Word processing in our modern age...
 

I'm looking for a *stable* word processor or text editor, preferably with the ability to open/save RTF so elementary formatting stays put (itals, bold etc). This is for my 770 running OS2006.

There have been quite a few discussions on the forums about this, but most are at least a year old. Open source development can move fast, so I want to solicit opinions as to the best right now. Bear in mind that I'm looking for an actual word processor or text editor, and NOT a program just to view Word documents.

I've tried a few so far.

Notes (built-in to OS2006)
I've heard people say this isn't stable but it seems OK to me. Appears to save in HTML format?

Abiword (2.4.7, straight from Abisource.org respository).
Seems to crash a lot, although packed with features. Can't find a way of outputting RTF. However, it does include an automatic save function, making crashes less devastating.

Leafpad
Seems simple and people like it a lot. However, no RTF support.

SciTE Text Editor
Really a programmer's editor, but works for ordinary text. Can work with RTF. Although it's a little slow on my 770, this seems like the best bet.

MaemoPadPlus
Tree arrangement is interesting for outlining, but not what I need. It also crashed when I played around with it.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Try also abiword 2.2.7 which in my experience is more stable. See http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3346 for the installation procedure. As far as I know (didn't try myself) it opens rtf. And, in order to start over with a new document and save it in rtf, according to http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70327 you shouldn't do file/new (it would save in native abw format), but instead you should open some rtf file, save it with another name, and change its contents. Same tricky proceedure for making a new word format document. In other words it will retain the original format.

Until we get a decent wp! I tried myself with scratchbox to compile the latest sources from abisource but this seems a task more complex than what my cortex can handle. Maybe kwrite under penguinbait's kde?

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Thanks debernardis. I'll give it a try when I can grab a few minutes.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I'm in the same boat. I'd love something like Textmaker on my 770, and, like you, I've tried most of what's available and found them wanting. The internal notes app seems pretty good, but writes really nasty HTML that requires a bunch of fixing to get it to look pretty. Abiword crashes waaaaay too often to be trusted.

Maemopad's note/file structure is much too complicated for me. Basically, all I want to do is save RTFs to my memory card.

I finally just settled on Leafpad for plain text files.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Yes, but it uses only a very small subset of HTML. Despite the limitations, I find it very usable; in fact, I've come to like it a lot.

I agree about SciTE. I didn't get around to reinstalling it after an OS update but I mean to, one of these days.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I've been an editor for many years, and I can't imagine doing much real word processing on my (beloved) N800. Maybe someday when speech-to-text becomes practical on a handheld computer. Web page editing is possible, on a small scale.

How about someone hunt down Xywrite and make it into a Linux program? The older version, before it became Windows-compatible. Now you would be talking...

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Perfectly practical with a bluetooth keyboard

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I completely agree. Writing is one of the things for which the Internet Tablet (with its small screen) is most suited.

I meant to say in previous post that Notes seems to be quite good at importing HTML. I exported a couple of longish documents (16,000-18,000 words each) from Word and imported them into Notes without difficulty. The formatting of the original Word docs was straightforward: no tables, graphics or indexes but plenty of footnotes and crossreferences. On exporting from Word to HTML, the footnotes were converted to endnotes. I forgot to look at what happened to the crossrefs.

On importing the HTML to Notes, a lot of information (heading tags etc) was lost, so you can forget about roundtripping, but the imported doc was perfectly readable and editable in Notes and character formatting (italics and bold) was preserved.

Earlier versions of Word were notorious for producing a messy and impenetrable tangle of tags purporting to be HTML. I used Word 2007 and exported as "Web page, filtered", which gives a relatively tidy HTML file.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

There is an older verrsion of abiworrd ported (2.2.7), which, along wiith the gconv-more modules imports word quite well, and an existing .doc will remain so after editing.

It is available from http://erinye.com/maemo mistral user. Note that ii will compile and run reasonably well under bora (n800)

Thanks, K.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Thanks guys.

I agree -- Abiword just crashes too much to be trusted, although I appreciate the effort that went into porting it across. But it has to be said that I've been following Abiword since the early days on Linux (pre v1) and it's always had problems. I want to love this program, but I can't. I even collared one of the developers at a Linux fair once and told him so.

I think I'll be using Notes for my word processing needs. I can't comment on whether word processing is possible, but I'm anticipating it will be. Most of all, I'm looking forward to going to a coffee shop with a word processor that will fit into my pocket.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

We have mozilla-based browser on the N800. Perhaps the GoogleWordprocessor thing?

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

DOG slow with any document over 1 page.

R.
==

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

And it doesn't work all too well five meters beyond the range of your router...

I still want LyX!

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I used word processors all the time. I currently use a Mac and Pages or Nisus Express, but I've also used practically every version of Word from 2.0 onwards, and have also used OpenOffice and played around with Abiword.

Here are my thoughts on what would be the perfect word processor on the 770/800.

First, we need to acknowledge the functions a word processor has to serve on the 770/800. It has to be both a document viewer (ie it must open Word docs, and possibly .odf files), and also an actual word processor (not a text editor; the difference is arbitrary nowadays but text editors tend to save only in .txt format).

Compatibility with other file formats needn't be complex. As long as it can open the file and show the text inside, that's all that's arguably needed. Preserving formatting is a must, but showing complicated layout is impractical and unnecessary, especially considering the 770/800 don't have the usual Windows fonts so will always be limited. In other words, we need to acknowledge the limitations of the 770/800, and work with them, rather than try to ignore them.

In terms of functionality for the word processor, again, we need to acknowledge what the thing will actually be used for. It will probably never be used as the sole editor. It will most likely be used in concert with a desktop editor, or possibly as a tool to generate documents that will eventually be merged into a larger doc on the desktop. I also think that few people in their right mind are going to attempt complicated layout on the 770/800, because it's just impractical with the stylus and small screen. So the toolset available to the user should be simple and centred largely around text entry.

Here are the functions I'd love to see:

* Text formatting including bold, itals, underline, and the ability to choose point size
* Text justification
* The ability to show either document or draft modes, and the ability to set the zoom level in both
* Live spellchecking with the usual range of international dictionaries, and the ability to create custom.dic
* Autocorrection for mistypes like teh (the), and things like smart quotes
* A floating palette with cursor keys on, maybe optimised for thumbs/fingers, to allow quick shuffling through the text without the aid of the keyboard or the scroll bar
* The ability to create indents, bullets and numbered lists
* I'd suggest the default doc format is rtf, which is sophisticated enough for advanced layout and compatible with almost every word processor ever. Of course, the user should also be able to export to Word, HTML and PDF formats.

.... and that's all. Missing from that list is the ability to create tables or insert pictures, which both fall into the category of advanced layout which is impractical on the 770/800 (think about it honestly -- is it realistic? And even if you think it is, will you ever actually do it while editing on the fly in a coffee shop?). Also missing is the ability to insert footnotes but, again, this is advanced stuff better handled by a full desktop word processor.

The interface should be kept very clean with just a toolbar along the bottom, like Notes. More complicated stuff can be dealt with via the program menus or a right-click.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Beautiful message rs-px. Now who do i have to sleep with to make it happen this year?????

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

My first thought was that LyX isn't really suitable for the small screen of the internet tablet, because it sits on top of LaTeX, which is a heavy duty typesettng/layout package and, as I've said before, nobody's going to do any serious layout on a 4" screen. However, my second thougt was that, precisely because LyX provides a simplified interface for LaTeX, it might work very well.

What I'd really like, though, is a LyX-like front end that produces HTML rather than LaTeX. HTML is more portable and, in my opinon, you only need LaTeX if you're thinking about print publication or layout is important for some other reason. By the way, I haven't noticed a LaTeX distribution for the tablet OSes, but then I haven't been looking.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

We do indeed have a LaTeX port for the tablets (whether it's enough for LyX is another question, and you also need GhostScript for LyX to work acceptably), but the biggest benefit of LaTeX/LyX is that they are resolution-independant. Also, LyX has a zoom preset and will linebreak to the window width, both extremely desirable functions for someone coming (a very long time ago!) from the Psion platform.

Another plus: With the renewed efforts in getting print support going for the N800, all you need is a little proggie that takes postscript input (a LyX output file) and sends it to the printer. And allthough I agree that HTML would be a nice bonus option, the whole point of LaTeX/LyX is the layout. ;)

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

What I need now is a way to compose on my n800 simple documents containing in their header my institution's name address and stuff, *and* my institution's logo. This logo is really a simple png image, but unfortunately abiword 2.2.7 aka maemo word processor has problems in image management, in fact it renders it incorrectly when printing or exporting in postscript format.

