Creating a template for postcards in OpenOffice so you don't need to redo the layout every time

This is a continuation of Monday's post on how to create postcards. See that post for how to do the exporting, positioning, etc.

So. You've created the postcards. But the positioning....while not overly onerous, is rework. And we don't like rework.

I'm not guaranteeing that this approach is a miracle but it might be nice for some people. Instead of redoing the inserting and positioning of the four graphics, you copy, then do an extra step, then export your new design over the old one.

Here's the basics. The rest of this blog provides more explanation.

All right. Here we go. Here's your succesfully created 4-up set of graphics that will print nicely onto postcards.

You need to set it up again, almost exactly the same way, but this time when you insert the picture, select Link as shown.

Then copy and paste that linked graphic three times, position as appropriate, etc.

Here's what the linking gives you. It means that the pictures aren't sitting there in the document; they're linked directly to the actual postcard.png file and when it changes, the four versions of it in your document change.

Choose Edit > Links to see this.

Here are those four links.

 

Close the window.

Here's what you do. You've got your postcardtemplate.odg file containing the four-up nicely positioned set of four PNGs for the postcards. When you're ready to make more postcards from a different design, do this. Copy that slide that has the four-up postcards in it. To do this, right-click on that thumbnail version of the slide at the left side of the document and choose Copy.

 

Then right-click in the blank area below that slide and click Paste.

You'll be asked Before or After the current slide; click After.

 

Now you've got two slides, four graphics in each, all the same.

Choose Edit > Links and you'll see eight links.

  

You want to keep the old setup with the old graphic (the barbecue chef) set up correctly in case you need to print it again and just because you want a history of what you've done. So you BREAK THE LINK to the old graphic, for that four-up slide. 

 This image shows the situation; click the image to see the text a bit bigger if you want.

 

Select the first four links and choose Break Link.

The four remaining links are still looking at the postcard.png file.

So if you overwrite that png file with, say, the contents of the birthday card design you just did, that slide that's still linked will change to show four birthday card postcards.

So go to your new design and select it, and choose File > Export. Select PNG. (Instead of actually overwriting postcard.png, you could rename it to something like design_06122009, or postcard_barbecue, or some other descriptive name.) You must name the new exported file postcard.png or at least exactly what the name is of the file that your postcardtemplate.odg file is linked to.

 

When you overwrite the postcard.png file, now the new image shows for the four-up slide that is still linked to it, and the unlinked one is unchanged. (The changes might take a bit to show up, you can close and reopen to force the change or in the Edit Links window click Update.)

 

Choose Edit > Links and you'll see it's linked to the same graphic, and there are still four links, but the graphic itself is different which forces the document to show the new design.

 

Once you've got the template set up properly linked, here's all you do each time you have a new design that you want to make postcards of.

Copy and paste a linked slide in postcardtemplate.png.

Break the links for the old design but leave four links.

Export the new design to the same file name, like postcard.png.

That's all.

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