Atlantis Nova

While the free Nova version is not a total replacement for MS Word, it's a delight to use in its own right. Most of your tasks?outside of your basic typing?are done through icon-studded toolbars, controlled by a switch that instantly flips you between two sets of three-line toolbars. Atlantis Nova is perfect for traveling with an underpowered and cramped notebook, and it's not bad back on the desktop.

If you need to include differential equations in your documents or create indices and tables of references, you'd best look elsewhere, perhaps in the direction of the new Atlantis Word Processor, the brawnier big brother of Nova, which costs $35 (30-day free trial) and includes features such as automatic spell-as-you-type, double precautions against losing documents, drag-and-drop, encryption, and a "control panel" to handle complex layouts.

--Ron White