Microsoft Word documents

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== Can [[AbiWord|AbiWord]] open Microsoft Word® documents? ==
== Can [[AbiWord|AbiWord]] open Microsoft Word® documents? ==
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Presently,  can open most Microsoft Word documents well. For further information and a few "quid pro quos", please continue reading.
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AbiWord does a reasonably good job opening most Microsoft Word documents. However, no non-Microsoft word processor can be 100% Word compatible. Developing good MS Word filters is a very difficult process. With each new Word release, Microsoft also makes considerable changes to the Word file format.
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=== Caveat ===
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If the Word document you're trying to open with AbiWord has complicated tables, text boxes, embedded spreadsheets, and so forth, it may not work as expected. Please bear with us as we work to improve AbiWord's MS Word compatibility. If you have a Word document which fails to load, please use our website's "Report a Bug" feature. Be sure to include the document with your report to help us analyze the problem.
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However, if the document has complicated tables, text boxes, embedded spreadsheets, and so forth, then it might not work as expected. Developing good MS Word filters is a very difficult process, so please bear with us as we work on getting Word documents to open correctly. If you have a Word document which fails to load, please open a Bug and include the document so we can improve the importer.
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=== Saving as ''.doc'' ===
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=== Saving as .doc ===
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AbiWord can currently save in a Word-compatible ''.doc'' format. This is done by saving in Rich Text Format (.rtf) with a ''.doc'' extension. This means the document may include styled text (specific fonts; bold, italic, and other styling; colors, and so forth), HTML, tables, and other standard formatting. Word has no trouble opening these files correctly.
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can currently save in an MS Word compatible ".doc" format. This is done by saving as Rich Text Format (.rtf) but with a .doc extension. The file extension does not mean that the file is a binary Microsoft Word document and .doc may contain RTF, HTML or plain text.  This is a feature — Microsoft themselves have used .doc to exploit a mis-feature of MS-Word.  
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Some people have suggested that this file-saving method is "cheating" and doesn't represent true Word compatibility. However, Microsoft itself has a history of considering Rich Text files "Word-compatible": In Windows 98, the Wordpad application includes the option to save files as Microsoft Word 6.0 ''.doc'' files. It turns out that these files are actually Rich Text files saved with the ''.doc'' extension.
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Some developers and even a few users have suggested that this is dishonest and ''cheating''.  In fact this ''cheating'' is something Microsoft themselves have done in their own software!  (Example: MS Wordpad on Windows 98 claims to save as Microsoft Word 6.0 (.doc) but if you look at the files in a text editor you can see that it is in fact Rich Text Format). 
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Therefore, because the Rich Text format covers the great majority of users's formatting needs, we have no plans to enable AbiWord to create actual binary Word files (see [http://www.abisource.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2565 Bug 2565].)
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There are no plans to support binary MS Word export. 
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See [http://www.abisource.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2565 Bug 2565]
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=== The "Save As" Problem ===
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=== Saving Word documents you have edited ===
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There is only one downside of this approach and many users have wondered why when they try to Save a Microsoft word document they get prompted to ''Save As'' instead. This is because of the small possibility of losing some of the information contained in the original file and the last thing we want is for users to lose data so we must make sure that users do not accidentally overwrite the original and they must choose do so deliberately. 
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Many users have wondered why, when they try to Save a Microsoft Word document, the ''Save As'' window appears. This is because of the small possibility of losing some of the information contained in the original file. The last thing we want is for users to lose data, so we take this precaution to be sure that users do not inadvertently overwrite their original files. If they do so, they must deliberately choose to do so.
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(please feel free to edit this or perhaps split the Save As Problem into another section).
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[[Category:FAQ]]
[[Category:FAQ]]

Revision as of 19:28, 5 October 2008

Can AbiWord open Microsoft Word® documents?

AbiWord does a reasonably good job opening most Microsoft Word documents. However, no non-Microsoft word processor can be 100% Word compatible. Developing good MS Word filters is a very difficult process. With each new Word release, Microsoft also makes considerable changes to the Word file format.

If the Word document you're trying to open with AbiWord has complicated tables, text boxes, embedded spreadsheets, and so forth, it may not work as expected. Please bear with us as we work to improve AbiWord's MS Word compatibility. If you have a Word document which fails to load, please use our website's "Report a Bug" feature. Be sure to include the document with your report to help us analyze the problem.

Saving as .doc

AbiWord can currently save in a Word-compatible .doc format. This is done by saving in Rich Text Format (.rtf) with a .doc extension. This means the document may include styled text (specific fonts; bold, italic, and other styling; colors, and so forth), HTML, tables, and other standard formatting. Word has no trouble opening these files correctly.

Some people have suggested that this file-saving method is "cheating" and doesn't represent true Word compatibility. However, Microsoft itself has a history of considering Rich Text files "Word-compatible": In Windows 98, the Wordpad application includes the option to save files as Microsoft Word 6.0 .doc files. It turns out that these files are actually Rich Text files saved with the .doc extension.

Therefore, because the Rich Text format covers the great majority of users's formatting needs, we have no plans to enable AbiWord to create actual binary Word files (see Bug 2565.)

Saving Word documents you have edited

Many users have wondered why, when they try to Save a Microsoft Word document, the Save As window appears. This is because of the small possibility of losing some of the information contained in the original file. The last thing we want is for users to lose data, so we take this precaution to be sure that users do not inadvertently overwrite their original files. If they do so, they must deliberately choose to do so.

Retrieved from "http://bugzilla.abiword.com/wiki/Microsoft_Word_documents"
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