Don't forget Google. Google docs both imports and exports brilliantly from/to Word. It's free, and cloud based, as well as offering a half-way decent iOS app.
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Alternatives to MS Word on Mac OS.
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I doubt they'll have more problems than just using Word.You could be talking about me here
I did try to use Styles years ago, and then thought that I should avoid unnecessary complexity. For research related writing the main requirements are to do with fonts, foot/end notes, tables, graphs, pictures.
Even when I started to use Zotero many friends were surprised that I wasn't using the feature to embed references to books and articles from within the Word documents. I realise that it breaks the flow of my thoughts, and also don't want to mix and match one software with another. So, I don't mind keeping it simple.
Do you think if I shifted to, say, LibreOffice, long documents formatted somewhat complexly (and saved in .docx from the start), will still have problems when my friends open them on Word for Windows?
Thanks
Let me explain. Where I have worked for many years we have different people using different systems a lot still using XP, and quite a lot still using 2000 with various iterations of Office going right back to word 6 I think, and it's a nightmare trying to send anything to a bunch of people across the company and expecting them it to work for all of them. Some in different languages and different countries.
The big problem with Word is MS changes it every few years ostensibly to improve it but that doesn't explain why things have to be in different places and you have to search for them.
So. if you are using .docx then that's fine as long as everyone in the company is on .docx but the older systems won't use it.
I don't much like MSWord and maybe I don't 'know how to use it' as someone said although I doubt it.
I think Excel is brilliant, Powerpoint is a dog and Word is just ok. I haven't seen anything much improved in it in the last 20 years.
I've used NeoOffice and in the last couple of years LibreOffice as well as MSoffice and probably more people are able to open docs saved in .doc format on LibreOffice than anything else. But also LibreOffice opens everything too- which Word doesn't. My wife sends me files sometimes that she has received where she works and they pay for the latest Office , and I have to open them, re-save them and send them back.
But if you are talking about formatting being messed up there's really little you can do about that on any product because it depends on their printer settings or even what printer they use.
For example, here I use A4 paper but you may use Letter, in which case it'll re-format everything when you open it to your paper type, margins etc.
Or if my margins are at 1.5cm and yours are 2cm.
And whatever the defaults are on the template they are using.
It's just impossible for every machine to be the same so as others have said, you really have to send .pdf if you want everyone to have things the same.
As to workflow, there's no doubt in my mind whatever you use, the way to go is to use templates.
You set up a blank page with all the headings, styles, spacings, tabs, margins, language, that you want and then save it as a template.
You put the time in to do it just once and that's it. That really is keeping it simple.
And particularly get used to using page breaks and tabs.
If you are in the habit of filling to the end of a page with empty paragraphs or lines with space , that will always get messed up by printer settings and page layout.
I think that may be the biggest problem people create for others.
Also if you like a snazzy font then you run the risk of someone having a font substitution that makes everything wrong.
But as I said, having sent documents to several hundred people at a time sometimes, I really don't think you can avoid it unless everyone does exactly the same thing like Google docs or the online MS version (which I confess I've never used.)
And frankly, LibreOffice is as good as anything. I don't think it's great, there are things about it I prefer to Word and things I really dislike (tables are not as good) but it's overall about the same once you've put the time into learning where everything is.
Yes, it continues to run although it is no longer supported by MS. All components of Office 2011 are 32 bit and will no longer run when macOS 10.15 is released. As long as you stick with Mojave, 32 bit apps will continue to run but may no longer be supported by developers.
Es un dolor de cabeza trabajar con él, pero sí jala. Incluso el 2008 funciona. Estoy en Mojave 4 (10.14.4)
and then there’s Nisus Writer Pro https://www.nisus.com. Wonderfully fast, Mac-native to its foundation, very comprehensive customization is possible, immensely powerful macro language if you need it. RTF is its native format and from what I've found, RTF will do everything .doc and .docx will do, if you don’t have to get massively complex with your document. Most every word processor on the planet will read RTF, too.