Windows 7 Productivity Suites: Word Processing

Recently, I wrote an article about my must-have programs for Windows 7. In doing so, I realized just how much I use my office applications and how often they are overlooked as essential applications in Windows. I believe that I have personally integrated my productivity applications so much that I have failed to see how much I lean on them. Essentially, they have become almost as important as Windows itself. Without word processors and spreadsheet programs my job would nearly be impossible and so I decided to do a review of the productivity suites that most users are considering.

We’ve come a long way since early office suites and modern day applications have become so feature-full and integrated with each other that it’s becoming difficult to truly find differences between the many options. Integration has even made the leap to the web. Now, with everything going web-based, cloud computing has become all the rage and Microsoft has even started working on their own ad-supported web-version of Office.

I’m going to try and be fair and consistent in my praise and criticisms of each suite as some I am very familiar and some I am not so familiar.

Microsoft Word 2007

The ever-ubiquitous Microsoft Word is probably the choice of most users for many reasons. Compatibility is a major issue with me because many people that I send documents to use Office and sometimes have trouble opening other formats. Since just about everyone who’s ever used a computer has used a copy of Word, I won’t go into heavy detail. Basically, because of it’s wide adoption, Word has set the familiarity bar and every word processor compares itself to Microsoft’s product. The problem comes when Microsoft makes any major changes to it’s Office suite. For example, the ribbon interface. Some praise it and some hate it. Personally, I found some features that I had never knew existed because of the ribbon interface, but that’s not necessarily a vote of confidence for the change, because users who are not used to learning new programs and digging through menus usually have trouble with major UI updates.

(I purposefully left Office 2010 out of the mix because It’s still in beta. For John’s  review of 2010′s new features click here)

The major downside to Microsoft Word is obviously cost. Unless you are a student or have some other discount, you are probably going to pay $100 plus for a decent up-to-date copy.

OpenOffice Writer

As I write, I use OpenOffice applications for work, probably to keep company overhead costs down. When I first started at my current job, Microsoft Office was the application that, we as a company used exclusively. The company changed hands, my job stayed the same, but we made the switch to OpenOffice. It took a few days to work out the kinks. I had to go through and set my coworkers’  machines to automatically save in .doc as opposed to .odt. For the most part, OpenOffice is an excellent and easy to learn suite. It is similar in appearance to pre-ribbon versions of Word and most features that I use are present. if you are willing to sit down and learn the differences between Writer and Word, then going with OpenOffice might be the way to save some money and continue to be productive.

Cost is certainly not an issue with Writer because it’s open source. The major issue will be learning the differences in the programs and troubleshooting any file type issues that may arise.

Zoho Writer

Zoho was a productivity suite that I wasn’t too familiar with, but people I know love it. It is web-based, but Zoho provides a plugin that will allow use both online and offline. It is full-featured and comes with a brower-like tab option for different menu items, not unlike the ribbon interface in Office. The UI is clean, easy to learn and has a good layout. Features include the ability to import and export documents from just about anywhere, offline access, a strong template library, and blogging support to name a few. I found Zoho Writer as easy to use as Word and other comparable word processors and really enjoyed the fact that they didn’t try to create a new layout design, but instead stuck with a familiar layout type.

Zoho Writer’s one drawback for me was the fact that it is web-based. Even though it can be used offline via plugins, I prefer a suite that is created with the local computer in mind.

Google Doc’s

Similar to Zoho, Google Doc’s is a web-based productivity suite for storing and editing documents from any computer with internet access. However, as far as features, Google doesn’t quite compete on an even level with the likes of machine-installed suites and even the features available with Zoho. Google Doc’s is an adequate “on the go” office suite and the word processor is very capable of handling the basic word processing tasks, but anyone looking to add pictures and fully customize documents may want to steer clear. The layout is similar to others in that it uses the tab design for menu items and I found it to be easy to use. The positives include being able to access many file types and store, share and edit them from most computers.

As with Zoho, Google Doc’s is adequate, but is not for me because of my affinity for the “heavy lifting” that installed suites allow. Using Google Doc’s is as easy as creating a Google account and logging in.

WordPerfect X4

WordPerfect is a word processor that I haven’t used since I was in high school, so I had to re-familiarize myself with their newest incarnation of the software X4. If you are looking for a full-featured productivity suite to replace Office, then WordPerfect might just fit the bill, but at a cost. The full suite contains the full spectrum of applications and, like Office, there are different versions of the suite ranging in price. As far as the word processor, as I noted, it is full-featured and includes support for many different formats, even OpenOffice formats. One major feature is the ability to work extensively with PDF files. One particularly useful feature allows the user to identify text from a PDF image and output it to a document for editing. The drawbacks are the sometimes clunky interface which makes the Office-learning-curve a little difficult and the price, which I believe to be a bit excessive.

Overall WordPerfect is a solid word processor and has been around for quite a while, so you know what you are paying for and you are paying. One the user figures out where all of the features and tools are located, the menu navigation is much easier to use. Personally, I would still have to go with Office, for the money, but those wanting a non-Office word processor would find WordPerfect to do just about anything they ask.

Are there any major word processors that I missed or do you use one that you have found to be greater than or equal to these options? I will try and also go through options for spreadsheet programs as well. Stay tuned…