Word processor - AbiWord (and LyX)

[Fredrik Liljegren <eof@hem.utfors.se>]

I'll start by warning you:  I've read most of the mail-archive now,
and I'll post some thoughts I got doing that...


I think we all agree on that a good word processor is what schools
use mostly.  I myself is too idealistic to use Star Office.  Besides,
it doesn't fit in the rest of the GUI, it uses it's own inderface
completely.  Pathetic Writer, that you have a pointer to (under Siag)
is better, but still lacks a great deal of functionality and polish.

I was waiting and hoping for koffice, when I stumbled across AbiWord.
It's a really nice processor with lots of functions allready.  It has
at least a debian-package, even though that one doesn't work with the
unstable libc6 2.1 (that I use).  It evolves quickly, and is totally
GPL'ed.  It uses GTK.. So, what more can you ask?
  Well, it uses an XML-format for it's document, has an evolving M$
Word import AND export, it should be configurable so that simple
modes for children can be made, with just tha basic buttons.

Check out http://www.abisource.com/


By the way... LyX is in 1.0 version.  Not really aimed at children,
but as a teacher I can se that it could be even better for children
than for a normal adult user.  The normal user is used to changing
fonts, making layout by hand etc.  In LyX, you CAN'T (easily) do that
by hand, you'll just have to use the definitions of "title",
"paragraph", "emphasis" etc.  I think that's a great program for
children from, say, 10 years..  KLyX is graphically nicer, but
requires kde-libs..


.../EOF
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