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WORKING WITH TEMPLATES IN OPEN OFFICE

TO CREATE A NEW TEMPLATE

  1. From the File menu, select New>Text Document.

  2. When the new document opens, add the content, images and styles required.

  3. OpenOffice assumes that you are writing a book and automatically leaves blank pages between chapters. This can be annoying if you are writing a standard text document and can be disabled as follows:

  4. Select Options from the Tools menu and click the plus sign > to the left of OpenOffice Writer.

  5. Click on Print and make sure that there is no tick in the > Print Automatically Inserted Blank Pages box. If there is a > tick, click on it to remove it.

  6. From the File menu, select Templates>Save.

  7. In the New Templates box in the Templates window, enter a name for the new template.

  8. In the Categories box, click the category to which you want to assign the new template and click OK.

  9. The new template will be saved ready for selection when required.

TO EDIT AN EXISTING TEMPLATE

  1. From the File menu, select Templates>Organise.

  2. In the Template Management Window, open the folder that contains the template that you want to edit by double-clicking it.

  1. Click the Commands button and select edit from the Commands menu.

  2. The template will open ready for you to edit.

  3. Once edited, select File>Save to save the changes.

TO CREATE A DOCUMENT FROM A TEMPLATE

  1. From the File menu, select New>Templates and Documents.

  1. In the box on the left, click Templates.

  2. Open the folder that contains the template that you want to use by double-clicking it.

  3. Click the template that you want to use and click Open.

  4. A new document will open based upon the template that you have selected. This can be edited and saved as normal.

SETTING A NEW DEFAULT TEMPLATE

If you create a document by choosing File>New>Text Document from the File menu, the document will be created using the standard default template. You can, however, set a custom template to be the default template. The new default template must be saved in the Default folder.

Setting a Custom Template as the Default Template

  1. Create the template as described overleaf and save it in the Default category. (If it has already been created in a different folder, it can be moved as outlined below.)

  2. From the File menu, select File>Templates>Organize.

  3. Double click the Default folder and click the template that you want to use as the default.

  4. Click the Commands button to display the Commands menu.

  5. Select Set as Default Template.

  6. Click Close.

The next time that you create a new document by choosing New>Text Document from the File menu, the document will be based upon this new template.

MOVING TEMPLATES

  1. From the File menu, select Templates>Organise.

  2. In the box on the left, double click the folder that contains the template that you want move.

  3. Click the template that you want to move and drag it to the desired folder.

  4. Click Close.