Todays TrendZDNET’s key takeaways WordCraft is an open-source take on Word. This word processor is available for Linux, MacOS, and Windows. You can install and use WordCraft for free.
For decades, I’ve used LibreOffice as my office suite of choice. To be fair, I only really use LibreOffice Writer, as I have little use for spreadsheets or presentations. But since I’m a writer by profession, I require a solid word processor to get my work done.
But LibreOffice hasn’t been the only app I’ve used. When I’m writing novels, I tend to go with Apple Pages, but only for one reason: collaboration. You see, my publisher’s editor uses MS Word, and the reviewing tools on LibreOffice are abysmal.
Also: 5 stand-out LibreOffice features that make it my go-to office suite However, Apple Pages has a deal-breaking issue for me: It randomly tells me that the document cannot be saved because it doesn’t exist. More from ZDNET Why, yes, Apple, the document does exist because I’m working on it. Why do you do this to me?
I’ve lost work because of that “feature” and have never been able to figure out why it happens. You might be asking yourself, “Why don’t you just use MS Word?” Well, that’s a bone of contention. Asking any longtime open-source/Linux user to “just use MS Word” is like asking a Pacers fan to just “root for the Knicks.” Not gonna happen.
Let’s get crafty As you may or may not have read, a team of developers led by Brandon Thomas used AI and Rust to reverse-engineer Photoshop into an app called PhotoCraft , and it’s outstanding. However, they didn’t stop at Photoshop; they took their crafty approach to Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom (not Classic), Acrobat, After Effects, and InDesign. Also, they reverse-engineered Microsoft Word into, you guessed it, WordCraft, and it’s become my new default word processor.
Also: LibreOffice removes personal data from documents. Why that matters It’s not perfect, but it’s a brilliant start, and it works incredibly well for an alpha release. In fact, I’m writing this piece on WordCraft now.
Let’s talk about the good before we talk about the bad. The good: Speed and useful tools Jack Wallen/ZDNET Right out of the gate, WordCraft is available for Linux, MacOS, and Windows. That alone makes me smile because Linux has been left out of the MS Word conversation for so long.
It’s also a reason why a lot of people haven’t adopted Linux. Well, that excuse has flown out the window. Also: 8 Linux privacy tips I swear by (yes, you need them) As for the app itself, the first thing that blew me away was WordCraft’s speed.
I’ve never in my life seen a full-blown word processor open this fast. It is blazing. The app opens immediately, and the UI responds instantly.
I’ve not been this impressed since the same developer group released PhotoCraft ... sense a pattern? Next come the reviewing tools. This is where LibreOffice really falls short.
The review tools (specifically comments and track changes) in LibreOffice are just unusable for a large manuscript. I’ve had book manuscripts bring down LibreOffice because of hundreds of comments. Jack Wallen/ZDNET With WordCraft, those same documents do just fine.
Sticking with the reviewing: Another problem with LibreOffice that WordCraft fixes is how track changes and comments are handled. Unlike WordCraft, LibreOffice tracks changes in a pop-up window that is awkward and inefficient to interact with. WordCraft perfectly mimics MS Word’s functionality, so collaboration is effortless.
No other open-source word processor comes close. Although the WordCraft UI cannot be customized, it’s very familiar, so it’s quite easy to jump into without much of a learning curve. Yes, I do wish I could change the UI, but that’s a nit I don’t need to pick, given how easy the app is to use.
The not-so-good: Lags and spell-checking Remember, this is alpha software, so there will be issues. The first thing I’ve had to deal with when using WordCraft is that there’s a lag between keyboard input and output on the screen. This took me some time to get used to, during which I consistently made mistakes.
Once I was accustomed to the lag, everything fell into place. I assumed the lag was due to WordCraft interacting with the Wayland compositor, but there’s a slight lag on the MacOS version as well (though it’s not quite as bad). Also: 5 free Linux distros I wish had premium versions – and why I’d pay for them Next, the whole MS Word file-saving workflow isn’t all that intuitive.
On a couple of occasions, I lost work because I was getting used to the idea that clicking File takes me away from the current working document to the file sidebar. Because I haven’t worked with Word in a long time, I didn’t realize that saving a file with a specific name wasn’t as easy as hitting Ctrl+S as soon as you open a new document. Fortunately, I got the hang of saving pretty quickly and have made sure to enable autosave for every document.
Also: 6 ways LibreOffice is better than Google Docs for serious writing work The final less-than-good mention I have is that WordCraft doesn’t integrate with Grammarly. That’s not a problem caused by the app or the developers, but by the company behind Grammarly not wanting to play well with open-source tools. I’ve yet to find an open-source word processor that does work with Grammarly, so there’s that.
I’m pretty sure we can all agree that most word processors’ built-in grammar-checking tools are lame at best. My conclusion It took me all of five minutes to realize that I had a new default word processor for Linux and MacOS. My editor will be pleased as punch now that the collaboration tools are a 1:1 proposition.
As for me, I’ll be glad to never see the likes of Apple Pages (and losing work because of it) again. If you’re curious about WordCraft, head over to its GitHub page and check it out. It’s free, easy to install, and a delight to use.
Jack Wallen Contributing Writer Jack Wallen is what happens when a Gen Xer mind-melds with present-day snark. Jack is a seeker of truth and a writer of words with a quantum mechanical pencil and a disjointed beat of sound and soul. An award-winning writer and novelist, Jack has been covering Linux, open-source, and other topics since the late 1990s for numerous publications such as ZDNET, CNET, TechRepublic, Linux.com, The New Stack, Linode, TechTarget, and Linux New Media.
Jack's also written over 50 novels of fiction, at least one of which focuses on the Linux operating system. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.com. See full bio The Latest from Jack I tried the free Microsoft Word clone on Linux – and it’s my new default (on Mac too) Why the future of Linux is rolling – thanks to AI My favorite AI GUI for Linux works with local or cloud models – and it’s free
Source: ZDNET
