How to Write for the Web in AbiWord

AbiWord is an open-source (or freeware) word processing program that you can use as an alternative to MS Word to write content. Many writers use AbiWord to write for the web, and many other writers may be interested in learning how to write for the web in AbiWord. This involves learning how to create a Web-clean (or Web-ready) document coded with HTML so it’s ready for you to incorporate into a Web site.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Latest version of AbiWord
• Internet access

Get AbiWord

1. Go to AbiWord’s main site (see the resources box below) to download it. Click “Download AbiWord” near the top of the home page.
2. Install it on your computer.
3. Open AbiWord and get acquainted with it and its features and capabilities.
4. Read through various tutorials online to get a feel for how it works.

Structure and Style

5. Focus on the structure of your document rather than its presentation (editing manually based on how it looks).
6. Concentrate on your document’s content, while applying formatting (styles) based on the content’s structures. Structures include headlines, sub-headlines, paragraphs, and lists, among others. For example, select the “Heading 1” style from the drop-down menu to the formatting toolbar’s left, for your main headline.
7. Set the styles for all your structures to keep things uniform, simple and hassle-free, and fit to your tastes.
8. Go to “Format,” “Style” to bring up the styles menu. Select the structure you wish to change and click “Modify” to bring up the “Modify Styles” box. Choose the style you’d like for that structure and click “OK.”
9. Control indentation within paragraphs with formatting instructions.
10. Set your desired margins and indents using formatting instructions or the ruler’s margin stops and indents instead of manually inserting whitespace between paragraphs using the spacebar or the “Tab” key. This will allow the HTML to use the formatting instructions to set the appropriate margins and indents itself (without you having to do it all over again) when you incorporate the document onto the Web.

Saving and Exporting Files

11. Save your document as an HTML file. This will place all of the style and formatting instructions you have set into one area (block) using the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language , making it easy for you to move all the styles to a new document via copy and paste to be integrated with a Web site’s style sheet.
12. Include and save images after saving your document as an HTML file. The images will then be saved into a directory, referring to separate image files. If your HTML file is named Cats.html, your images will be stored at Cats.html_d.
13. Upload your HTML file to the Web site of your choice.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember to save your file in HTML format.