User-friendliness
Although this test was more subjective than the others, it was rather obvious when an application succeeded in emulating Microsoft Word. The litmus tests for this experiment were primarily menus, buttons, and shortcut keys.
KWord
The graphic setup of KWord is more similar to Corel's Word Perfect than Microsoft's Word. However, from drop-down menus to clickable buttons to familiar shortcut keys, KWord follows through with the user-friendly feature.
One aspect of KWord that I found refreshing was the simplicity of configuring the keyboard shortcuts. Thanks to a mouse-derived case of tendonitis, I have become a big advocate of keeping hands on the keyboard.
To edit a keyboard shortcut in KWord, all you have to do is click the Settings drop-down menu (or if you want to be really efficient, hit [Alt]S) and select Configure Shortcuts. In the Configure Shortcuts window, scroll down to the desired action, click on the button labeled None, and then hit the key combination on the keyboard. Then, click OK and your new shortcut will be saved.
This test earned KWord a passing grade and 1 point. Total score: 3.
AbiWord
Although AbiWord lacks the configuration ability that KWord offers, AbiWord does give the user a very familiar interface. The standard keyboard combinations produce the expected results (for example, [Ctrl]C = copy, [Ctrl]P = paste, [Ctrl]A = select all), and the layout emulates the Microsoft Word layout nicely.
AbiWord also provides more solidity than KWord. Typically, while I work in KWord, I feel as if the application is going to crash any moment. This sense of impending doom is because the KDE GUI tends to be a little jerky at times. AbiWord, on the other hand, feels as stable as any Word application on any Windows system.
This test earned AbiWord a passing grade and 1 point. Total score: 5.
StarOffice 6.0
Naturally, I assumed that if both KWord and AbiWord passed the user-friendly test, then StarOffice 6.0 would pass it as well. And sure enough, it did. Sun finally got smart and trashed the horribly clunky integrated desktop that has haunted StarOffice for so long. Now the individual applications have a much more modular feel to them.
Like the previous word processors, StarOffice 6.0 handles the user-friendly category with ease. In fact, I would go so far to say that StarOffice 6.0 not only equals Microsoft Word in terms of user-friendliness but also surpasses its competition by creating an incredibly customisable work environment. Not only can you configure keyboard shortcuts, but you can also customise events, macros, toolbars, menus, defaults, and a wealth of other features.
This test earned StarOffice 6.0 a passing grade and 1 point. Total score: 10.
And the winner is...
With a score of 10, StarOffice blows away the other Linux word processors.
Although StarOffice laid waste to the competition, that is not to say that KWord and AbiWord are worthless. Despite their limitations, I would offer that both KWord and AbiWord are excellent alternatives to Microsoft's Notepad and Wordpad. StarOffice 6.0, on the other hand, is the Linux application best suited as a replacement for Microsoft Word.
As a colleague reminded me the other day, the vast majority of people working with Microsoft Word only use about 5 percent of the application's features. So if standard word processing (with maybe a few bells and whistles) is your typical day-in, day-out routine and you're looking for an alternative to the Microsoft trilogy of Word/Wordpad/Notepad, consider StarOffice 6.0/KWord/AbiWord (respectively). They're cheaper, have almost all of the features you'll need, and interoperate with the equivalent Microsoft products very well.
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hi all but the one thing you haven't put in there is open office ??? I think that you haven't done a fair comparision:)
but I've had very litte probs with open office opening and saving word docs:)
regards
Steve kennedy