One thing which might prove useful is QuickScript, explained at http://www.ericlindsay.com/computer/printing.htm . In short this is a text-based markup language that gets translated to postscript *inside* your postscript printer thanks to a special header. I have still to figure out, though, how to put my fixed institutional header in every page with this tool.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

On page 34 of the (postscript) manual, the procedure for placing graphic borders on every page is explained. It is my understanding this procedure can be tweaked to print any graphic.

From page 37 onward, you'll find everything about embedding EPS graphics.

On a sidenote: I'm having serious difficulties getting to the author's (Graham Freeman) ftp site, ftp://ftp.adfa.edu.au/pub/postscript/ . Am I alone in this, or do others experience the same non-access issues?

Another possible advantage of QuickScript: It might be possible to send the postscript files directly to a Bluetooth-enabled PostScript printer, thus foregoing the need for a complete printing system on the N800. I'd very much like to try this, but my bluetooth-to-parallel connector is fried and I'm awaiting a new one.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I can open that ftp site so let me know if you ned any files. Here's the relevant part of index.txt:

PostScript directory contents
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Typesetting and document layout

Quikscript.tar.gz Most recent release of Quikscript, a typesetting program
written in PostScript. See Qs_README.html for more
details. (Quikscript13Dec2002.tar.gz)

Quikscript2Jan01.tar.gz

Quikscript4Nov99.tar.gz

Quikscript7Jul98.tar.gz

Quikscript-15Jan98.tar.gz

qsdirA directory containing the individual files that make
up the Quikscript package.

Qs_README.htmlDescription of the typesetting package Quikscript,
change history, new features.

Qse.exe, smallQse.exe, Qse-install.sh, Qse-smallinstall.sh
Quikscript editor program, written in Java, for
installation under MS Windows or Unix.

Qse_install.htmlInstallation instructions for the Quikscript editor.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Thanks, I got most of the files. I was merely interested in the possibility of translating the Java-based QSE editor into Python. For obvious reasons, I would not be the person doing the porting. I've got a copy -- somewhere...

(the obvious reason being that I'm stupid)

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I'm sure some of the Nokia guys read this forum. Who knows. Maybe a few might read this thread and pick-up how much we're all crying out for a decent *stable* word processor. I've just read somebody in another thread mention that his girlfriend won't be buying an N810 because of the lack of Word compatibility.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

has anyone tried connecting the new apple wireless keyboard to the N800 ?

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Yes. I received mine last Friday. Pairing it with the N800 took a few tries but it works (and looks) great.

On the issue of a word processor, maybe we can suggest to dataviz that they make a hildonized version of docs2go, using the version that was ported to the still-born Palm Foleo. Having been a Palm docs2go user since its first release, I would love to have it on my n800.

Just a thought...

Robert B.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I've been fighting with Abiword 2.4.6 on my 770 all night. Every time it opens a document (if I can get it to because of font issues), it crashes as soon as I tap the screen.

I thought that maybe I'd just save the file I'm working on as html and load it up in notes. Nope. It shows me the code rather than rendering it.

Anyone have any advice?

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

That's pretty bad, even for Abiword. Most of my crashes happen when I delve into the settings. General word processing *seems* OK.

Try deleting /home/user/.AbiSuite. This is a directory. This will wipe your prefs file, returning the app to a just-installed state.You'll have to do this via Xterm, ie

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Hrm. Still crashes.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I'm now in posesession of a lovely Bluetooth keyboard, and I can confirm that word processing on the 770 (and probably 800) is not only possible, but is actually enjoyable. There really isn't any difference between word processing on the Nokia and word processing on a laptop or desktop. It works very well.

All of which makes the lack of a good word processor all the more annoying :(

I've also been wrestling with Abiword (both the older version and the most recent version). I know a lot of work went into getting them up and running on Maemo but they're simply too buggy to be usable. They might be useful to other people who want to study the code, I guess, but they're of no practical use to end users.

The latest Abiword has a nasty gotcha that will hit virtually every user as soon as they use it. By default, the zoom level is 100%. But the text is too small to read on the screen. So the user adjusts the zoom level to a custom level. Except clicking in the custom zoom level box causes the app to crash out.

Other problems I noticed were that scrolling is slow and weird. It also looks like the autosave feature doesn't work, which again is a gotcha waiting to happen -- the user might know that Abisource is unstable but assume that switching on autosave will avoid file loss.

If Nokia is serious about mainstream popularity of the Nseries tablets, they've got to sort this out. They have to get a stable Word-compatible word processor out there as soon as possible. Otherwise a really useful aspect of the 770 or 800 is just being ignored.

