word processor

Free options include:

The free and very good Libre Office https://www.libreoffice.org/

Or use the free Microsoft Office on the web: https://products.office.com/en-us/free-office-online-for-the-web

Or Google Docs: https://www.google.com/docs/about/

or Apple's Pages and Numbers

Libre Office is completely free. You can download it at no charge using the link I provided: https://www.libreoffice.org/

The $4.99 "Libre Office Vanilla" available in the App Store is not something I personally would use.

The free Microsoft office in my list is a web-based version and is available by clicking on the following link which was in my previous reply: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/free-office-online-for-the-web

There’s no fee for LibreOffice, when downloaded from the LibreOffice website.

I use Apple iWork apps for the vast majority text. Not sure how to get iWork downloads for pre-Mojave macOS, though.

For heavier and more extensive writing work, Scrivener. Scrivener is not free.

For source code and other work, Xcode and variously MacVim or BBEdit. Xcode is free. MacVim is free. (Well, free if you know how to use vim.) Much of BBEdit can be used for free.

Microsoft Office 2019 is available as a purchase, and Office 365 as a subscription.

The iWork apps may or may not be available, if you don't already have them.To get them, it's necessary to go to the Apple App Store. If I remember correctly, you first go to Purchases and then, if it shows that you have certain apps installed, you can click on new installs. Sometimes , they don't show and then there is no way to download a version of that app.

Ronasara wrote:

The iWork apps may or may not be available, if you don't already have them.To get them, it's necessary to go to the Apple App Store. If I remember correctly, you first go to Purchases and then...

Yes; I’m familiar with the previous-purchases list. That doesn’t work for new folks, as there’a no previous “purchase.“ There was a way to get a previous purchase added indirectly via a DMG, and then trigger an update, but it’s circuitous, years old, and I do not know if it still works.

Just to clarify for those that persist in suggesting the download of Apple's Pages, Numbers, and Keynote — they presently require Mojave or later, and the OP has stated that they are done at High Sierra.

Old Toad wrote:

Pages, Numbers and Keynote are available and free for all Mac users.

Yes, though the current versions require Mojave, previous versions require having “purchased” the app prior to the current Mojave-only versions, and obtaining the necessarily-older iWork versions for somebody with no previous “purchase” history of iWork is not obvious (to me).

I’m open to learning how a new-to-iWork user with a Mac that tops out at High Sierra can acquire iWork, though.

And yes, I do realize iWork is now free.

Apple Pages is free and may already be installed. If not, log into the Mac App Store and download it.

As already suggested LibreOffice.  Also Bean is a very good editor.

In addition to my new Macs, I have a late 2009 iMac with High Sierra OS and LiberOffice, which I downloaded direct from them for free. I have to say that it all works together very nicely. Enjoy.

Glad to hear that it is working well.

Pages, Numbers and Keynote are available and free for all Mac users.