| Templates contain formatting for complete documents. All the OpenOffice.org programs support templates. If you create a new document without specifying a template, Writer uses the Default template style to create the empty document and to set up initial font, margin, and other formatting- related details. Before You Begin  2 Create a New Document 16 About Styles and Templates
The Template Management dialog box lists all the templates available to you. You often work with templates, selecting and adding them, from the Template Management dialog box. See Also  32 Use AutoCorrect to Improve Your Typing
-
Request a Template Select File, New, Templates and Documents to open the Template Management dialog box. Click the Templates icon to see folders of templates such as Default and Presentations (for Impress, see 85 Use an Impress Template ). KEY TERM  | Template Management dialog box ” An organizer of templates and styles that enables you to use and organize your templates. | -
Choose a Template Decide which template you want to work with. If you've recently installed Writer or have not added new templates, you may see only three templates: Default, Presentation Backgrounds , and Presentations . Only Default works well for Writer because the other two are for Impress. NOTE  | Writer organizes templates in folders. The name of the folder tells you the kind of templates that are inside. The Default folder may contain multiple templates, but a blank default template is used when you select File, New to create a new document. | Double-click the Default folder to display its contents. What you initially see will not be actual text but will be format instructions for text within any document you create using the template from the Default template folder. You may only see the letter template unless you or someone else has added templates to your Default template folder. -
View the Letter Template When you click letter , Writer displays the details of that template in the Templates and Documents dialog box's right pane. TIP  | Click the Preview button atop the Templates and Documents dialog box to see a graphic thumbnail image of a blank document created with the selected template. | Click Open to create a new document based on that template. Writer opens a new document based on the letter template. You'll find instructions for your letter body's text as well as for a logo.  -
Customize the Letter
Add text to the template's document to complete the document. The template's formatting will remain in place, although you can always change any character, paragraph, or page format you wish to make the current document different from the foundation document you initially created from the template. A template is only a model of a new document, and you can base your document on the template you choose or make major changes to the initial document created by the template.
-
Create a New Template
Feel free to create your own templates! For example, you might write many memos, so you can create a memo template. Create the model for the template, including the title, recipient, and subject areas, but don't add memo-specific text. Keep the text general. Feel free to include instructions to the user of this template, such as [Type Body of Memo Here] .
When you select File, Templates, Save , Writer opens the Templates dialog box, where you can assign a name and category folder for your template (such as Default ). The next time you create a new document from a template, your new template will appear in the list.
|
