.ABW File Extension

AbiWord Document

Developer AbiSource
Popularity
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What is an ABW file?

An ABW file is a word-processing document created by AbiSource AbiWord, a free word processor developed by the AbiSource community. It contains formatted text and supports advanced document layouts, images, tables, lists, and footnotes. AbiWord users often save reports, letters, memos, and other documents as ABW files.

More Information

Screenshot of a .abw file in AbiSource AbiWord 2.8
ABW file open in AbiSource AbiWord 2.8

AbiWord is an open-source word processor with many standard features, including text-formatting tools and spell check. While older versions of the application are available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, AbiSource only actively develops the software for Linux since version 3.

How to create an ABW file

ABW is the default file format in which AbiWord saves documents. To create an ABW file with AbiWord:

  1. Select File → New or New using Template.
  2. Modify the document.
  3. Select File → Save or Save As.

How to open an ABW file

You can open ABW files with AbiSource AbiWord (multiplatform). To open an ABW file, select File → Open.

Since the ABW format is based on the XML standard, you can also open ABW files with XML, source code, and plain text editors. However, these programs will not display the document the same as AbiWord. Therefore, you may only want to open an ABW file with an XML, source code, or plain text editor if you need to extract the text from the document and do not have access to AbiWord.

How to convert an ABW file

AbiWord can convert ABW files to various file types, including the following formats:

  • .DOCX - Microsoft Word Document
  • .DOC - Microsoft Word Document (Legacy)
  • .ODT - OpenDocument Text Document
  • .RTF - Rich Text Format
  • .TXT - Plain Text
  • .HTML - HTML Webpage
  • .MHTML - MIME HTML Archive
  • .AWT - AbiWord Template
  • .ZABW - Compressed AbiWord Document
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Programs that open ABW files

Windows
AbiSource AbiWord (versions 2.9 and earlier)
Linux

Verified by FileInfo.com

The FileInfo.com team has independently researched the AbiWord Document file format and Windows and Linux apps listed on this page. Our goal is 100% accuracy and we only publish information about file types that we have verified.

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