Templates: Making Them, and Making New Documents Based on Them (Writer, Calc and Impress)
This is embarrassing. I have a huge blogapalooza on styles but
left out templates. (Updated it yesterday a bit but still, no real
thorough coverage.)
I shall remedy that immediately.
All right. Let's say you have the following:
- A bunch of styles you need to have when you create a document.
- Some canned text, like your signature or a graphic logo, that you use in a lot of documents
- Or you're just darned picky about how you want your documents ;>
You are an excellent candidate for using templates. Templates are documents that store styles, text, graphics, general formatting—whatever you want. You create a document, save it as a template in the Template Place, then point to that template when you want to create a new document using what it's got. (“Styles and canned text...that's what it's got....remember that.”)
And it really couldn't be easier.
Making a Template
Open a new document.
Put in it what you want in the template. Styles, graphics, text of
every kind and variety. Whatever.
Then choose File > Templates > Save.
Specify My Templates unless you have another idea for a category.
(To create a new category, click the Organizer button, select a category in the button that appears, right-click on it and choose New. An untitled category will appear. IMMEDIATELY start typing the name of your new category. Click somewhere else in the category list when you're done typing. Click Close.)
Type the name of your template like Meeting Minutes.
Click OK.
Now you've got a template.
Using a Template
You need to create a new document using that template.
Choose File > New > Templates and Documents.
Select the Template icon on the left.
Open the category you chose like My Templates. You'll see your
template.
Click Open and you'll have a new untitled document based on that template.
The Coolest Part—Making That Template Come Up When You Create Any New Document
Choosing File > New > Templates and Documents is fine but what if that's your template you use all the time? You can make it come up when you just choose File > New > [type of document] by setting it as the default template.
Choose File > Templates > Organize.
Open the category your template is in, in the left side.
Right-click on the template and choose Set as Default Template.
Click Close. You're done! Choose File > New > [type of document] and you'll see the effect.
To switch back to the normal original boring blank document, repeat the steps but this time choose Reset Default Template > [type of document]
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