Skip navigation.
home | news feeds | archives | search | forums | submit news
Home

AbiWord-2.4.4 Released!

Submitted by msevior on Fri, 2006-04-14 18:39. AbiWord
AbiWord

After a long wait, the AbiWord team is happy to announce the
availability of AbiWord v2.4.4, the Word Processor for Everyone. This release is a bugfix release only.
For those of you wondering about v2.4.3: it is basically the same as
2.4.4, except for some build issues that were fixed.

The changes from v2.4.2 to v2.4.4 include, amongst others:

* Substantially updated the OpenDocument import and export filters
* Lots of tweaks to the Windows interface
* Various fixes to our Right-to-Left text handling routines

The full Changelog can be found at
http://www.abisource.com/changelogs/2.4.4.phtml

Packages for Windows and Mac OSX are available for download from our
site. Linux versions should be available soon from your favorite
distribution package repository. (Fedora users will find 2.4.4 already in FC Extras.)

Note to Mac OSX users: please aware that the font rendering is still a
work-in-progress. Depending on the fonts used the quality of the
rendering may be sub-optimal. We hope to address this issue as soon as
possible, but since AbiWord is a 100% volunteer effort, we don't give
any timeframe. Help is always appreciated though.

We are very much interested in any bug you may find. Please report these
to http://bugzilla.abisource.com/ .

Availability: http://www.abisource.com/download/.

More information: http://www.abisource.com/

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

enough already

Submitted by Anonymous George (not verified) on Tue, 2006-04-18 09:51.

You would think that by now, we would all be on the metric system, driving on the right side of the road, and WRITING LEFT TO RIGHT. These types of issues are always causing countless problems. A deal should be made.

oops by Anonymous George (not verified)

I want to add...

Submitted by BrendaEM on Mon, 2006-04-17 13:38.

I want to add that Abiword has made great stides. I applaud the effort that went into it. I like that it's both mult-platform and multi-OS.

Like any other person who uses software, I do want it to serve my needs. There are a lot of other things in other "word processing" programs that I just don't need, but I need a word processor that can use facing quotes because I feel that the presentation of the content I create will look better to the eye.

Abiword is otherwise so complete, that I am saddened to see any effort spent on a regression, to throw up our hands and say that it's too hard, to say to the world that you can create 99.99% percent of a great word processor, but facing quotes are just too difficult to code.

It isn't a regression, but

Submitted by uwog on Mon, 2006-04-17 14:08.

It isn't a regression, but an improvement. When there is no functional code behind a preference (in this case, there was really no code at all!), then why should I leave the option in? I'll gladly put it back when someone comes up with a (proper) implementation.

I cannot believe this!

Submitted by BrendaEM on Sun, 2006-04-16 11:43.

From the changelog:
"Remove the hebrew shaping and Smart Quotes options, as they never worked in the first place"

I simply cannot effort was spent to remove the smart quote option--instead of fixing it.

Without facing quotes, Abiword is a text editor, not a word processor. You print a document for presentation in this modern day, without facing quotes. Imagine, there is a stack of resumes on a desk, all have facing quotes, but yours.

I was looking forward to checking it out, to see if there was a lightweight alternatice to OpenOffice, but it seems there is not.

Hi there. Thanks for the

Submitted by uwog on Mon, 2006-04-17 10:20.

Hi there. Thanks for the motivational speech, I feel much more encouraged now to hack on Abi! Your comment was really helpful :X

Well...

Submitted by hauberg on Mon, 2006-04-17 12:54.

... then please let me be the one to say thank you. Abiword is without a doubt the best wordprocessor on the planet (haven't checked outside). I love the fact that abi is so simple - it doesn't have a billion features, yet it have the features I need.

I love the small stuff like autogenerated table of contents that just works - no other word processor does that.

The ideas related to collaberation are just amazing! Anyway, I don't have the time to praise this great app, but I will tell you that it's the best damn product on the market.

Seconded

Submitted by kelvin on Tue, 2006-04-18 11:23.

Let me second hauberg's words and offer my deepest thanks for your work on Abiword. It is an excellent word processor!

To be re-added later?

Submitted by rehdon on Mon, 2006-04-17 03:11.

Did you check this in the Abiword bugzilla? Perhaps this is a temporary measure (why ship broken code?) and the devs will fix it for a later release.

rehdon

LaTeX

Submitted by crculver on Sun, 2006-04-16 16:45.

I use Abiword for viewing .doc files provided by people who don't know any other format, but if I want to produce my own good-looking documents, I use LaTeX. Having become enamoured with its grace, beauty, and ease of use (if you are the type who naturally thinks in markup), I could never go back to a word processor. Still, Abiword provides a valuable tool for times when I can't get a document in PDF.

Know better...

Submitted by BrendaEM on Sun, 2006-04-16 22:35.

I have written two books, 192,000 words in word processors, mostly in OpenOffice. I have also hand-coded one the 92,000 word book in HTML, (valid by Tidy, except for 2 custom tags warnings (working on them)) I have an aditional 20,000 words on another book.

When I write to create, or express something, I don't want to worry about having to put quotes in by hand. I need a word-processor to process words, and do it quick, without manually inserting characters from a map.

An antique Underwood typewiter can do custom/smart/facing quotes, so should a word processor.

Word-processors aren't for books

Submitted by crculver on Mon, 2006-04-17 13:49.

Word processors aren't meant for making books print ready. One should use a real typesetting engine for that (LaTeX, Framemaker, OUP's proprietary solution, etc.). In fact, lovers of fine book design can tell immediately if a book has only been through a word processor. As a student, I occasionally have to suffer through the work of smaller academic presses whose content clearly came out of Microsoft Word or Wordperfect.

There's nothing wrong with an author writing the book in Word, etc., but the publisher should then take the manuscript and typeset in a reputable engine. Therefore, there's no real need for you to have smart quotes when writing a book in Word or Abiword, since your publisher can add them when it handles the typesetting.