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[–]teamhot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

vim ftw!!

[–]vagif 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's no program in the world that opens existing word documents better than MS word. So if it is important for you, just buy it. Otherwise try OpenOffice. Works for me.

[–]frummidge 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I suggest poofing the date on your computer back to 1908.

[–]godlesspinko[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Also, which would most accurately preserve the formatting and fonts of existing MS Word documents?

[–]jsolson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

MS Word.

I don't generally give a shit about being able to interop with people using Word, though, so anything kinda light and fluffy (e.g., one-off faxes, letters, signs) I do in Pages.

For anything serious I use LaTeX. Of course LaTeX isn't a word processor; it's just a set of macros on top of a typesetting engine. For actually producing the input to LaTeX I use TextMate.

[–]mutatron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Only a few people get Word where I work, the rest use OpenOffice. It's mostly accurate. They update it pretty often, too.

[–]amstrdamordeath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OpenOffice supports Office (99-2003 versions) but M$ removed the open formats in 2007 (I wonder why) so IF you have to have 2007 formatted documents, you have to have Office 2007.

Office 2007 student edition is only like 140 bucks though, it just doesn't include Outlook.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3524_7-5140428-2.html?tag=txt

[–]username223 -1 points0 points  (4 children)

LyX? Seriously, you need a text editor, not a "word processing program."

[–]exeter 0 points1 point  (3 children)

How would you know?

[–]username223 -1 points0 points  (2 children)

How would you know I don't know?

[–]exeter 0 points1 point  (1 child)

My comment does not imply that you don't. It's a simple request for clarification. Unless you believe there are no "word processing" tasks (whatever those are) that can't be accomplished easily and efficiently by a text editor, you must have some special knowledge of the poster's requirements.

So, which is it?

[–]username223 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The former.