Incidentally, yes, I typed this reply on my 770 and Bluetooth keyboard. It was no more difficult than tapping out a reply on my desktop computer.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Oh yea, try typing while running Rhapsody. Your typing will look like thissssssss..... :D

A good word processor is what is needed and does prevent this in making this a real internet tablet. One thing I am noticing that a new internet tablet comes out every few years but the software development is not keeping up. I know its open source and its free and I am not complaining about it but why make a new IT when you really there is no apps for it? Just look at the PDA's. You have a decent word processor, unbuggy PIM software, an accounting or money software, tons of bible programs, etc. I know there commerical software (ie pay softwore) but I would like to see at least one good one of each and not 10 media players that I'll never use.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I agree. I've got a ThinkOutside BT keyboard as well and, on a recent trip to Calgary, I was able to do everything I needed with the Nokia + KB.

I'm wondering if the issue here is that I'm trying to open a file created in Nisus Writer (but saved as an AbiWord file). It has to be a font issue. I can't think of any other reason for this. However...I've copied several fonts over to the Nokia and they seem to work just fine.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

After reading through this thread (and thus finding out about abiword which has not crashed on me yet, however I have not tried to change the zoom level.) I have to agree a good word processor would be great, and I hope the developers working on abiword keep at it until it is finished.

I have also tried google docs on the n800 and it works well enough, but it still isnt quite what I need, not to mention is kinda slow on the n800. (though being able to work on the same document from anywhere without manually copying it around does have it's advantages.)

The key is really the BT keyboard though, without it I can't imaging typing an email let alone actually word processing anything. the touch keyboard is ok for small text entry but for anything more than that its just too slow. Even more important than the screen size (ok yes its a bit shallow in depth but it is plenty wide enough and thats whats really important) is the ability to type with some speed and accuracy. since we have the keyboard, I dont think a good working word processor is too much to ask.
I am sure open office would be a bear to try and port plus I am sure there isn't enough umph in the n800 to run it well if someone did. Abiword would be fine for me (heck it IS fine for me now) but even a simple RTF editor would be fine (notepad ++ would be nice as well, but for different reasons)

Ah well, since I couldnt port my way out of a wet paper bag I guess I should be happy with whatever is available...

-John

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Well, I spent an hour or two attempting to word process today on my 770, along with a Think Outside foldaway Bluteooth keyboard.

I've got to say it didn't go well.

The main issue is that in both the text editors I tried -- Leafpad and Notes -- there was a strange issue. Whenever a paragraph got above a few lines long, the editor started to slow down, to the extent that by the fourth or fifth line, I was typing very far ahead of the cursor and had to wait for it to catch up. Curiously this isn't happening right now as I type this in Opera, so this isn't a limitation of the hardware. It must be API weirdness.

Then, when the screen had to scoll because it was full of text, it slurred and scrolled very slowly. This wasn't a huge issue, however. More annoying.

I also have slight eye-strain from looking at the screen for such a long period. I made the text quite large but this hasn't helped. Small is small. As somebody pointed out, you're staring at something little larger than a credit card and a keyboard forces you to sit further away from it than you might if you're simply web browsing.

I'm not sure the 770 is cut-out for word processing tasks. I'm not sure if the 800 or 810 are any better.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Can anyone re-create the problems I'm having? If I type "test" into Abiword on my desktop, save it as an Abiword doc, and then try to open it in Abiword on my 770, the app crashes.

Edit: I have had the same problem with my TO BT keyboard, but only on my iPaq. In short, you're not alone.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I use a Mac and I'm not sure of the current situation, but not so long ago the guy who ported Abiword to the Mac said that the program was prone to crashing. Sound familiar? Again, not to deride the efforts of the Abiword developers, but releasing crashing software is just pointless.

There's a pretty good reason why Abiword isn't the open source industry standard. It could be, but it's just too problematic.

