But for a content writer or author, it is different. You are probably looking for more developed programs and options. I use one for grammar and spelling and another for writing style and readability. It always pays to check and double-check your writing and sentence structure before you publish it online. Here are six of the most popular free grammar apps to get you on your way. Each one will help you improve the quality and accuracy of your writing.
Try them all to see which one or two work best for you and your style or type of writing. You can use the free version of ProWritingAid. It offers you a lot of functionality to help you write more accurately online using a simple Chrome extension to check your grammar and spelling.
Are you an author? Then you should consider all the editing and checking tools that are available with this app. There are over twenty different writing analysis tools and reports in the premium version. These will give you a huge range of suggestions to improve your writing. It is my number one go-to editing tool when I need to work intensively on very long documents such as long-form articles or book manuscripts.
You can also read my full Prowritingaid review. Without a doubt, Grammarly is the number one online grammar checker. It is one online writing tool that I always have switched on in Chrome to use with my WordPress editor.
It works with so many sites, platforms, software, and applications. So it is always on and always helping me correct my writing in real-time. You can use it in any web browser, with WordPress, and even on your social media sites. It also works on mobile devices as well as with an iOS Grammarly Keyboard app. No matter what, when, or where you are writing, Grammarly is always helping you write better and more accurately. The browser version of Grammarly works very well for most users. But for more advanced features to help you in your writing process, there is a premium version available.
You can read more in my Grammarly review. Ginger Grammar is another very popular grammar checker. There is a free Chrome extension, and it works similarly to most of the other popular online checkers.
But where Ginger shines is in its ability to find and fix incorrectly spelled or spelt words depending on the context. The negative is that it always tells me to simplify my writing.
But if you are looking for a free writing assistant , it is one of the handiest tools a writer can have at their fingertips.
The online version is very convenient for checking up to a page or so of text. It gives helpful hints to improve your writing. Read more about this app in my Hemingway Editor review. Slick Write is a worthy grammar and writing checker. You can check for sentences starting with the same word, misplaced conjunctions, and long sentences. There is a limit of , characters, which is approximately 30, words. But this should be ample for most writers.
However, I noticed it works a little slowly for long texts. It is better to work with smaller chunks of less than 5, words. Grammar Lookup is another good choice for an online grammar checking app. It started checking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors almost immediately. It is a good app for checking short-form writing, such as blog posts and short stories. The first name writers associate with word processing is almost always Microsoft Word. It is the default writing tool for many writers, bloggers, and authors.
But it is definitely not cheap. Microsoft Office is, as its name implies, software for office use. It includes Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint, and other programs. You will never use these software programs for creative writing. Do you need to pay for all these extra programs to have a word processor to write a blog post, article, or short story?
What is the best word processor for writers? Are there free writing software tools equal to Word? If you want to write, you can always find great word processors that cost you nothing to use.
Often they come with many other options and tools that are better suited for writers. Most of them will be suitable for your writing goals and any form of short creative writing project. But you should note that a word processor is not the best app for writing a book. You can find better programs for authors in the next section of this article.
Like Microsoft Office, Google Docs is a suite of office tools. The big difference, of course, is that Google Docs is available for free online.
If you are familiar with Word, you will have no problem at all adapting to Docs, which is the word processor component. Unlike some word processors, Docs has a word count so you can keep track of your word count goal. I know that many writers, particularly content writers, use Google Docs because of the simplicity of sharing documents online. Writing projects can be quickly and easily shared using Google Drive, which comes with 5 gigabytes of storage. It is usually plenty of storage space for writers.
You can also use Docs offline. If you are writing every day and working with other writers, content editors, proofreaders, or editors, Google Docs allows you to collaborate with ease. If you are a Mac user and all you need is a word processor, Apple Pages can handle everything you could possibly need to do. Word processing in the page layout document view is easy to work with. All the text formatting, fonts, and writing tools are easy to find and use. It also auto-saves directly to your hard drive or your iCloud drive when you are online.
