Hello Bubby! :)

Thanks for all that info. I can't work out why I didn't realize that at the time. I always read the tutorials as I try new software and I distinctly remember ... oh never mind, let's just say I screwed up and be done with it. :)

I'm going to come here and look for you every time I have a problem. :)
~ Swan

@Swan. I haven't tried AbiWord myself, but I after reading your post, I thought to myself - "that doesn't sound right" - so I had a quick check of their website. Sure enough AbiWord has an excellent support for other file formats (Open Office, Word Perfect, Microsoft Word, HTML 4.0/XHTML 1.0, RTF etc etc)

http://www.abisource.com/help/en-US/info/infoformats.html

Looking at the AbiWord FAQ There are a number of useful articles explaining how to use AbiWord.

http://www.abisource.com/twiki/bin/view/Abiword/WinFaqAlwaysSaveAsWord
http://www.abisource.com/twiki/bin/view/Abiword/WinFaqCanAbiWordOpenMyWordFilesByDefault
http://www.abisource.com/twiki/bin/view/Abiword/FaqMicrosoftWordDocuments
http://www.abisource.com/twiki/bin/view/Abiword/FaqOtherFormatsSupported
http://www.abisource.com/twiki/bin/view/Abiword/PluginMatrix#Import_Export_Filters

Two of the file formats supported through "Saving/Export" are HTML and RTF - both of which are supported by almost every modern word processor and file editor.

Using the RTF file format and saving with a DOC file extension provides at least the same "Microsoft Word" support that Microsoft provide in their own editor "wordpad".
http://www.abisource.com/help/en-US/howto/howtoword.html

Also explained are the simple steps you can take to save using other file extensions (such as DOC, HTML, and RTF etc)

@Swan - I uninstalled it pretty darn quickly.
Should've looked at some doco first. LOL.

Hi Bobby,

Yes, I tried it about 8 weeks ago actually. I really wasn't all that impressed - I much prefer Microsoft Word, which has functionality + as far as I'm concerned.

It gives all documents that you create .abi extension, which can only be read by someone else who has the program. NOT good.

I uninstalled it pretty darn quickly.
~ Swan

http://www.abisource.com/ - the place to find it.

It's been rather overshadowed by openoffice, but is a pretty decent choice if openoffice is just too "fat".

AbiWord 2.4.6 is a small, fast, cross-platform GNU word processor...and it looks to have the same goodies found on MS Word, including the ability to do footnotes, tables and cells. Loads of plug-ins, including import/export features, tools, utilities and dictionaries.

You can import documents from oOo, MS, Word Perfect and other formats, too. It's available for Mac, Windows, Solaris, QNX and 'nix users ...and the unix version is more powerful than the others.

( Has anyone else tried this? )