How to Share AbiWord Documents With Microsoft Word

By eHow Computers Editor

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AbiWord is a widely used open-source (free) word-processing program. It uses easily-readable XML text that is viewable with most text editors on the market—Microsoft Word being one of the notable exceptions. If you are sending files to someone with Microsoft Word, and that person is having trouble reading your AbiWord program, it is a very easy problem to fix. Follow these instructions to share AbiWord documents with a Microsoft Word user.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Internet connection
Computer
AbiWord software

Step1

Open your document in AbiWord. Locate the file you are having trouble sharing with Microsoft Word. Open the file.

Step2

Resave the file in Rich Text Format. When saving files, AbiWord you will give you many format options to choose from. Rich Text Format is recognized by all text editors and can be read by Microsoft Word.

Step3

Send the Rich Text document to the Microsoft Word user. Now the text should be easily readable.

Step4

To view a Microsoft Word document with AbiWord, just open the document by selecting "Open" under the File menu. The format of the document may be slightly different than it was when it was saved in Microsoft Word because of differences in the way AbiWord presents the document, but you should be able to easily open and read it.

Step5

If you (the AbiWord user) are having trouble viewing a Microsoft Word file or you want to see it as it was originally saved, have the person with Microsoft Word save the document in Rich Text format and resend it.

Tips & Warnings

AbiWord cannot open all the different formats used by Microsoft Word, so the easiest way to see the document is to have it saved in Rich Text Format.
Microsoft Office products do not recognize AbiWord or any other competitor formats.
Do not open any unknown documents without performing a virus scan using up-to-date virus protection software.