Frequently Asked Questions about AbiWord
Do you have a frequently asked question that is not listed here? Create
a new page and add it yourself -- this is, after all, a wiki (TWiki)!
See
Creating New FAQ Pages or Categories and visit
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Aside: Please write about your successful use of AbiWord on SuccessStories and help boost developer morale!
General FAQs
- Page Name (Topic): Question
- FaqAbiWord2dot2Plan:
Planning: AbiWord 2.2 clearly this is obsolete, don't know if there
would be any value to maintaining this for hisory--I will (for the time
being), especially with ...
- FaqAbiWordNativeFormatToText:
Question How do I pull the text content out of an Abiword native format
file (.abw file)? Answer Use XSLT, specifically: xsltproc foo.xsl
bar.abw Where bar.abw is ...
- FaqAbiWordRevisionHistory:
FAQ: AbiWord Release Notes, AbiWord for HTML Where are the Release
Notes for AbiWord Releases Q: I downloaded AbiWord a while back (like
six months ago), and, like ...
- FaqAbiwordVersus:
FAQ: Role of AbiWord Q: What's the point of Abiword? Why should I
bother? How does it compare with MS Word, http://openoffice.org
OpenOffice.org , Corel WordPerfect ...
- FaqAlteringToolbarsAndKeyboardShortcuts:
FAQ: Altering Toolbars, Adding Keyboard Shortcuts Question Can end
users alter toolbars or create keyboard shortcuts? I tend to take notes
in class, and I need quick ...
- FaqBestWaysToUseAbiWord:
FAQ: Hints for Using AbiWord Just starting this page with a list of
recommendations which I may flesh out here or link to another page.
Methods of Using AbiWord Select ...
- FaqBugPolicy:
FAQ: AbiWords Bug Policy, Bugzilla Some words about AbiWords use of
Bugzilla. Contents TOC You're Not Finished When You File the Bug When
you create a new bug report ...
- FaqCreatingPDFs:
Creating PDF documents How do I create a PDF document from AbiWord?
Windows On Windows, the easiest way to create a PDF is to use a PDF
printer driver. These programs ...
- FaqDefaultFont:
FAQ: Default Font Question How can I start AbiWord with a given font
and fontsize? Answer Modify the normal template (normal.awt) or create
your own customized template ...
- FaqEditorBindings:
FAQ: Keyboard Bindings to Match Other Editors It is possible to change
the keyboard bindings used by ABIWORD by editing your
~/.AbiSuite/AbiWord.profile file. To enable ...
- FaqFileFormat:
FAQ: AbiWord's File Format How are the AbiWord (.abw) files structured?
Main.PaulBeAsd 18 Oct 2002 Without going into details here is the
essential information about ...
- FaqFontSizesNotOnMenu:
unanswered question FAQ: Using Font Sizes Not on the Menu Unanswered
Question Is there a way to use font sizes larger or smaller than those
specified on the AbiWord ...
- FaqFootnotesAndEndnotes:
FAQ: Footnotes and Headers? Q: Does Abiword have any support for
footnotes and/or endnotes? A: Yes, in versions 2.0 and later. The 1.0.x
release series does not have ...
- FaqHelpResources:
FAQ: Help Resources for AbiWord There are a variety of resources that
can provide help with AbiWord. Contents TOC "Official" Resources
AbiWord Website www.abisource ...
- FaqMailingLists:
FAQ: AbiWord Mailing Lists Contents TOC How do I subscribe to the user
list? You can sign up for the ABIWORD User's Mailing List by sending an
email to abiword-user ...
- FaqMicrosoftWordDocuments:
FAQ: Can AbiWord open Microsoft Word® documents? Presently, ABIWORD can
open most Microsoft Word documents well. For further information and a
few "quid pro quos ...
- FaqMultipleWindowsVsSubwindows:
FAQ: Multiple Windows vs. Subwindows MDI, SDI, MSDI Question Bergesio
Alejandro asked: my question is: why abiword open each new file in
other window, and the 'window ...
