Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

Bala7 reviewed v2.9.4 on Nov 26, 2012

to echo what jaynbe said
time moves on but abiword has not
less than 0 star.

jaynbe reviewed v2.8.6 on Jul 21, 2010

Still installing Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable-x86 9.0.21022 (2007 version)
wich has been updated twice for critical security flaws to version 9.0.30729 (in 2009)
The installer doesn't even detect the presence of the latest redistributable installed!

konno reviewed v2.8.3 on Apr 7, 2010

Yes, the VC redist stuff is really messed up, and hopefully this bug report will be acted upon some day:

http://bugzilla.abisourc...m/show_bug.cgi?id=12247

Otherwise, this app isn't bad.

jaynbe reviewed v2.8.2 on Apr 3, 2010

Agree with AOKsider

Moreover doesn't even check for installed C++ Redist. files and installs an older distro aside the newer version.

netean reviewed v2.8.2 on Feb 16, 2010

I like Abiword, it's fast to start, works on windows and linux equally well. and for 99% of what I use a work processor for.. it does the job perfectly well.

For 99% or maybe even 100% of the things that most (average) users will ever need from a word processor is in there already.

Better m$ Office compatibility would be well appreciated though

OAKsider reviewed v2.8.1 on Nov 5, 2009

Pros: 1.) No problems with many, simpler Word files. 2.) Nice new icon.

Cons: 1.) Grammar check won't turn off (settings will not save, even after un/re-install). 2.) Puts MS Visual C++ Redist. files on separate drive (and doesn't delete after install). 3.) Uninstall doesn't remove all files (esp. in Start Menu).

Specs: AbiWord 2.8.1, Windows 7 x64 (UAC off)

GadgetPig reviewed v2.8.1 on Oct 30, 2009

Wow this thing evolves WAY too slow. It's good for VERY basic docs. But there are better alternatives when you start to add tables/pictures/columns AND have to maintain close to perfect msoffice compatibility. (which today is STILL important when you have to send sending resumes/ebusiness documents/etc)

Softmaker office 2006 is also free, lightweight and fast to load, handles image placement better than abiword, and has better word and excel cross compatibility than Abiword and even openoffice (no I don't work for them but try it yourself):

http://www.softmakeroffice.com

Needs registering, but if you open and close it a couple times you'll get a dialog box to skip registration altogether.

anomoly reviewed v2.7.8 Beta on Aug 3, 2009

2.7.8 beta can overwrite the 268 portable also

thartist reviewed v2.7.2 on May 27, 2009

great, well above Wordpad but without being bloat.
don't let the few icons in the toolbar mislead u, and revise the menus!

now please, the interface! :(

tylerhw reviewed v2.6.8 on Mar 19, 2009

When all you need is a word processor, why get the whole suite? This gem of an app and Gnumeric are all 90% of normal people need in their full-blown office suite. Abiword works well, runs on every OS, and I mean EVERY. Does all you need, has a portable version, and the native .abw format is extremely compressed, not to mention it will tar gzip files and untar gzip them as well. If you want a word processor, check this one out.

matt2971 reviewed v2.6.5 on Dec 4, 2008

Word and Writer are great if you want to do complex stuff, or don't mind using software that takes a lot of resources even though you'll only use 1% of it's features, but for me, when on older hardware, this simple, quick-starting word processor fits the bill.

robmanic44 reviewed v2.6.3 on May 29, 2008

It's functional and it doesn't take up 500Mb on my hard drive. If you want Microsoft Office you're looking in the wrong place.

pjafrombbay reviewed v2.6.0 on Apr 1, 2008

The concept is good and two stars for being Open Source but for me -- I choose to pay the shareware fee and use Atlantis word processor. Its all the things AbiWord should be (or perhaps most of the things, given its not free).

