[Solved] Trouble with templates brought over from MS Word

[Hagar Delest]

Forum members have been very helpful in teaching me how to convert MS Word templates to OO 4.1.1 but I still am having trouble creating a new document using one of these templates.

I click on Find / New / Templates and Documents, select my template and a new document is created. This one happens to be a 2 column page which I use to type up recipes I've created or otherwise gathered from all sources. When I designed this template in Word years ago, I set up the margins, made it 2 columns, etc. I also set up 4 distinct Text Styles for a recipe. I have a style for the name of the recipe, one for the name of the source, one for the list of ingredients and a 4th for the instructional text. These styles have the font, the font size, centered in the column, shaded and with a border drawn around the name and source text .

These text styles are in the drop down menu when I open an existing document but not when I create a new document with my custom template. Other than re-keying all the Text Styles into OO, how can I get them into my OO template brought over from Word?

[acknak]

There three ways (that I know of) to move/copy styles between documents.

Simplest:

Open the template (File l> Templates > Edit ...)
Open the document that has the styles you want
Copy some text from one to the other. Any styles used in the copied text will also be copied, as long as the styles do not already exist there.

Using the Styles & Formatting window:

Open the template to receive the styles.
Open the Styles & Formatting window (Format > Styles & Formatting, or F11)
Click on the "New style from selection" button; a menu appears. Choose "Load styles", From File ... choose the document to load styles from.

Using the template organizer:

Open the document that has the styles you want
File > Templates > Organize ... select the template to receive the styles
In the documents panel, double-click on the document icon; drill-down until you see the list of styles.
Click and drag the styles you want from the document and drop them on the template
NOTE: make sure you hold down Ctrl while dragging (COPY), otherwise you MOVE the style, and it will be removed from the source document.

As I said, the first is easy.

The second is good if you want to copy a whole group, or groups, of styles.

I can't think of any real advantage for the third option. but it's there if you need it. I guess it would work well if you had a style in a document that you wanted to copy into several templates, you could do that in a few swipes.

[Bill]

These text styles are in the drop down menu when I open an existing document but not when I create a new document with my custom template.

Unlike Word, the drop-down list of styles in Writer only shows a limited number of standard styles when you open a new document from a template. Custom styles which haven't yet been applied to text in the document won't appear in the list. If you have a custom style in the list and delete all text which uses the custom style, the style will disappear from the list. In other words, a custom style which is not actually being used will not be in the drop-down list.

Other than re-keying all the Text Styles into OO, how can I get them into my OO template brought over from Word?

If these are the same templates which have already been discussed in another post, the styles are already in the template. The first application of the styles must be done using the Styles and Formatting window. The styles will appear in the drop-down list only after they have been applied in the document using the Styles and Formatting window.

[acknak]

... a custom style which is not actually being used will not be in the drop-down list. ....

Ahh, right. Excellent point.

Best to be sure whether the styles are actually there or not. To be sure, you can check the full list in Styles & Formatting window. Make sure you have selected the proper category (buttons above) and the filter "All" or "Custom" (drop-down below).

[jbacinti]

There three ways (that I know of) to move/copy styles between documents.

Simplest:

Open the template (File l> Templates > Edit ...)
Open the document that has the styles you want
Copy some text from one to the other. Any styles used in the copied text will also be copied, as long as the styles do not already exist there.

Using the Styles & Formatting window:

Open the template to receive the styles.
Open the Styles & Formatting window (Format > Styles & Formatting, or F11)
Click on the "New style from selection" button; a menu appears. Choose "Load styles", From File ... choose the document to load styles from.

Using the template organizer:

Open the document that has the styles you want
File > Templates > Organize ... select the template to receive the styles
In the documents panel, double-click on the document icon; drill-down until you see the list of styles.
Click and drag the styles you want from the document and drop them on the template
NOTE: make sure you hold down Ctrl while dragging (COPY), otherwise you MOVE the style, and it will be removed from the source document.

As I said, the first is easy.

The second is good if you want to copy a whole group, or groups, of styles.

I can't think of any real advantage for the third option. but it's there if you need it. I guess it would work well if you had a style in a document that you wanted to copy into several templates, you could do that in a few swipes.

Acknak,

Simplest seems to work but how do I save the template without saving the text I've typed in? Same question for using the Styles & Formatting window? I couldn't seem to make the template organizer option work but that's OK if I can save the template using method one or two.

Thanks,

jbacinti

[acknak]

Once you have pasted the text (and its styles), the text can be deleted and the template saved as usual. All the styles are saved in the document and Writer does not remove unused styles.

[jbacinti]

Worked fine. Thank you so much.