Open Office is a free alternative to Microsoft Word/Microsoft Office. Here is information about the latest version.
I find it to be kind of clunky on a Mac but the person who recommended it to me has a PC and she says that it is the same as the Microsoft version.
I decided to go ahead and get the upgrade on my Microsoft Office but this one is temptingly FREE.
Enjoy,
Pati

The OpenOffice.org Community are proud to announce the release of
OpenOffice.org 2.1, the latest version of the leading open-source
office suite.

There are a number of important new features for users in this
release. The presentations application, Impress, now supports
multiple monitors, with the presenter choosing where to display the
presentation. The Calc spreadsheet has an improved HTML export
capability, using styles to better recreate in a browser the
appearance of the original spreadsheet. The database application,
Base, has a number of enhancements, including improved support for
Microsoft's Access product. The popular Quickstarter is now available
for GNU/Linux users as a GTK application. OpenOffice.org's impressive
language support is enhanced with five more localisations.

However, OpenOffice.org is not simply a great productivity suite for
end users. OpenOffice.org software technology is also available for
developers, systems integrators, and others to use in their own
applications. OpenOffice.org 2.1 extends support for version control
to extensions, simplifying the management of packages for those
developing extensions.

Version 2.1 is the third release of OpenOffice.org in 2006, and
reflects the Community's commitment to making new features available
to users every few months. To help make this as smooth as possible,
OpenOffice.org 2.1 also includes an improved on-line notifier, which
checks regularly and informs users if a new version is available
(users may choose to disable this option at any time).

OpenOffice.org 2.1 is now available for download free of charge.

*
If the download servers are busy, there is an alternative legal peer-
to-peer (P2P) system.

*

Alternatively, OpenOffice.org Community Distributors supply the
software on CD-ROM in many countries.

*

OpenOffice.org's Native Language project can advise on the
availability of translations.

*


About OpenOffice.org

The OpenOffice.org Community is an international team of volunteer
and sponsored contributors who develop, support, and promote the
leading open-source office productivity suite, OpenOffice.orgŪ.
OpenOffice.org's leading edge software technology (UNO) is also
available for developers, systems integrators, etc to use in
OpenOffice.org extensions or in their own applications.

OpenOffice.org supports the Open Document Format for Office
Applications (OpenDocument) OASIS Standard (ISO/IEC 26300) as well as
legacy industry file formats and is available on major computing
platforms in over 70 languages. OpenOffice.org software is provided
under the GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL) and may be used
free of charge for any purpose, private or commercial.

The OpenOffice.org Community acknowledges generous sponsorship from a
number of companies, including Sun Microsystems, the founding sponsor
and primary contributor.



Further information about OpenOffice.org products:

The OpenOffice.org office suite for users:< https://www.openoffice.org/
product/>
OpenOffice.org Universal Network Objects (UNO) for developers:<
https://udk.openoffice.org/>
OpenOffice.org Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers:
api.openoffice.org/>

Press Contacts

Louis Suarez-Potts (UTC -04h00)
OpenOffice.org Community Manager
[email protected]
+1 (416) 625 3843

John McCreesh (UTC +0h00)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Lead
[email protected]
+44 (0)7 810 278 540

Cristian Driga (UTC +0200)
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project Co-Lead
[email protected]
+40 7887 000 60


Worldwide Marketing Contacts