simplest computer program for writing

Hi all;
I am looking for a simple program that will let me write out an instruction manual.
All I desire is blank pages I can do my write-up on.
I'm not looking to format or make digital ready.
I do have and use Grammarly.
I want to write page by page to get my information down and save it so I can send that off to my buddy who will make it into a PDF, professional-looking and print-ready.

I am currently writing this out by hand, if my wrist was not messed up I would have no problems.
But it hurts to write...

I really do not want one of the many "publishing" apps that are available.
Does anyone have some suggestions?

Text editors like BBEdit and NotePad are as simple as it gets. And publishers can easily format their files for production.

Jake; Thank You!
There are several choices but these look like just what I wanted!

Sounds like a great project, Thomas.

A lot of writing programs are geared toward fiction writing. A lot of them boast of lots and bells and whistles (which translates to a learning curve.) For my non-fiction, I found the simplest program was simply a text editor. No distractions or fancy features to worry about. For a first draft all you really need is spell check. The formatting comes later, so you can just concentrate on writing.

thomas rubino wrote:Hi all;
I am looking for a simple program that will let me write out an instruction manual.
All I desire is blank pages I can do my write-up on.
I'm not looking to format or make digital ready.
I do have and use Grammarly.
I want to write page by page to get my information down and save it so I can send that off to my buddy who will make it into a PDF, professional-looking and print-ready.

I am currently writing this out by hand, if my wrist was not messed up I would have no problems.
But it hurts to write...

I really do not want one of the many "publishing" apps that are available.
Does anyone have some suggestions?

You can do with good ole fashioned MS word (micro soft)  Which is often on many computers, this has a PDF "save as option" when your done.
Power Point, which you might be able to get a free trial of, works from the standpoint that you can have various pages that you  can format and then duplicate, Both are easy to insert and duplicate photos. And the PDF feature is top notch for both.

If you have your basic info and layout ready  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/try is an option.  While this make take you into what you refer to as a "publishing aps" The time saved is outstanding, and you often can't beat free trials.

Best of success.

Google Docs - it's a free and streamlined word processor. It has some of the functionality of more powerful systems like word. It's big advantage for your situation is that it is designed from the start for collaborative working. You can both have access to the same file and work on it simultaneously. No need to send versions back and forward. It has a simple inbuilt commenting tool for you to discuss the document as you go.

I prefer Libre office suite because it has MS Word like layout but is open source software.

Why not a basic word processor?

I personally would choose one of the open office setups because they are free and readily available.  Yes you have a lot of options you don't need.  But does that matter?

Personally I would choose the Apache version of open office over Libre mentioned above but either are good programs and simple to use for basic stuff.  Both are free.

Another one mentioned above is google docs.  It is already set up for collaboration.  The one problem with it is you always have to have internet to use it while the programs above are stand alone and run without internet.  But likely your friend can set up a file on it and simply invite you to edit it and from then on you simply follow the link in and type ignoring most of the fancy stuff.