AbiWord vs Microsoft Word
AbiWord contains tons of features which should make MS Word jealous; though there are some features which AbiWord lacks, such as a grammar checker.
AbiWord is part of a larger project known as AbiSource, which was started by the SourceGear Corporation. The goal of the project was the development of a cross-platform, Open Source office suite beginning with AbiWord, the project's word processor.
The user interface in AbiWord is very similar to that of MS Word except that AbiWord uses much bigger icons than MS Word. All of the usual features such as creating a new document, opening and saving a document are all conveniently placed on the taskbar with the addition of a few others you won't see on the Word task bar by default; I am referring to the "Show/hide formatting marks" icon in AbiWord which by default is placed on the taskbar. Other useful icons include indenting, numbering and inserting an image.
The first feature I spotted in AbiWord is the ability to paste previously copied paragraph formatting onto a selected text. For example, if you highlight certain text and copy it, AbiWord not only copies the text itself but it also copies the formatting; so instead of just pasting the text, you can also highlight text within your document, and apply the formatting of the previously copied text. MS Word also has this feature called "Format Painter".
Another feature I found unique to AbiWord is when you restore the AbiWord application itself, make is smaller, the text within your document is minimized. If you look at the screenshots below, you will notice how the text is made smaller when the AbiWord window is restored. The first screenshot shows AbiWord maximized while the second screenshot shows AbiWord restored; notice how the text is minimized in the restored screenshot. This feature is useful because you don't have to scroll sideways to view the entire text. Also shown below is MS Word restored to show the differences between the two.
