com/BasePage.aspx - Super cool new
Web based program. A leader of the so called Web 2.0 apps.
* Zoho beta Writer - http://www.zohowriter.com/Home.do - May have
problems with file import. Similar to Writely. Equally impressive
looking interface.
* Rallypoint - http://www.rallypointhq.com/ - Only allows pasting from
Word, not import.

Viewers

* Columbus Viewer -
http://www.oasys-software.com/products/dm/columbus/ - Amazing product
to give away free, Can open over 100s of types of files.
* MS Word Viewer - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/ - In addition
to Word, it will open some WordPerfect and also HTML files.
* AntiWord - http://www.winfield.demon.nl/index.html - An
anti-Microsoft reaction. Can read and display Word files in almost all
the environments that exist, but has a very basic command line like
operation (from what I can see).

Any more suggestions. Once again, the criteria is they have to open MS
Word files.

 

[socrtwo]

Here is the Budgie Office Word processor which I screwed up :-(.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040407062220/http://www.modesoft.com/Budgie16Setup.exe

Also it's TUCOWS I think in the Netherlands that has the live link:

http://tucows.dds.nl/files4/Budgie16Setup.exe

 

[prospero33]

I believe 602 Office is not being offered as freeware, though older
versions may still be available.

 

[socrtwo]

Your correct. See: http://software602.com/press/press70.html. Thanks
for the update.

 

[Jeff Needle]

Applixware 6.0 for Linux is free for home use, we will have a
downloadable home office version soon, until then just send a mail to
(e-mail address removed) to obtain a free license.

Is there a version for Windows?

 

[Philip Wittamore]

Applixware 6.0 for Linux is free for home use, we will have a
downloadable home office version soon, until then just send a mail to
(e-mail address removed) to obtain a free license.

 

[omega]

Is there a version for Windows?

I don't know what the reason would be that Linux only was specified in his
message(?) But, meantime, did you check into ..

http://www.vistasource.com/vs2/en/downloads.php

[...]
Applixware 6.0 Microsoft Windows Coming Soon!
Applixware 4.4.3 Microsoft Windows XP/2K/NT *Download*

The second item has a link
<http://www.vistasource.com/vs2/en/dlform.php?product=Applixware-443-windows-EFG-343.zip>
which then directs to a registration page to be emailed "instructions."
Presumably this then contains true download link + likely a registration key
(tapping on that one web page comprised the extent of my investigations).

 

[Dave]

I'm interested in recovering corrupt MS Word files. One strategy is to
try to open the non-opening files in another Word processor. I have a
list of the freeware ones, which perhaps others are interested in:

Word Processors That Are a Part of a Free Office Suite

* 602 Office Text - http://www.software602.com/products/pcs/ - Free
for personal use.
* OpenOffice Write - http://www.openoffice.org/.
* Applixware Words - http://www.vistasource.com/vs2/en/applixware.php
- Free for developers?
* Budgie Office Word processor -
http://web.archive.org/web/20040407062220/.
* http://www.modesoft.com/Budgie16Setup.exe - programmer has ceased to
make available. Can also still be downloaded from TUCOWS.
* Thinkfree Online Beta Write - http://online.thinkfree.com/ - owned
by the company that makes the Korean Office Suite HaanSoft?
* EasyOffice Tiny Version EasyWord -
http://www.download.com/3000-2079-* 10058181.html?legacy=cnet - I've
never been impressed by the programs Word compatibility, but it might
do in a pinch.

Stand Alone Freeware Word Processors

* WordPad - C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe
[Usually found here] - You can usually get to it on the start menu by
clicking the Start Button -> Programs -> Accessories -> WordPad.
* Atlantis Nova -
http://www.rssol.com/shared/download/exec/atlant10n_en.exe - Not
supported by the company anymore and no link is visible on their site,
but the download link still works and they keep it alive on purpose for
some reason.
* AbiWord - http://www.abisource.com/ - Great program, beloved by the
freeware and open source community.
* Qjot - http://www.xtort.net/xtort/qjot.php - Nice little efficient
Word processor.
* Jarte - http://www.jarte.com/index.html - Different from any other
interface. May be intimidating or may be your cup of tea.
* RoughDraft - http://www.rsalsbury.co.uk/rd.htm - Designed
specifically for the writer by a talented generous programmer. Appears
to be an excellent general purpose freeware Word processor too.
* Hieroglyph - http://www.adelaida.net/hieroglyph/ - Competent
freeware Russian programmed Word processor with many features. Don't
let the Website fool you, the program has an English and Russian
interface, and you can choose between them (I think in the setup).

