I have been using AbiWord for the last few months working on a major project. I have gotten very far in my writing, but yesterday as soon as I pressed save my computer died. I did not think of it as a big deal until today I tried to open the file and it says "error unable to import [file name]". I downloaded a new software to open the file, and it opened, but the text is reading "##########". Is there anyway to open this file without losing all of the hard work I have spent months doing?
2 Answers
I would suggest using LibreOffice instead of AbiWord. I do use AbiWord at home only because it can print free barcodes I can use for work and LibreOffice cannot. Other than that AbiWord flickers inexplicably and lags every now and then. AbiWord doesn't even come close to the power of LibreOffice.
The issue of backups is important. As a minimum copying your documents folder to a USB flash drive after 10 or 20 hours of work is a good idea. The advantage is you can take your backup with you if your laptop burns down while you are away from home.
I have a more exotic automatic backup that copies all my writings for five years plus system configuration / settings I've made to tweak Ubuntu. Files are copied into a .tar archive which is compressed and emailed to my gmail account. The advantage of gmail is you can access your backups anywhere in the world and don't have to carry a USB thumb drive around in your pocket/purse. Gmail gives you 15 free GB of space which for me is a couple of years of daily backups before I have to start pruning (deleting) older backups. The setup is described here:
I've answered other parts of your question in comments and after resolution the comments can be rolled up into this answer.
answered Jun 2, 2020 at 23:58
I tried to open the file and it says "error unable to import [file name]".
When AbiWord begins loading the file and then exits with an error. Validate the XML code contents of the file. It is just a text file that you can open with Notepad++, Pluma, Vim, Nano, Emacs text editor.
https://jsonformatter.org/xml-validator JSON XML Validator, was used to find a single error in XML code from AbiWord Editor file Freds_document.abw Use any XML Validator tool you find. I ran the file Freds_document.abw through the JSON XML Validator to verify correct valid XML code. Freds_document.abw.saved could also have been used by copying or moving to a different file name Like: Fred_test1.abw
Abiword had inserted an extra ' props="" ' in front of a " props="Courier xxxxx " Just delete the malformed string props="" from the text file. ReValidate this XML file. The JSON XML Validator showed me that it was in line 62 and character 331. I Would not have found this error that prevented me from loading file into AbiWord editor, with out an XML Validator tool.
Used a copy of the original file to validate and edit. Leave the original file untouched. I Used filename Fred_Sample.abw to edit and correct text problems.
file) it is, and view it (viewor equiv.) to ensure the text is still there. I'd copy it, and try and restore the 'copy' so original is untouched. Because computer died did youfsckbefore booting (I'd have done that before you touch the file first or log in)cat ~/Documents/filename.abw(replacingDocumentswith actual folder name andfilennamewith actual filename. It could be the bulk of information you want is still there and the text can be extracted (without formatting). That said you should backup your writings daily. I do this to my gmail account automatically withcron. To reply to someone here put@in front of their user name. eg @WinEunuuchs2Unix in your comment will let me know you replied.Alt+Ctrl+Tto enter commands and then typeexitwhen done command entry to close the terminal. I'm at work on phone and am limited to assist for another 7.5 hours if you are around then.cat ~/Documents/filename.abwbecause it's a made up name that doesn't exist. You need to replaceDocumentswith the folder your file is in. You need to replacefilenamewith the actual file. Leave.abwafter the filename because that is the extension that AbiWord uses (on my system at least). If you don't know the filename you can change to the folder and usellto list all the files in the folder. To change folder usecd ~/foldername, egcd ~/Documents.