Is MS Word neccesary with OS 10.2.8?

[stripedbass]

I have a 350 Mhz iMac.

I've recently changed its hard drive to a Seagate 80GB. I've also increased the RAM to 516 (the max).

And I've just upgraded from OS 9.2.2 to OS 10.2.8.

I'm very excited!

When I had OS 9.2.2, I used to have MS word 5.0 or 5.1 (I can't remember which one).

OS 10.2.8 comes with TextEdit. But I've not really used it.

I like to write essays and articles.

Should I get MS Word or just remain with TextEdit? If you think I should get Word, what version would you recommend?

Any feedback will be highly appreciated!

Thanks.

[sandyman]

Textedit, as the name implies is pretty basic. With a lot of work you could use it as a word processor but.....

MS Word is available as part of MS Office 2004, however this is not a cheap option. Amazon is selling it for $299. It depends if you can justify spending that amount of money.

Free options include

1) Abiword a free Open Source word processor. Not as powerful as MS Word  but it may suit your needs
2) Neo Office A free Open Source office suite based on Open Office. IIRC it's a Java based application
3) Open Office A free Open Source office suite

The differences between the last two are that

1)Neo Office, being (As I said I think) Java based will not be the fastest application around. It is however now available in an Aqua version.
2) Open Office requires you to install (for the time being) the X11 environment  In my experience it's not a speed king either

Personally I'd try Abiword first, and if that doesn't meet your needs go for Neo Office

There are a few commercial word processors available as well. I haven't used any of these so you'll have to decide for yourself. Or wait for someone with a better knowledge of them than me to reply. C'mon guys  

1) Mariner Write
2) Nissus Write Express
3) Mellel

Mellel does seem to be good for long documents and creative writing but you will have to consider things like format compatibility before choosing any of the commercial offerings

[Gregg]

Apple Works....

Uh, I mean AppleWorks.

I use it with OS9 - not sure about using it with the latest OSX update. I guess it's not "bundled" with the software loaded on a new Mac.(?)

[kps]

I agree with sandyman that MSWord is an expensive option if you absolutely don't need it. I'd take that $300 and put it toward a new Mac. You'll get a trial version of iWork with it.

My other concern would be the speed of your processor and limited RAM to run OS X with some of the newer software. Performance may be painful. Some software will downright refuse to run on that processor.

In any case, try the free AbiWord for OS X, it's a little buggy but may be "good enough" for now.

[gunug]

ABIWord is a wonderful replacement for Word on an OS X MAC.  I wouldn't even consider buying Word myself.  If you need spreadsheets you could get NeoOffice but if you don't then ABIWord is probably closer to the feel of Word.

[Paddy]

NeoOffice is pretty cool - it's actually got some features and plug-ins that I've not found with Word (like batch process a bunch of .docs into PDFs).

Heck - try all the freebies!

And if none are to your liking, there is always eBay and the like. You don't need the newest version of Office for OS X (2004) - the first version will do just fine.

eBay auction for MS Office

[stripedbass]

Folks,

It's simply amazing what I'm learning on this forum.

I have NEVER heard of all these free options.

I thank all of you.

Really appreciate this feedback.

[amaizen_aristotle]

I would agree with those suggesting that you try the freebies.  I work on long documents and find that Mellel is a great little program.  However, I do academic work with it, switching between different style sets, using ancient Greek fonts, etc. and it sounds as though you don't need something like that.  If that's the case, Mellel is overkill, just like Word (though Mellel is not nearly as bloated as Word and is much faster/cleaner).  The free programs are nice and powerful, really.  They should do everything you need provided you don't need specialized sorts of things.  Why pay for overkill and/or bloated software?  

AA

[Gregg]

Ah, yes, iWork. I knew Apple's WP had passed me by, just forgot the name.

[Paddy]

iWork isn't really an office suite or a word processing program, Gregg, it's a page layout program for those who are afraid of page layout programs (Pages), and a very nice presentation program(Keynote) Give me InDesign any day - I found Pages frustrating in the extreme. I think I'd even take Quark over Pages. Sorry, but on this one (and iWeb) Apple doesn't ring any of my bells. Keynote, on the other hand, is lovely. Much nicer than Powerpointless.

[Bbob]

Appleworks, Appleworks, Appleworks.
Did I mention Appleworks?
Appleworks works very well on my system 10.2.8 Cube.
It is perfect for text applications, like articles.
You should have Appleworks on your System 9 install disks. If not, another Apple user will be happy to give you a copy. Apple no longer supports Appleworks, but who cares?

[krissel]

I think we all missed the obvious.

Did you just install 10.2.8 and not OS 9.2 as well? You can have both OSes on the iMac at the same time. You can then either reboot into the OS 9 install or run OS 9 as Classic while you are booted to X.

What you would do is to boot to OS 9, install the Word version you had in 9.2.
Then you can reboot back to X and when you want to use it, doubleclick to start as usual and Classic will start up automatically and launch Word. It may be a tad slower running that way but it should be OK for word processing purposes which aren't processor intensive.

Now if you find those freebees better than Word that's fine.

But the info about OS 9 and Classic may come in handy for other OS 9 apps that you may wish to continue using.

Oh, and I still use Appleworks.

[Paddy]

Kris, you're right! I guess for some of us, OS 9 is becoming a distant memory. We have one old Powerbook in the house that still has 9 on it, but nobody uses it. Of the other 6 Macs in the house, I think my husband is the only one who even has Classic installed, and that's only because he runs Framemaker, which Adobe seem to have abandoned.

I'm not sure if some of the newer OS X freebies will be better than Word 5 or not - (not as familiar, certainly) but certainly worth trying and comparing. NeoOffice will certainly handle essays and such no problem.

[kimmer]

Sneakers still runs Word 5.1a in classic mode. He adores the program. I do think Word 5.1a was the BEST word program ever.

I have classic installed so that I can play this one game - but I haven't launched the game in over a year.

[stripedbass]

Folks,

Thank you all for your great advice.

Today, I finally got AbiWord downloaded on a CD, then I brought it home and put it on my home computer. I did not want to download it from my home computer because I have a dial-up connection, and have in the past had very bad luck with downloads (I always get disconnected).

Now that I have AbiWord 2.4.5, can I read my old documents which I did on MS Word 5.1 and saved on diskettes (when I had OS 9.2.2 as opposed to 10.2.8. Also, I now have a new hard drive--a Seagate 80 GB as opposed to the hard drive that came with my 350 Mhz iMac)? If not, how do I access those Word documents?

Any feedback will be highly appreciated.

Thanks!