How can I open a document on a MacBook?

TextEdit is the only free word processing app you’ll have on your Mac. It’s probably fine for essay writing.

I would suggest either purchasing Microsoft Office or downloading OpenOffice. MS Office is fine for essay writing and presentations and such, but really it’s quite pricey for the average user. OpenOffice is free, similar in look and feel, and more stable than MS Office (at least, on the Mac). I use OpenOffice all the time, and so do most of us here at Fluther. I might also suggest you look into essay writing with Google Docs – really flexible and you can access your documents from any computer with an internet connection.

@camertron, &there’s no catch? or risk of infection to my laptop?

Go with iWork — It has Pages – a word processor
Numbers – a spreadsheet
Keynote – a presentation
$79 USD

NeoOffice is what you want. It’s open source (free), constantly updated, and contains everything MS Office has to offer. Did I mention it’s free?

I agree with those who suggest NeoOffice. But be aware that with NeoOffice you can open MS Word documents/spreadsheets/power point presentations, but you cannot open NeoOffice documents with MS Word, so if you have to turn in assignments online, send the text in the email or upload it in a TextEdit file.

I agree with @Tropical_Willie. iWork is Apple’s version of MS Office, it’s cheaper, and has much better integration into the whole Apple experience, and is designed to be very easy to use. It can import and export word and excel files seamlessly, and has a free 30-day trial so you can check it out to see if it works for you.

One caveat: Apple is having a media event this Wednesday, and there’s a good chance that they’ll update iWork. So you might want to wait a couple of days before purchasing so you get the newest version (you could use the free trial version until then if you wanted).

@Aqua You’re correct that you cannot open native NeoOffice documents in MS Word. However, NeoOffice allows you to save as an MS Word file (.doc). So, there really is no problem.

I’ve used NeoOffice for a long time – works great, very stable. I have had a few cases with fancy formatting not making the transition when I “Save As” an Office product (usually in the spreadsheet), but other than that there have been no problems. Great product!

I use LaTeX with TeXShop for everything, but that’s just me.

WriteRoom has a very nice interface (or lack thereof), so you can concentrate on solely the writing process and not your software.

However, before buying an expensive word processor, don’t underestimate the power of TextEdit’s Rich Text and Wrap to Page features. In my opinion (and probably many others) software like Microsoft Word has about 100 times the features needed to effectively make a document, resulting in a cluttered interface and bloated programs.

@Vortico, so basically I can rely on Mac’s TextEdit to get a simple essay done &it transfers to other computers without damage to the original document?

Yes, it should work if you save it as an RTF file.

Actually, it will export to Word 97 and 2007 formats, so if you save it as one of those, it might work better than RTF (Rich Text Format).

@mayratapia_ no, there’s no catch. OpenOffice is built by the open source community and commercially supported by the software giant Oracle (used to be Sun Microsystems). It’s definitely 100% ad, virus, and malware free.

@Tropical_Willie iWork is fine but it’s $79 more expensive than OpenOffice, which is more powerful and has way more features.

@Aqua and @GladysMensch NeoOffice is also great, but the developer (Peter something) has to grab the current OpenOffice release and build it for Mac every time he wants to release a new version. OpenOffice releases a native Mac app these days, so there’s no real need to use NeoOffice – just get it right from the original developers.

I was thinking more along the lines of Apple support for a noob. But free is great.

@camertron more features ≠ better for every user. Most users (particularly ones who are unsure about how to open a document) will never use 95% of the features in OpenOffice. For every additional feature there has to be increased complexity.

In my opinion, iWork strikes a nice balance between being fairly easy for a novice to understand and having a lot of powerful features available if you want them. Also, using the standardized Apple controls, means when you learn how to do something in iWork, that knowledge can be transferred to other applications.

As I mentioned above, you can demo iWork for 30 days for free, so you could compare the two to see if the ease-of-use is worth spending the money for.

@gorillapaws Absolutely! In addition, those who actually use those 95% of features in OpenOffice are probably doing it wrong. A “professional” typesetter would instead either software like Adobe InDesign (bloated, but not terrible), XML, or TeX (both of which are plain text editors and use commands instead of interface buttons).

@gorillapaws you make a great point – not all users are power users. I do think there would still be compatibility issues between MS Office files and iWork tho. Last time I checked, iWork can’t save documents in MS Office format, just open them. Besides, if the OP was originally thinking about purchasing MS Office (hence their reference to Word), then they may already be comfortable with complicated software that overfunctionally delivers. I suggested OpenOffice because it’s similar feature-wise and style-wise to MS Office (for the Mac, at least).