About AbiWord
About Open Source
Index
Contents
What's New
Check Version
Introduction
Installation
Getting Started
The Workspace
Entering Text
Formatting
Edit Commands
Paragraphs
Styles
Inserting Objects
Printing
Preferences
Shortcuts
abisource.com
FAQ
Credits
Search
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Introduction to AbiWord
AbiWord is a small and simple word processor, that is fast
and complete. It forms part of the AbiSource project
which is sponsored by the SourceGear company.
The goal of this project is the development of an Open Source and multi
platform office suite . The beginning of this project starts with AbiWord,
the word processor. Abiword's features include it's " look
& feel " (see this
screen capture), the ability to format pages and
paragraphs, a spell checker, an interactive rule, the integration
of styles, the unlimited capacity to undo/redo , a find and replace
function and the image insertion. It is also able to import documents
from Microsoft Word 97 and rtf (Rich Text Format) and to save documents
using Internet HTML format.Several other features are planned for future releases, these include
tables, lists and a Microsoft Word exporter. For more information,
please consult our roadmap.
But the most significant difference of AbiWord compared to almost all
the other word processors available is the format of it's native files.
A document saved under AbiWord has an extension by default of * abw and
is written in XML and thus in ASCII format. These files can then be read
by any text editor. That does not mean that AbiWord is a XML editor. AbiWord
is a word processor which uses the XML like a practical syntax for representation
of documents. It is total new compared to the other traditional word processors
and that ensures that when a document is written with AbiWord, it is tied
to no particular word processor; word processors which will become obsolete
in the five years to come.
Lastly, AbiWord is completely free and multi platform: it functions
under Windows and the majority of the Unix systems.
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BeOS / INTEL (experimental)
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BeOS / PPC (experimental)
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Linux / Alpha
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Linux / INTEL
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Linux / Power PC
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Linux / INTEL IA64 (experimental)
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NetBSD
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FreeBSD / INTEL
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AIX
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Solaris
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Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME and NT
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Others
The next few years will see personal data processing become very much a
part of the development and the deployment of several operating systems
(OS). AbiWord will be thus be able to run under these principal OS. (Not
sure about the translation here either) Once again, the choice of native
files XML will ensure portability of these files onto these various
platforms whereas the traditional word processings platforms will remain
restricted to only one or several platforms.
Card-index identity
| Company: |
AbiSource |
| Version: |
0.7.10 |
| Date of publication: |
16/6/2000 |
| File Size: |
4431K |
| Licence: |
Free (Open Source) |
| Platforms: |
Windows / Unix / BEOS |
| Automatic Installation |
Yes |
The Open Source concept
 |
The development part of the Open Source concept differs
from traditional commercial software owing to the fact that the source
code (lines of instructions which defines the software in itself) are freely
available just as the software is itself. For the majority of the users,
it is of little importance, however, everyone profits from the ceaseless
improvements that each volunteer makes on the original software. Everyone
can take part in the improvement of the product. This concept is opposed
to that of the proprietry software developer, who is protected by a licence
prohibiting the access to the source code, any additions or withdrawals
to the source code, the copying of the software and it's redistribution.
For more information on the Open concept Source, visit the site www.opensource.org |
| AbiWord is thus Open Source software
. It is not a shareware: you do not have any legal obligation, moral or
of all other kind. It is completely free. We simply want anyone to be able
to freely use this software: you can even copy it for other people who
are likely to be interested.
AbiWord is being born from a model of development that many people ignore.
The result of the contributions of many people all over the world is that
frequent updates appear. The users of AbiWord should always check to see
if a new version has come out, and should also consult the AbiSource site
frequently to be sure that they are using the most recent version of AbiWord. |
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