Online Word Processors

* Thinkfree Online Beta Write - http://online.thinkfree.com/ - May be
owned by HaanSoft a Korean Software Maker. It may be an English version
of HaanSoft's Hancom Office.
* Writely Beta - http://www.writely.com/BasePage.aspx - Super cool new
Web based program. A leader of the so called Web 2.0 apps.
* Zoho beta Writer - http://www.zohowriter.com/Home.do - May have
problems with file import. Similar to Writely. Equally impressive
looking interface.
* Rallypoint - http://www.rallypointhq.com/ - Only allows pasting from
Word, not import.

Viewers

* Columbus Viewer -
http://www.oasys-software.com/products/dm/columbus/ - Amazing product
to give away free, Can open over 100s of types of files.
* MS Word Viewer - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/ - In addition
to Word, it will open some WordPerfect and also HTML files.
* AntiWord - http://www.winfield.demon.nl/index.html - An
anti-Microsoft reaction. Can read and display Word files in almost all
the environments that exist, but has a very basic command line like
operation (from what I can see).

Any more suggestions. Once again, the criteria is they have to open MS
Word files.

I love the portable version of AbiWord...6.2m download fits on ausb
stick easy.
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/word_processors/portable_abiword

Dave

 

[omega]

Stand Alone Freeware Word Processors

* Hieroglyph - http://www.adelaida.net/hieroglyph/ - Competent
freeware Russian programmed Word processor with many features. Don't
let the Website fool you, the program has an English and Russian
interface, and you can choose between them (I think in the setup).

Thank you -- I didn't know about that one.

Regarding the language: I downloaded the no-install zip, and when
I ran the program, it automatically presented an English interface
(correspondent with language of Windows on this machine). Once run,
under prefs, one can select from a choice of English, Russian,
Hungarian. The help file is in Russsian, but no large loss, I'd think,
as the functions of the program all look very standardized.

I'm posting only moments after download, so can't offer a solid
assessment on performance & capabilities & any bugs, etc. But can
say that over all, at first sight, it looks pretty good.

..............

General notes from glancing at interface...

This is an SDI prog (one document open at a time).

Dockable toolbars that can be arranged according to view prefs.

Supports drag & drop (internal and external: both moving text around
within a document; also dropping a file onto the program).

URLs (at minimum http:// - the one I tested) are hot: colored and
clickable.

OLE support (eg, embedded pictures in the doc).

An auto clipboard capture tool.

Comes with spellcheck. And it has support via menu for WordWeb thesaurus.

An array of functions related to Russian/Cyrillic, including a
bi-directional tool for converting transliterated text.

The SR dialog had a few features. Convenient clicky thing for special
chars like paragraph returns and tabs. It has also something called
"Multi" replace. At first I though this meant for multiline text blocks,
but guess that's incorrect, as it says in there "replace list." If someone
figures this out more quickly, please share the clue.

Some functions for text formatting....

One command is HTML to TXT (no options though).

There is a "reformat text" dialog for reflowing paragraph margins etc -
letting one make choices with things like line breaks and paragraph spacing.

Also for working with text -- lines and columns -- there is a dialog
called "lists and sorting," that looks appealing. It offers a sorting
command, with option to remove duplicate lines. Then in the part of the
dialog called pre-filtering, this menu is offered up:

[ ] Trim leading/trailing spaces
[ ] Extract column [ number ]
[ ] Delete column [ number ]
[ ] Remove if contains [ ]
[ ] Remove if doesn't contain [ ]
[ ] Remove empty lines

Other tools...