- FaqOASISSupport:
OASIS/ODT Support Will AbiWord use OASIS Open Document as its default
export format? The question is more complicated than it seems but the
short answer is unfortunately ...
- FaqOtherFormatsExported:
FAQ: Supported Word Processing Formats(Duplicate Question) William A.
Henslee asked: I understand that Abiword can read and open documents
from MS Word and Word Perfect ...
- FaqOtherFormatsSupported:
FAQ: Supported Word Processing Formats(Duplicate Question) Q: Does
AbiWord support other file formats? (Can it import files from, for
example, WordPerfect?) A: Yes ...
- FaqPostscriptOutputProblems:
FAQ: Postscript Output Problems Question I am finding that all
postscript output (to printer or file) is mangled since AbiWord 1.0.4
and including 2.0. Since everyone ...
- FaqScripting:
FAQ: Does AbiWord have a scripting language? Yes, in fact it has three
there is support for Perl, Python, and Shell. In the future others may
be supported. Perl support ...
- FaqTemplates:
FAQ: Creating Templates On Mon, 2002-04-08 at 20:44, John L. Clark
wrote: Is there a way to create a new template and add it to the
template list, so that a new document ...
- FaqTurningOffAutofill:
FAQ: Turning Off Autofill How to turn off/on autofill? When printing in
Abiword it prints with 2 or more spaces between words like this: This
is a test sentence. How ...
- FaqTutorials:
FAQ: AbiWord Tutorials Q: Where can I find an AbiWord tutorial? A: Here
are a few. The first three (with alternate versions of the
presentation) were created for a ...
- FaqUnableToOpenDocument: Moved to FaqUnableToOpenNonNativeDocument.
- FaqUnableToOpenNonNativeDocument:
FAQ: What to do if AbiWord fails to open or convert a document First,
please check the following three points, in the order that seems most
logical in the particular ...
- FaqUninstallingAbiWord:
FAQ: Uninstalling AbiWord I'm not sure whether I should have one page
for all OSs, or one for each — I'll try it this way first. In general,
you may wish to ...
- FaqWhatDoesBiDiMean:
FAQ: What Does BiDi Mean BiDi (and its capitalization variants) is
short for BiDirectional, which is used to indicate support for both
Left-To-Right LTR and Right ...
- FaqWhatFeaturesDoesAbiWordInclude:
FAQ: AbiWord Features Rather than answering that question here, see
PluginMatrix and FeatureMatrix (future — not much there yet — maybe you
want to help ...
- FaqWhatPlatformsDoesAbiWordSupport:
Unanswered question FAQ: AbiWord Supported Platforms AbiWord is a cross
platform word processor on what platforms does AbiWord work? I started
an answer below, perhaps ...
- FaqWhyDoSquaresAppearAtTheEndOfLines:
FAQ: Why Do Squares Appear at the End of Lines? There is a
http://bugzilla.abisource.com/show bug.cgi?id 4183 known bug in the
1.0.x series that causes squares to ...
- FaqWhyIsMyTextOverwrittenAsIType:
Why Is My Text Overwritten as I Type? Users will sometimes experience
an issue where AbiWord seems to be deleting existing text while
entering new text. This is usually ...
Language and Internationalization FAQs
- Page Name (Topic): Question
- IntlFaqChangingLanguage: IntlFAQ?:
Changing Language ABIWORD can work with menus and strings translated
into many different languages by configuring the system properly: If
you change the language ...
- IntlFaqIncompleteTranslation: IntlFAQ?:
Incomplete Translations Translations for ABIWORD are provided by
conscientious individuals all over the world who enjoy using ABIWORD in
their native language ...
- IntlFaqNotesForTranslators: IntlFAQ?:
Notes For Abiword Translators Raphael Finkel raphael@cs.uky.edu A.
Getting started A.1. If you want to work on a particular language, say
Pelonian (language ...
- IntlFaqSettingDefaultLanguageOfDocuments: IntlFAQ?:
Setting the Default Language for Documents Directly editing the
AbiWord.Profile file is not advised nor supported by the developers.
Open the file AbiWord ...
