Killing WordPad on the QT | Bangkok Post: tech

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WordPad was always a third-rate programme, and it has been a pleasure to throw it in the virtual dustbin and replace it with a truly excellent and small word processor.

QT Writer Express is easy to use, with large, obvious icons for all operations, and it will save to common document types, including a unique direct-to-PDF option.

QT Writer Express is from the excellent Henk and Marius van Loo, who make and often give away excellent office-orientated software including full office suites that can and do compete with Microsoft Office.

QT Writer Express is a programme you use to write formatted notes, letters, reports _ anything that has to look neat. It is a small (less than 2MB), one-file programme that requires no installation and which is extremely quick to load and to use.

The website for the programme brags: "Use QT Writer for anything from writing a quick letter to producing an entire book with embedded illustrations, tables of contents, indexes, and bibliographies."

Well, no, not really, not a full-fledged book. But this is a complete winner for anything that needs formatting. You can use all fonts, all common paragraphing formats, all typeface colours and all indenting styles.

A lovely feature is the ability to do bullet points and formatting. And it speaks Thai better than WordPad or most of the other small word processors around.

It also speaks file formats. Whatever other software you use, QT Writer documents almost certainly will adapt, since you can save any document as text, RTF, Microsoft Word or directly to PDF.

The real tipping point in trashing WordPad and using QT Writer Express is the ability to insert photos and graphics. It's not fancy. You can't edit the art as in a bloated word processor, but you can adjust the size of the image.

The speed, the modern interface, the extremely simple controls and adaptability of language sold me on QT Writer, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a small, fast and competent word processor.

Email: wandasloan@gmail.com.

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