"Writing Programs" Topic

I just purchased a new computer. I'm looking for a writing program that would be useful for both publishing of rulesets, my child's homework, and usable for my wife.(she is a teacher) I'm wondering what programs have worked best for other people. I've taken a look at Microsoft Publisher and Word 2007. Which of the two-or if you know about some other writing program-is the best. My daughter will be using it for school work-essays and such. My wife may use it for school clubs-brochures and such. I'd use it for writing-and creating rules. Which would be the most useful for us? Thanks.

Word is the better for producing anything of any length.

Publisher is better if you want to use lots of graphics and fancy layout.

But there is a fair amount of cross over between them. Word can be used for layout, and I'm sure you can type plenty of stuff in to publisher.

Personally I have used Word for many documents (up to 200 pages, with charts and images inserted).

You may be able to get a version of office which includes both – it will be worth looking at educational or student discount offers / versions as well.

Didn't your computer come pre-loaded with a word processor? Whatever it is, it should work okay and it's free.

If the pre-loaded word processor isn't some version of MS Word, you might want to get that program for the advantage of compatibility – a whole lot of people are going to send you files in Word format, and while you can convert them to whatever other program you're using, it's a pain in the neck.

If your wife is a teacher, she should be able to get a copy of Word, or even the full MS Office suite, for a discounted price at your local university bnook shop.

The frugal alternative is Open Office which does virtually everything that Office does but is free.

It does have it's own native file formats but in virtually all cases it will work quite happly with Office files (.doc, .xls etc)

Only problem I have found with it is that the Publisher equivalent in it does not (so far as I can find) work with MS Publisher files.

I'd opt for Word or the Open Office equivalent. More other programs can open Word files (as well as Word being able to open them) than Publisher.

My Word Processors of choice (earlier on the list is better):

Lotus Word Pro (used to be Lotus Ami Pro)

SoftMaker Office (so handy for working with my pocket PC)

OpenOffice (as previously mentioned it's free and uses an open standard document format -- same as above)

StarOffice (I haven't had a chance to try this one, but it's the pay version of OpenOffice)

Microsoft Word -- any version prior to 2007

Norton Textra Writer

WordPad

WordPerfect

WordStar

NotePad

Writing my own word processor

MS Word 2007

If you have a Mac, you can get NeoOffice – Java version of Openoffice – and also free!

Publisher isn't a "writing program" it is a "layout program" with writing features (typical of most MS products it overlaps with others). Word is a "writing program" with layout features. So if you want to go the MS route then the ideal, if money is no object, would be to get both. If you get only one then Word is your best bet unless you hate your daughter ;-)

As others have said OpenOffice is a good free alternative and worth giving a go.

Open Office conrains a free word processorm Writer, which can do layout if you aren't getting too fancy, it even exports to PDF natively.

openoffice.org

For Desk Top Publishing there is Scribus
scribus.net which is a free open source DTP package, but is a bit different to Indesign or the like

I used Open Office for a while, and it is OK, but (here, at least) you can get a 3-seat license for MS Office (word included) for a pretty good price for home use. It is nominally non-commercial but until you *do* produce a commercial product, save your money.

Of course, if your company is in an MS partner program, they are all pretty cheap.

You will need to go a long way to outstrip what Word can do in the way of layout. If you are not sure of the difference, you are not there yet.