Regards,
Peter

yokozuna reviewed v2.5.2 Beta on Aug 20, 2007

zridling, same here. I have to say that I am very disappointed that AbiWord has not support ODT natively yet (and the plugin is very flawed), however, I can find in the newest changelog: "the addition of a new experimental OpenXML import filter".

zridling reviewed v2.5.1 on Feb 25, 2007

Still very slow, even on a Core 2 Duo machine and since AbiWord is Open Source, does it have any intention of being able to use ODF files? .doc format conversion is still hit-and-miss. AbiWord looks good, but its real-world performance doesn't live up to its UI's simple beauty.

Giacomo® reviewed v2.5.1 on Feb 7, 2007

Just to say that their site says: "Our latest development release is version 2.5.1. Development releases are aimed at developers, or people willing to test unstable software". At this point I don't really know if 2.5.1 is final (and the home page is not updated) or develompmental (and thus FileForum is incorrect)

horsecharles reviewed v2.5.0 (Development) on Jan 17, 2007

All the extensive work is very, very commendable...although i echo previous rater's thoughts.

yokozuna reviewed v2.4.6 on Nov 8, 2006

Potentially a good program. Unfortunately, the program is very buggy (e.g. AbiWord 2.4.6 hangs up when I try to open large documents in any format) and it does not support ODT (try to open any formatted ODT document and you will know what I am writing about. Ironically, ODF is intended to be an universal format...).

Dreimanis reviewed v2.4.6 on Nov 8, 2006

crashed by changing font for the whole document. three hour work and the support from the irc was something like.. really? check if it stores something somewhere. it doesn't? then i don't know.

Nikkie reviewed v2.4.5 on Nov 5, 2006

Works fine for me.It is a great program and light.I always put this on every fresh install of xp.Great work!!

xee reviewed v2.4.5 on Aug 28, 2006

Ideally, this seemed as a replacement for OOo for me(when writing simple documents), however, when I use it, it crashes too much...
if these crashes can be fixed, it'd be a replacement for OOo for alot of people.

bobad reviewed v2.4.5 on Jul 11, 2006

Well, that's am impressive list of changes there. I'll never be able to test all of them, but will take the author's word. I like: Nice, clean GUI, an alternative to the expensive MSWord and the slow, bloated OOo. You can open the install EXE with an archive program (7-Zip and WinRAR work) and simply extract it to a HDD folder or a USB memory stick... works great with no install. The EXE is in the \AbiWord\Bin folder. This behavior is the same as other fine apps such as OOo, PhotoFiltre, 7-Zip, and Faststone Image Viewer. I dislike: The icon shadows, inactive icons, and ruler bars are an annoying tan color, and should be Lt. gray to match normal shadowing conventions.

solitaryexplorer reviewed v2.4.5 on Jul 11, 2006

Very, very good work!

Koopatrooper reviewed v2.4.4 on Apr 15, 2006

AbiWord is pretty good, but AbiSource is still using his proprietary file format instead of OpenDocument. If you need OpenDocument import/export filters, you have to download an extra installer, I guess, this has no future.

horsecharles reviewed v2.4.4 on Apr 14, 2006

Optimistic/hopeful rating due to its considerable changelog:
AbiWord v2.4.3-v2.4.4 ChangeLog

