The beginning of a big fat blog on where all the OpenOffice settings and configurations are stored

I got an excellent question today: where are the AutoFormats stored?

They're not per document, like styles, which is nice. However, they are per user/per machine.

In Windows, they're stored by default here.

documents and settings\username\Application Data\OpenOffice.org2\user\config\autotbl.fmt

On Linux it should be in a similar location relative to where the user data is stored.

General Default Location for Individual Customizations

In Windows, settings are often here.

Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\OpenOffice\user

Default Locations for Templates, AutoTexts, Backups, AutoCorrect, Gallery, Temporary Files, My Documents (default location for File > Open) and Graphics (default location for Insert > Picture > From File) -- and How to Change or Add Locations

You can check, and change, the location of AutoCorrection settings and AutoTexts, plus other items under Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > Paths.

Click the picture to see a bigger version.

For each, to add or change paths, select the line and click Edit.  You'll see this window. If there are two or more you can delete paths that aren't the default path. Click Add to add additional paths.

Here's an overview from the online help about each category.

 

Type	Description
AutoCorrect	Contains the settings of the AutoCorrect dialog box.
AutoText	Your AutoTexts are stored in the specified folder.
My Documents	You can see this folder when you first call the Open or Save dialog.
AutoCorrect	This folder stores your own AutoCorrect texts.
AutoText	This folder stores your own AutoText texts.
Gallery	New Gallery themes are stored in this folder.
Graphics	This folder is displayed when you first call the dialog for opening or saving a graphic object.
Backups	Automatic backup copies of documents are stored here.
Templates	In this folder you can store your own templates.
Temporary files	This is where OpenOffice.org puts its temporary files.

 

Setting a Specific Location for a Category of AutoTexts
When you create AutoTexts under Edit > AutoText, you can add a category. Click Category, enter the name of the category, and select the location to store the file for this category from the dropdown list. The list comes from the paths set for AutoTexts under Tools > Options.

Click the graphic to see it bigger.

If you want to put this category in a different location, you can do it on the fly, kind of. Cancel out to the main AutoText window and click Path.  Then click Add to add a new path.

Now when you create a new AutoText category, you can select the new path from the dropdown list.

Go to that directory and you'll see a file with the category as its file name. You can copy this file to other computers, and point users to where the file is.

Locations for Customizations to Spellcheck

Look for the wordbook directory in the location under Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\OpenOffice\user (or the user directory on that computer) for customizations made to spellcheck.

Locations for Plugins

Look for the plugins  directory in the location under Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\OpenOffice\user (or the user directory on that computer). This folder contains the plugins that you installed in OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org recognizes the plug-ins installed in Netscape, Mozilla, or the Microsoft Internet Explorer, so you normally do not need to install plug-ins in this folder.

 

What's Coming

In the coming month I'm going to put together a big fat blog on configuration: how to make sure that a whole bunch of users can have the settings or values you specify for:

• styles/templates
• macros
• menus and toolbars
• colors
• and much more

Please leave a comment if there's a configuration location you'd like to know about or something you've picked up that would be useful. Thanks!

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