AbiWord
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| AbiWord | |
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 AbiWord 2.4.2 on Ubuntu |
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| Developer: | The AbiWord Team |
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| Latest release: | 2.4.6 / November 5, 2006 |
| Preview release: | 2.5.1 / February 6, 2007 |
| OS: | Cross-platform |
| Use: | Word processor |
| License: | GPL |
| Website: | www.abisource.com |
AbiWord is a Free Software word processor licensed under the GNU General Public License. The name "AbiWord" is derived from the root of the Spanish word "Abierto" meaning open. It is supported on Linux, Mac OS X (PowerPC), Microsoft Windows, ReactOS, BeOS and other operating systems. The level of support on each operating system varies considerably, though. Linux versions, for example, are actively developed, while recent Mac OS X versions don't run natively on the latest machines and don't render fonts correctly. An unofficial port based on the GTK+ (Linux) version is also distributed by the creators of SkyOS. AbiWord was originally started by SourceGear Corporation as the first component of AbiSuite, as part of a plan to create a full Office Suite that would be Free/Open source 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.
AbiWord has a similar user interface to Microsoft Word, 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. The interface is intended to follow user interface guidelines for each respective platform.
AbiWord is packaged with several import/export filters, including Rich Text Format, HTML, OpenDocument and LaTeX (export only). Plug-in filters are available to deal with many other formats, notably WordPerfect (wpd) documents. The native file format uses XML, so as to mitigate vendor lock-in concerns with respect to interoperability and also digital archiving.
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[edit] Features
Abiword supports the following features:
- Speed and size efficiency.
- Microsoft Word-like interface.
- Support for tables, footnotes, and endnotes.
- Support for tables of contents.
- Equation editing.
- Grammar checking.
- User interface and spell checking in 49 languages.
[edit] Adoption
Abiword is the default word processor in the following operating systems/Linux distributions:
- Zenwalk
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- abisource.com, official website.
- List of AbiWord translations (both complete and incomplete)
- Andrew Leonard: Abiword Up. Salon.com, Nov 15 2002. History of the project and comparison with closed source development.
- AbiWord vs. MS Word Flexbeta.net, Sep 1 2004.
- Comparison between OOo Writer, AbiWord, and KWord newsforge.com, Aug 23 2005.