Jean Brefort
Build fix: add a test for xpdf headers, as poppler 0.5.0 does not install them by default
Fix several potential crashes in the GNOME Office charting plugin
Update both the width and the height when an image does not fit into the page (bug 9864)
Bugfixes: 9868
Daniel d'Andrada Tenório de Carvalho (INdT)
Small fix in the OpenDocument meta.xml parser
Small, but important fix on parsing hyperlinks in OpenDocument files
Fix text that is not in italics, is imported in italics by the OpenDocument importer (bug 9935)
Fix the bug where the OpenDocument plugin could not import files it exported itself (bug 9846)
Do not crash when trying to import a password protected OpenDocument file (bug 9869)
Fix several memory leaks in the OpenDocument importer (bug 9918)
Make the OpenDocument importer load images not only from the Pictures subdirectory but for any given subdirectory
Fix a crash when exporting equations to OpenDocument (bug 9964)
Fix a Table of Contents-related crash on import of an OpenDocument file (bug 10003)
Bugfixes: 9930, 9950, 9999
Hubert Figuiere
Fix various memory leaks
Fix a memory problem in some case with UTF8String::append() (this was triggered by the OpenDocument importer)
UT_Vector::clear() does not free the buffer (performance improvement)
Fix a couple of potential crashes in the layout engine
Tomas Frydrych
Add a Perl version of the cdump tool for embedded targets
Added a generic --enable-embedded build option
Fix lingature handling in RTL text (bug 8239 and duplicates)
Fix a random crash while editing a document (bug 10151)
Fix broken RTL dominance in the Format Paragraph dialog (bug 7083)
Bugfixes: 9751, 9545
Mark Gilbert
Fix a crash in the HTML exporter when exporting malformed table (bug 9867)
Do not generate invalid XHTML when exporting section breaks inside of a list (bug 9870)
Dom Lachowicz
HTML Table of Contents export improvements (indent TOC output and label the level numbers)
Clean up some some unused code in the image importer (Unix)
Return the proper exit code when doing command line conversions
Fix a crashes when opening an MS Word file (bug 10122)
Fix a bug where AbiGrammar/link-grammar only looks in the ./en path for dictionaries (bug 9366)
Fix an RTF export error; \widowctl should spell \widowctrl (bug 9825)
Make the grammar plugin work with recent versions of link-grammar
Support quoting mailmerge field bodies (bug 8191)
Bugfixes: 10120
Jordi Mas
As part of bug fix 9638 the Win32 comboboxes were left gray (readonly) on Windows
Fix the width and height output in the Page Setup dialog (Windows)
Fix the locale setting in the Date and Time dialog (Windows)
Make grammar check text localisable (Windows)
Fix displaying of hight resolution images (Windows)
Several small UI enhanments (Windows)
Table of Contents dialog fails to open after it's closed with another window (Windows, bug 9994)
Format table dialog fails to open after it's closed with another window (Windows, bug 9995)
Text box dialog fails to open after it's closed with another window (Windows, bug 9996)
Hide the horizontal scrollbar when it is not needed (Windows, bug 5170)
Fix dirty resizing of images (Windows, 6351)
Marc Maurer
Build fix for the OpenWriter and OpenDocument plugins
Report an error instead of OK when converting a nonexistent src file to an existing dest file in the AbiCommand plugin
Properly indent DocBook XML
Don't truncate the error log for every error message, format the help overview nicely, remove some unused code, and check the return value of fopen() in the AbiCommand plugin
Add GNOME and GTK categories to the abiword.desktop file (Unix)
Bump version to 2.4.3
Remove the hebrew shaping and Smart Quotes options, as they never worked in the first place
Remove the beginnings of the collaboration plugin, as it belongs in the AbiWord 2.6 series
Martin Sevior
Fix another infinite loop in the layout engine caused by subtracting 1 from an unsigned integer with value 0
sum1
Change 'I agree' to 'Next' (re: GPL) in the dictionary installers. (Windows)
Change 'I agree' buttons in plugin installers to match main installer (Windows, bug 8684)
Link fix for the OpenDocument plug-in (Windows)
Update the copyright notice to 2006 in the About dialog
Prevent the hang detailed in bug 9891
Fix the WML exporter to export valid WML 1.1; also fix a number of issues with tables and incorrectly nested elements
Prevent a crash that occurs when you attempt to change a document's title while other windows are queued to open (e.g. pressing ctrl + n numerous times)
Fix a crash when trying to edit footnote in Word document (bug 9588)
Fix section numbering in problems FAQ (documentation)
Handle broken tables when exporting to WML
Don't crash on .sxw files that contain images without an xlink:href attribute
Prevent future write errors in the text exporter (i.e. when a new PTO_* is added)
Prevent current (and future) write errors and fix a debug statement in the DocBook exporter
Prevent current and future write errors when exporting to KWord
Fix typos (editting -> editing) and "SVG Images" -> "SVG Images (.svg)" for uniformity in the insert picture dialog
Makefiles and a MinGW build fix for the Hancom importer
Bugfixes: 9805, 9588
Robert Wilhelm
Avoid some unit conversions in the table layout code
Translations
Funda Wang: Updated zh_CN translation (bug 9607)
Youssef Chahibi: Updated Arabic translation
M. Baldinelli: Updated Italian translation
Camille Moulin: Updated French translation
Jordi Mas: Updated Catalan translation
Shmyrev: Updated Russian translation
Yasen Pramatarov: Updated Bulgarian translation

