TheWorkspace

AbiWord opens to the following window containing six bars and a ruler:

Title Bar

The title bar contains the path and filename of the current document (by default Untitled), the name of the program, and the Minimize, Maximize/Restore, and Close buttons common to all windows. When the current document has been modified but not saved, the filename in the titlebar is followed by a star.

Menu Bar

The menu bar contains pull-down menus with all the commands available in AbiWord in a hierarchical menu. You can open a menu by clicking on its title or by using the "Alt" and key of the underlined letter.

Standard Toolbar

The standard toolbar contains the following icons of the most commonly used commands in AbiWord:

Format Toolbar

The format toolbar contains the following most commonly used formatting commands:

Scroll Bar

The scrollbars let you move through a document when there is not enough room in the AbiWord window to show the whole document. There can be scrollbars below or to the right of the page in the workspace. To scroll the document, click on the arrows at the end of the scrollbar or click on the gray bar and slide it.

Status Bar

The status bar contains the current page number and the total number of pages in the document; describes the command the mouse is on when you pull a menu down from the menubar; and, tells you if you are in insert (INS) or overwrite (OVR) mode.

Ruler

The ruler lets you easily format paragraphs by setting indents, alignments, and margins. You can also set tabs on the ruller. It can be displayed or hidden by checking the option "Ruler" under the "View" menu. It can also be set to use either inches or centimeters by selecting Options from the Tools menu.