Wednesday, August 24, 2005

OpenOffice.org receives most of the attention among free and open source (FOSS) office suites, but users shouldn't forget that free software includes at least two other word processors: AbiWord, part of a projected GNOME Office, and KWord, part of the KOffice suite. From their inception, both have been playing catch-up with OpenOffice.org's Writer. But now, after several years of development, AbiWord and KWord are both reaching early maturity. How do Writer, AbiWord, and KWord compare?

I compared the three programs using some of the more common features of word processors as evaluation criteria:

* Interface
* Styles
* Templates
* Adding objects
* Bulleted and numbered lists
* Page layout, frames, and sections
* Headers and footers
* Tables
* Indexes and tables of contents
* Footnotes and endnotes
* File import and export
* Unique features

The final results give an encouraging snapshot of the current state of free software word processors, while also showing how far each has to go in some areas.

Given the history and resources behind OpenOffice.org Writer, its victory in a review of features is not surprising. Neither AbiWord nor KWord should be the first choice for long documents, like manuals or doctoral theses. Still, they might do in a pinch, and both are suitable for daily use by students or office workers. Although AbiWord and KWord lack Writer's formidable array of options, they now have solid foundations to build on in many areas of word processing and document design. If they can add features without sacrificing response times, both AbiWord and KWord could challenge Writer's supremacy in a few more releases.