Before you begin

I am going to illustrate the collaboration process using the Abicollab collaboration service. This service is free, you only need to sign up, check your email, and then verify your account. You do not have to use Abiword to take advantage of Abicollab. But since Abiword has the feature built in, it only makes sense to take advantage of this collaboration server via Abiword. if you opt to do this with a different word processor you will have to manually upload and download the files. The ability to manually upload and download files is handy when your fellow collaborators are not using Abiword.

You will also notice, in your Abicollab account, you can add groups and friends. Take advantage of this because it will make the collaboration process even easier.

Once you have signed up for the service, you are ready to start collaborating. So let’s see just how this is done.

Connecting Abiword to Abicollab

Figure 1

When you open up Abiword click on Collaborate > Accounts. When this new window opens you will want to click the Add button to open the Add Account window (see Figure 1).  Remember that Abicollab account you created? This is where you add the credentials for it. Select the AbiCollab.net Collaboration Service from the dropdown list. Once you do that, enter your credentials, and finally select if you want to connect at startup.

After you have completed that you are ready to start collaborating.

Collaboration

Figure 2

This is actually quite simple. If you have yet to upload a document then fire up Abiword and start writing. When you are finished click Collaborate > Share Document. In the new window you can select which buddies or groups you want to share the document with and then click OK (see Figure 2). This will upload your file to your AbiCollab account. Anyone you have selected to collaborate on this document will be able to collaborate on that document.

You can also open shared documents. To do this click Collaboration > Open Shared Document and, from the resulting window, select the document you want to open for editing. This will automatically download the shared document and open it with Abiword.

The only issue I have seen with this system is there is no way to determine if a file is already opened by a user. This could cause some serious issues when one person makes an edit prior to another making a different edit on a previously saved file. AbiCollab needs to come up with some form of locking mecahanism before this is of any real value to serious collaborative users.

Final thoughts

Although not perfect, Abiwords ability to collaborate makes it a very unique tool in the world of word processors. I like where this is going, and once AbiCollab works out some means to lock files I will use it in earnest.

Abiword is considered part of the GNOME Office Suite, but does not require GNOME to be running to use.  Abiword is also available for Microsoft Windows. Abiword is available for most distributions and can be installed by both traditional routes. The first, and easiest method, is to open up your Add/Remove Software application (such as Ubuntus’ Synaptic), do a search for Abiword. What should appear is a list of possible matches. The following are the packages you need to install.

• abiword
• abiword-help
• abiword-plugin-mathview
• abiword-plugin-grammer
• abiword-common
• libgtkmathviewOc2a

Select those and click Apply to begin the installation.

Once installed you will find the Abiword entry in your desktops’ Office sub-menu. If you are using a desktop such as Enlightenment you may have to click Ctrl-Left Mouse Button (to make the Maintenance menu entry appear) and click Regenerate Menus to make Abiword appear. Once the menus have regenerated Abiword should be found in the Other menu in the Office sub-menu entry.

When Abiword opens what you will find is an efficient, well thought-out word processor that has everything you need to create solid, professional documents. You will also find some nice additions that make your writing even easier. One such tool is the Wikipedia entry tool. With a word highlighted you click the Wiki Encyclopedia entry and it will open the Opera browser on the Wiki entry of the highlighted word. There is also a Collaborate tool that allows users to collaborate on documents through Jabber. Of course Cisco purchased Jabber so who knows if collaboration with Abiword is going to be possible. The good news is you can do collaboration with a direct TCP connection (we’ll go into this in my next article.)

Final Thoughts

I have used Abiword and in the past have thought it had a ways to go before it was production ready.  Well, that time has come. Abiword is certainly worthy of being your word processor of choice.

AbiWord is open source and available on many platforms including Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac Os, FreeBSD and others. The open source tool is able to read and write all important formats like Microsoft Word, Open Office, Word Perfect, Rich Text, web documents and more. This is ideal if you want to import files from different sources and work with them at. Plugins enhance the functionality tremendously, there are currently more than 50 free plugins and tools available as additional downloads from the AbiWord website.