Is it possible to create a page template with sections?

[kellkellkelly]

Hi!

I've created a Writer template with paragraph styles I will need universally and I've added sections as well. Every page will have sections that are the same.

Will I have to set up sections for each page individually or is there a way to apply the same sections to every new page that is created within the document? I couldn't find anything on this through searching the web.

Thanks in advance!

[acknak]

Greetings and welcome to the community forum!

What do you mean by "sections"? Unfortunately, the term is completely ambiguous when discussing OO Writer.

Do you mean sections as in logical parts of the text, maybe under headings?

Or do you mean the sections you get with Insert > Section?

In any case, templates in OO are just documents; they can't supply content that gets automatically applied to each new page.

[kellkellkelly]

Thanks! And thanks for your fast reply!

I'm talking about the Insert > Sections.

I've attached a screenshot of my first page showing the section boundaries (columns) and nonprint characters.

So this is something I'll have to hand-enter for each page? There's no way to set it so carry over to each page automatically?

Thanks again!

[acknak]

... I'm talking about the Insert > Sections. ...

Ok.

So this is something I'll have to hand-enter for each page? There's no way to set it so carry over to each page automatically?

Correct. Templates do not work that way.

As a workaround, you can define an AutoText with the content you want to repeat. So you would start a new page and then insert some boilerplate content from the AutoText.

However, as I understand it, the sections from Insert > Section are global--there can be only one section with a particular name in the document.

These sections have nothing at all to do with the actual structure of the document--the sections a human author/reader are concerned with. They're just arbitrary pieces of document content. So I'm not sure what purpose your sections are going to serve--maybe you can explain?

[kellkellkelly]

I'm working on a policy/procedure manual for a small business and this is the current format that has been decided on (my boss is working on QuarkXPress & I only have access to OO on my computer).
1 column
3 columns
1 column
2 columns

Is there a better way to execute something like this in OO?

[acknak]

A table, or frames, maybe?

The only thing I can think of that a table can't do is multi-column (newspaper-style) text. Frames can have multiple columns. You can use a frame inside a table, though.

Also, it's probably a mistake to develop the layout in terms of a page, since Writer really does not do page-oriented layout. The way this is typically done in Writer is to include a page break in the paragraph style applied to the heading at the top of the page.