PicAFlic reviewed v2.4.4 on Apr 14, 2006

LOVE IT! Fixed alot of bugs from the last version. Highly recommended if you don't have Word.

horsecharles reviewed v2.4.0 on Oct 5, 2005

Noticing more & more bugs the more i use it-- still very much a work in progress.

netean reviewed v2.4.0 on Oct 5, 2005

~Very reasonable word processor. I only really have a couple of gripes (which may be fixed in this version, I read the changelog on the website and it didn't mention it though)

1 - Writing a document in more than one language isn't really possible - it can't seem to spell check two languages on a page at the same time: (this is a something that I use quite a lot English+Welsh)

2 - MS Word and KWord filters aren't great... they just about work for simpler documents, as long as you don't need to export back to either format.

That said the text flowing support and grammar checker are great additions and I'd recommend this word processor over any other except MS word (if you can afford it)
It's way better than OpenOffice writer - much quicker and easier and more enjoyable to use.

yokozuna reviewed v2.4.0 on Oct 5, 2005

Nice and simple word editor.

The authors should improve the support of OASIS files. The format is supported if you install plugins only, moreover, the files tend to lose some formatting.

twosheds reviewed v2.4.0 on Oct 4, 2005

2.4....miles an hour to open. Shame.

horsecharles reviewed v2.3.99 Development on Sep 19, 2005

Again, keep in mind that the next 'announced stable release' will be 2.4

horsecharles reviewed v2.3.5 Beta on Aug 24, 2005

FYI This is not a public release from them, but from some individual: there've been some issues with the .3x builds(& remember, all we're doing is testing BETA)... and they're recommending folks wanting a stable release wait until .4 -- .29 was the latest stable build. That being said, i am experiencing no slowness issues on everything from 9x to ME to XP, both pentium & amd.

Banquo reviewed v2.3.5 Beta on Aug 23, 2005

The people saying this is slow should perhaps think about upgrading their 486DX computers. This program loads almost instantly for me, faster than any other word processor I have tried. Very lightweight when compared to the bloated Microsoft Word and so much faster than OpenOffice. For simple word processing I highly recommend this program.

qpalzm reviewed v2.3.5 Beta on Aug 23, 2005

Slow???

I loads instantly. Faster than word, OpenOffice 2 Beta. Probably as fast as WordPad.

Great basic word processor.

zridling reviewed v2.3.5 Beta on Aug 23, 2005

My only two problems with AbiWord is how slow it is and the fact that it crashes if you open a large file. Might as well use my text editor.

twosheds reviewed v2.3.5 Beta on Aug 23, 2005

If only it would start more quickly, I could use it instead of Wordpad, for those occasions where Notepad's lack of formatting is inadequate. Guess I need 'AbiWordPad', shame they don't make it.

