At 06:30 PM 5/7/02 +1000, Martin Sevior wrote: >This one explicitly mentions the plugins and gives a download link.
I'm with Eric. AbiWord 1.0 is a *major* accomplishment, and deserves to be celebrated. The only trick is to word the announcement carefully so that we set people's expectations appropriately. In other words, we want to make sure that people: - don't miss what's great about it, and - don't think it does more than it does. Martin's latest draft is *really* close to that point already, and I've attached a revision which includes a few suggested rewordings and enhancements as follows: title/subhead ------------- - most press releases have a header - mine still needs work, though :-( intro para, first sentence -------------------------- - "May ##, 2002" ... most press releases start with a date - "first" is a big deal - "global" is also a big deal - "award-winning" is, too - "Open Source" works better here, cf. "free" in para 5 second para, last sentence -------------------------- - no need to capitalize Word Processor third para, first sentence -------------------------- - "as-you-type" (is there a better way to say squiggle?) - no need to capitalize language - use examples to emphasize the breadth and depth of language support? fourth para ----------- - more positive, less apologetic (hopefully still clear) - emphasize efforts of existing volunteers - actively try to recruit more volunteers (word this better?) new subhead before fifth para ----------------------------- - call to action draws more attention fifth para, first sentence -------------------------- - people are leery of the performance of non-native ports Paul, spin doctor
<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE abiword PUBLIC "-//ABISOURCE//DTD AWML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.abisource.com/awml.dtd";> <abiword xmlns="http://www.abisource.com/awml.dtd"; xmlns:awml="http://www.abisource.com/awml.dtd"; xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"; xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"; xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"; xmlns:math="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"; xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"; version="1.0.0" fileformat="1.0" styles="unlocked"> <!-- ===================================================================== --> <!-- This file is an AbiWord document. --> <!-- AbiWord is a free, Open Source word processor. --> <!-- You may obtain more information about AbiWord at www.abisource.com --> <!-- You should not edit this file by hand. --> <!-- ===================================================================== --> <styles> <s type="P" name="Heading 1" basedon="Normal" followedby="Normal" props="keep-with-next:1; font-size:17pt; margin-bottom:0.0417in; line-height:1.000000; font-weight:bold; font-family:Arial; margin-top:0.3056in"/> <s type="P" name="Normal" basedon="" followedby="Current Settings" props="font-family:Times New Roman; margin-top:0pt; font-variant:normal; margin-left:0pt; text-indent:0in; widows:2; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none; color:000000; line-height:1.000000; text-align:left; margin-bottom:0pt; text-position:normal; margin-right:0pt; bgcolor:transparent; font-size:12pt; font-stretch:normal"/> <s type="P" name="Heading 2" basedon="Normal" followedby="Normal" props="keep-with-next:1; font-size:14pt; margin-bottom:0.0417in; line-height:1.000000; font-weight:bold; font-family:Arial; margin-top:0.3056in"/> </styles> <pagesize pagetype="Letter" orientation="portrait" width="8.500000" height="11.000000" units="in" page-scale="1.000000"/> <section props="page-margin-footer:0.5in; page-margin-header:0.5in"> <p style="Heading 1"><c props="lang:en-US">Word Processing for Everyone<br/></c><c props="lang:en-US"></c><c props="lang:en-US; font-size:14pt">AbiWord 1.0 ships</c></p> <p style="Heading 2"><c props="lang:en-US">For Immediate Release</c><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US">May ##, 2002 -- The AbiWord team is proud to announce the first global release of the award-winning Open Source word processor, AbiWord version 1.0.1. More than three years in the making, AbiWord is a reliable, extensible, cross-platform word-processor with many powerful features.</c><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US">We aim at robust inter-operability with existing products, such as Microsoft Word</c><c props="lang:en-US"></c><c props="font-family:Symbol; lang:en-US">Ò</c><c props="lang:en-US">, Corel's WordPerfect</c><c props="font-family:Symbol; lang:en-US">Ò</c><c props="lang:en-US">, and others. Our goal is to incorporate the most useful features of these competing applications without the fluff, bloat, or slowness that accompany them. The result is a lean and mean word processor, the download size being less than 4 megabytes.</c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US">Translations and as-you-type spell checking are available for more than 30 different languages on 6 continents, including Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, and Indonesian. An English language thesaurus is available as a separate plugin. </c><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US">The worldwide team of AbiWord volunteers is already hard at work developing the next release of AbiWord, which will include advanced features such as tables and support for more complex languages. Users, writers, translators, testers, and developers are all encouraged to try out AbiWord and see what they'd like to add next. </c><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Heading 2"><c props="lang:en-US">Get AbiWord Now</c><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US">AbiWord runs natively on Linux and other Unix variants, Windows, Mac OSX and QNX and is completely free. You can learn more about AbiWord from our website at </c><c props="lang:en-US"></c><a xlink:href="http://www.abiword.com";><c props="lang:en-US">http://www.abiword.com/</c></a><c props="lang:en-US">. </c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US">AbiWord can be downloaded from </c><c props="lang:en-US"></c><a xlink:href="http://www.abiword.com/download";><c props="lang:en-US">http://www.abiword.com/download/.</c></a><c props="lang:en-US"> AbiWord can be extended via plugins which can be downloaded from: </c><a xlink:href="http://www.abisource.com/download/plugins.phtml";><c props="lang:en-US">http://www.abiword.com/plugins.phtml</c></a></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US">The AbiWord team can be contacted via email at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] </c><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> <p style="Normal"><c props="lang:en-US"></c></p> </section> </abiword>
