Comparison of word processor programs

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General information

This table provides general information about selected word processors.

Word Processor Creator Latest Stable Version First Release Cost (USD) Open source License
AbiWord SourceGear Corporation 2.6.0 (March 2008) May 19, 1999 Free Yes GPL
AppleWorks Apple Inc. 6.2.9 1984 Non-free$79.00 No Proprietary
Applix Word Vistasource Inc. 6.0 1992 ??? No Proprietary
Atlantis Nova Rising Sun Solutions, Inc 1.0.0.68 Earliest copyright date in the About Window is from 2000 Free No Freeware
Atlantis Word Processor Rising Sun Solutions, Inc 1.6.1.3 Earliest copyright date in the About Window is from 2000 Non-free$35.00 No Shareware
CopyDesk Quark, Inc. 7 (2007) 1991 Non-free $249 No Proprietary
EZ Word The Andrew Consortium 7.5 (1996) 1985 Free Yes BSD license
FrameMaker Adobe Systems Incorporated 8.0 1986 Non-free$799 No Proprietary
Gobe Productive Gobe Software 3 Aug 1998 Non-free$49.95 No Proprietary
GNU TeXmacs GNU Project 1.0.6 1999 Free Yes GPL
Groff James Clark 1.19.2 June 1990 Free Yes GPL
Han/Gul (HWP) Haansoft 7.0.2.226(2007) 1989 Non-free~$219 No Proprietary
Ichitaro JustSystems 16 (?) / Ichitaro 2006 1983 Non-free$170 approx. (20,000 yen) No Proprietary
InCopy Adobe Systems Incorporated 5.0 (2007) 1999 Non-free $249 No Proprietary
KWord KDE 1.6.3 (June 2007) 1998 Free Yes LGPL
Lotus Word Pro IBM (International Business Machines)'s Lotus Software 9.8.5 (2007) 1989 (Originally Samna Ami Pro) Non-freepart of Lotus SmartSuite No Proprietary
LyX The LyX Project 1.5.2 (2007) 1995 Free Yes GPL
Mariner Write Mariner software 3.7.2 1996 Non-free$49.95 No Proprietary
Mellel RedleX 2.2.5 ??? Non-free$49.00 No Proprietary
Microsoft Word Microsoft Corporation 12.0 / Office 2007 May 2, 1983 Non-free~$229 No Proprietary
Microsoft Works Microsoft Corporation 9.0 October, 1987 (MS Works for DOS) Non-free$39.95 No Proprietary
NeoOffice Writer Planamesa Software 2.2.3 2005-06-02 Free Yes GPL
Nisus Writer Nisus Software 7.0 (Express) ??? Non-free$69.95 No Proprietary
Nota Bene Nota Bene old name Dragonfly Software 8.0 1982 Non-free$399.00 No Proprietary
OpenOffice.org Writer Sun Microsystems 2.4.0 (March 27 2008) October 2000 Free Yes LGPL
Pages Apple Inc. 3.0.1 September 2007 Non-freepart of the iWork '08 suite No Proprietary
Papyrus R.O.M. logicware Soft- & Hardware GmbH 12.56 1991 Non-free$99.00 No
PolyEdit PolySoft Solutions 5.0 (Preview Release) 1998 Non-free$27.95 No Shareware
StarOffice Writer Sun Microsystems 8 1994 Non-free~$70 No Proprietary - LGPL Version is released as Open Office
StarOffice Writer
from Google Pack
Sun Microsystems 8 1994 Free No Proprietary - LGPL Version is released as Open Office
Ted Mark de Does 2.17 1999 Free Yes GPL
TextEdit Apple Inc. 1.4 (220) Around 1993? as part of NeXT's OPENSTEP OS which later became part of Mac OS X Free Yes Bundled with Mac OS X
TextMaker SoftMaker Software GmbH 2006 Earliest copyright date in the About Window is from 1987 Non-free$49.95 No Proprietary
WordFile4ME Byron Software 4.55.21 Earliest copyright date in the Readme File is 1999 Non-free$15.00 No Shareware
WordPad Microsoft Corporation ??? 1995 Free No Bundled with Windows
WordPerfect Corel Corporation X4/April 2008 1982 Non-free$299.99 No Proprietary
Word Processor Creator Latest Stable Version First Release Cost (USD) Open source License

Characteristics

This table gives characteristics of each word processor.

