Microsoft Word substitute

I know that OpenOffice is a free substitute for many of the programs in Microsoft Office. I've never used it so I'm not sure how well it supports the formats in Office, but I imagine it would at least support the .doc format from Office 2000-2003 even if it doesn't support Office 2007's .docx. If it does support .doc, you'll be fine because even if your teachers use Word 2007, they can open and read .doc files.

i use openoffice for my college work, and it has no issues saving in the various microsoft file formats (.doc, .docx (yes, openoffice DOES support .docx), .ppt, .xls and so on. in short, for 99% of the time, files you save using an openoffice application in a microsoft office format will look EXACTLY the same when opened in its microsoft office equivalent application.

openoffice is a perfect alternative for most people, the only real issue is that it may throw a wobbley if some very complex formatting or formulae is present. again, openoffice is fine for the vast majority of things you do in the microsoft office equivalent. just remember to make openoffice automatically save your work every one minute (i think it does it every fifteen minutes by default). lastly, wordpad, notepad and the microsoft works suits are in no way suitable to use for anything other than jotting down plain pieces of text.

Open Office is great.