There is also the file duplicate function. It gives you very easy version control of your revisions and edits. It is difficult to think of a standard feature or function in Word that is not available in Pages documents. There is one other area where Pages shines. It has a lot more control over images compared to Word. One other big plus with Pages for authors is that you can export directly to epub. You can download it from the Mac App Store. These two writing programs are already under your noses.
They are installed by default on Windows and Apple computers. However, they are both worthy of mention because of their usefulness in converting to plain text. Most word processors can add a lot of background code over the time you take to write a long document.
Cut and pasting, saving, deletions, forgotten tabs and spaces, and formatting changes all add up to a lot that can go wrong. Because of all this code, there is a chance that the text might have issues when you use it online. It can be especially true if you use WordPress and also in publishing in ebooks. The quickest and easiest way to clean a document, big or small, is to copy all the text into a basic text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit.
You can then convert everything to plain text. Then you can copy back the clean text into your blog editor or word processor for ebook formatting. However, many writers now favor Libre Office. These two office suites branched from the same development stable, so they have a lot of similarities. However, it uses traditional and straightforward menus, toolbars, and icons but does not have the ribbon function found in Word.
In some ways, this is a good thing because it lets you get on with the writing process instead of hunting in ribbons for buttons. If you want simplicity, AbiWord is well worth trying. It has been around for a long time now, and while it might look a little outdated, its functionality is not. The best way to describe AbiWord is uncluttered. It is ideal if you are looking to write distraction-free. However, due to its print limitations that require an external program to see a print preview, it might not be the best alternative to write your book.
Like other alternative word processors, it has all the standard features you would expect, and it works with most file types. One of its key features is that it allows drag and drop paragraphs, which can, at times, be practical. While Excel has had this for years, Word never has, so working on two documents at the same time is much more efficient in WPS. Free Office gets a mention because it can export.
Use for: Writing whatever, wherever Pricing: Free. That's right, if you're a writer on a budget, you don't need to spend any money buying expensive writing software or apps. I like plain text editors for writing something short quickly and easily, without thinking much about it. I use Dynalist to create bullet-point outlines of articles and book chapters before I dictate them.
It also enables sharing and collaboration, which is useful if you want to commission an article and give it to another writer to create. If you're the type of writer who likes to outline their work in advance, this app is useful. It also supports Markdown and can be used as a to-do list tool. For instance, it has features such as Markup-Based Text Editor, keyboard shortcuts so that writers can be faster, a library to organise notes and documents, set writing goals, publish directly to WordPress and Medium, and so on.
It includes mobile and tablet writing apps. Arguably, it's not quite as distraction-free as IA Writer, but it helps you organise both small writing projects like a blog post and large ones like a book.
Final Draft is the default app of choice for screenwriters. I've experimented with Final Draft and it strikes me as an example of powerful writing software with a bigger learning curve than your typical word processor. Although I don't write screenplays I was in a creative writing group a few years ago, and a few screenwriters in it used this app. I'm a big believer in the power of journal writing for finding new ideas and conquering issues like writer's block.
I use the writing app Day One every morning to write a short entry about what I'm struggling with and areas to focus on. Use for: Writing articles and blog posts Pricing: Free.
I use Evernote to record ideas for blog posts and book chapters during the day. So this is certainly a note-taking app worth exploring. I also save articles and writing prompts I like into Evernote as part of my personal swipe file using the mobile app. This writing app also has several other features worth exploring such as dictation mode which will easily allow you to transcribe your voice notes as text, integrations, team collaboration and more.
You can read about how I take charge of Evernote in this guide. Bear is a popular alternative to Evernote. The good news is writers can use Hemingway Editor to improve their writing and self-editing skills. Paste your text into the application and it will provide suggestions for removing unnecessary words here and there such as adverbs or tautology.
It also suggests reframing specific sentences from passive voice to active voice and much more. Hemingway is useful when you wish to reduce your word count without leaving out any essential points from your article. I use Ayoa to create mind maps for articles and book chapters. This writing app enables me to finish articles faster. I recommend outlining as a way of working for non-fiction writers who want to increase their daily word-count. Use for: Non-fiction, creating a daily writing habit Pricing: 4.