As for word processing on the 770, I'm starting to think that GNU Nano is the best bet. I run it in an Xterm. It's a little primitive but I know it won't crash, and it's pretty fast. There's certainly no lag as I'm typing, as with the GUI apps I tried. It reminds me a lot of word processors I used in the early 1990s on my Atari ST. And they worked just fine for me back then :)

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Here's a quote from the Abiword readme from the Mac OS port:

Help needed:
Making sure that AbiWord behaves the way it's supposed to behave. Those developers, tsk tsk, are always too interested in new features and seldom actually use AbiWord. Someone needs to make sure the users are getting what they're (not) paying for.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

I'm on a Mac, as well. Could someone write "Test" in a word processor on the mac, save it as an .RTF, then try to open it in abiword on the 770? When I do this, Abiword crashes every single time I touch the screen.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Ah yes, the inevitable "word compatibility is a necessary feature of an internet tablet" thread - almost as popular as the calendar/todo/contacts one! :D

Seriously though, here's the deal.

AbiWord was highly hildonized: what that means is the 2.4.6 version you might be using was specifically ported to not only run on Maemo (2.x - IT2006) but integrate perfectly. It is very nice, but two slightly big bugs: clicking to the right of the margin sometimes crashes, and the version of iconv that ships with the tablets is slightly broken so word files don't import right. The latter problem has been worked around in the AbiWord (actually WV - the word import library) source and should be fixed in future versions. I haven't gotten a chance to look into the other problem yet. This probably comprises the majority of issues on the 770.

Note that I said the 770 - our level of integration is both a benefit and a downfall. Between Maemo 2.x (770/IT OS2006) and Maemo 3.x (bora, N800 or 770 HE, ITOS 2007), some functions were changed in an incompatible way, and though the 770 package that is up there will more or less run on the N800, it is less stable because it's intended for a different version of the OS. (Specifically, if you let the device fall asleep or turn off the display, AbiWord will crash when you try to switch back to it. If you look at the terminal messages from it, if you're geekishly-inclined, you can see the errors - it's because AbiWord wasn't ported to maemo 3.x) If you avoid this one spot and the caveat for the 770 above, you can work around and probably use it OK, though I won't recommend skipping the "save often" advice.

(This is why 2.2.7 works better sometimes on the N800 - that version was minimally Hildon-ized (ported) and so doesn't use the functions of the OS that changed between versions.)

Now, here's the good news. Though the 2.4.x series (which doesn't crash on the pc if you click to the right of the text, I'll have you know :D ) is the most stable, best version we've put out yet, the upcoming 2.6 version is much, much better, and it's not even done yet. The building for mobile devices (like Maemo) has been overhauled, and it looks like it will be easier for me to get a 2.6.0 release for Maemo than re-do the 2.4.6 or coax people into running a 2.4.7 (which seems pretty unlikely right now). Plus, 2.6 includes real-time Internet document collaboration features, which I'm just itching to try on a Maemo device :D

A recap of what this means to you: AbiWord is not inherently unstable: most of the problem on the 770 is one bug that is not easy to realize when it is triggered, and most of the problem on the N800 is because we're too good at working on the 770. As time is available to me, I will be working on getting 2.6.0 on the 770, since the port is already there. I own an N800, and so obviously want a version I can use (I've been using Notes then importing the files into AbiWord on my desktop - this works pretty slick actually). So, I hope to have an N800-compatible version of 2.6.0 available when we release that (sooner rather than later). (I'm also the maintainer of the Windows port of AbiWord, so I've got a nice full AbiWord plate here :D )

With the recent announcement of the N810, I am unsure how I will proceed. As Maemo 4.0 (IT OS 2008) will be available on both the N800 and the N810, I am inclined to skip Maemo 3.0 entirely, and only offer a IT2006 and IT2008 version of AbiWord. However, as I have a bunch of stuff running on my N800 w/ITOS2007 (mainly GPE, SIP/RTCOMM/GizmoProject, Python and UKMP) that I really need on 2008 before I upgrade, and I don't have an N810 (lucky ThoughtFix :D) or a spare N800 to use as a test mobile device, the best I could do for testing is in Scratchbox (the cross-compilation environment) at least until the apps I need make it to 2008 and I can upgrade my own device. I would not feel confident releasing something that I hadn't tested myself, especially since I know how highly the community is anticipating a new AbiWord on Maemo version, and I want your high hopes to be satisfied, at least as well as humanly possible. :)

So, there you go. Timeline-wise, I hope to have a 770-compatible AbiWord 2.6.0 simultaneous-release with the other platforms, and an IT2008 version as soon as I get the porting done and can test it. Depending on the effort needed, the anticipated benefits (or possible drawbacks of ITOS2008, and the time delay for testing, I may or may not make an IT2007 version.

