Distraction-free software and customizing your experience when writing, whether it’s a text editor or a free word processor for Mac, is trending. And since we all know the story of the struggling writer, it doesn’t hurt to cut out those fees either.
Some of us are old enough to recall life before word processors. (It wasn’t that long ago.) Consider this sentence:
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How did we survive in the days before every last one of us had access to word processors and computers on our respective desks?
That’s not a great sentence — it’s kind of wordy and repetitious. The following sentence is much more concise:
It’s hard to imagine how any of us got along without word processors.
The purpose of this mini-editing exercise is to illustrate the splendor of word processing. Had you produced these sentences on a typewriter instead of a computer, changing even a few words would hardly seem worth it. You would have to use correction fluid to erase your previous comments and type over them. If things got really messy, or if you wanted to take your writing in a different direction, you would end up yanking the sheet of paper from the typewriter in disgust and begin pecking away anew on a blank page.
Word processing lets you substitute words at will, move entire blocks of text around with panache, and apply different fonts and typefaces to the characters. You won’t even take a productivity hit swapping typewriter ribbons in the middle of a project.
Before running out to buy Microsoft Word (or another industrial-strength and expensive) word processing program for your Mac, remember that Apple includes a respectable word processor with OS X. The program is TextEdit, and it call s the Applications folder home.
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The first order of business when using TextEdit (or pretty much any word processor) is to create a new document. There’s really not much to it. It’s about as easy as opening the program itself. The moment you do so, a window with a large blank area on which to type appears.
Have a look around the window. At the top, you see Untitled because no one at Apple is presumptuous enough to come up with a name for your yet-to-be-produced manuscript.
Notice the blinking vertical line at the upper-left edge of the screen, just below the ruler. That line, called the insertion point, might as well be tapping out Morse code for “start typing here.”
Indeed, you have come to the most challenging point in the entire word processing experience, and it has nothing to do with technology. The burden is on you to produce clever, witty, and inventive prose, lest all that blank space go to waste.
Okay, got it? At the blinking insertion point, type with abandon. Type something original like this:
It was a dark and stormy night
If you typed too quickly, you may have accidentally produced this:
It was a drk and stormy nihgt
Fortunately, your amiable word processor has your best interests at heart. See the dotted red line below drk and nihgt? That’s TextEdit’s not-so-subtle way of flagging a likely typo. (This presumes that you’ve left the default Check Spelling as You Type activated in TextEdit Preferences.)
You can address these snafus in several ways. You can use the computer’s Delete key to wipe out all the letters to the left of the insertion point. (Delete functions like the backspace key on the Smith Coronayou put out to pasture years ago.) After the misspelled word has been quietly sent to Siberia, you can type over the space more carefully. All traces of your sloppiness disappear.
Delete is a wonderfully handy key. You can use it to eliminate a single word such as nihgt. But in this little case study, you have to repair drk too. And using Delete to erase drk means sacrificing and and stormy as well. That’s a bit of overkill.
Use one of the following options instead:
- Use the left-facing arrow key (found on the lower-right side of the keyboard) to move the insertion point to the spot just to the right of the word you want to deep-six. No characters are eliminated when you move the insertion point that way. Only when the insertion point is where it ought to be do you again hire your reliable keyboard hit-man, Delete.
- Eschew the keyboard and click with the mouse to reach this same spot to the right of the misspelled word. Then press Delete.
Now try this helpful remedy. Right-click anywhere on the misspelled word. A list appears with suggestions. Single-click the correct word and, voilà, TextEdit instantly replaces the mistake. Be careful in this example not to choose dork.
We've all used Microsoft Word, the most ubiquitous word processor on the market, at one point in our lives. It still proves to be a staple, especially in education, but there are plenty of competitors vying for our word processing loyalty.
If you aren't a fan of Word, aren't interested in purchasing a full office suite, or you really just need a new, free word processor, check out the best of the best below.
1. Google Docs
Likely the most popular word processor after Microsoft’s own, this list couldn't exist without Google Docs. Docs is available by way of Google Drive, which lets you upload the usual suspects — documents, photos, videos and files — to your 15GB of free storage.
The clean, classic Google design makes Docs easy to use, and it syncs across your devices. Edit as much as you want, and if you change your mind, Docs saves and tracks all your changes from the moment you start typing.
Docs is known as the saving grace of group projects both near and far — see what your teammates are doing in real-time, or easily chat with them in the sidebar.
Be sure to look into the Drive’s many other apps: play with Quickoffice to quickly open and edit Docs on your phone or tablet, Keep to stay organized, Drawings to add visuals, or Sheets to collaborate on spreadsheets.
Download the free Drive app for your iOS or Android device.
2. Textilus — Microsoft Word Edition
Image: Knowtilus
iPad users are probably familiar with Textilus, Knowtilus' flagship word processor. This comprehensive, rich-text app supports more than 32 languages, is often updated and has a variety of formatting options — more than 60 different fonts has to do the trick, right?
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Textilus lets you create and edit documents that can be opened in Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, Scrivener and Nisus Writer. Insert photos, charts, signatures and drawings. Export your work in various formats, and sync with Dropbox, iCloud, Evernote or Scrivener to stay updated.
Use the snapshot feature to take a picture of the current state of the document. This picture is sent to the app’s snapshots folder, where it can be shared or saved indefinitely.
You can also search directly within the program via Google, Wikipedia or the dictionary, and customize the 25 toolbar buttons for your convenience. Textilus documents are compatible with hundreds of other word processors, such as Pages, Microsoft Word, Notes and more.
3. TextEdit
Image: Apple
Ever since Apple acquired computer company NeXT, it has distributed TextEdit on OS X to replace SimpleText.
Similar in design to PlainText, you simple need to open TextEdit and type away. You can format and lay out the page, create tables and lists, work with HTML, and import images, music and movie files. It automatically corrects spelling as you type, and on OS X Mountain Lion, you can also dictate using TextEdit.
4. Kingsoft Office Writer
Image: Kingsoft Office
Writer is part of the entire Kingsoft Office suite (along with Spreadsheets and Presentation), and it creates documents that are highly compatible with Microsoft Word.
The program supports rich text editing, document encryption, 'night read' mode, picture and table operation, and more. Writer also opens emailed documents in almost every format, and it’s easy to grab files from various locations.
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The 2013 release added a sections tab and three different skins, and it made creating an in-text table especially intuitive.
Still, it may not be as elegant and clean-cut as other word processors — take, for example, the oversized toolbar. (It’s recommended that you set the document to full-screen.)
5. Pages
Image: Apple
Apple announced on Sept. 10 that it will give iWork for free with all new iOS devices. That means each newly purchased iPhone, iPad and fifth-generation iPod Touch receives Pages, normally $9.99, free of charge.
And although Pages is primarily geared towards iOS and Mac users, Windows users can use the web version Pages via the excellent iWork for iCloud. On the web users can create, edit and collaborate on documents with many of the same features in the iOS and Mac apps.
Additionally, the company announced at the iPad Air launch event on Oct. 22 that Mac OS X Mavericks and iWork would be free.
Pages gives you all the tools you need to create beautiful documents. Text automatically wraps around inserted images, charts and tables. Access more than 60 templates, or start with a blank slate.
You can also track comments, save documents as Word files, share them with your coworkers and access your work through iCloud.
Image: Mashable composite. iStock, spxChrome, Wikimedia Commons