EDIT/ADD:
To those saying that Abiword is not slow and that I should get a fast computer: my computer's brand-new and very fast and high-spec. OpenSource/Multi-Platform projects like Abiword and Firefox often suffer from 'generic' compiling, and I seriously believe that Abiword needs it's own equivalent of an optimised Windows 'Deer Park' style off-shoot development branch. I'm not really knocking it, but WordPad opens instantly, while ALL versions of Abiword I have used (and I'm sticking with it optimistically)like to have a good 'think' before opening.

twanj reviewed v2.3.5 Beta on Aug 23, 2005

The best lightweight document editor! Not huge & bloated like OOo or MS Office

anomoly reviewed v2.3.5 Beta on Aug 23, 2005

Before anyone puts down Open Office, may I remind you not only is it Ms Office's equal in every way (actually better because of being open source with a large community), but it also has a portable usb drive version.
Open Office has also helped to keep languages alive by offering it's software for free in languages that the other large software mnfctrs didn't think there was any large market for. In essence leading the way & by doing so causing them (the other lrg mnfctrs) to do the same.

improvelence reviewed v2.3.4 Beta on Jul 22, 2005

I couldnt say an unkind thing about this piece of software, ABIWord has been my friend for a long time. There is no better alternative for simple document writing..case closed. Great for people who dont need OpenOffice.

zridling reviewed v2.3.4 Beta on Jul 21, 2005

So easy to use, if your word processing needs are light, then AbiWord is an apt tool.

mengo reviewed v2.3.4 Beta on Jul 21, 2005

WOW the guys at Microsoft Office department really should s*** their pants right now, most people could use this instead of WORD for their everyday writing, hense so few in fact need excel etc.
open source :-)))))))) 6 stars

TC17 reviewed v2.3.1 Beta on Jun 12, 2005

This is a nice editor. However it does not import all .doc files correctly. I have some Christmas lists I typed with Word and it does not even read in the addresses. It also does not skin correctly with Windowblinds.

OpenOffice works fine on the same document I tried. But otherwise this program is nice.

Nicholas440 reviewed v2.3.1 Beta on Jun 12, 2005

This program rocks ! I have used it for almost a year and I couldnt be happier with the results.
You will notice that it doesnt cost you anything either. This is by far the best FREE word processor available. It even comes in flavors for Mac, and Linux OS's also. I highly recommend it , and I also thank the programmers for a great piece of software. Great job guys....! I give it a 5

zridling reviewed v2.3.1 Beta on Jun 12, 2005

Windows 3.11, are you crazy? I'm just miffed that it doesn't work on my TRS-80! I also have a DOS 3.3 system it doesn't run on, and that's just tragic that a program built in 2005 doesn't support 20-30 year old OS's! Puhhhleeeze.

FuzzyKaos reviewed v2.3.1 Beta on Jun 12, 2005

excellent program, i only wish it worked in win 3.11.. put an old laptop ive got to use!

Tene reviewed v2.3.1 Beta on Jun 12, 2005

Pretty much heading towards making Open Office redundant for casual use.

The two things that were holding me back from switching were the lack of compatibility with XP Styles, which is now fixed - aside from the menu bar; & Open Document support, which is now implemented seemingly flawlessly via an optional input/output plugin (along with many extra optional formats).

Another aesthetic -ve point is GUI icons - they're rather dire. But the progress since 2.2.1 which I tried last is very promising. I'll use this when I can from now on.

mrtech reviewed v2.3.0 on May 16, 2005

The is a development snapshot not an official release. Great effort and program

zridling reviewed v2.2.5 on Mar 4, 2005

Totally agree with horsecharles! And AbiWord imports Word files far more accurately than OpenOffice 2.x. It's simple design allows you to sit down and start writing rather than futzing with formatting and styles endlessly.

horsecharles reviewed v2.2.5 on Mar 3, 2005

I wish to commend all the hard work put into AbiWord-- between that and the guts to just make an effort while sandwiched between MS Office & Open Office, it deserves no less than a basic 4 for those reasons alone. Further, it deserves additional bonus points since there have been no widespread reports of it having significant problems such as trashing folks' systems, or crashes causing loss of work in progress througout its long development history.

Keep up the great work!

