On 5 February 2017 at 14:42, Peter Flynn <pe...@silmaril.ie> wrote: > On 02/05/2017 12:35 PM, James Freer wrote: >> On Sat, 4 Feb 2017, Peter Flynn wrote: >> >>> On 02/04/2017 09:52 PM, flocculant wrote: >>>> Abiword is no longer part of the default Xubuntu >> I liked Abiword as it was straightforward and FFP. >>> What a pity. It's much more stable than Libre Office. >> Very true. I have used it sometimes and it is fine. Then another day >> Ooops - menus disappear or something else. > > I only ever use it to open .docx files I get sent, and either print them > or Save As...LaTeX > >> Iirc there was a problem with windows fonts as mstcorefonts came up >> with a window saying downloads problem (can't remember exactly now as >> I removed it - > > The mscorefonts installer was broken (I think the unzip wrapper around > zipped fonts had been omitted) — there was a thread on here about it, > and AFAIK it's been fixed and all is working again. > >> Liberation fonts are supposed to be a direct replacement > > Liberation looks completely different but is cunningly designed to have > exactly the same character widths as MS-supplied Times, Helvetica, etc. > so a document written for mscorefonts can substitute Liberation and > there will be no change to the layout. > >> I don't feel Libreoffice writer has replaced Abiword but I think >> Abiword development is losing interest. > > Abiword has acquired some silly and unnecessary habits. I just opened it > and it opened a tiny window and an even tinier empty document (approx > 2in high by 1in wide). Other times it will open full-screen. Fortunately > its ability to export rudimentary LaTeX is unaffected. > >> For Linux users it seems Google Docs is the only option left. > > Libre Office still works, except that it insists on using one an > alternativ way of encoding style names in OOXML, involving two extra > layers of indirection, instead of the more direct way Word uses, which > makes it harder to program for. And they still refuse to add a styles > editing pane, so it's unusable for professional styles editing. But > that's their funeral: they've been told often enough. > > There is another option: WPS Office (www.wps.com) which is a free > equivalent for MS Office and runs on everything except Macs. I'm quite > impressed with it, but for some reason no-one has yet packaged it for > Linux distributions. Worth a look. > > ///Peter
Thanks I haven't looked at WPS. With Abiword it was v2.8 that was the last decent bug free version - not 2.5/2/6 as I had written earlier. My requirements were for preparing docs for teaching and I found Abiword fine without some of the complexities that Openoffice/Libreoffice had designed for. james -- xubuntu-users mailing list xubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users
