fett on 2/9/2009 at 01:27
I am loathe to install MS Office because my version is about 100 years old. I've whored around all over the web downloading other programs like AbiWord (which seems incapable of rendering graphics), and OpenOffice (which crashed constantly and is unable to recover documents despite attempts that remind of a three ring circus on the moon).
Please tell me there's some hidden gem, some as yet undiscovered piece of software that allows an individual to type words without being bombarded with bullets, inane pagination rules, and other stupidity.
theBlackman on 2/9/2009 at 02:59
Take a look at (
www.spacejock.com). He has some programs for writers. They are mainly for doing manuscripts, but mayhap could be of use to you.
I once had one that was a "super notepad" type that replaced the windows notepad. Sadly, I have lost the link, but you could have two or three pages up at the same time and do comparison editing with all the material on one screen.
I seem to remember another "Text" program that was user-friendly. I'll try to find it, but don't hold your breathe. It may never turn up or take me a week to say "Sorry Fett, no can find."
mudi on 2/9/2009 at 03:40
openOffice.org as of 3.0 has had no issues with document recovery, or indeed crashing much, for me at least. Your experience probably will vary.
As far as the notepad replacement mentioned in the post above, notepad++ is very nice, but not exactly a word processor.
I don't like Abiword much, only goes with me as a 'portable' app because it's small.
Aja on 2/9/2009 at 03:49
I used Open office all semester and had no problems. It's better than it used to be, and it's certainly more usable than ABIword, which always ruined my formatting.
Enchantermon on 2/9/2009 at 04:32
Quote Posted by theBlackman
I once had one that was a "super notepad" type that replaced the windows notepad. Sadly, I have lost the link, but you could have two or three pages up at the same time and do comparison editing with all the material on one screen.
Are you thinking of (
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) Notepad++?
theBlackman on 2/9/2009 at 05:00
Could be, but... The version I used was much earlier (by about 10 years) but NP++ does "feel" familiar.
Brian The Dog on 2/9/2009 at 11:16
Wordpad lets you do a lot more stuff than Notepad, e.g. insert pictures & Excel charts, align text, change fonts, have bulletpoints, and so on. It's nowhere near as fancy as OpenOffice or even Word97, but as a basic word processor it's OK.
Edit - Mine in XP does seem to not like jpegs though, all the pictures apparently have to be bitmaps, so maybe it's not what you're looking for.
fett on 2/9/2009 at 22:24
I love Open Office but it keeps crashing and can't recover the docs. Maybe I should re-install...
theBlackman on 2/9/2009 at 23:03
Quote Posted by fett
I love Open Office but it keeps crashing and can't recover the docs. Maybe I should re-install...
If you still have the "install" app on your system, then run the setup in that. It will offer you a "Repair, Modify, Uninstall". I would uninstall then go to O.F. on line and get the updated version.
If not use the ADD/REMOVE in the Control panel.
I've been using it for years to edit material for a Polish Computer Magazine. I've had no trouble with it, and it reads and writes nearly every text/word type file there is.
