Running Linux, 5th Edition - Matthias Kalle Dalheimer [123]
Figure 8-5. The Template Management window
You can browse documents in the right-hand pane of the Template Manager and drop them into folders in the templates pane on the left-hand side.
Template Manager also offers facilities for importing, updating, and adjusting the printer settings associated with templates.
Importing templates . The template files you encounter in the Template Management window's Default folder are actually stored in the /home/swhiser/OpenOffice. org/user/template directory on the system. The templates you encounter in all the other Template Management folders are actually stored in the /home/swhiser/OpenOffice.org/share/template/english directory. (This allows individual users in a multiuser installation of OpenOffice to change their own default master templates without affecting other users on the network.)
To import template files from MS Word or from any trusted outside sources (including useful ones you find on the Web), you can manually copy the templates into the directories just discussed, and they will show up in the folders you expect in the Template Management window. Templates copied in this way will also be available when you use the AutoPilot to create documents from templates.
You can also use the Import Templates feature in the Templates Management window to get external templates into the correct place and into the proper file format (.stw). This ensures that templates and the files derived from them maintain their linkages (see the following section).
A third way to import a template is to select File → Save As, choose "OpenOffice.org Text Document Template (.stw)" as the File Type, and set the path to the appropriate one of the two directories mentioned previously.
Template linkages. Template files are linked to the documents that are derived from those templates. It helps to imagine the template file, or the source file, as the "parent," and the derived document as the "child." Parent-to-child linkage is one of the principal benefits of using templates. When you have a large number of child documents in your Documents folder, for example, you have the ability to update the formatting of all those files in one stroke by altering the formatting of the parent template file. Each time you open a child document, you are prompted to accept or reject the formatting alterations that were previously made to the source template, as illustrated in Figure 8-6.
Figure 8-6. Accept the formatting changes to a subdocument
Linkage is broken, however, if you later save the source template file via File → Save As or via the Save icon on the object bar. Thus you should always save a template file via File → Templates → Save if you wish it to remain linked to its children or to keep using it as a template.
Change the default template for all new text documents. As mentioned earlier, the standard blank document that opens up when you select File → New → Text Document from the main menu is based on a default template file that is saved in the Templates and Documents — New Document window (Figure 8-7).
Figure 8-7. Templates and Documents—New Document window
To change the default template for all new text documents, first create a new template with the desired formatting (and add custom styles if desired) as described earlier in "Creating a new template." Save it by selecting File → Templates → Save, enter the filename (let's call it newdefault), and click once on Default in the Categories pane at the left to save it in that folder.
Then, go into the Template Management window by selecting File → Templates → Organize and double-click in the left pane to open up the Default folder, where you'll find your new template file, newdefault. Click once upon it to highlight newdefault, and click on the Command button at the far right to view the drop-down choices. Select "Set As Default Template" at the bottom of the list.