Re: Stable version of AbiWord for WinXP?

Ryan Pavlik wrote:
>
> Grant Edwards wrote:
>> Is there a stable version of AbiWord for WinXP? I installed
>> 2.4.6 on my mothers XP machine hoping it would work a bit
>> better than AppleWorks 5 (which is getting a bit old in the
>> tooth and doesn't really play well with Windows). Unfortunately
>> AbiWord 2.4.6 locks up frequently. Among other things, doing
>> just about anything involving a textbox or image will often
>> cause the program to lock up with a permanent "hourglass"
>> cursor and a "not responding" dialog box when you try to close
>> the AbiWord window.
>>
>> I've also seen several formatting snafus where clicking
>> somewhere will result in successively more space between lines
>> until you only have a few lines per page. I had to delete the
>> affected paragraphs and start over.
>>
>> So, I'm hoping there's a more stable version that somebody can
>> recommend for use under Windows.
>>
>>
> 2.4.6 is stable for a lot of people, so I'm inclined to think there is
> more here than meets the eye. (It hasn't hung or crashed for me in a
> long time on Windows.) The most likely culprits, in order of
> appearance, are 1) mixed plugin versions, 2) a particular document or
> action, or 3) your default printer driver.
>
> 1) If this is your first install of AbiWord, proceed right on to the
> next one. If you upgraded, see the instructions at the top of this
> bug entry to try a clean re-install:
> http://bugzilla.abisource.com/show_bug.cgi?id=9624 (Ignore the fact
> that you probably aren't getting that error message, it's a useful
> procedure nonetheless)
>
> 2) You mentioned images and textboxes. Is there a particular image,
> image type, or document that this apperas more frequently in? Any
> sort of pattern? (Was the document created in another program then
> edited in Abi? Created in Abi from the start?) In short, is there
> anything that could narrow down the symptoms from a a more general
> sense so that we can have a better shot at reproducing the problem
> then fixing it?
>
> 3) This may seem weird, but it matters in every program that uses page
> size to affect the document. (This includes at least Word, and
> probably many others). What kind of printer do you have? Are you
> using the latest drivers from the manufacturer? Try installing
> PDFCreator from http://www.sf.net/projects/pdfcreator/ and setting it
> as your default printer. You'll get the capability to create Adobe
> Acrobat PDF files for free, and it will help stabilize any printing
> programs (since they all have to ask Windows information about the
> printer, and Windows in turn asks the printer driver). If the problem
> goes away with this change, then we know that there's something funky
> with the way your printer is acting. Try leaving it on all the time -
> it probably goes into a low-power mode when left alone anyway, and it
> makes Windows less confused if you don't constantly plug and unplug
> hardware (which is what on/off on your printer looks like to your
> computer)
>
> Hope this helps! Let us know the answers to these questions. If you
> get it pinned down to a more specific case or set of cases, please
> file bugs at http://bugzilla.abisource.com/ Thank you!
>
> Ryan
>
PS. It seems like you may be accidentally triggering visual drag move
or copy - clicking and dragging (even if not very far) within a selected
chunk of text will move it, or, if you hold control down, copy it. Do
the "formatting snafus" go away if you choose "Undo"?

-- 
Ryan Pavlik
AbiWord Win32 Platform Maintainer, Art Lead: www.abisource.com
AbiWord Community Outreach Project: www.cleardefinition.com/oss/abi/blog/
"Optimism is the father that leads to achievement."
 -- Helen Keller
"The folder structure in a modern Linux distribution such as Ubuntu
was largely inspired by the original UNIX foundations that were
created by men with large beards and sensible jumpers."
 -- Jono Bacon, The Ubuntu Guide
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