 Word processors are probably the most used single program on personal computers. Sometimes a full blown office suite is simply too much, and a basic text editor seems too little. Especially on a private pc, when all your word processing consists of writing a letter, a recipe, or note to your husband and kids. In a professional field you will not go for the “big” solution, if you’re mainly dealing with words – say a sports reporter – and only want to present numbers without doing any calculation, here, a decent word processor will surely suffice.
The basic needs for such a program are always the same. It is supposed to do your typewriting; you want some simple, easy to use formatting options, a spell checker. And of course, print the piece. The more elaborate functions include insertion of tables, diagrams, graphics, and pictures of your loved ones as well.
Another advantage of standalone word processors is the speedy loading time and lower use of computer resources. So beware, the more you expect from your electronic typewriter, the heavier it will get and you might well end up with the office suite.
Jarte - a light weight Word Processor
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In the field of word processors, Jarte is a real light weight with a very fresh design. With a minimal loading time this wordprocessor provides you with all the necessary features for creating and editing short texts preferably. The tool offers also tabs for several simultaneous text windows, and minimizes to the system tray. Very handy. Marked words are checked with the Wikipedia, also to an online dictionary and thesaurus. And here’s a goodie: though its default text format is ‘RTF’ (rich text format), Jarte knows how to open .docx (the new Microsoft file format).
The lack of ‘format styles’ makes it rather useless for larger word processing tasks, but if you’re not thinking of a next book, but rather of medium sized letters and even reports – this is your word processor. |
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Homepage
Download
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http://www.jarte.com/
http://www.jarte.com/download.html |
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Language
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Windows
English, Deutsch |
AbiWord – a complete Word Processor
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AbiWord is what you want if you also write books, and/or also use Linux. Besides all you possibly can expect a word processing application to do, it opens and saves a lot of formats (OpenOffice, MS Word, WordPerfect, RTF, HTML), you get tables, news paper columns, it checks your spelling, and you’re grammar (English), and also offers ‘format styles’ – a must for bigger documents. Office users will like its mail merge capabilities.
Again, very light on resources, extendable via plugins, easy to use, I simply can’t think of anything I don’t like about it! |
Homepage
Download
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http://www.abisource.com/
http://www.abisource.com/download/ |
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Language
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Windows, Linux
English, Deutsch |
PolyEdit Lite
 PolyEdit Lite is a new face amongst the crowd of light weight text editors. Slim, fast and easy to use, it lets you handle all those word processing jobs for which you don’t want to start a full blown office suite.
The feature set is what you expect: text formatting as known, standard tools, spell checking, support for images is basic, but if you’re familiar with tables (also supported) you can easily work around most upcoming difficulties in formatting. Alas, what I miss is the option “Properties” for images, objects and tables making it rather difficult to revise any decisions made, like having borders or not. A field for future improvement.
Although tabs are still uncommon to the world of word processing they are nevertheless very welcome. PolyEdit Lite adds to it by a feature called “intuitive docking” allowing you to arrange and undock your documents. Obviously intuition is a very individual thing – it takes time to get used to it.
I liked especially the ability to encrypt your documents without the help of an external program, which facilitates greatly confidentiality for one on your hard drive, and two you now can easily communicate private information via email by first encrypting the document, then sending it as an attachment, and last persuading the recipient of getting PolyEdit lite.
With the aid of third party software the functionality of PolyEdit Lite can easily be extended, i.e. you can create PDF files using PDF Creator and get a thesaurus with WordWeb.
All in all, PolyEdit lite is a reliable word processor, small in size but big in functionality. Once started, it resides in the system tray, awaiting your orders, and completing all you daily written communication. A fine piece of freeware.
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best freeware - word processor
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