Abiword cannot display the menu & comboboxes correctly

UBCD4WIN is by definition a special purpose or limited edition. So it is not surprising that some general purpose applications fail.

To solve the problem you describe, one might need to know what widgets, fonts, controls, etc. that Abiword uses, and which ones are missing from the UBCD distribution. I suppose one could experiment with copying some things over.

I'd expect that this wouldn't be the first app that has had this problem under UBCD. I'd ask in their forums what has worked (if anything) with other apps.

I'm assuming that the regular Abiword is failing in the same way. Since the Portable Abiword launcher only sets it up to run off a USB drive, it doesn't really make any changes to the app. For additional help with the app, try the Abiword site.