By default gnumeric is set for opening xls files  - it would make sense to
set abiword as the default for .abw (its native format) and .doc files
(word docs)

Additionally it would be nice to be able to right click on the desktop and
be able to make a new abiword doc.

so two files need to be made to make this happen:
for the right-click desktop entry you need:
 /usr/share/mc/templates/abiword.desktop
it should look like this:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=AbiWord
Comment=The AbiWord word processor
Exec=/usr/bin/AbiWord
Icon=abiword_48.png
Terminal=0
Type=Application


and for the mime-type default for .abw and doc files you need this file:
/usr/share/mime-info
it should contain:
application/msword:
	[en_US]open=AbiWord  %f

text/abiword:
	[en_US]edit=AbiWord %f
	[en_US]open=AbiWord %f

That is it - it should work just fine.

this would be an easy and nice thing to add for the gnome users