Open Office OpenOffice is a multi-platform and multilingual office suite that is compatible with all other major office suites (meaning it will open and edit Word, Powerpoint documents etc). Best of all, its absolutely free to use. LibreOffice Like OpenOffice, LibreOffice boasts a comprehensive set of office management tools arguably on par with Microsoft Office itself. Mostly importantly, however, it opens Word documents. LibreOffice offers six different office management tools to meet your project management needs: Text Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing, Database, and Formula. Pages is Apple’s answer to Microsoft Word, although it can take some getting used to if you’ve used Word all your life. Unfortunately, it’s not free– it comes as part of iWork, which includes, among other things, the excellent presentation software.
That being said, it’s relatively inexpensive compared to Microsoft Office. Looking for more options? Google now offers a full suite of apps, including, and, which could be the next great replacement for Microsoft Word, compatible with all OSes and based in the cloud.
When it comes to productivity applications, Microsoft Word takes the cake. In fact, I’d even go so far to say that Microsoft Word is more than a productivity app; it’s a utility. A necessity for anyone who owns a computer—and yes, even if you own a Mac.
You can purchase Office 365 subscriptions for both Mac and Windows. Office Home & Business 2016 and Office Home & Student 2016 are also available for Mac as a one-time purchase. Office applications available for a Mac are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. The Publisher and Access applications are not available for Mac. Word for Mac remains the gold standard for word processors, but it's no bargain. You can't buy Word without buying the whole Microsoft Office package, which means you end up paying a lot for.
I use Microsoft Word every day. I used Word for writing blog posts like these (yes, including this one), for taking notes, writing video scripts, jotting down ideas, and so much more. And I’m not alone—according to Microsoft, the number of Word users out there is easily in the. In fact, Word is so popular that it’s difficult for anyone to use another word processor if it doesn’t allow you to save it as a.doc. This in particular is one reason so many Mac users need Windows—for must-have applications like Microsoft Word and the rest of Office Suite. Thankfully, we already know how easy it is run Microsoft Word on Mac with. Yes, you could fire up Pages or download Office 2016 for Mac with a subscription to Office 365, but sometimes, the original can’t be beat.