Opening Your Work

Lesson 1: Getting Started

- Welcome
  - Before you start
  - GNU License
  - About this tutorial
- Lesson 1 - Getting Started
  - Start AbiWord
  - Create a new document
  - Save
  - Close
  - Open
  - Spellcheck
  - Print
- Lesson 2 - Formatting
- Lesson 3 - Page Appearance
- Lesson 4 - Enhance Document
- Lesson 5 - Styles
- Lesson 6 - Other Features

# Open a Document

Whenever you access a document (that is, you edit a text file), the operating system opens the document. Opening a document is the action you'll perform the most. While you will only need to create a particular document once, you may open that document many times before you are finished editing it.

Let's open the document you created in Lesson 1 by following these easy steps:

- Select the Open File button located on the Standard toolbar

  The Open File dialog appears.

- Pull down the drop-down box to see a list of common folders.
- Select the folder containing your document
- Select your document from the list of files displayed in the main window

  Note: Your document may be in a folder not displayed in the drop-down list. If this is the case, you can navigate through the disk drive by selecting it, then selecting the folders it contains. Because this method is "hit or miss," we recommend using a folder such as My Documents (or its equivalent on other operating systems) to hold your documents.

- Select Open to load your document for editing

You have just completed this section of Lesson 1 and now know how open a document. If you'd like to learn how to spellcheck your document, select Next. If you'd like to go to a different section within this lesson or to a new lesson, choose from one of the options in the Navigation bar.

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