Word Processor Grammar Check Graphic Editing Mail Merging Spell Check Smartfont typography [1]
AbiWord Yes Yes Yes Yes No
AppleWorks Yes
Applix Word
Atlantis Word Processor
CopyDesk No No Yes
EZ Word
FrameMaker No Yes Yes No
Gobe Productive
GNU TeXmacs No Yes (only own graphics) No Yes No
Groff
Han/Gul Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Ichitaro Yes (for Japanese) Yes (for Japanese) No
InCopy No No Yes
KWord Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Lotus Word Pro Yes Yes Yes Yes No
LyX Yes Yes
Mariner Write No No Yes Yes No
Mellel Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Microsoft Word Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Microsoft Works Yes Yes Yes Yes No
NeoOffice Writer
Nisus Writer
Nota Bene
OpenOffice.org Writer No Yes Yes Yes No
Pages Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Papyrus No Yes Yes Yes No
PolyEdit Yes
RoughDraft
StarOffice No Yes Yes Yes No
Ted No No No Yes
TextEdit No Yes Yes Yes Yes
TextMaker Yes Yes Yes
WordFile4ME
WordPerfect Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Word Processor Grammar Check Graphic Editing Mail Merging Spell Check Smartfont typography [1]

Operating System Compatibility

This table gives a comparison of what operating systems are compatible with each word processor.

Word Processor Windows Mac OS/X GNU/Linux BSD BeOS/Zeta AmigaOS/MorphOS OpenVMS ReactOS SkyOS UNIX
AbiWord Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (AOS: through X11 engine) No Yes Yes Yes
AppleWorks Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
Applix Word Yes No Yes No No No No No No No
Atlantis Word Processor Yes No No No No No No No No No
CopyDesk Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
EZ Word No No Yes No No No No No No Yes
FrameMaker Yes No No No No No No No No Yes
Gobe Productive Yes No No No No No No No No No
GNU TeXmacs Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Groff Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No
Han/Gul Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No
Ichitaro Yes No No No No No No No No No
InCopy Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
KWord No No Yes Yes No No No No No Yes
Lotus Word Pro Yes No No No No No No No No No
LyX Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes
Mariner Write No Yes No No No No No No No No
Mellel No Yes No No No No No No No No
Microsoft Word Yes Yes No No No No No Yes (partially) No No
Microsoft Works Yes No No No No No No No No No
NeoOffice Writer No Yes No No No No No No No No
Nisus Writer No Yes No No No No No No No No
Nota Bene Yes No No No No No No No No No
OpenOffice.org Writer Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes
Pages No Yes No No No No No No No No
Papyrus Yes Yes upcoming No No Yes (MorphOS, partially) No No No No
PolyEdit Yes No No No No No No No No No
RoughDraft Yes No No No No No No No No No
StarOffice Yes No Yes No No No No No No No
Ted No No Yes Yes No No No No No Yes
TextEdit No Yes No No No No No No No No
TextMaker Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No No
WordFile4ME Yes No No No No No No No No No
WordPerfect Yes Yes Yes No No Yes (AOS up to WP4.1) Yes 1 No No Yes
Word Processor Windows Mac OS/X GNU/Linux BSD BeOS/Zeta AmigaOS/MorphOS OpenVMS ReactOS SkyOS UNIX

1. can run unsupported Version 5.1

Import capabilities

This table gives a comparison of what word processor file formats each word processor can import.

Word Processor HTML LaTeX OpenDocument RTF Word .DOC WordPerfect XML
AbiWord Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CopyDesk Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
FrameMaker No No No Yes Yes No No
GNU TeXmacs Yes Yes No No No No
InCopy No No No Yes Yes No Yes
KWord Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Lotus Word Pro Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
LyX No Yes No No No No
Mariner Write No No No Yes No No
Microsoft Word Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft Works Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
NeoOffice Writer Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
OpenOffice.org Writer Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Pages No No No Yes Yes No
Papyrus Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
PolyEdit No No No Yes Yes Yes
Ted No No No Yes No No
TextMaker Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
WordPerfect Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Word Processor HTML LaTeX OpenDocument RTF Word .DOC WordPerfect XML

Export capabilities

This table gives a comparison of what file formats each word processor can export.

Word Processor HTML LaTeX OpenDocument PDF RTF Word WordPerfect XML
AbiWord Yes Yes Yes Partial [1] Yes Yes Yes Yes
CopyDesk Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
FrameMaker Yes No No Yes Yes No No Yes
GNU TeXmacs Yes Yes No Yes No No No
InCopy No No No Yes Yes No No Yes
KWord Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Lotus Word Pro Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
LyX Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Mariner Write No No No Yes Yes No No
Microsoft Word Yes No No Yes (ver. 12) Yes Yes Yes Yes
Microsoft Works Yes No No No Yes Yes No
NeoOffice Writer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
OpenOffice.org Writer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Pages No No No Yes Yes Yes No
Papyrus Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
PolyEdit Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
StarOffice Writer Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Ted Yes No No No Yes No No
TextMaker Yes No Yes Yes (ver 2008) Yes Yes No
WordPerfect Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Word Processor HTML LaTeX OpenDocument PDF RTF Word WordPerfect XML

See also

Note

  1. ^ a b Advanced typography refers to either support for Apple Advanced Typography or advanced OpenType typography features and all OpenType layout tables