Long story short is that my trusty laptop died over the weekend. I do not have the money to replace it and picked up a Chromebook thinking Google Docs would suit my needs. I work on books and other material that can run upwards of 1000 pages and I've found that my most recent project (250 page book) cannot be handled by Google Docs. Any edits I try to do hang Chrome up and it is NOT a hardware issue (tried it on multiple computers with the same results). I noticed that Microsoft now has a Word app that I can install on my Chromebook, but it's $7/month (I guess they don't want a one time purchase) and I don't want to subscribe to it if it's going to work as bad as Google Docs does. Anyone have any experience with this app on a Chromebook? Thanks!
you can get both libre office and open office apps for chrome which are free - either can open a word file (also per another thread on chromebooks you can use crouton to switch to linux and run either libre or open (or scriv) inthe linux distro )
It is really great to work with this app on the Chromebook. It works very smoothly and easy. For example, Sheets and slides which automatically opens office file in Google's own word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation apps. Here we can open office files with Google Docs right in the browser and convert files into their format.
I use the FREE online version of MS Word. Having it function from within the browser cuts down considerably on the processing overhead of your own computing device, which saves processing cycles for your device, and reduces local heat production. The biggest problem is you are dependent on a good internet connection. Though in the USA, that isn't the problem it used to be. you didn't ask, but I use the Microsoft OneDrive online storage service, as I have found it to be a better buy than the other services.
