There’s no doubt at all that Microsoft Office is top of its game, providing excellent word processing services. The problem is that it’s also a monopoly. People tend to forget that there are alternatives. Because so many companies and institutions use Word, Excel or PowerPoint (just to name some Microsoft products) you often feel forced to follow suit, spending a lot of cash in the process. However, there are free alternatives out there such as WPS Office 2016 Free, which can do much of the same. WPS Office 2016 is also available for Android.
Word for Word
WPS Office 2016 Free recreates much of Microsoft’s Office's environment, so it isn’t much of a leap to try it out. There will be an inevitable period of adjustment as you try to find your usual settings and controls, but the developers have done a good job of making this software intuitive in its own right. One standout feature is the ability to drag, resize and drop whole paragraphs, getting the shape and formatting you want in a fluid way. You can also have various document types open, using tabs within the program. This software can open .docx but can only save as .doc.
A Real Alternative
WPS Office 2016 Free is a viable alternative to Microsoft Office for those on a low budget, thanks to a pretty good set of features and compatibility. It's useful as a workaround but less so as a permanent replacement. If you are looking for other free alternatives, we recommend you to try LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice.
