This makes it an ideal plugin for anything like Microsoft Office or Internet Explorer and any other Microsoft product. BullZip PDF Printer allows direct output to the same file each time or it can also prompt you for a destination. In addition, it can ask you if you want to see the resulting PDF document as soon as you've created it.

Once installed, BullZip PDF Printer appears as a printer option in your printing properties. If you want to use BullZip PDF Printer as your default printer (if you're producing a large number of PDF documents) right-click on it and select it as your default printer. In addition, after you've produced the document, you can enter the BullZip PDF Printer console to add extras such as passwords to your PDF's or encrypt them with 128/40 bit encryption. The only downside is that there are few PDF printing options or even previews so the results may be hit and miss.

BullZip PDF Printer is an exceptionally easy way to create PDF's and ensure that they are always protected via password or encryption.

Download BullZip PDF Printer 9.2.0.1499 in Softonic

gedit provides a simple interface from which you have access to a full text editor with programming functions and is compatible with most languages. gedit incorporates text search and replace, spell checking, printing and support for opening almost any file.

The range of languages supported by Gnome include C, C++, Java, HTML, XML, Python and Perl. You can Undo and Redo actions, edit files remotely and all the other standard functions you'd expect from an editor including go to a specific line, text wrapping and backing-up of files.

Nevertheless, gedit may seem a bit basic for some programming needs but this problem has been offset somewhat by the introduction of plugins which add advanced functions to the editor.

Whether you're familiar with geddit from Linux or just want a simple but powerful editor, geddit is a solid choice.

Download gedit 2.30.2 in Softonic

AbiWord can read and write all standard industry document formats, ranging from open source efforts such as those created in OpenOffice, to those created in commercial apps such as Microsoft Word. It also features support for WordPerfect documents, Rich Text format documents, HTML web pages etc.

Although AbiWord's editing options can't compare with Word, we like the fact that it is a very light word processor that doesn't take up much more processing power than even Text. This makes it especially suitable for those working on slower machines that don't have a decent word processor installed.

What's also nice is that AbiWord is fully customizable with several different plugins to extend its capabilities. These can vary from format converters, document importers and thesauruses to image importers and a text format manager.

AbiWord may be basic but it's generally an impressive word processing app that has everything you need to edit simple documents.

Download AbiWord 2.9.4 Development in Softonic

However, there are ways to speed up your typing without going to typing school. Speed Typing allows you to type frequently used text quickly and easily and then it automatically fills in the blanks. You just type a word, and Speed Typing will automatically replace it with a line or a paragraph. This is particularly useful for typing out standard phrases such as signatures, email addresses, frequently used sentences, URLs, phone numbers and even hieroglyphs.

The program uses a tree-like phrase storing structure which means it builds on phrases slowly but surely giving you a considerable arsenal of stored phrases and paragraphs after a limited period of time. In addition, the program has drag and drop support meaning you can drag and drop phrases or paragraphs in and out of it including formatted text. You can even insert pictures although the formatting of these leaves a lot to be desired as they jump all over the page. If you're editing a text, you can add comments to any phrase or if you're filling out forms, it can fill them out for you if you've done them before.

It's not perfect and it does frequently throw up phrases you don´t want to use but over time, Speed Typing can boost your productivity considerably.

Download Speed Typing in Softonic

Word Reader is ideal for netbooks, or anyone who doesn't want Microsoft Word installed. Not everyone uses word processors, after all. You can't edit documents at all, but Word Reader opens files mostly without problems, and opens faster than a big word processor too. There are few options, like background color and font size, but little else.

Word reader's only big problem seems to be a bug with the full screen view - it often crashes when you try to exit. Printing is as simple as it could be, and clicking the highlight button means you can save anything in the document to your clipboard, to use however you want. Most documents open fine in Word Reader, but there are occasional formatting problems, which aren't a problem if you only want to read something, though if you want to print it is annoying.

Word Reader isn't perfect, but works well as a quick way to open up Word documents

Download Word Reader 6.03 in Softonic

Focus Writer can be windowed or full screen, and the ribbon of buttons at the top appears when you mouse over the area. Its basic features include a find tool - you can search for a word in your text and replace it. The themes button allows you to create custom themes, with your own background, font and so on. In preferences you can turn on auto save and also set goals for the day - by time or number of words, useful for professional writers. Rolling the cursor over the bottom of the window brings up another ribbon, with basic file information - title, word count, percentage of daily goal and the time.

If you need complex formatting, or to add images or tables to your work, this in not the right kind of application Focus Writer is solely for text, and nothing else which may suit writers, but will probably be too limited for many people. It doesn't feature a spell checker, either. Despite this, if you need a distraction free writing program, Focus Writer works very well, and its customization tools are really good.

Focus Writer will helps to create a quiet atmosphere on your computer, perfect for writing without distractions.

