# A Great Alternative to WordPad! (AbleWord)



## Jack1000 (Feb 4, 2001)

*Able Word- Review*

Although I have Word 2010 and am happy with it, I work with people who don't have a full Office suite on their computers, and are frustrated by WordPad not having a Spellchecker. I installed AbleWord as a replacement for Wordpad. Similar to Word 2003, it offers Spellcheck and the ability to save in several file formats including PDF's!

*Things that Could be Improved*

1.) if you take the option at install to associate the program with all document formats, you can't change it back, so leave that unchecked.

2.) Secondly, it saves in the old Word 97-2003 Doc file format by default. If you save in modern DOCX format, modern Word versions (2007 and above) seem to have trouble opening files that are saved by Ableword with some formatting lost and sometimes missing text. But all other formats are opened by AbleWord very well. Not quite good enough to be a replace for a main Office Suite, but if you are looking for a WordPad alternative this is it, go to ableword.net for more details.

3.) I can not find a line spacing shortcut on the Toolbar, perhaps it will come in an upgrade. To change line spacing until than, select your text, right-click and select _"Paragraph."_ Spacing options will open up on this screen similar to all Office type programs.

Grade B+

Jack


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## Professionalgirl (Jan 10, 2020)

Nice piece of information Jack!


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## Jack1000 (Feb 4, 2001)

Professionalgirl said:


> Nice piece of information Jack!


Ableword is a program that can help people looking to do basic writing who need a spellchecker. It will also help people who can't get accustomed to the Ribbon interfaces in most other Word Processor/Office Suites. Helpful for people with medical issues related to vision or those with perception or dyslexia, who may have trouble with the organization of the Ribbon. Nice for the elderly because the interface is clean of clutter and easy to use! And totally free!

Jack


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## Johnny b (Nov 7, 2016)

How well does it compare to LibreOffice Writer?


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## Jack1000 (Feb 4, 2001)

Johnny b said:


> How well does it compare to LibreOffice Writer?


I had to do a System Restore on an unrelated matter, so I don't have AbleWord anymore. Libre Office Writer, although I have not used it, is still better because it is a full blown Office Suite and very popular. Able Word is for people that want a basic word processor only. The only critiques that I have, like I said above, is that saving in modern docx file formats, might cause some issues when regular World (2007- Word Office 365) opens them. This is why they have legacy Word 2003 and below set as the default. Additionally, you can't switch back if you choose to open all file formats in AbleWord at installation, so most leave that unchecked.

There have been no updates for AbleWord since 2015, so that might be something to consider as well. If WordPad had a spellchecker and the ability to save in PDF's, you wouldn't need AbleWord anymore. Because Libre Office can do more, and is regularly updated, I would take Libre Office over AbleWord.

Jack


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## xceedline (Mar 19, 2020)

Nice insights.


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