To start off with, we will create a basic document and save it to the hard drive of the computer.

    Click the Start button, choose Applications, Word processing, Abiword.The Abiword program will start, displaying a blank document.

    Type a few sentences into the document using the keyboard. If you can't think of anything to type, enter the following:

This is my first Abiword document. Today I am learning how to use it. Abiword is very similar to most professional word processing packages. Because of this, skills in Abiword transfer well to most other tools used in offices today.

    Click on the File menu, and choose the Save menu option.The following dialogue box will be displayed.

    Type the name "my first document" into the Selection field.The dialogue box should now look like the diagram picture below.

    Click the OK button.The document will be saved to the hard-drive. The document name will be displayed in the Abiword titlebar, as in the diagram below.

    Click the File menu and choose the Close option.This will close the document, and present a blank document.

Congratulations! You have just created your first Abiword document and saved it to the hard-drive. This means that the document remains on the computer even after you have turned off the computer, and it can be retrieved when you next log onto the computer.

Very often, you will want to retrieve a document that you have already been working on so as to continue working on it. What we are going to do now is to load the document that we just closed into Abiword so that we can continue working with it.

    Click the File menu, and choose the Open option.The following dialogue box will be displayed.

    Use the scrollbar (if necessary) to scroll the File list until you can see "my first document", then click on it with the left mouse button.The dialogue box should look as below.

    Click the OK button.The file will be opened and displayed on screen.