There must be somethin wrong in my present setup on my n800: maybe
abiword 2.4.6-0maemo0 is incompatible with the gconv extensions, because all the
word files I tested are rendered with question marks only. I'll try now to downgrade
abiword and I'll report here. There's a red pill to swallow, though

Edit: swallowing the red pill allows to downgrade and the app seems to work and open word files, even if it seems that the risk of a "slow-scrolling-&-unresponsive" crash is real. Hope for a new improved version, hence. Being able to view-edit openoffice.org files would be great.