Good (Non-MS) Word alternatives?

[symphonix]

Okay, my Word test-drive is about to run out, and I've 90% finished converting all my Word doc's to RTF format. I don't mind paying a shareware or a modest commercial fee (though free would be better) but I refuse to pay the exorbitant pricetag for Word when I'm really not happy with it's features (it has lots, but misses the ones I want).

I would like to know what I should try out for my creative-writing and correspondence. I want:
- Dictionary and Thesaurus
- Australian or UK English spellchecker option
- Fast performance

I don't need:
- HTML, tables, themes, templates, mail merge, databases, clipart, wizards or cutesy characters in boxes who offer useless advice.

Any ideas?

 

[Jadey]

Yes, use Appleworks. It's also featured filled, ships with iMacs or you can buy it from Apple.

 

[symphonix]

Hey, I actually have that on one of my included disks. I will get the OS-X update and take it for a spin.
I am now MS free! Hoooooray!

 

[tagliatelle]

I'm using AppleWorks and I can convert textfiles from my macs to a pc by using Staroffice(then I can print it in Word(pad)).

 

[scruffy]

If you need MS word interoperation (I wish I didn't, but I guess I do) then AppleWorks is the simplest way to go, probably. There are other reasons I don't like AppleWorks too much, but they're mostly just minor quibbles.

If you are doing just really basic word processing anyway, you might want to try ObjectFarmSpell - it's an ispell based (a standard Unix spell checker, so there should be lots of free dictionaries available) spell checking service. It uses the OS X services architecture, so it will be available to every Cocoa app (nice to have more than just American English spelling available in Mail.app...) and to any Carbon app with support for services. I use either TextEdit or Okito Composer to write RTF files, both of which I find to be perfectly sufficient for most of my needs.

 

[RacerX]

I personally love TextEdit. It does all the things I need it to (spell check, find, add images, and speak). I can save documents as rtf/rtfd if I need to edit the document later or as pdf if I'm sending it off to someone. And Andrew Stone just released DOCtor to open and read Word docs (though it is not quite the quality of the original format, AppleWorks and Word 98/2001/X are better).

This shot gives you an idea of the features that TextEdit has. The app is often mistaken for Mac OS X's version of SimpleText (which is actually WorldText) because it is so unassuming when first launched.

 

[scruffy]

RacerX - how did you get TextEdit to show rulers and all? Is it so unassuming as to hide its abilities from determined investigators, ninja-style?

 

[RacerX]

You'll find under "format" in the "text" submenu (or use command-r). Yeah, it is a stealthy little app. In the Rhapsody/Mac OS X Server 1.x version it was made with Java, but I don't know if this one is.

 

[scruffy]

That is pretty darn sweet. I realize why I never saw this - TextEdit opens by defaul into plaintext in my prefs, so the 'show ruler' option is greyed out in the text submenu.

Thanks for the tip.