Why are Abiword documents flickering since the upgrade to Lubuntu 16?

Lubuntu offered to upgrade itself the other day. I think I was on 14-something and now it's 16-something. All well and good but now all Abiword docs are flickering constantly. (I've noticed it doesn't happen with a new document until something is typed in it). It's pretty annoying.

Is there a way to fix this?

**Please note: I really like the Linux ethos and I admire anyone with geek-skills but I am computer illiterate so PLEASE DUMB DOWN FOR ME!!

Solution 1:

My workaround is:

Menu > Preferences > Customize Look and Feel

Change the Widget theme to anything BUT Lubuntu

Solution 2:

This fix posted on Ubuntu Forums worked for me on lubuntu 17.04 with kernel 4.10.0-28-generic (x86_64)

First, please try

GTK_THEME=Adwaita abiword from a terminal. If that works,

GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark abiword and see if you like that better. 

You can make a .desktop file and that will allow you to double-click on the Abiword icon or on an Abiword file to open it with the Adwaita theme:

Save it as ~/.local/share/applications/abiword.desktop with this content:

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=bash -c 'GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark abiword %U'
Icon=abiword
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Office;WordProcessor;GNOME;GTK;X-Red-Hat-Base;
StartupNotify=true
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.9
MimeType=application/x-abiword;text/x-abiword;text/x-xml-abiword;text/plain;application/msword;application/rtf;application/vnd.plain;application/xhtml+xml;text/html;application/x-crossmark;application/docbook+xml;application/x-t602;application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text;application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-template;application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text-web;application/vnd.sun.xml.writer;application/vnd.stardivision.writer;text/vnd.wap.wml;application/wordperfect6;application/wordperfect5.1;application/vnd.wordperfect;application/x-abicollab;application/vnd.palm;application/x-applix-word;application/x-kword;application/x-mif;application/x-mswrite;application/x-palm-database;text/abiword;text/richtext;text/rtf;
Name=AbiWord
GenericName=Word Processor
Comment=Compose, edit, and view documents