Use our picks of free writing software to finish that novel or assignment in style.<\/b>
\nWe’ve hand-picked the very best free writing software, which will make it easier to plan, write without distractions, and prepare your work for publication. Google Docs or even Microsoft Word is the default tool for many writers, but a subscription to Office 365 is pretty expensive if you only need the word processing element. However, there’s a bunch of free options that could make finishing that upcoming novel or college report that much easier, and cheaper. The applications here are specifically created with writing in mind, and are packed with thoughtful extras to make your life easier, particularly for creative tasks that require your full concentration. Available for Linux, Windows and macOS, FocusWriter is designed to eliminate distractions so you can actually get on with the job of writing. To that end, it enables you to hide other apps, customize the way your text appears on screen and keep track of your progress. If you’re feeling particularly old-school you can even add typewriter sound effects. FocusWriter isn’t for everyone \u2013 it’s not the right tool for going back through and editing your work \u2013 but it’s a lovely little app with a very modest footprint that stops you keeping an eye on Twitter all day. Read our full FocusWriter review We’re big fans of Markdown, the text-editing language that enables you to format, annotate, classify and link as you type with the minimum of fuss, and the superb WriteMonkey makes good use of it. This free writing software delivers an incredibly stripped-down user interface that’s considerably more powerful than it looks. There’s an excellent outliner, automatic syntax highlighting and file organisation, and although markdown takes a bit of getting used to, you’ll be very glad you made the effort. Once you’ve mastered WriteMonkey, you can use it to create blog posts, print publications and anything else that needs words in it. Read our full WriteMonkey review LibreOffice is a free, open source alternative to Microsoft Office, and that means its word processing app, Writer, has many of the power features of Word without the accompanying price tag. It’s a great choice for writers, with a full set of editing tools, a thesaurus, dictionaries for pretty much any language you can think of, and an active community in the support forums ready to help with any questions you might have. It’s available for Windows, macOS and Linux, and receives regular updates with new features and bug fixes. The only real drawback compared to Word is the lack of direct cloud support, although you can easily use this free writing software together with a service like Dropbox, and the absence of a mobile app for working on the move. If you’re happy to stick with the desktop then this could be the only word processor you need. Read our full LibreOffice review If your words‘ appearance is as important as their meaning, give Scribus a go: it’s a free, highly-rated desktop publishing application for Linux, OS X and Windows that’s suitable for producing entire magazines. It’s been kicking around \u2013 and regularly updated \u2013 since 2001, and while it’s a little tricky to use at first, it offers professional-grade publishing with layered, multi-page documents and good colour management support. If you’ve ever used Adobe InDesign, you’ll find the similarity striking. If you can use one, you’ll pick up the other in seconds. We wouldn’t want to lay out a 400-page book in it (though that’s quite possible), but for shorter works this free writing software is ideal. Read our full Scribus review While the app is exclusive to macOS, it makes up for this in its fantastic design language and ease of use for anyone. It features a great way of mind-mapping, where you can join up certain key words in less than five clicks, and even add definitions to easily relate back to a certain section of a report or novel. There’s even a feature that can benefit students hugely where an automatic Glossary can be created, full with endnotes & references, alongside correctly formatted Citations that can fit a certain University\/College standard. Above all, this is freely available on macOS High Sierra and above, with the app’s creator, Frode Alexander Hegland and his team, always listening and responding to feedback in regards to requested features or bug fixes. There is an in-app purchase for exporting, however everything else in the app is free to use. Author is an app that shouldn’t be missed on macOS, especially if you’re about to start the new school year with upcoming assignments, wherever that may be.<\/p>\n