There is something called "OCR Cleanup," and I don't know what it is nor
if it is even intended to work with English text (the option dialog for it
mentions only Russian lang choices).

There is something mis-named as "Graphic Calculator -- they meant graphing
calculator. I'm not volunteering investigations there, though (personally
that kind of thing brings back too many bad memories from skool daze).

..............

Physical stuff.

This is a Borland dude. No funky dependencies nor messy ocx's.

This app is reasonably small, for a word processor. The executable is just
under 2mb, in uncompressed form (floppy users could UPX it down. Besides
the exe, there are just a handful of small supporting files: textual: ini's
& language.

This prog, on run, without installer, it does make registry entries. When
I'd got the no-install zip, and then saw the local inis, I really had my
hopes up for a minute, but turned out not so lucky to score green. They're
mild reg entries, at least.No forced associations, or HKCR type intrusions.
Instead just within the software's own branches.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\InteLife\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\InteLife\

At the download site <http://www.adelaida.net/hieroglyph/download.html>,
there are three choices, and I chose the smallest, the no-install zip.
At the time, I was merely trying to bypass installers (always much prefer
this). But you know, now I'm half-wondering about the largest choice
download in the list, if it contains any extras, or what (?)

This program's date is 2001, yet I've not seen it before. So thanks again
to the original poster for the find. The number of rtf/word editors around
is noticeably finite compared to some other cats, particularly it you toss
out the lamos, so I'm pleased to get a new toy moved into the pen.

Oh, and if anyone in ACF has actually taken up use of this at anytime, I'd
be interested to know how it worked out (bugs? etc).

 

[omega]

[Adding to earlier]

I'm posting only moments after download, so can't offer a solid
assessment on performance & capabilities & any bugs, etc.

Oh, I just now noticed one item. Important for w9x machines. The resources
hit was a bit heavier that one would hope for.

When opening it up and having loaded only a small text document, the drop
was this:

- 28% gdi -16% system

When using the command to next open a second instance of the program, and
with no file loaded there, the total resources drop got even heavier.

- 53% gdi -40% system

Didn't look into other aspects, such as memory use or processor. Just
priority to offer heads up for any w9x users who might acquire this prog:
be cautious about not loading more than one instance at a go. (My resource
icon's little bars turned crispy red. )

 

[omega]

I'm interested in recovering corrupt MS Word files. One strategy is to
try to open the non-opening files in another Word processor. I have a
list of the freeware ones, which perhaps others are interested in:

Stand Alone Freeware Word Processors

[...]

Couple more for list, w an import Word Doc function:

Delphad
http://www.hushpage.com/Delphad/delphad.html

CryptEdit (voted Pricelessware)
http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32_freeware.html (LFW)



_____
(PS. TextShield Fusion always seemed pretty cool. But I don't think it
imports Word Doc. Same goes for my fav rtf editor, Wordtabs.)

 

[Philip Wittamore]

Jeff,

Linux first, we will do other OS's later, but as you noticed, you can
download a 30 day trial.

But I am truly wondering about the recuperation of corrupt MSWord
files, the easiest thing would be not to use the lock-in format made to
make money for MS, and save in RTF.
The .doc format is just a sort of binary RTF anyway, and remember .doc
files in "fast save" mode contain every deletion and change ever made
to the document - no security whatsoever.

-Philip

 

[Jeff Needle]

Is there a version for Windows?

I don't know what the reason would be that Linux only was specified in
his
message(?) But, meantime, did you check into ..

http://www.vistasource.com/vs2/en/downloads.php

[...]
Applixware 6.0 Microsoft Windows Coming Soon!
Applixware 4.4.3 Microsoft Windows XP/2K/NT *Download*

The second item has a link
<http://www.vistasource.com/vs2/en/dlform.php?product=Applixware-443-windows-EFG-343.zip>
which then directs to a registration page to be emailed "instructions."
Presumably this then contains true download link + likely a registration
key
(tapping on that one web page comprised the extent of my investigations).

