AbiWord

Infobox Software
name = AbiWord



caption = Screenshot of AbiWord on Ubuntu
developer = The AbiWord Team
released = initial release|1998|12|01
latest_release_version = 2.6.4
latest_release_date = release date|2008|07|15
programming language = C++
operating_system = Cross-platform
genre = Word processor
license = GNU General Public License
website = http://abisource.com/

AbiWord is a free software word processor. The name "AbiWord" (pronounced "Abby Word") is derived from the root of the Spanish word "abierto", meaning "open". It currently runs on Linux, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Microsoft Windows, ReactOS, BeOS (unsupported), AmigaOS 4.0 (through its Cygnix X11 engine), and other operating systems.

AbiWord was originally started by [http://sourcegear.com SourceGear Corporation] as the first component of AbiSuite, as part of a plan to create a full Office Suite that would be free software. However, SourceGear gradually moved on to other business interests, and now the AbiWord project is run by a team of volunteer developers. AbiWord is part of GNOME Office, a collection of office applications with some degree of integration.

Features

AbiWord has a comprehensive language database with multiple languages. It also has support for tables and footnotes, as well as a spell checker and an advanced grammar checking system. [cite web
url = http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/15/1312216
title = AbiWord beats OpenOffice to a Grammar Checker
accessdate = 2007-11-23
date = 2005-10-15
publisher = Slashdot
quote = "The recently released AbiWord-2.4...is the first Free Word Processor to offer an integrated Grammar Checker" ]

Interface

AbiWord has a similar user interface to classic versions of Microsoft Word, which is intended to ease migration for new users. Although there are differences, the AbiWord developers aim to embrace and extend this de facto standard in business.

With recent changes in Office 2007 user interface, AbiWord becomes a viable alternative, since it mimics the old versions of Word.

The interface is intended to follow user interface guidelines for each respective platform.

File formats

AbiWord is packaged with several import/export filters, including Rich Text Format, HTML, OpenDocument, and Microsoft Word. An input filter for Office Open XML (docx) is included beginning with version 2.6.0. [cite web
url=http://abisource.com/release-notes/2.6.0.phtml
title=AbiWord v2.6.0 Released
publisher=www.abisource.com
accessdate=2008-03-24] LaTeX is supported for export only. Plug-in filters are available to deal with many other formats, notably WordPerfect documents. The native file format, .abw, uses XML, so as to mitigate vendor lock-in concerns with respect to interoperability and also digital archiving.

See also

*List of word processors
*Comparison of word processors

References

External links

* [http://www.abisource.com/ abisource.com] , official website.
* [http://www.nl.abisource.com/ abisource.com Mirror Site] .
* [http://www.abisource.com/contribute/translate/exist.phtml List of AbiWord translations (both complete and incomplete)]
* [http://salon.com/tech/col/leon/2002/11/15/abiword/index.html Andrew Leonard: Abiword Up.] "Salon.com", November 15, 2002. History of the project and comparison with closed source development.
* [http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=78 AbiWord vs. MS Word] "Flexbeta.net", September 1, 2004.
* [http://software.newsforge.com/software/05/08/16/2038242.shtml?tid=93&tid=150 Comparison between OOo Writer, AbiWord, and KWord] "newsforge.com", August 23, 2005.
* [http://www.abisource.com/~abi/ Abi the Ant] project mascot. Page includes pronunciation explanation.
* [http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2008/05/08/abiword-team-interview Interview with Development team after 2.6 release]