In 1986, an agreement between Atari and Microsoft brought Word to the Atari ST under the name Microsoft Write.I chose Microsoft Word for Mac when I switched to a MacBook Pro some years ago. Many users say it is the best version of Word for Mac OS ever created. Word 5.1 for Mac OS, released in 1992, was a very popular word processor owing to its elegance, relative ease of use and feature set.They gave it some subtle tweaks, so it remains easy to use and accessible. Shape your professional life with Microsoft Office’s Suite for Mac. Create, edit and design with this new and improved suite from Microsoft, designed for Mac. LittleEngine Games published Word Wars - Word Game for Android operating system mobile devices, but it is possible to download and install Word Wars - Word Game for PC or Computer with operating systems such as Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 and Mac.An updated productivity bundle.This depends on the complexity of your files. That’s why I’ve used it for a couple of decades.The second reason is that you need it to read old files, which is one of your problems. The best is that you like using it, because of its power, rich feature list, ease of use or whatever. Photograph: MicrosoftThere are many reasons for using Word. Why use Word?Word is powerful and flexible, but you pay for that utility. Office 365 includes online, desktop, tablet and smartphone versions for both PCs and Macs, Android and Apple’s iOS.
But I found I still needed Word to compare files, and to cope with the publishing industry’s use of styles, comments and “ track changes”.The third reason is that we live in a world where Microsoft Office is the de facto standard for business documents, and you absolutely have to be able to read them accurately. Being text based, it’s hopeless for storing images, but it’s perfect for texts with simple formatting. Rtf (rich text) file format, which almost any word processor can read. But if your documents are simple text files, then a lot of programs will load them.I tried to avoid this problem by saving all my files in Microsoft’s. But even if you switch to a free alternative, you’ll spend time learning a new interface and handling your old documents. If you are not a business, you can certainly live without it or use the free online version. If you’re paying staff, say, £20,000 to £60,000 a year, and can’t afford £100 a year for Office 365 – less for a boxed version – then you have bigger problems.Decide where you are on the spectrum from “I like it” to “can’t live without it”. Word Code Marked OnThat means you’re unlikely to get the full 10 years we used to get by moving Office to new PCs, and perhaps explains Microsoft’s attempts to reduce its 10-year support lifecycle.In fact, Microsoft has only announced mainstream support for Office Home & Student 2019 for the five years up to 10 October 2023, with extended support marked “Not Applicable”. If you lose the activation code, you can’t get a new one without giving Microsoft proof of purchase.Cheaper versions of Office are locked to the PC on which they were originally installed. If you lose the DVDs, you can download the software. Boxed copies have more or less disappeared, but if you own one, you need to keep the code marked on the box to reinstall it. Photograph: MicrosoftOffice 365, launched in 2013, is the cloud-based version of Office, but usually provides access to the full desktop programs as well. Office 365Office 365 includes online access and cloud storage. It will be more than the usual £12 a year. You can divide the price by the number of years you expect your 2012 MacBook Pro to last. This costs £79.99 a year for up to six users, including friends. (Google charges £57 a year for 1TB, and £24.99 a year for 200GB of Gdrive.)However, the family version, Office 365 Home, is far better value. Windows users also get Microsoft Publisher and the Access database.It’s not a bad deal for £59.99 a year – or £49.75 if you get the activation code by email – if you use the storage. There’s no need to buy three or more single-machine copies to install them on a desktop, laptop, 2-in-1 tablet and so on.Also, Microsoft claims that Office 365 is better than Office 2019. If you can share the cost, it’s terrific value, because each user can install the full Office on multiple PCs and Macs. For a family of four, it’s only £20 per year each. Edge cts for macDocx formats, and some can also write or export them. Alternatives to WordLots of programs claim they can read Microsoft Word. It’s not clear how useful most of these are to solitary users, apart from instant translation. Second, Office 365 has various collaborative and AI-based cloud features. The Office 2019 versions are fixed. Just keep your original files, instead of overwriting them.You could start with Apple’s Pages, because it’s free, and you may have it already. If you only write plain texts, you should be fine. You will need to load and “save as” a few of your most complex documents to see how much of the formatting survives. Unfortunately, the free version includes advertising, which I found unbearable, and the Premium version isn’t worth $29.99 a year. WPS used to claim 100% compatibility, and it’s actually pretty good. Of course, nothing stops you from using both.I was also going to suggest WPS Office, the suite owned by China’s Kingsoft, but it only has Windows, Linux, Android and iOS versions, not MacOS. It has a free version and a subscription version (£49.90 a year), but you can buy the full SoftMaker Office Professional 2018 for Mac, Windows or Linux for £89.99, after a 30-day free trial.I don’t regard Google Docs as an alternative because it’s online only, and you’d mostly be better off using the free version of Word online. LibreOffice is both open source and free, so it will only cost you the time needed to try it.The less-well-known German suite SoftMaker Office has a ribbon interface and uses Microsoft Office file formats by default, without conversion. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set.
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