# 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.