AbiWord

AbiWord is a word processor for writing letters, reports and other page-oriented documents. It uses a document window with rulers, a style list and a formatting toolbar, and keeps memory use modest enough to run on older machines and lightweight desktops.

Formatting covers paragraph and character styles, tables, footnotes and endnotes, columns, images, lists, headers and footers. A spell checker runs as you type, and mail merge fills a template from a data source. The native format is the XML-based .abw; AbiWord also opens and saves OpenDocument text, Rich Text Format and older Microsoft Word documents, and exports to HTML and PDF. Import filters vary in fidelity, so complex layouts from other suites may need touching up.

Plugins add optional pieces such as grammar checking, equation editing and further file filters. The package listed here is for Linux. AbiWord is a standalone writer rather than part of an office suite, so no spreadsheet or presentation tool comes with it.