Interchangeability of AbiWord RTF documents with MS Word

I am having trouble in producing in AbiWord RTF
documents that are compatible or interchangeable with
Microsoft Word.
My apology for the length of this message, but I
thought it preferable to include all arguably relevant
information.
I am using AbiWord 2.4.6, which I downloaded via
SourceForge, on Windows XP - Home Edition, Version
5.1, Build 2600.

I have noticed various instances of incompatibility or
lack of interchangeability between RTF documents
produced in AbiWord on my computer versus in MS Word
on other computers.
But my specific problem is in electing a different
header or footer for the first page of an RTF document
than for its subsequent pages. When I make that
election in an RTF document created in AbiWord, the
election is not recognized in MS Word, with the result
that the header or footer made in AbiWord on page 2
and subsequent pages is also used on page 1 when the
document is viewed in MS Word or printed from MS Word.
It seems that when AbiWord saves the document in RTF,
it uses a format to elect a different header of footer
for page 1 which MS Word does not recognize.
The converse is not true though; the election in an
RTF document made in MS Word for a different header or
footer on page 1 than on the subsequent pages is
recognized in AbiWord.

I have seen my problem on my computer with versions
2.4.6, 2.4.5, and 2.2.5 of AbiWord. All of those
versions were downloaded via SourceForge. Each of
those versions was installed as a new, fresh
installation of AbiWord after the previously installed
version had been uninstalled.

I have not had this problem for the election to use
different headers or footers for facing pages (on odd
and even pages).
(AbiWord's election to have a different header or
footer for the last page of a document I cannot get to
work in an RTF document made in AbiWord, and I have
not seen such an election in MS Word.)

The above-described problem can get worse though.
When the RTF document made in AbiWord is opened in MS
Word with the different header or footer election for
page 1 not there recognized, and that election is then
made in MS Word and the document then saved, when the
document is then re-opened in MS Word, the font used
in the document changes from regular to bold, as do
the font properties for the normal style used in the
document. This has occurred in two computers that use
MS Word 2000. However, another MS Word user has not
reported that font change problem.

Another point that may be relevant:
I made in AbiWord an RTF document with no headers or
footers, but with a little text, an embedded bitmap
image, and a text box. When opened in MS Word 2000,
the document appeared OK (other than some spacing
variations), but when in MS Word I added some text to
the document, saved it, and then re-opened it, the
font used in the document changed from regular to
bold, as did the font properties for the normal style
used in the document. And when I later opened in
AbiWord that document (as changed in MS Word), some
but not all of its text was in bold and the font
properties for the normal style used in the document
were bold (which was not what had been originally
used).
As a comparison, I made in MS WordPad an RTF document
with the same bitmap image as I had inserted in the
AbiWord-made document (I did not insert a text box in
the WordPad-made document). When the WordPad-made
document was opened, changed and saved in MS Word 2000
on another computer, the font used in the document did
not change from regular to bold.
MS Word did see the bitmap image inserted in each of
those RTF documents created in AbiWord and in MS
WordPad, as well as the text box in the AbiWord-made
RTF document.
(I also have noticed on my computer that AbiWord does
not see a bitmap image inserted in an RTF document
made in MS WordPad, and vice-versa.)

AbiWord inserts all of its built-in styles in an RTF
document even though the user has not used all of
those styles in the document. Is this by design?
Could it relate to the problem described above?

Is there a solution to my problem, or is it a bug in
AbiWord?
I checked bug reports, and help requests archived back
through the start of 2004, but did not find anything
directly related to my problem.
I did see the discussion among people, including Dom,
at this web-page:
http://pandionknight.wordpress.com/2007/01/17/open-document-format/
and there appears to be a difference of opinion as to
how interchangeable RTF is.
I had hoped that RTF would be sufficiently
interchangeable that a user could be assured that
headers and footers used in an RTF document would be
the same between AbiWord and MS Word, without causing
other problems.

Thank you.
/one

 
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Received on Tue May 8 18:12:15 2007