- IntlFaqSpellChecking: IntlFAQ?:
Spell Checking Your ABIWORD distribution contains a file called
american.hash. This is a dictionary of (American) English words. By
adding the hash file ...
MacOS FAQs
- Page Name (Topic): Question
- MacFaqAbiWordDoesNotRunAfterTigerUpgrade: AbiWord
fails to start after upgrading to Tiger. How can I get AbiWord to run
after upgrading to Tiger? According to a MacFixIt article, you can fix
this problem by ...
- MacFaqPlatforms: MacFAQ?:
AbiWord Status on Macintosh Platforms What is the status of AbiWord
development on the various Apple Macintosh platforms? MacOS X (native)
A native MacOS X ...
Unix FAQs
- Page Name (Topic): Question
- UnixFaqAbiWordCouldNotLoadTimesNewRoman: UnixFAQ?:
Can't Load Times New Roman Font The following page applies to ABIWORD
1.0.x. For ABIWORD 2.0 and 1.99.x (betas and release candidates), see
UnixFaqFontsInAbiWord2dot0 ...
- UnixFaqAbiWordGnomeOnGentoo: AbiWord-Gnome
on Gentoo How do I use the Gnome-enabled version of AbiWord on Gentoo?
You have to enable the 'gnome' USE flag. I don't have Gnome installed,
what libraries ...
- UnixFaqBrokenOnSolaris: UnixFAQ?:
AbiWord on Solaris If you happen to compile on Solaris and discover
that no matter what you attempt to type in AbiWord nothing appears, try
compiling and ...
- UnixFaqDefaultBrowser:
Setting Default Web Browser AbiWord does not use the Gnome specified
default browser. Rather it first looks for the environmental variable
"BROWSER". If the program ...
- UnixFaqDisablePango:
Disabling Pango How do you disable Pango? Pango will be the default
renderer on Unix for AbiWord 2.6. You can disable it by adding
{DefaultGraphics "0x105"} without ...
- UnixFaqFontWarning: UnixFAQ?:
Font Warning (AbiWord 1.0 and earlier) This warning was part of AbiWord
1.0 and earlier, which is long outdated, and the use of which is
discouraged in favor ...
- UnixFaqFontsInAbiWord2dot0: UnixFAQ?:
Fonts in AbiWord 2.0 AbiWord 2.0 and 1.99.x (betas and release
candidates) on Unix actually knows nothing about locating, loading, and
using fonts. It leaves ...
- UnixFaqInstallingRPMs: UnixFAQ?:
Installing RPMs When installing/upgrading ABIWORD via RPMs, make sure
to download the entire set. You need: main ABIWORD RPM, non-BiDi or
BiDi version, suitable ...
- UnixFaqTrueTypeFonts: UnixFAQ?:
True Type Fonts AbiWord 1.0.x Contents TOC True Type Fonts on Linux The
following page applies to ABIWORD 1.0.x. For ABIWORD 2.0 and 1.99.x
(betas and release ...
- UnixFaqWhySoManyLinuxBinaries: UnixFAQ?:
Why Are There So Many Linux Binaries Q: Why can't there be a single
Linux binary that runs on all releases/distros just like Windows? A:
There could be that ...
Windows FAQs
- Page Name (Topic): Question
- WinFaqAbiWordDoesNotOpenMyWordFiles: Moved to WinFaqCanAbiWordOpenMyWordFilesByDefault. See also FaqUnableToOpenNonNativeDocument.
- WinFaqAbiWordOpensMyWordFiles: WinFAQ?:
AbiWord Opens my Word Files .doc files are opened in AbiWord instead of
Word or Wordpad Chuck Hansen asked: After installing Abiword, all files
I had created ...
- WinFaqAlwaysSaveAsWord: WinFAQ?:
Save Files in MS Word Format by Default How can I make AbiWord save my
files in MS Word ( .doc) format by default? This works on Windows XP,
Windows 2000, ...
- WinFaqCanAbiWordOpenMyWordFilesByDefault:
Mark Jackson asked: I love the word processor, and I would like to use
it to open all Word and Text documents, as a default. Can you help me
in this task? My OS is ...
