Abiword

kilogulf59 · Dec 26, 2020

Greetings, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Recently I was looking for an alternative to Libreoffice, which gives me nothing but trouble. It's very slow, freezes up a lot, has some bugs and quirks, etc etc etc. Any-who, I came across Abiword. It seems like a nice, simple program, but I'd like to know what other users think of it before I go through the hassle of converting ALL my .odt files, which it isn't recognizing, to .abw format. Also, I can't seem to find a way to password protect files in Abiword either. Thoughts, opinions, suggestions, and alternatives from users are highly welcome and much appreciated.

Thank you,
Ken

Eldon · Dec 26, 2020

AbiWord for Windows has not been developed since 2012.

Try Atlantis Word Processor Lite.
https://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/atlantis_word_processor_lite.html

plodr · Dec 26, 2020

I got rid of AbiWord. Not only was it abandoned, it didn't render things correctly all the time. LibreOffice was overkill for me. I only need something for "documents" and occasionally a database. My husband has Office on his two computers and WordPerfect Suite on one. If I need to open docx or xlsx files, I borrow his computer.

If all you want is a "word processor" element, there is nothing wrong with Word Pad. If you click save as, and open all the choices, you can save as: rtf, docx odt or txt file.

You can password protect anything by right clicking it and using 7-zip to zip it. It gives the option to add a password to the zipped file. Remember to write down what you chose otherwise you'll lose access to the file.

If you need more than a word processor, consider MS Office 2019 Home and Student edition. One of my newsletters said this was bundled with Norton for $80. Look around for any sales on 2019 Home and Student edition. You might be able to get it for under $100.

Then there is also this free Office Suite WPS (I turn to Gizmo Richards for advice on free programs) I've never tried this one.
https://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-office-suite.htm

Only a word processor, Jarte
https://www.techsupportalert.com/content/word-processor-replacement.htm

I had it and removed it to go back to WordPad.

the skeezix · Dec 26, 2020

Wordpad is nice. I'm still using Office2000 on my computers though. Excel and Word specifically.

[Rant]Some years ago I bought Office2016, installed it, and then immediately uninstalled it after taking a look at the zillion icons that replaced the simple, one-line menu system. I've been using it since it came out almost 20 years ago because it suits me just fine and because I can't stand the space-gobbling, icon-based toolbar that has replaced it. I'm surprised that MS hasn't done something to Windows that makes it impossible to install and use Office2000. [/Rant]

kilogulf59 · Dec 26, 2020

Thanks...lot to consider.

plodr · Dec 27, 2020

My husband is with you, the skeezix. I have Office 2003 installed on my husband's desktop PC. I bought a 3 license Office 2007 Student edition. I first installed it on my XP computer to take a look at it. (I'm support at my house so I have to learn it first then answer all his questions.) I then installed it on my husband's desktop computer - he said, "take it off I hate it". So it was back to Office 2003 for him.
Since he prefers Corel for word processing, I bought an older Version of the Corel Suite X6 to replace his Suite which was at v 8. That he uses a lot.
He prefers Excel to Corel's quatro pro so that's why he has both on his PC; one for work processing and the other for databases.

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Abiword

kilogulf59 Corporal

Eldon Major Geek Extraordinaire

plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

the skeezix Specialist

kilogulf59 Corporal

plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member