Abiword is decent. I open it, and I start typing right away, no dialogs. The startup time is rather fast.
However, saving does not provide me with a default filename, so there is friction there.
In the status bar, the indicator text runs right up to the border edge, nobody took the time to ensure vertical and horizontal spacing matches up.
The menubar does not provide keyboard accelerators until after I press the Alt key -- too late in terms of discoverability.
The cursor actually disappears when I use the arrow keys to move around. It's not even blinking, it's just GONE, until I stop using the arrow keys, then reappears after a delay.
The spell-checker finds an spelling mistake in both "Abiword" and "abiword".
Using only the keyboard, I cannot figure out how to change the font size, except by going through the Format->Font menu. The Font dialog has invisible or nearly-invisible focus rectangles on most controls.
I just installed it to write this comment, and I found all this stuff in the first five or so minutes of using it.
It's a nice little word processor, and I'd use it in a pinch, but it's no Word 97.
Thank you. So far, I think that only addresses the menu accelerators issue, and none of the others I listed.
I think the fact that it is off by default in the first places illustrates my point quite well. And so does the fact that I have to seek out separate configuration for the toolkit.
Not only that, but on the very page you linked, people are complaining that even the setting does not work reliably. I know that when I tried to adjust it in the past for other apps it did not work for me.
However, saving does not provide me with a default filename, so there is friction there.
In the status bar, the indicator text runs right up to the border edge, nobody took the time to ensure vertical and horizontal spacing matches up.
The menubar does not provide keyboard accelerators until after I press the Alt key -- too late in terms of discoverability.
The cursor actually disappears when I use the arrow keys to move around. It's not even blinking, it's just GONE, until I stop using the arrow keys, then reappears after a delay.
The spell-checker finds an spelling mistake in both "Abiword" and "abiword".
Using only the keyboard, I cannot figure out how to change the font size, except by going through the Format->Font menu. The Font dialog has invisible or nearly-invisible focus rectangles on most controls.
I just installed it to write this comment, and I found all this stuff in the first five or so minutes of using it.
It's a nice little word processor, and I'd use it in a pinch, but it's no Word 97.