If you want to keep up with what I'm working on, I recommend checking out my website: http://www.cleardefinition.com/ (I'll be working on a "knowledge base" and instructions and such there - that's where my GPE and Evolution/KDE PIM syncing instructions are, etc) and my blog, http://www.cleardefintion.com/blog/ , where I will be posting updates as to my progress. As I am a student as well as a volunteer developer, updates and progress may be intermittent, but trust me when I say this is very important to me too!

Thanks for your patience!

Ryan
AbiWord Win32 Maintainer, Volunteer AbiWord Developer, Google Summer of Code 2007 Participant

ps. I'm sure I've pointed this out before, but threads sink to the bottom and search doesn't always show this. I don't want to single folks out, but I see a "teachable moment" here, to abuse a phrase. Finding people at conferences and telling them something they volunteer their time for (because they feel it is fun/worthwhile/useful) "has always had problems" is not terribly useful. That variety of communication does not do anything to help solve problems, while it does serve to effectively decrease the individual's likelihood of devoting time to something, so please do try to avoid it, whether in real life, email, bug trackers, forums, or what-have-you.

A better thing to do (better even than posting problems in this or another thread) is to file bugs: specific ones, too - don't just say "it crashes a lot" - see if you can find out what steps lead it to crash/goof up/whatever. When someone did that for the Word import bug, the problem was tracked down and a probable fix completed really quite quickly. You're already doing this kind of troubleshooting for each other here, I see it in several posts in this thread - now just take this back to the projects you use and make it useful!

The AbiWord bug tracker is at http://bugzilla.abisource.com and the Maemo bugtracker is at http://bugs.maemo.org If you file a bug on AbiWord on Maemo (in our bugtracker - the maemo one is for built-in stuff), I will at least look at it before 2.6, and if you include good instructions on how to reproduce it, I (or another dev) might be able to fix it, too! :) Stuff gets lost too easy in a forum - a bug tracker is the appropriate, purpose-designed place for these sorts of concerns.

PPS. Holy cow, that got long fast! I apologize for the verbosity of my reply - I just wanted to address concerns that I saw, and hopefully foster a little bit more patience while I juggle responsibilities here :) If you want to read more about AbiWord and what I've posted in other threads, which doesn't necessarily overlap with what I said here (what? I didn't write everything possible in this post? ;) ), just search my user name - I've posted in several (I think nearly all) Word Processor on maemo threads.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Ryan,

Thank you very, very much for your work on this project and for taking the time to post here about what we can all expect in the future.

I'm a bit curious about how people are working around on Notes. If I convert an .RTF file to HTML on my desktop and send it to Notes, when I open it I get code rather than formatted text. Is there some trick I'm missing?

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Ryan, thanks for the reply. I too am grateful for your efforts.

I thought about how to reply to what you said, and had a huge essay planned in my head. To give you some background, I'm an IT journalist in the UK and I've written extensively about Linux. I've followed AbiWord since pre-version 1.0. It's been one project that I've hoped would succeed, not least because a decent cross-platform word processor is an essential tool of my trade :)

But I'm not going to give an essay.

This thread is about wishing for a STABLE word processor. I want a word processor that never, ever crashes. You just can't release a word processor that crashes. I'm not sure how much testing goes on, but I can tell you that the margin bug you mention is not the only way to make AbiWord crash on the 770. If I've got time I'll try and catalogue the major bugs that I found and post them on the Bugzilla. But let's just say they're not in the single figures.

What's always annoyed me about all versions of Abiword on every platform is that alpha and beta releases are pushed-out as full point releases, complete with major bugs. I was astonished when Abiword reached version 1.0 because it still had the quality of beta (or even alpha) software.

I'm sure I speak for other users when I say that, to be brutally honest, we don't care about 2.6. The current release has more features than I'll ever use, bearing in mind that the 770 will only ever be used for elementary word processing on the fly.

All I want is for Abiword to be stable and to work well. I can't stress how vitally important this is. What would you rather drive? An old jalopy that's cast-iron reliable, or a brand new car with all the features but on which the wheels fell off when you go around a corner?

I'd much rather you or somebody else spent time squashing bugs on the current release than bringing us new features, or new versions.

Re: Word processing in our modern age...
 

Make a copy of your HTML file and give it the "double" extension ".note.html". I should now open in Notes.

I stress the importance of making a copy rather than renaming. You're going to need to keep the original file. As I mentioned before, Notes uses a very small subset of HTML, so you're going to lose a lot of stuff (including heading tags, if I remember correctly) when you save it in Notes.