WordCraft 0.5.0

updated Oct 12, 2026 71MB file size 16 downloads

WordCraft is a free, open-source word processor for Windows, macOS and Linux that reads and writes Word DOCX files with styles, track changes and mail merge, built as a Microsoft Word alternative, from the team behind VectorCraft.

WordCraft is a free, open-source word processor built as an alternative to Microsoft Word.

It opens and saves Word DOCX files, with the familiar ribbon, styles, tables and track changes, and no subscription or Microsoft account.

It is still an alpha, so try it alongside Word rather than in place of it for anything important.

What WordCraft Actually Does - in Plain Terms

WordCraft writes and edits documents the way Word does, down to the ribbon layout and the keyboard shortcuts. Because it reads and writes DOCX natively, files go back and forth with Word users without converting.

Styles. A built-in style set with a live gallery, style sets and themes.
Review. Track changes, comments in margin balloons, spelling and grammar checks with suggestions, and a thesaurus, all working offline.
Tables. Merging and splitting cells, your own table styles, autofit, sorting and simple formulas.
References. Table of contents, footnotes and endnotes, citations in APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE, captions and an index.
Mail merge. Letters and labels merged from a CSV list, with fields, rules and preview.
Layout. Columns, headers and footers, drop caps, hyphenation and line numbers.

Files It Opens and Saves

DOCX is its main format, read and written directly, including password-protected files. It also opens and saves ODT, RTF, HTML, Markdown, LaTeX and plain text, and opens older Word 97-2003 DOC files.

Just need to read a DOCX someone sent you, without installing anything? The DOCX file viewer opens it in your browser, on a phone too.

PDF export keeps selectable text, links and bookmarks. To read or mark up PDFs from others, Adobe Acrobat Reader remains the familiar free viewer.

What Is New in 0.5.0

Typing. Lists, AutoFormat and AutoCorrect now work as you type, and track changes records formatting edits too.
Files. Word 97-2003 DOC import, LaTeX import and export, and password-protected DOCX. Charts, SmartArt and macros in DOCX and DOCM files are kept when you save.
Equations. Equations can now be imported, laid out and edited.
Interface. Ctrl+scroll zoom, a dark page mode, Read Aloud, a Clipboard pane, Paste Special and a Draw tab.
Languages. New interface translations for Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Ukrainian, Estonian and Serbian, plus right-to-left text such as Persian.
Windows. It now also runs on older graphics cards without DirectX 12, and Chinese characters display correctly.

Still on the way:

Its developers list native printing, page breaks closer to Word's, and testing against more real-world DOCX files as the work left before beta. Check a document's layout before sending it anywhere important.

Which File to Download

The WordCraft download page has an installer and a portable zip for 64-bit, 32-bit and ARM Windows, plus macOS and Linux builds. Most PCs want the 64-bit MSI installer, and the Windows files are code-signed.

If it opens slowly on an older PC, that is usually the graphics driver. WordCraft switches to a fallback mode on its own, so give it a moment rather than reinstalling.

Who Should Look Elsewhere

The tell is how much depends on the document. For a CV, a contract or a thesis, use a mature word processor and keep WordCraft for drafts and experiments.

For turning finished documents into e-books, Calibre converts DOCX to EPUB and other reader formats, and Kindle for PC shows how they look on Amazon's reader.