Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Word has a document template called Normal.dot in which default styles for things like headings, lists, etc are defined. If you open that document and change a style, then save it back, you have changed the way the style is handled by all documents created from that template in the future. You can also open the Style dialog box and apply any changes to a style (or a new style) to the Normal.dot file by checking the "Apply to template" option.

This option doesn't appear in OO3 so I have had to create a template document with the styles I want to apply as the default and then base any new documents on that template.

I would like an easier way to change default styles in OO3.

Hi and welcome to the forums.

You're half way there. Once you have created your new template you need to set it as the default template. Then all new docs are created using that template.

We encourage people to do a little searching before posting. Check out this link: [Tutorial] Creating a new default template.

If your question has been answered please go to your first post, use the edit button and add [Solved] as the first word of the title. You can also select the green tick icon.

13 aug 11: I have diligently researched this question over the course of several hours and days. But it might help to understand that I have wandered here over the last 26 years via Word for DOS (stand alone style sheets) through Word for Windows (stand alone style sheets [*.dot] sort of incorporated into each document . . .): and now here I am washed up on the shores of openoffice.org as I try to break my surly bonds with MS before Mr. Gates stops supporting XP SR3.

The logic of organizing styles in openoffice is impenetrably difficult to understand. There is a logic – and I can sense it is much richer than Mr. Gates' opus magnus.

But the openoffice logic doesn't translate into crisp clear mouse moves to set custom styles in my default document: and to have those style appear in the pull-down menu called “Apply Style”.
To obtain styles requires a wild chase-around all over my computer.

Apparently, there are no style sheets at all. The only way to import a style is to “Load Styles” from existing templates: which in my case are successfully imported from Word.
(I apologize for whiting-out the names of my styles and the names of my template documents)

It is also terribly difficult to “set” those styles in the empty default.ott which is stored in application data.
When I open up a new default document, my styles are not available in the pull-down menu for styles.

And I have to hunt them down.

It also seems impossible to modify a paragraph style on the fly and to have that new style be picked up by the document's style sheet. Changing a style requires a laborious side-trip to modify the style.

In Word, we could modify the style in the document, on the fly, and then opt to change the document's style sheet and the document's template in one fell swoop.

In openoffice: unfortunately it is a chase around: and it seems hard to get changes to set permanently.

However: I do note that once one uses a style in the document: that the newly used style does appear in the pull-down menu for styles.

Operationally: I think the problem surfaces in the most difficult fashion for us old-timers when the styles we want to use do not appear in the pull-down menu.

Question: how can I salt the style pull-down menu with my custom styles – even if they haven't yet been used in the document.

Use the stylist window (F11) where you double-click the style you need. You may bind keyboard shortcuts to frequently used styles.
In File>Templates>Organize... you can use Ctrl+Drag&Drop in order to copy your styles across templates and loaded documents.
There is no such thing as a normal.dot. I have never seen that default.ott you mention.
Simply create your own template as you want it to be when you hit Ctrl+N for a new blank document.
Save that template in your templates hierarchy (File>Templates>Save...).
Then make this custom template your default template: File>Templates>Organize... Select your template and use the menu button "Commands" to make the selected template your default template.

Firstly I know how to create and set a default template.

My problem is I want to move styles between templates and/or documents without having to redefine the style from scratch. ESPECIALLY I want to be able to take any style in a document that I am currently working on and transfer it to the default template

1. without having to leave my current work
2. without having to open the default template document and recreating the style manually. This is possible using the Style Organiser in MS Word. It is/was also possible in most professional wordprocessors since WordPerfect 5.1 (yeah DOS days).

If it is not possible to go to a paragraph, choose modify style and then simply click on 'Copy to default template' or something similar the AOOo should put that feature on the list of features to be urgently implemented.

I eventually figured it out. It's quite simple really but the user interface is not intuitive at all.

The fact that the dialog box is found under Files -> Templates - Organise makes you think it has got nothing to do with styles.