  This paper provides a general reference for deriving the ionizations and
metal abundances for absorption-line clouds in photoionization equilibrium with
a QSO spectrum. The results include a quantitative assessment of the
theoretical uncertainties and firm lower limits on the metallicities when no
ionization constraints are available. The calculations applied to the best
available column densities for QSO intrinsic absorbers support previous
studies; there is strong evidence for super-solar metallicities in broad
absorption line (BAL) and at least some ``associated'' (z_a~z_e) absorption
regions. Even in cases where the level of ionization is unknown (for example,
when only H I and C IV lines are measured), firm lower limits on the metal
abundances (C/H) imply Z ~> Z_o for typical BALs and some z_a~z_e absorbers.
These results support the independent evidence for high metallicities in QSO
broad emission-line regions. I argue that high gas-phase abundances, up to ~10
Z_o, can be expected in QSOs due to the normal enrichment by stars in the cores
of young, massive (~> 10^11 M_o) galaxies. The measured column densities
indicate that the gas is usually optically thin in the continuum out to
energies above at least the CIV and NV ionization edges (i.e. >100 eV). The
column density ratios often require a range of ionization states in the same
absorber, and neighboring (blended or adjacent) systems can have ionization
parameters that differ by more than an order of magnitude. These result, and
the overall levels of ionization, are not consistent with single-zone models of
the UV line and X-ray continuum (``warm'') absorbers.
