Re: When AbiWord crashes in WinXP, is the current file saved?

I recently had a friend who had some difficulties that sound similar to
yours. As strange as this seems, the problems and crashing went away
after un-installing the tools plugins (I suspect the bug was actually in
the grammar plugin, in conflict with some obscure part of the system's
configuration). As far as I know, the math plugin is better-behaved,
and so it may be installed alone or with a few other plugins. As you
might suspect, the more plugins, the possibility for a conflict,
especially on the Windows platform, where compilation and other tasks
related to AbiWord development are a bit stickier.

To find out how to safely and properly install only the plugins you
need, after a clean uninstall, scroll down. I have also answered a few
of your other questions. Thanks for using AbiWord!

Alan Horkan wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Apr 2006, Richard L. Dery wrote:
>
>
>> Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 12:01:51 -0700
>> From: Richard L. Dery <dickdery@teleport.com>
>> To: abiword-user@abisource.com
>> Subject: When AbiWord crashes in WinXP, is the current file saved?
>>
>>
>> I have a client running AbiWord 2.4.x on a HP a1129n Pavilion computer
>> (WinXP SP2). Trying to get her to not spend $149 for the MS Word Trial
>> version that came installed on her computer.
>>
>
> (Dare I suggest OpenOffice.org? It must be at least worth suggesting
> before your client puts down $150. In fact it is worth making sure she is
> aware of Wordpad, a person I showed it to was actually pleased it didn't
> annoy him with all those red squiggles making a poor attempt at correcting
> his spelling.)
>
******
I don't believe OpenOffice will be neccessary, and in my experience, it
is less reliable than AbiWord. I would try the suggested method of
removing unused tools plugins before switching to OpenOffice.org.
******
>
>> The problem is, AbiWord keeps "crashing," or "blowing up," to use her
>> words.
>>
>
> What version of abiword did you install?
>
> Clearing out your old Abiword.Profile might help (this is equivalent of a
> reset to defaults) but might make no difference.
>
Usually this is not a concern any more in recent versions, but it may be
worth a shot and won't hurt anything (it will just remove any customized
preferences as well as the most-recently-used files menu, which will
both re-generate if you set them again)
It is in C:\documents and settings\username\AbiSuite2 (I believe)
>
>> I've read that if the plugin version is not the same as the executable
>> AW will crash. This is not the problem.
>>
>
> This used to be a lot worse than it is now and things are a lot less
> brittle but having all the pieces be of the same version is still
> recommended
>
******
Actually, things aren't less brittle when mis-matching versions,
however, uninstalling AbiWord, deleting the C:\Program Files\AbiSuite2
directory, and re-installing matching latest version from the internet
should work every time. This is the recommended procedure for a clean
re-install, as well as for upgrading.
******
>
>> Because of time constraints I'm not able to get together with my client
>> to sit down and solve this issue, but I do have a some questions:
>>
>
>
>> 1. Are there any random keypresses that will cause AbiWord to close
>> abruptly (other than Alt+F4)?
>>
>
> Not as far as we know (not as far as I know, you might want to check
> bugzilla). If there were we'd be trying to fix them.
>
>
>> 1a. Are there any keypresses in MS-Word that can crash AW?
>>
>
> Not as far as we know (not as far as I know, you might want to check
> bugzilla).
>
> You question is not entirely clear either, why would a keypress in one
> application cause another seperate application to crash?
>
******
I think what he means is if any shortcut keys that a user would be used
to in Word have an undesirable effect (like crashing) in AbiWord. The
answer is still no - there should not be any keystrokes like that.
******
>
>> 2. When AW crashes in Windows, is the current file saved somewhere?
>>
>
> If I recall correctly a document.CRASHED file is created in the same
> directly at the original file. (There are some cases where the crash is
> irrecoverable, and Abiword cannot save you if you cut the power
> competely.)
>
******
..abw.CRASHED or .abw.SAVED will be the file extension, in the same
directory in which you saved your file. If you had never saved your
file before you crashed, good luck - I believe it saves somewhere and a
search might help you, however, it's best to just avoid this problem and
save first thing once you start your document, then save frequently.
Auto-save can also be enabled in Tools, Preferences.
******
>
>> 2a. Does it save it with a particular extension?
>>
>
> I think it was .CRASHED
>
> Best of luck
>
> --
> Alan H.
>
>

-- 
Ryan Pavlik
AbiWord Win32 Platform Maintainer
www.abisource.com
"Optimism is the father that leads to achievement." - Helen Keller
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