The newest, perhaps most interesting word processor coming down the pipe is www.writely.com. The company was purchased by Google in March 2006. They have closed it off to new users, as it is in Beta test mode. It is currently free and promises to change the word processing landscape.

The latest version of Microsoft Word (November 2004) costs $190. If you choose to purchase Microsoft Office Suite, it costs $330 from discount dealers. This seems rather expensive compared to purchasing a refurbished laptop for a $300-$500! If someone in your family is a teacher or student you can buy the student edition of the MSOffice Suite for $180 or Word for $125 from educational dealers.

There are a number of other versions of Microsoft office products: Office Student Edition 2003 and Teacher $80+, Office Small Business Edition 2003 $280+, Office Professional Edition $320+ and and Office Small Business Management Edition $450+.

A less expensive alternative is Microsoft Works Suite 2006. Works 2006 includes a spreadsheet, word processor, database application, personal finance and a PowerPoint Viewer and costs around $50. It only requires a Pentium 120 MHz, 64 MB RAM for Win 98 and 128 MB for Win 2000 or Win XP. An issue to know about is that it does not save files in .doc format, instead uses the unique .wks format. Microsoft offers a Works Converter for Works and Word Users, which you can find on their website in the Download Center.

You might consider WordPerfect, the original word processing system, which dominated 50% of the word processing market in 1990. It was originally created by WordPerfect, Inc. and purchased by Novell in 1994. Microsoft trampled the competition when they created Microsoft Office. Corel has been selling WordPerfect Home Edition for $89 and Word Perfect Office Suite12 for $300 since 1996.

On the other hand, you could purchase Yeah Write for Windows for $29 without media, and $39 plus shipping for the CD version. The Internet shareware release is free if you do not want the full product. It was created by several ex-WordPerfect employees in 1996.

A fabulous alternative that is not widely known is Open Office (StarOffice suite (http://www.openoffice.org). It was developed in Germany in the mid-1980s and acquired by Sun Microsystems 1999. StarOffice 5.2 was released in June of 2000. The suite covers pretty much everything you need with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, equation editor and a drawing program. It opens most major formats such as MSOffice almost flawlessly, saves files to PDF format, has comprehensive help and spellchecking. It includes a very nice easy to use word processor and it's free!

Two other free applications that come with your Windows OS are WordPad and NotePad. You can use WordPad to create or edit text files that contain formatting or graphics. Use NotePad for basic text editing or for creating Web pages. To find and open WordPad or NotePad, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click WordPad or NotePad.

At UsedLaptops.Com, we have been including a software application loader for Open Office on the desktop for our users for over a year and people seem to be very happy with the product.