Prevent editing of a template

[David12846]

I'm kind of lost. I think I want to use a template. What I want is a template that will be used hundreds of times. I saved an odt file as a custom template (ott file). The template I created is for a Museum. There are places on the template where someone can enter a description of a donated Museum item, dates, catalog number, etc. When I open the ott file, I find I can change any of the text on the template. I want the pre-printed text on the template to be locked so it can not be changed. I want only the other areas of the template to be editable. Is that possible, or is there something else I should be using? I do NOT want to use a spreadsheet to import the data (Our Museum accessions clerk is not computer savvy).

Thanks

[acknak]

It sounds like what you want is a form, where people could enter their description as plain text and the description would be recorded as a table of (item ID, description) pairs. Having people edit a Writer document seems like way more than you need.

Anyway, if you want to go with the Writer document, one way to do what you want is to put the template content inside sections (Insert > Section). Sections can be marked as "protected" and Writer will prevent changes there. Put the description area outside the protected sections, or inside another, unprotected, section and you should be all set.