Blurt is an interesting new app with the aim of helping writers work a little every day. It's useful for writing journal entries, blog posts, a newsletter, a book and an essay via a web-browser. Once logged in, pick a project type and then set a target word-count for a writing project as well as the days you'll work on it. The clean and distraction-free interface is a little Medium, assuming you don't find writing in a browser distracting. It also enables you to prevent self-editing while writing the first draft by blurring out previous sentences.
Once a project is complete, you can share writings directly from Blurt to Medium, copy them from Blurt or export as Markdown. If you're interested in Blurt, you can take out a free day trial before paying USD4. Use for: Non-fiction, research, newsletters, curated content Pricing: Free. When you come across an interesting piece of research, clip it into your Airstory library and tag it. Later, when writing a newsletter or article in Google Docs, drag that clipping with a citation into your document.
It's a little like Evernote although faster and streamlined. Airstory is a useful app for non-fiction writers who like to capture and cite reading materials online. It's also a good writing app if you curate content for a newsletter.
The Novel Factory is writing software for fiction writers. It works on the web and via a desktop app for Windows. It offers a step-by-step tutorial to writing your first novel taking you through scene, character, themes and so on.
I don't write fiction much these days so I haven't tested The Novel Factory extensively. It reminded me a little of the Scrivener fiction template. There are thousands of writing apps, some of which are free, some of which are expensive, and all of which look promising. I dumped the apps that added no value to this site, and I paid for ones that helped me grow an audience and write better articles and stories. As you can see there are many blogging and writing apps, and each will solve specific problems for you, but your craft should always come first.
Pick an app from this list if it solves a problem for you and then get back to what counts. Filling the blank page and building lasting relationships with your readers. I'm also a best-selling non-fiction author, a trained journalist and a copywriter.
I regularly use and test the latest writing apps for my work. I also ask other freelance writers to share their impressions about these apps. It allows you to develop data-driven content. Calmlywriter is free writing software. The design of this program is minimal.
This online application is design to help you to focus on your writing skills. JotterPad is an Android application that is designed especially for writers. It is one of the best writing apps which has a plain text editor helping you to write books, poems, novels, essays, etc.
The tool enables you to focus on converting your thoughts into a plain text file. Grammarly is a widely used writing enhancement tool. It offers numerous writing styles, suggestions for grammar, vocabulary, and syntax. You can use this tool via the website, as a browser extension or as an app that you download to your computer.
Microsoft Word is a writing app that helps you to transform documents into web pages. It offers a real-time translation facility with just one tap. This program enables you to read and edit documents attached to the email. Google Doc is an online application that helps you to format text and paragraphs.
It is one of the best writing app that contains numerous fonts and images. This tool offers templates for writing documents.
You can use the application to create and make changes in files anywhere anytime. Final Draft is a writing app that enables you to write and format screenplays for televisions. It enables you to collaborate with other people in real time. Dragon Naturally Speaking is software for speech recognition. This application allows you to talk, and your words will appear on the screen. It helps you to make documents without using a keyboard.
The Grammarly Keyboard is an application that helps you write text without any mistakes. It is one of the best writing apps that provides numerous checks and features.
This tool helps you to write email LinkedIn messages and Facebook posts correctly using the mobile phone. Ginger is one of the oldest writing enhancement tool. It will help you to correct text as you type, picking up many common grammatical errors like punctuation, sentence structuring, subject-verb agreement, writing style, and wording.
Apart from the usual grammar, the checker offers a set of unique little features in it like text reader, translator, trainer, etc. Evernote is an application designed for writing notes. It helps you capture and prioritize your ideas, to-do lists, and projects across more than one computing device.
Scrivener is an ideal creative writing apps. It provides a management system for documents, metadata, and notes. This application helps you to organize and research the document for easy access. Readable is a word processor that helps you to test readability, grammar, and spelling of your text.
It is one of the best writing app which supports integration with API into your content management software. You can paste your text into this tool, and it will give you instant analysis. It also recommends improvement.
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