A QUICK REVIEW OF THE CHOSEN APPLICATIONS:

ABIWORD:  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
At only 22 Megabytes installed, Abiword is a reliable classic lightweight emulating Microsoft Word, which makes it very user-friendly.  It does everything, including footnotes.  One drawback is the lack of decent templates.  There is just one résumé template in Abiword, and I wouldn't use it.  However, that should not hold you back if you need good quality, free word-processing software.  You can always find plenty of free résumé templates on the Internet.

ANGEL WRITER:  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Neat, clean, small, professional, the bantam-2MB Angel Writer downloaded and installed in under 30 seconds.  With quite a bit more functionality than the free Wordpad that comes installed in Windows, it can do almost everything that an expensive and huge download of Microsoft Word can do, except footnotes and spellcheck.  But then, WordPad can't do footnotes, either.  As for spellcheck, you can always download a FREE version of Tiny Spell for Windows (* see more on this, below.)

Why pay over a hundred dollars for Microsoft Word when Angel Writer and Abiword are free?  If all you need to do is type, then this is your program.  (If you are a student or an academic and you need the footnote function, you should get Abiword.)

IBM Lotus Symphony (Suite):  ♥
I'm including this in the event you really like the IBM name, and that's the reason you prefer this download. But, this is not my favourite. It's a huge download, amost a gig, and if you have a small or older computer or laptop, it may not fit, and you'll have a hard time getting a partial download out again. So, be warned, if you want this IBM word-processor (which comes in a suite), you must have more than a gig of free space to instal and use it.

JARTE (Compact Word-Processor):  ♥ ♥ ♥
Jarte has a personality of its own. If you like the Jarte icons and layout better than the Angel Writer setup, go ahead and use it. It works just fine!

OPEN OFFICE (Suite):  ♥
Open Office works if you type a letter, but if you are setting up a CV, and using the Table function to organize it with a column for the dates, another column for the company name and details, you may one day be really upset about OpenOffice. The table function doesn't hold. Each time you open your document to work on it, or to print it, the borders of any table you have made will have slid to the right very slightly. In other words, the Tables get wider, all by themselves. They slip outside the page margin. Finally, after you've opened your document many times, the Table borders will "slop" all way past the page margin, right off the far right edge of the actual page itself. It is very hard to fix your tables when this happens. It has happened to me in OpenOffice 2 and 3.

I therefore don't recommend OpenOffice unless you are writing a very plain CV that does not use tables.

GOOGLE DOCS (Word-Processor):  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ In the Internet era, privacy is of paramount importance.  The less you disclose online, the better.  However, if I had no computer, and no access to one, I would use Google Docs. Big Happy Surprise:  Google Docs is integrated with your Gmail email account. It has a beautiful interactive calendar to schedule your interviews and appointments.  It's got maps, just click the hand-cursor to zoom in on highways and bus routes to plan your trip to your interview! With its built-in Writely word-processing system, and its online file storage for your documents, Google Docs is ideal if you are obliged to job-hunt in a public or government job center, or in Internet Cafes. You can upload an existing résumé from CD, USB-key or diskette, right into Google Docs to work on it.  Then, you can save it there, in your online document storage.  And it's FREE! How to UPLOAD an existing CV into Google Docs: Easily upload your documents into Google Docs to store them for printing online, or to continue working on them. Watch this 30-second video: If you already have a Gmail account, then you already have Google Docs.  Just sign in to Gmail, go to your "My Account" page, and click on the "Docs" icon above the little blue "Notebook" icon.  Once inside Docs, click on "New" (top left) and select "Document."  And there you are!  Ready to write a résumé. At a completely separate location, Google offers document templates that work with the Google Docs word-processor in your Gmail account.  I could not find a way to get at the templates from inside the Docs account, so it was lucky I already knew they exist, and they include some very nice résumé templates. Click on that link, go in and have a look at the résumé templates.  I prefer the Classic Resume template, because you can never go wrong.  I also like Modern Grey, which is ideal to vertically space out your information when you have a slim résumé and you need to make more of it. Another thing I like about the Google Docs résumé templates, each one sets you up for a complete résumé on ONE page.  In Pocket Résumé Guide, I teach you how to write a one-page résumé. To work with your Classic Résumé, click on the button under it called "Use this template".  Now, the Google Docs login page will come up, inviting you to sign in.  Type in your name and password, which are the same as for your Gmail account, and the instant you enter your account, the Classic Résumé template is right there in front of you, waiting for you to work on it!  Now, all you need is a copy of Pocket Résumé Guide, and you're on your way. However, if I had a cell phone or a blackberry with a calendar feature in it, that would be more private than organizing my life in a file on the Internet. GOOGLE DOCS TEMPLATE GALLERY:  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ This template gallery is a terrific idea. I've browsed through Google Docs' résumé templates, and would recommend two of them, in particular, for their professional look and style: III — FREE HANDY UTILITIES PRODUCT BRAND (MAIN LINK) FAQ Comments BG Rank ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Tiny Spell (Spellchecker) ZIP Click to Instal/Run ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Word Web (Dictionary-Thesaurus) FAQ Read More Below ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ FREE UTILITIES ROUND-UP: TINY SPELL:  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Tiny Spell is a free download. Once installed, it sits in your system tray (bottom right of your screen) and alerts you to potential typos by hovering a copy of a misspelled word in red above your cursor. If you click on the red word, a vertical list pops up of words you might have intended. WORD WEB:  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ A less intrusive spelling fix comes from WordWeb, a sleek desktop thesaurus-dictionary, also trained to sit in your status bar, ready when you need it. I use it all the time, for spelling and for its excellent definitions. HAVE A GREAT JOB HUNT!