How many word processors are there for the Mac? The answer probably numbers in the dozens.
Apple even provides TextEdit in Mac OS X, a modest but capable word processor with auto save, resume, and rich text formatting.
If you’re more serious about writing, want more features, but not too many, and you’re on a budget, there’s The Best Free Word Processor The World Has Ever Seen. Or, you can try Free. It’s the little word processor that does less, but costs more.
I can find plenty of good things to say about Free. It, too, comes with auto save, resume, full screen aware, spelling and grammar, and the Mac’s dictionary.
For writers, free has statistics and word count and a whole list more than you’d find with most free word processors, including a distraction free mode.
Free’s feature list is modest, but better than most.
- Paragraph Highlighting
- Color Schemes
- Typewriter scrolling
- Typewriter sounds (optional, for the crazy ones)
- Word Count (for selection)
- Word Frequency and Statistics
- Paginated Preview | Print | Export
- Markdown Support
- Formatted Printouts
- Formatted Export (e.g. Word Documents)
- Different Fonts for Screen | Print | Export
- Convert into | Edit | Print | Export as Rich Text
Because no word processor is an island, Free handles many different kinds of text formats.
- Plain Text
- Markdown
- myTexts
- HTML
- XML
- Word (97/2007)
- Rich Text
- OpenOffice Text
- LaTeX
Free is about as simple to use as any word processor or text editor you’ll run into, Mac or Windows PC. It’s clean, simple, mostly uncluttered, and takes only minutes to master.
What’s the problem with Free?
Please. Free is not free. If free had a different name it wouldn’t sound like a rip off.
Indeed, calling it Free and it not being free betrays a bit of trust. It convinces me to look elsewhere first. Who know what else they weren’t quite upfront about?
This is a very attractive word processor. And, as you say, minimalist (not a bad thing). I, too, was turned off by the use of the term ‘Free’ and decided not to make a purchase.
Bean is actually free, and has more features. Bye, bye Free.