FuzzyKaos reviewed v2.2.5 on Mar 3, 2005

excellent, i only wish it had win 3.11 support.
ive got an old laptop, and its near impossible to find word for it these days!
ya dont need a pentium 4 to write documents!

netean reviewed v2.2.4 on Feb 22, 2005

Abiword is a great word processor, for probably 90% of users, it'll do everything you need. Very full featured IMO. I feel it's way better than OoO's Writer, as a) It's smaller, easier to download and upgrade, b)Has word count on selection, c)seems much faster d) Looks way better e)Easier template managment.

Personally i think Abiword and Kword (sadly Linux only) are probably the best word processors around (for features, size and usability)

zridling reviewed v2.2.3 on Jan 14, 2005

I strongly agree with sinesolis' comments below on OOo Writer. AbiWord is in the same league as TextMaker, which is a great little word processor, but for basic tasks only. That's not a negative comment, but one that is targeted for those who need this kind of program over the complexity and power of Word or Writer. For example, I have an uncle who only uses his computer to write letter and read ebooks, nothing else. AbiWord is perfect for him, but not for most.

blah2332 reviewed v2.2.3 on Jan 14, 2005

If you check abisource.com/download, you'll notice 2.2.2 is the latest version that has been officially announced, so that's why the release notes weren't available.

bobad reviewed v2.2.3 on Jan 14, 2005

Nice, tidy little WP. Beautiful GUI, runs snappy. BIG, BIG downgrade for no release notes. That's either lack of organization or just plain laziness.

sinesolis reviewed v2.2.2 on Dec 30, 2004

Honestly, I've tried both Abiword and OpenOffice Writer. OpenOffice Writer is a much better offering. Far better tools and layout support. Setting up tables and formating pages, or creating templates in Abiword is a chore and often yields poor or unexpectedly erroneous results. OpenOffice on the other hand is extremely easy to use and always outputs things the way you'd expect with minimal effort. I would suggest that if you need a word processing program (but not and entire office suit) go ahead and download OpenOffice, choose "custom install" and just install "writer".

Khal_EL reviewed v2.2.2 on Dec 29, 2004

Excellent program for your basic needs.

Aspect reviewed v2.1.99 Beta on Nov 17, 2004

If you dont need the whole office package with open office, this is worth a look. Loads very quickly, great functionality and supports all major formats. What more could you ask for?

zridling reviewed v2.1.99 Beta on Nov 17, 2004

Beats the daylights out of OpenOffice Writer, that's for sure. Could offer more features, but for the people who use AbiWord — primarily, I suspect, to write letters — they wouldn't use the features anyway. I'm still eager to see TextMaker's new version next year, which is a solid alternative, much like 602Software.

wagner reatto reviewed v2.1.99 Beta on Nov 17, 2004

the context is 'word processing program'. AbiWord is a single piece of software, works perfectly.

Dark reviewed v2.1.5 on Aug 18, 2004

I used to use AbiWord before I discovered OpenOffice which is a much more robust offering. However, if one has no need for an entire office suite, AbiWord has been and remais an excellent freeware no-frills alternative word processor.

hardgiant reviewed v2.1.5 on Aug 18, 2004

For FREE I would go with Open Office, if you are willing to pay then buy Microsoft Works 8.0 or Suite at least you get Word 2002 included and it will open anything written in Word.

Zulithe reviewed v2.1.3 on Jun 23, 2004

Very good word processor for the money, I'll give you that much. AbiWord seems to have some difficulty with fonts in Windows. When you select text with the mouse, the text expands and shrings in an odd way which is very annoying. AbiWord needs to work on the user experience which seems to be the only thing holding it back. Otherwise it is the greatest replacement to Microsoft's WordPad (note I didn't say Word) I have ever seen.

reburn reviewed v2.1.3 on Jun 23, 2004

good writer !!!freeware!!

