Alternative word processors without bloat?

  • Thread starter Thread starter OhioGuy
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OhioGuy

I finally got around to installing WordPerfect Office X3, because my wife
wanted something nicer than Microsoft Works.

Really, all we want is a word processor. I was shocked to find that just
installing the word processor portion takes over half a Gigabyte! (~570
Megabytes)

In my mind, a word processor should be something that takes up 10 to 20
Megabytes, or else it is poorly designed.

Can anyone suggest other Word processor programs that are small and
efficient? (for the Windows platform)

Thanks!
 
OhioGuy said:
I finally got around to installing WordPerfect Office X3, because my wife
wanted something nicer than Microsoft Works.

Really, all we want is a word processor. I was shocked to find that just
installing the word processor portion takes over half a Gigabyte! (~570
Megabytes)

In my mind, a word processor should be something that takes up 10 to 20
Megabytes, or else it is poorly designed.

Can anyone suggest other Word processor programs that are small and
efficient? (for the Windows platform)

Thanks!
Click to expand...


http://www.abisource.com/download/
 
'wordpad' 'notepad' your 'using' windows right? Your saying that 'works' was not as
'nice', well 'nice' costs. In space and price. Bells and whistles always costs something.
 
I finally got around to installing WordPerfect Office X3, because my wife
wanted something nicer than Microsoft Works.

Really, all we want is a word processor. I was shocked to find that just
installing the word processor portion takes over half a Gigabyte! (~570
Megabytes)

In my mind, a word processor should be something that takes up 10 to 20
Megabytes, or else it is poorly designed.

Can anyone suggest other Word processor programs that are small and
efficient? (for the Windows platform)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Try Lotus Symphony. It opens MS Office docs and prints to pdf if you
need. Best of all, it's free.

http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.jspa
 
OhioGuy said:
I finally got around to installing WordPerfect Office X3, because my wife
wanted something nicer than Microsoft Works.

Really, all we want is a word processor. I was shocked to find that just
installing the word processor portion takes over half a Gigabyte! (~570
Megabytes)
Click to expand...

My entire MS Office 2000, installed with generous (but not frivolous)
options in terms of disk usage, takes 98 Mb. That's Word, Excel,
Powerpoint.
In my mind, a word processor should be something that takes up 10 to 20
Megabytes, or else it is poorly designed.
Click to expand...

About as much a stand alone Word 2000 would take.

DK
 
My entire MS Office 2000, installed with generous (but not frivolous)
options in terms of disk usage, takes 98 Mb. That's Word, Excel,
Powerpoint.
Click to expand...
Office 2K was noted for bloat. Are you sure you don't mean Office XP
which was way smaller than 2K?
 
OhioGuy said:
I finally got around to installing WordPerfect Office X3, because my
wife wanted something nicer than Microsoft Works.

Really, all we want is a word processor. I was shocked to find that
just installing the word processor portion takes over half a
Gigabyte! (~570 Megabytes)
Click to expand...
What! My entire MS Office 2007 install is only 500Meg.

SteveH
 
Conor said:
Office 2K was noted for bloat. Are you sure you don't mean Office XP
which was way smaller than 2K?
Click to expand...

I am positive about Office 2K. Not sure about bloat. Executable are
actually smaller than in OXP and as long as one does not install
eerything and a kitchen sink and disables annoying options like
assistants, it's not too bad. Sure it is still too bloated (as anything
from MS or Apple or Adobe or any other large company) bug that's
the price we lowly consumers pay for having "industry standard".

I don't use any of the stupid Adobe programs but still have to
install them for compatibility reasons. For me, Xara is much better
than Illustrator, Picture Windows is much better than Photoshop,
and CutePDF is much better than Acrobat. Yet, once in a while
there is a file that requires original program...

DK
 
It's still Beta. I tried the last Beta and it was slow and crashed. Not all
that small either.
Click to expand...

True. The beta seems to work with no problems 'on my machine', but
with any beta YMMV. IBM plans the release a beta update in the next
month or so and the final should be released early next year. Mine
comes in at just over 300MB for the whole package. If size really
matters the OP should just stick with Wordpad. Office 2007 comes in
at 624MB and WP X3 at 569MB. 326MB is quite a space saver by
comparision.

Wordpad is a monstrous 337KB. Punches out a mean letter, too.
 
True. The beta seems to work with no problems 'on my machine', but
with any beta YMMV. IBM plans the release a beta update in the next
month or so and the final should be released early next year. Mine
comes in at just over 300MB for the whole package. If size really
matters the OP should just stick with Wordpad. Office 2007 comes in
at 624MB and WP X3 at 569MB. 326MB is quite a space saver by
comparision.
Click to expand...

Just looked at 2003 Pro: the installation is about 207MB (then there are
little bit in the app. files); that's without FrontPage and Outlook.
However, I allowed the installation CABs to remain (saves messing about
with the CD) and they total 290MB!
 
http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/

Has anyone tried the one above? Someone just told me about it, and it is
only about 4 Megabytes, total.

If it works halfway decent, then that is what I mean about software bloat.
If someone can make a full featured word processing program at only 4
Megabytes or less, then why are the things from Microsoft and Corel shipping
at hundreds and hundreds of Megabytes?
 
http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/

Has anyone tried the one above? Someone just told me about it, and it is
only about 4 Megabytes, total.

If it works halfway decent, then that is what I mean about software bloat.
If someone can make a full featured
Click to expand...

Define 'full featured'.
word processing program at only 4
Megabytes or less, then why are the things from Microsoft and Corel shipping
at hundreds and hundreds of Megabytes?
Click to expand...

Because somebody wants what they have to offer.

Notepad is only 58KB.

Want to buy an IBM Selectric? 0 KiloBytes, many ounces, different
definition of bloat.

Bill
 
..RTF (Rich Text Format), every OS supports it and has a built-in
word processor ro read/write RFT, Windows, MAc, Linux.. it's open
(non-proprietary) unlike Ms-word doc
 
Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:58:34 GMT: written by (e-mail address removed):
.RTF (Rich Text Format), every OS supports it and has a built-in
word processor ro read/write RFT, Windows, MAc, Linux.. it's open
(non-proprietary) unlike Ms-word doc
Click to expand...

There is also Openoffice at openoffice.org and you can select which
componenet s to install or uninstall. I've been using this for about 3
years now.
 
http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/
Has anyone tried the one above? Someone just told me about it, and it is
only about 4 Megabytes, total.

If it works halfway decent, then that is what I mean about software bloat.
If someone can make a full featured word processing program at only 4
Megabytes or less, then why are the things from Microsoft and Corel shipping
at hundreds and hundreds of Megabytes?
Click to expand...

Atlantis has one useful feature that seems to be missing from
virtually every other word processor I've tried: it displays the
number of words in your document in the status bar, which updates as
you type.

One of its big drawbacks is that it doesn't support tables. And,
perhaps, the sound effects aren't to everyone's liking. :)
 
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