What to Use in Lieu of Microsoft Word

Damon Darlin, writing in The New York Times, marvels at the fact that he has been able to survive a month without using Microsoft Word, that de rigueur word-processing software that comes with most PCs.

I’m going to top his claim: I have not used Microsoft Word for about five months now.

My disaffection with Microsoft Word, which I started using ever since I learned how to type (well, okay, I used WordStar, may it rest in peace), began when I realized that it’s clunky, unwieldy and a voracious eater of computer memory. Perhaps because of all those features that I never used, it takes forever to load in my computer.

I tried working on Notepad but it’s too stripped down to be any good. I also tried WordPad but I was hampered by the fact that, like Notepad, it doesn’t have SpellCheck and word count. In fact, I could live without the SpellCheck but not without word count.

I tried the online word processing services like zoho and thinkfree. While they are better than WordPad, the free versions did not have word count last time I checked. I also tried Google Docs but it, too, didn’t have word count when I checked a few months ago. (I am still loathe to the idea of paying extra just for the word count feature.) I did try OpenOffice but didn’t like it.

I was so desperate not to use Microsoft Word and to find an alternative (not to mention simple and light) word processor with a word count feature that I actually ended up using WordPad and install a Javascript word count in my computer courtesy of Javascript Source. I would just cut and paste my stories into the word count’s html page and, voila!, my own word count!

And then, the other day, I checked Google Docs again and found, to my delight, that it now has a word count feature, not to mention SpellCheck, which was always there. I felt as if I just discovered the Holy Grail of word processing. (Carlos H. Conde/pinoypress.net)