- WinFaqCommandlineArguments: WinFAQ?:
Command Line Arguments Question Which commandline arguments are
available, for example starting AbiWord as abiword test.txt Answer From
a shell prompt (e.g ...
- WinFaqDefaultFont: Moved to FaqDefaultFont.
- WinFaqDisableUniscribe:
Disabling Uniscribe How do you disable Uniscribe? The Uniscribe backend
(usp10.dll) is the default and recommended renderer, however sometimes
it's desirable to disable ...
- WinFaqEntryPointNotFound: WinFAQ?:
"Entry Point Not Found" Message I (rhk) am not sure this (and some of
the other WinFAQs) are strictly applicable to Windows--if they are not,
we should move ...
- WinFaqInstallMoreDictionaries: WinFAQ?:
How to Install Additional Dictionaries Main.MichaelMoore asked: I'd
like to install some dictionaries that are not in the ispell dictionary
list.xml file. ...
- WinFaqLexmarkPrinters: WinFAQ?:
Using Lexmark Printers with AbiWord Some printing problems with Lexmark
printers have been experienced with certain versions of Abiword
(including version ...
- WinFaqRegistryEntries:
Can I run AbiWord from a USB Stick? Can I run AbiWord from a USB Stick?
Or does it rely on Windows Registry entries? OK, I have tested it
myself and it does work from ...
- WinFaqWindowsCOMCTL32DLL: WinFAQ?:
Missing comctl32.dll File You may see an error about COMCTL32.DLL when
you install ABIWORD . COMCTL32.DLL is a Windows library ABIWORD needs
to run. Some older ...
- WinFaqWindowsLIBGLIBDLL:
Missing libglib-2.0-0.dll File Why do I receive an error message that
says " t his application has failed to start because libglib-2.0-0.dll
was not found. Re-installing ...
- WinFaqWindowsMSVCR70DLL: WinFAQ?:
Missing msvcr70.dll File It seems there is another dll dependency for
AbiWord — msvcr70.dll. Nightly builds and other builds done with MS
Visual C/C ...
- WinFaqWindowsMSVCRTDLL: WinFAQ?:
Missing msvcrt.dll File AbiWord generally relies on MSVCRT.DLL and
COMCTL32.DLL already being installed. In most Windows installations
they will be, however ...
- WinFaqWindowsWS232DLL: WinFAQ?:
Missing ws232.dll File The WS2 32.DLL is used by the new automatic
dictionary (hash file) downloader. This DLL is required only if you are
using a version ...
Development FAQs
- Page Name (Topic): Question
- DevFAQDoesAbiWordUseMFC:
DevFAQ: Does AbiWord Use MFC jo asked if AbiWord uses MFC. I (rhk) am
not a developer, but attempted an answer ("no"), see "Original Email
and Response" below. As ...
- DevFAQNSISDictionaryInstallers:
NSIS Dictionary Installers How do I create the NSIS dictionary
installers? You'll need NSIS > 2.07 installed and the abispell
module from CVS. Once you have those ...
Creating New FAQ Pages or Categories
New FAQ Pages
See Bug vs. FAQ.
To create new FAQ pages, simply create a new page with a name starting with the appropriate prefix from the list below. Note
that no modification to this page is required -- it will automatically
appear in the appropriate list on this page, in alphabetic order, the
next time this page is loaded.
- "Faq" for general items that don't fit in one of the existing categories
- "IntlFaq" for Language and Internationalization
- "MacFaq" for MacOS
- "UnixFaq" for Unix (including Linux)
- "WinFaq" for Windows
- "DevFaq" for Development Related Questions
(If a new category is appropriate, see New FAQ Categories.)
One way to create a new page on the AbiWord
TWiki is to type a new page name in place of the current page name in
your browser's address bar, and then press <enter>. If the page
exists, you will be taken to it -- if the page doesn't exist, you will
be prompted to create it. You will have to register at TWiki.TWikiRegistration in order to create (and edit) pages. If you are not registered, I'm not sure whether you will get prompted to create a page.
Aside: Last time I tried to create a new registration, it failed -- not sure why and not sure whether this problem still exists.
