Are there any free word processor programs available for OS 9?

Though you have Simple Text already, it is very limited, the one to get is this one...

http://www.tex-edit.com/software/tex-edit-plus4.1.3.hqx

Good news! 🙂

Wordperfect was made available as a free application several years ago after they stopped supporting it on Macs, kind of about the time OSX came into existence. It is still a great piece of software for the OS9/Classic environment. You'll have to do a websearch for it since I believe it is hidden somewhere on an academic website, and certainly not on Corel's.

Here's WordPerfect 3.5e. Be sure to apply all the updaters.

http://main.system7today.com/software/wordperfect/wordperfect.html

+System 7 Today+ also has +Corel Graphics 8 LE+. It's not word processing, but a nice graphics companion to WordPerfect.

http://main.system7today.com/software/corelgraphics8/corelgraphics8.html

Here's a simple word processing app (iText). The cool thing is that the exact same program exists for Mac OS X and Windows.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/12849

I'm lost on this one. Why not Appleworks which comes with OS9? Anything you do in Appleworks can be saved as a Word document for those who use MS Word. Am I missing something?

Although AppleWorks may have been bundled (along with other software) on some Macs that came with Mac OS 9 (just like iLife is bundled with new Macs today), AppleWorks was not included for free with Mac OS 9. It was a separate product, as iLife is today.

As already suggested, although maybe not free, if you have access to eBay, you may see copies of AppleWorks v6 (or v5) or Office 2001 for Mac. These should go for pennies plus postage.

Office 2001 for Mac was some of the best OS9 software available.

I don't know about 6.0.3, but this is the latest version and the one I have installed.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/appleworks629formac.html

It's version 6.2.9 for Mac OS X and 6.2.8 for Mac OS 9/8. The updater updates any 6.x version of AppleWorks.