Microsoft Word may well be the word processor that first springs to mind when thinking about office software, but there are plenty of alternatives to choose from. There is a growing number of free word processor available, and Kingsoft Writer Free 2012 is one such tool. For anyone that is familiar with Word, Writer is instantly recognisable and incredibly easy to use.

For day to day tasks, there are all of the usual formatting and styling options you would expect, and support for a wide range of popular file formats means that it is easy to slot the software into an existing workflow. The ability to save your documents as PDF files is a seriously useful option and there are a plethora of clipart images available to brighten up your documents.

When used in the office, or for work purposes, Writer includes a mail merge feature that can be used to quickly and easily create personalised letters and envelopes. There are also tools on hand that make it easy to create and adjust tables and the equation editor can be used to perform complex calculations with ease.

To help automate common tasks, you have the ability to create macros, and if you’re having trouble getting started, there are a range of templates to choose from. The fact that Kingsoft Writer is available completely free of charge, coupled with the fact that it includes pretty much everything you could ask for from Microsoft Word, it is well worth trying if you are in the market for a new word processor.