AbiWord On USB Drive
Portable AbiWord is a full featured word processor that can be installed and run from your USB Flash Drive. This allows you or a student to have a word processor available anywhere there is a Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME or Windows 98 based computer with a useable USB connector. Download and Installation is easy:
To Download Portable AbiWord:
Go to the Portable AbiWord download page by clicking on this link: Portable AbiWord.
When the Portable AbiWord download page appears click on the With OpenDocument button (this is the Portable AbiWord download with OpenDocument support).
If you know how to download the file download it and skip to Setup Portable AbiWord on USB Drive. If not continue below.
A list of download sites will appear click on one (i use Dublin, Ireland).
Note: Internet Explorer may try to block the download at this point depending on your security settings. If it does (no file dialog box appears), look for a yellow band below Internet Explorers button area that says: “To help protect your security…”. Click on it. A small menu will appear, Click Download File. Continue below.
[If using Internet Explorer browser]: A dialog box will appear. Click the Save button. A File dialog box will appear. If you are unfamiliar with downloading files, save the AbiWord installer to the Windows Desktop by clicking on the Desktop Icon on the left side of the file dialog box, and then clicking the Save Button (windows XP). The file will begin to download.
[If using Firefox browser]: A File dialog box will appear. If you are unfamiliar with downloading files save the AbiWord installer to the Windows Desktop by clicking on the Desktop Icon on the left side of the file dialog box and then clicking the Save Button (windows XP). The file will begin to download.
To Setup Portable AbiWord on USB Drive:
Insert a USB Flash Drive into a USB connector on your computer and note the drive letter it uses (if a window for the flash drive doesn’t appear and you don’t know how to find the drive letter, see Tip 3: Finding your USB Flash Drive drive letter below).
Go to the Windows Desktop (or another location where you have downloaded the AbiWord installer) and double click the installer file (it should be named something like: Portable_AbiWord_2.4.4_with_OpenDocument.exe).
A dialog box will appear. In the area where it says  Extract To:  type your drive letter, a colon, a backslash (no spaces). For example if your flash drive is e: type e:\
It could take up to a minute or two to install depending on the speed of the USB connector (USB 2.0 is waaaay faster than USB 1.0. Portable AbiWord installs in seconds rather than minutes).
To run AbiWord from the USB drive:
If you still have the Windows Explorer on your computer screen that opened up when you inserted the USB drive, you will see a folder called PortableAbiWord. Double click on that folder to open it. You will see a file called PortableAbiWord.exe. Double click that file (tip: it’s best to double click a file or folders icon rather than the filename), AbiWord will start up.
TIPS:
Tip 1: Copy the PortableAbiWord.exe file that is in the PortableAbiWord folder to the “\” folder of the USB drive. (This folder is called the root folder - as in tree root. For example the root folder of drive f is f:\) If you do this you will not have to enter the PortableAbiWord folder to run PortableAbiWord.exe. The easiest way to do this is to RIGHT click on the PortableAbiWord.exe file that is in the PortableAbiWord folder of your USB drive, then click Send To then click on the drive letter of your USB drive. Note: do not make a shortcut for running PortableAbiWord, it will not work.
Tip 2: Always properly remove the USB flash drive from your computer. Make sure that no files on the USB drive are in use by any program, and that any programs that run from the USB drive have been closed. Click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the area down by the clock in the lower right corner of the screen.
A list of devices will appear. Click on the item that matches your USB flash drive. When you see the Safe To Remove Hardware “balloon” you can remove you USB drive.
Tip 3: Finding your USB Flash Drive drive letter:
