How would I update the template directory

There is a directory of templates, lots of .ott files which make up the set of templates to be used. How do I make libreoffice show these templates as THE set of templates? I noticed many of them are not showing up and the latest just created also does not show up as a possibility when selecting the template from which to begin a new document. Within Tools->Options->Paths I’ve tried creating a dummy directory, deleting the directory of templates. Then adding the real directory of templates and deleting the dummy - Nothing changes.

The description of your procedure is not very clear.

Paths are defined in Tools>Options, LibreOffice>Paths. You find there a Templates line. Select it and Edit to add or remove other paths with Add and Delete buttons respectively.

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I added a few new templates to the directory listed in Tools>Options,LibreOffice>Path. The new items did not show up when later I started a new document. I would like to do whatever is needed so that when starting a new document, I can choose one of the recently created templates on which to base the document.

Have you added file names to the list (the templates files) or directory names? The list contains the search paths for templates, not the templates themselves. Also, File>New>Template will list only .ott files for Writer, .ots for Calc, .otg for Draw, …

Yes, I am sure I am dealing with template (file) names and, the directory specified is a folder. The file I am adding to the templates directory was a .ott file. What’s really interesting is that if I save that template as a .dot file, it is visible as a template choice. How curious - if you try to add a Libreoffice Writer template to the templates directory it does not appear but if you try to add a MS Word style template to the templates directory it works.

Never experienced that! Paths list only directories. Then files you add into these directories should be listed.

It’s those new files that are not visible in the list of templates.

Creating a new template does not insure it will appear in the list of available template until the list of available templates is refreshed. To refresh the list of templates:

  1. From the panel at left when starting Libreoffice (from the Libreoffice icon), select the drop-down within Templates then Manage Templates
  2. From the Templates panel that appears, select the drop-down for settings (a gear)
  3. Select refresh

On a multi-user system, it may be necessary for each ID (user) on the system to refresh the template list before they too see the new templates.