Note that the name of the TWiki page should try to identify the
question, but don't agonize over it -- TWiki administrators (at least)
can rename the page if a better name becomes obvious.
When writing a new FAQ page, keep in mind that the first 160
characters of the page are treated as the page summary and displayed on
pages like this. Try to summarize the question (and the answer if
reasonable to do so) in those first 160 characters.
New FAQ Categories
To create new FAQ categories:
- edit this page appropriately and add the new category and prefix to the list of prefixes under New FAQ Pages.
- create FAQ pages as appropriate with the new prefix
This is a wiki (TWiki) -- if you see a problem, fix it! If you can't, edit this page to leave a note under Comments.
-- RandyKramer - 09 Jul 2002
Do you have a frequently asked question that is not listed here?
Create a new page and add it yourself -- this is, after all, a wiki
(TWiki)! See Creating New FAQ Pages or Categories and visit Abiword.WebHome to begin learning more about TWiki.
Don't worry if you don't have the answer -- create the page anyway
but start the text of the page with "Unanswered". One intent of a wiki
is that someone with the answer will find the page (possibly by seeing
it listed on this page, or on WebChanges) and answer the question.
Have a question but not sure it qualifies as a frequently asked question? See Bug vs. FAQ
then try this simple test: How many times have you had the question?
(call this a) How many times do you typically have a question before
doing something about it? (call this b) Divide a by b. If the result is
0.20 or higher, your question qualifies as a FAQ and should be added to
the AbiWord FAQ (assuming it has something to do with AbiWord).
;-) (FAQ evaluation method subject to future change -- there just have
to be more questions out there worthy of being added to the AbiWordFAQ.)
Update: For some period of time (3-6 months), I (rhk)
checked this site almost daily looking for unanswered FAQs. For a
longer period of time, I've stopped doing that. If your question is not
answered in a reasonable amount of time (or even when you first post a
question here), send a note to the abiword-user mail list with a link to the page containing the question and, optionally the question itself. I (rhk) don't use AbiWord
enough to answer most questions. You will have to subscribe to the
abiword-user list by sending an email containing the word "subscribe"
(put it in the subject and body, because I forget which is required) to
abiword-user-request.
fix
i downloaded abiword earlier, and i have a lot of downloaded fonts.
these fonts must be typed/viewed in a size 6 font or smaller, and some
need to be very large 80 or above. abiword only allows the listed font
sizes, and due to that i cannot use certain fonts. can you please fix
this?
-- JohnSmith - 18 Oct 2002
John,
Congratulations on editing the AbiWord
TWiki. Sorry that no one has noticed or responded to this before now,
but it gives me the opportunity to say this is probably not the way to
get the best / fastest results. One reason for this is that this TWiki
is not yet "the road well traveled". The approaches I recommend include
the following:
- Subscribe to either the abiword-user or abiword-dev mailing list
and ask your question there. (Then it would be wonderful if you came
back to this AbiWord TWiki and added a page with your question and the answer.) See FaqHelpResources or FaqMailingLists.
- If you want to report a bug or request an enhancement, learn how
to use Bugzilla (it's easy), then search Bugzilla to see if your bug /
RFE is already listed -- if not, add it. ;-) See Bugzilla.
- Start a new page with your unanswered question (as recommended
above). I will start such a page, titled (at least temporarily) FaqFontSizesNotOnMenu. (I don't know the answer, or if it can be done, otherwise I'd provide an answer as well.)
Something we'll all have to remember is specifying which version of AbiWord a question or answer refers to -- since AbiWord continues to develop at a brisk rate, answers will get out of date as new development occurs.
-- RandyKramer - 17 Nov 2002
Eric,
I moved your questions (both of them, for now) to FaqAbiWordRevisionHistory. I haven't answered them, well actually, I might respond to the second.
Everyone,
Please don't post new questions here, I know you can do better. If you
really can't figure out how, subscribe to and write to the
abiword-users mail list.
-- RandyKramer - 08 Dec 2004
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Revision r1.65 - 04 Mar 2006 - 20:37 GMT - SumOne
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