Yes, but the download links had an X next to them, indicating they were
not available. Perhaps I only looked at 6.0 -- I'll have to look at the
link above -- thanks!

 

[Jeff Needle]

Thanks for the info!

Jeff,

Linux first, we will do other OS's later, but as you noticed, you can
download a 30 day trial.

But I am truly wondering about the recuperation of corrupt MSWord
files, the easiest thing would be not to use the lock-in format made to
make money for MS, and save in RTF.
The .doc format is just a sort of binary RTF anyway, and remember .doc
files in "fast save" mode contain every deletion and change ever made
to the document - no security whatsoever.

-Philip

 

[ms]

I'm interested in recovering corrupt MS Word files. One strategy is to
try to open the non-opening files in another Word processor. I have a
list of the freeware ones, which perhaps others are interested in:

Stand Alone Freeware Word Processors

[...]

Couple more for list, w an import Word Doc function:

Delphad
http://www.hushpage.com/Delphad/delphad.html

CryptEdit (voted Pricelessware)
http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32_freeware.html (LFW)



_____
(PS. TextShield Fusion always seemed pretty cool. But I don't think it
imports Word Doc. Same goes for my fav rtf editor, Wordtabs.)

IIRC, my memory not too good these days, is this the same helpful Karen that used
to post here?

Welcome back.

Mike Sa

 

[socrtwo]

Excellent posts thanks Karen S.

 

[BobbytheBrain]

Any more suggestions. Once again, the criteria is they have to open MS
Word files.

WPS Office 2005 Personal Version. Problem is it is the progam is only
in Chinese. It is supposed to be a clone of Office, so you can tell
what functions some menu items represent, but not all. Too bad the
authors do not translate this program to English as the idea of a
having a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation applications in
one 16MB download is very appealing.

Translated Download Page
http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/transl...nload/chp/2005/09/02/63853.shtml&wlg_table=-3

Untranslated Download Page
http://wps.kingsoft.com/download/chp/2005/09/02/63853.shtml

 

[omega]

IIRC, my memory not too good these days, is this the same helpful Karen that used
to post here?

Hiya Mike. Yep, is me, samo. Thanks for the greets. I'd followed up a post
of yours a few days before your note here, and had thought maybe your were
snubbing me -- playing hard to get.

Welcome back.

Thanks!

I'm still not caught up on reading (20k unreads still!), but I'm getting
closer. Sure is lots of good stuff -- infos & points to treats -- flowing
free through these parts.

Hope all is well with you? Sounds like you're house admin for two PCs these
days? And still in the w9x hold-out camp? I note our numbers are dwindling.
Beginning to feel like the Alamo ...

 

[ms]

Hiya Mike. Yep, is me, samo. Thanks for the greets. I'd followed up a post
of yours a few days before your note here, and had thought maybe your were
snubbing me -- playing hard to get.




Thanks!

I'm still not caught up on reading (20k unreads still!), but I'm getting
closer. Sure is lots of good stuff -- infos & points to treats -- flowing
free through these parts.

Hope all is well with you? Sounds like you're house admin for two PCs these
days? And still in the w9x hold-out camp? I note our numbers are dwindling.
Beginning to feel like the Alamo ...

Glad to see your expertise here again.

I'm having a new computer built up, a 1.2 MHZ hotrod (!!!) for W98SE.
I did some searching and looked into W2000, XP, my other existing computer is ME
for now. After that, I still plan to run W98SE to the golden horizon. Turns out, a
computer built specially for W98 is not a later XP computer, as you probably know
already.

Mike Sa

 

[ms]

Glad to see your expertise here again.

I'm having a new computer built up, a 1.2 MHZ hotrod (!!!) for W98SE.
I did some searching and looked into W2000, XP, my other existing
computer is ME for now. After that, I still plan to run W98SE to the
golden horizon. Turns out, a computer built specially for W98 is not a
later XP computer, as you probably know already.

Mike Sa

My goof, lack of sleep- speed on new computer is 2.2 GHZ, still not a hotrod.

Mike Sa