1 Foreword
AbiWord's file format has evolved with the time. The older file formats are
XML-like, the newer ones are in XML.
The names given for each file format are not
official, it is just how I have named them.
They might be also other variations of the file format than those described below.
The CVS dates are the dates when I have tested and found out things. So any
feature described must have appeared earlier. The dates are in format year-month-day.
2 AbiWord's File Formats
Here are a few versions (from oldest to newest):
awml
The "awml" format starts with a tag <awml>
and has no other header before. Some tags have different names than in later
versions.
Anonymous
The "anonymous" format is the same but the tag
<awml> is now named
<abiword>. Some of these files have upper case
tag and attribute names.
Numbered
The "numbered" version has a special header embeded in XML comments and the
tag <abiword> has now a
version attribute with a version number as
parameter.
Unnumbered
The "unnumbered" version has the version number of the
version attribute with the value "unnumbered".
XML
The "xml" version has a XML declaration (
<?xml ) and but has still the special header after
the XML declaration. Note: the encoding (e.g. UTF-8) is not always given.
File Format 1.0
The "fileformat 1.0" version: the <abiword>
tag has an attribute fileformat (set to 1.0)
Wrong Doc Type
The "wrong doctype": a DOCTYPE was added with a wrong public type of:
"-//W3C//DTD ABW 1.0 Strict//EN".
(Wrong is the W3C part! W3C has nothing to do with AbiWord. AbiWord Bug #1882)
Correct Doc Type
The "correct doctype": (AbiWord CVS 2001-08-21) with a DOCTYPE of:
<!DOCTYPE abw PUBLIC
"-//ABISOURCE//DTD ABW 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.abisource.com/awml.dtd">
New Doc Type / Wrong Name Space Definition
The "new doctype": (AbiWord CVS 2002-02-??) with a DOCTYPE of:
<!DOCTYPE abiword PUBLIC
"-//ABISOURCE//DTD AWML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.abisource.com/awml.dtd">
The name space definition is wrong because it uses xmlns:awml.
However it is the default name space of the file so it should be defined by
xmlns. The <abiword>
tag has new attributes: version and
styles.