


With its wide range of features, real-time collaborative tools and easy-to-use interface, Microsoft Word lets any kind of user create professional looking documents in a few minutes. The software, included in the productivity suite Office and the subscription service Microsoft 365, has been a staple in offices and homes for decades, and is a favorite over free alternatives such as LibreOffice or Google Docs. Microsoft Word is a household name in the world of word processors, known as the leading application to create, edit and share documents with ease. If you're on a Mac, there's also Pages to consider, which is Apple's free word processor.Joe Wainer Updated 3 months ago Microsoft’s most powerful and versatile word processor The office suite is available for both Windows and macOS. When it comes to desktop software, there's the venerable OpenOffice, which includes a word processor as well as multiple other applications that you don't have to pay for.

While it doesn't quite have the reach and range of features that Microsoft Word does-particularly when it comes to some layout formats and options for longer documents-you can access it from any computer, and sharing documents is very straightforward. There is of course Google Docs, which is completely free to use and runs inside a web browser as well as on mobile in app form.

That means you don't miss out if the rest of your colleagues use Word and you don't. docx file format that Word does, and anyone you're sending to or getting files from doesn't have to know you're not using Word. It may seem like cheating to tell you to use an alternative in a guide to how to use Microsoft Word for free, but bear in mind that a lot of these alternatives are now perfectly comfortable handling the same. Google Docs can save documents in Word format.