Download FocusWriter 1.4.3 in Softonic

Like most minimalist writing apps, you can choose the background and text color, and in Q10 it's also possible to configure the optional info bar, which shows you word count, pages, characters and the time. This is a keyboard controlled app - there are no mouse commands at all. Instructions for all the keyboard commands are found by hitting F1. Most of the commands will be familiar to anyone who uses them in other applications, but for users who don-t this reliance on keyboard commands might be frustrating.

Files can only be saved in .TXT format, which means they can be opened in any other program that supports text but you don-t have any formatting options. While you can choose to view any font you like, it will not be saved by Q10. This is a design feature, as it's supposed to be free of options so you can concentrate on words, and do post production later. But for people new to this type of program it might be difficult to accept!

While Q10 does fulfill the requirements of a distraction free text editor, it's perhaps too basic. It is possible to hide functions, as Write Monkey (insert link) does, without upsetting the zen of the quiet writing space!

Q10 is a solid text editor, but its keyboard only control may alienate some users.

Download Q10 1.2.21 in Softonic

So the concept of a program that compares documents to see if cheating has occured is something very appetising. Although AntiPlagiarist won't check against the Web, it's able to distinguish whether copying has been going on between different documents, making it a great tool for teachers who want to check if their students are cheating.

There are also settings for producing reports on the incidences of copying and pasting that the program finds. On the whole the app runs very quickly and serves its purpose without being overly complicated.

Download AntiPlagiarist 2.0 in Softonic

When you first open Write Monkey, which doesn't require installation, the color scheme is a pretty garish black with green ink. Thankfully, you don't have to use this Matrix-like scheme and can choose the paper/ink color combination you like. In full screen mode, you have simply a plain background and your text in the center.

However, don't let this minimalism fool you, as there's actually quite a lot to Write Monkey. Right-click and a plethora of options pop up. There's a spell checker, and a look up tool that will look up results on any word or phrase from a good selection of online resources like Wikipedia. You can also check your progress, which first requires setting up your parameters. Enter a time and word count target, and you will be able to easily track your productivity.

If you miss the typewriters of old, there's an option to turn on sound effects that mimic typewriters really well. There's even a bell sound when you hit return!

Of course, this isn't a full featured word processor, and is missing all the formatting options found in those programs. Saving is only in .TXT format too, which isn't very advanced, but does mean you can open these files in pretty much any program you please!

Write Monkey is a simple and fairly flexible way to create a quiet space in which to concentrate solely on your writing.

Download WriteMonkey 2.4.0.17 in Softonic

MiniPad2 can be an excellent replacement for the standard notepad – and a complementing app too. It includes many extra tools that the Windows tool can only dream of, such as a tabbed interface, special calculator pages to perform basic maths calculations, support for memos, extended Clipboard functionality and a completely customizable interface where you can change font, background color and also select the buttons that are to be displayed on the program's toolbar.

MiniPad2 doesn't require installation, which means it doesn't write anything in Windows Registry either. It's also very light on system resources. MiniPad2's status is saved as is (with all your opened tabs and notes) and displayed again when you run the program later on, something that comes in very handy when saving notes between sessions.

If you're looking for a cheap, fast, simple and fully features Notepad replacement, MiniPad2 is an excellent choice. MiniPad2 requires no installation and many interesting extra tools are included!

Download MiniPad2 3.2.0 Build 101128 in Softonic

When you install AkelPad, it offers three possibilities - you can install it as a completely new program, add it to Windows shell or to completely replace Windows Notepad. AkelPad then does everything that Notepad can but also includes features such as Multiwindows, Recent Archives, Shortcuts and Re-open closed document functions. You can also do simple things like change the color and size of the font and visualize the documents in various formats with AkelPad.

The coolest feature in AkelPad though is the ability to add plugins. These include syntax highlighting, auto-completion, script execution, keyboard macros and much more. Autocomplete is particularly useful as it saves a lot of time typing documents by predicting what you write beforehand. The latest version has added more power to AxelPad allowing you to edit files bigger than 64K and it allows you to preview files before you open them

AxelPad is a great substitute for notepad although you can get most of these features in an average word processor.

Download AkelPad 4.8.0 in Softonic

When working with Verbum, don’t expect to find fancy ribbon menus or lots of tools, like in Microsoft Office. Verbum aims to be a clean, lightweight word processor with just the basic functionality, but which works perfectly fine for simple, everyday tasks – even at its current alpha stage.

Verbum features the classic text processor interface, with most of the space devoted to the page you’re actually writing and customizable toolbars on top of the window. The design can be easily personalized by applying one of the many skins included in the program.

Like we said before, Verbum is still at an alpha stage of development, which means you could find the odd bug. But to be honest, the program worked without any problem during our tests.

Verbum is a simple, clean, lightweight text processor with support for a bunch of formats that looks really promising!

Download Verbum 2012 0.0.5 Alpha in Softonic