AbiWord's feature set includes most everything one would expect in a modern word processor, plus numerous ground-breaking and advanced features allowing it to compete with many proprietary word processors successfully. A short list of features includes:

1.  A familiar interface
2.  Outstanding file import and export, with support for MS Word, WordPerfect, and more
3.  Unlimited undo and redo capacity
4.  Solid (X)HTML export, with CSS styles support
5.  Images
6.  Spelling support, with optional underlining
7.  Bullets and Lists
8.  Styles
9. Table of Contents generation and customization through the Stylist
10. Complete, intuitive revisions-tracking support
11. Nested tables support, nearly unmatched in the field
12. Mail merge
13. Bidirectional text support
14. Command-line and server use modes for document processing capabilities

One of the most lasting differences between AbiWord and most word processors is the default file format. Unlike documents saved normally in many competing word-processors,  document saved with AbiWord is written in plainly readable text with XML markup, making it possible to use any text editor to view AbiWord documents. With this style of data storage, you can feel assured that your precious data is safe and readable, even without using the original AbiWord program that created it. Users are even free to create their own program to parse the AbiWord markup and extract data from it. No matter how AbiWord is used, users can be sure that their important data is well kept. Additionally, because of the Open Source nature of the AbiWord project, the longevity of documents is ensured by the presence of AbiWord's source code, its active development, and constant improvement.

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