just get better and better

i loves:-) freeware

utomo reviewed v2.1.2 on May 17, 2004

first please don't review wrongly.
abiword is just a word processor.
Openoffice.org http://fileforum.betanew...ail.php3?fid=1009574294 is an office suite which contain word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, html editor and draw.
and openoffice.org still working to make OOo faster in version 2.0. so I suggest you compare abiword with the OOo Writer, instead of full suite. also you must compare how good is the compatibility with MS office. I think Writer is better than abiword. correct me if I am wrong, with documents sampe to show the problems. Thanks

zridling reviewed v2.1.2 on May 17, 2004

I will grant you that ABI is better than OpenOffice by far, esp. the user interface, but even after working with this latest release for the past week (not just this update), it's troubling all the things that ABIWord won't do. I still recommend the very solid TextMaker over ABI day in and day out.

ArKay74 reviewed v2.1.2 on May 17, 2004

Good FREEWARE (who said this is Shareware?) It loads a lot faster than OpenOffice, uses less memory and is good enough for most text processing needs.

PiotrZagawa reviewed v2.0.5 on Mar 15, 2004

Wow ! They updated Microsoft Word XP documents import ! Earlier version hanged at many Word document loading. Now, loading all of my documents works good. Even tables, lists and other simple formatting was corrected. Now, this is quite good editor :-) I hope, it will be even better :-)

PiotrZagawa reviewed v2.0.3 on Feb 26, 2004

AbiWord has nice and great interface, but is unstable and not quite compatible with all MS Word versions for me.

AbiWord was good.... until i found 602 PC Suite with Text, Tab and Photo tools. (MS Office's Word, Excel and Photo). There are two versions: full and free. Free has all you want, with except of some really professional options. And full version is very cheap: 24$.

So, check 602 PC Suite. This rocks :-)

Have a nice day

Piotr Zagawa
http://vetch.magot.pl/

kevmo reviewed v2.0.3 on Feb 25, 2004

Except that TextMaker costs money... Good program. It's got it's quirks..but seems to be solid once the bugs get worked out.

zridling reviewed v2.0.3 on Jan 25, 2004

TextMaker by SoftMaker is SO MUCH better than this program, and it's ported to every OS except Mac. TextMaker is even superior to OpenOffice Text folks. Try and I promise you'll see why. ABI Word is just one of those amateurish shareware wannabes that doesn't understand what a basic word processor needs. So skip this turkey and get a real word processor.

chawil reviewed v2.0.1 on Nov 1, 2003

I found this to be a poor effort to try and produce something that has already been done much better elsewhere. I was unable to change the default settings for page size and measurement units despite following the proper procedure FOUR TIMES; at which point I gave up on the thing altogether. Also there is no provision that I can find for saving or managing autotext entries. The help system is primitive and incomplete, to say the least.

I would highly recommend the much more professional Open Office Suite to anyone who has a serious need. You can install only the word processor, if that's all you want. It's free to download (although very large, at over 64 meg) and it contains everything you need in a word processing program not to mention spreadsheet, database, etc. Believe me it's well worth the download time when compared to an amateurish effort such as Abiword.

If you don't need the full features of Open Office there are plenty of free RTF editors out there which are much better presented and supported.

bbhermit reviewed v1.99.6 (2.0 RC2) on Sep 13, 2003

I see they fixed the problem with the program exiting, when you switched between column formats. Good deal! Haven't had time yet to give it the 'torture test' yet, but this has always been a good freeware alternative wordprocessor.

Moparx reviewed v1.99.6 (2.0 RC2) on Sep 13, 2003

great as always. i gladly give it 5 stars :)

bbhermit reviewed v2.0 (1.99.1) Beta on Jul 1, 2003

This is a fairly good wordprocessor program. However, if you select 1 column, and then 2 or 3 columns, the program exits out, and you lose anything you have typed. If it can't allow a column change, then it should just reject the input, rather than exiting without prompting to save first. That's all I've found at the moment.

mkus reviewed v2.0 (1.99.1) Beta on Jun 29, 2003

This is the best freeware word processor I have ever used for Windows. It doesn't quite convert Word documents perfectly but it's beginning to show some real promise over older versions.