AbiWord 2.6.3

Publisher's description of AbiWord

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AbiWord is a lean yet full-featured word processor. It features a familiar-looking interface, basic character formatting, paragraph alignment, a spell checker, interactive rulers and tabs, styles, unlimited undo/redo, find and replace, and image support. It can also import Microsoft Word 97 and RTF (Rich Text Format) documents, as well as support headers/footers, superscript/subscript, widow/orphan control and newspaper-style columns. Many plug-ins are available. Support for tables is currently limited.

Version 2.6.3 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

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Microsoft Corp.

Editor's review of AbiWord

This free, open-source word-processor strikes us as a worthy alternative to pricey, big-name products. AbiWord has a quick learning curve, since the interface is very similar to those in Word and WordPerfect.

You'll find just about all the features you need, including the ability to cut and paste, highlight, and a bevy of common formatting tools. Although we did miss a grammar-checking utility, AbiWord can check your spelling in many languages--you'll need to choose the appropriate foreign language dictionaries during installation. A huge plus is the ability to open and save Microsoft Word documents, though the program also has its own proprietary file format. You can download plug-ins at the publisher's site to import and export a wide variety of other formats, including OpenDocument.

AbiWord should appeal to a wide range of users who seek a functional word-processing app but lack a large bank account.

User reviews of AbiWord

• Average user rating: out of 101 votes
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  AbiWord

  Good And free

  by: t.b.93 on 21-May-2008 01:30:54 PM

  Pros: only takes up 21.5 MB

  can make and open doc files

  Cons: Can't Insert audio files

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  AbiWord

  Fast and light!

  by: dmarcozoni on 21-Jul-2008 09:25:25 AM

  Pros: It's fast, light, open source, works!

  Cons: There are some problems when setting the default correction language. It does not support length between characters, among other (really specific, nothing THAT important) characteristics.

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  AbiWord

  A great word processor free of bloated excess!

  by: Andy Polon on 07-May-2008 08:04:54 AM

  Pros: Simple, gets the job done. Excellent spell checker. Of course you can't beat the price.

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  AbiWord

  interesting; good product

  by: oregonnerd on 07-May-2008 04:54:03 AM

  Pros: Not confined to Window/Word type *.doc files, fast, trim, easy to use, no learning curve.

  Cons: I'm not sure about transferring from (say) *.doc to *.abw (one of the AbiWord filetypes).

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  AbiWord

  Yes it works

  by: Jupnort on 05-May-2008 03:00:21 PM

  Pros: For basic stuff you write it will work. Many features of it are easy to use

  Cons: BUT If your needing help with a problem like abiword over writing and replacing what you already have written and want help to learn how to stop it from doing that help is hard to find , the user manual doesnt seem to offer much information or atleast info that I can understand. The IRC chat room for help they mention appears to never have anyone in it. If you get frustrated easily by programs with help files information that appears to be non exsistant I would suggest looking elsewhere.

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