Default template or fonts are not applied to new documents, created with right mouse click

Tyco72 · February 21, 2019, 10:19am

LO 6.1.5.2 (x64) Win7

When I create a new document directly in a folder in Windows explorer, using the right mouse click “New → OpenDocument Text”, the document is always created with the default font “Liberation Serif” ,“12pt” which I don’t want.

If I create new document in LO, clicking on the button “New” on the toolbar, my default template is correctly applied to the new document.
The settings for the default fonts, in menu: Tools > Options > Libre Office Writer > Basic fonts
seem to be applied only to the currently opened document. Is there a conflict of this setting with the default template? I have not found a bug about this in buzilla.
This happened also with the previous main version of LO

PèreOrval · February 21, 2019, 10:33am

Where is your template stored? Maybe Windows explorer can’t find your saved template?

Tyco72 · February 21, 2019, 11:18am

The templates are stored in the default path in LO profile:
C:\Daten\Users%username%\AppData\Roaming\LibreOffice\4\user\template

But should windows explorer search for templates? I guess it sends just a command “create new Writer document in this path” to LO. Which template should be used, should be a task of LO, not of win. explorer (I am just guessing)

ajlittoz · February 21, 2019, 11:27am

This is a known “bug” (?) in Windows (all versions). Windows first creates an empty file then handles this empty file to LibreOffice. LO then uses the file contents, independently of file extension, to decide which component (Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress) to launch. Since the file is empty, no template, which by nature is specific to a component, can be applied.

mikekaganski · February 21, 2019, 12:35pm

See also tdf#123476.

But that only relates to “New” items created by MS Office (so, DOCX/XLSX/…), and this is another case - @robleyd is correct.

Tyco72 · February 21, 2019, 3:08pm

Thanks to both you. Very interesting.

robleyd · February 21, 2019, 11:30am

Please see this question or type right click template in the search box above for more results.

If this answer helped you, please accept it by clicking the check mark to the left and, karma permitting, upvote it. If this resolves your problem, close the question, that will help other people with the same question.

Tyco72 · February 21, 2019, 3:05pm

Thank you. I missed that question in my search.
I have changed the “soffice.odt” file in the path: C:\Program Files\LibreOffice\share\template\shellnew
which is used as default odt file when creating a new document with the right mouse click, and now it works.
It is not comfortably to change manually this default file, when you need to modify it, but it works. I hope this behavior will be improved.

ballie · February 21, 2019, 2:51pm

If I may ask. Why would you create a document like that? I assume that you would open it directly after creating the document. If that is the case, why not just open libreoffice to create a new document? That way you would always get a document that is created with your desired template…

mikekaganski · February 22, 2019, 6:27am

Because of the way people think and work. E.g., a set of documents is usually organized into a directory structure, where multiple files in each directory of some parent project directory relate to some common topic. People often work with the set of documents, looking at the project as a whole, using file managers as means to see the document names to get the idea; and when they decide that “here, we need another document”, the “here” is the important part of the thinking process - which is immediately materialized into “right-click and create”; alternative ways (like “start your editing application, write something, then navigate here and save”) disrupt the natural process.

Tyco72 · February 22, 2019, 7:41am

Yes :), but also because it is the faster way, when you have documents organized in many different paths, and not all documents located together in a single default folder.

When I search for a document, I open is the file manager by clicking on links pointed to the main paths which I use. Then if I need a new document in a certain folder, right click and it is already there.
If you create a new doc in LO and then “save as” you have to browse each time to the desired path to save it, and it is very bothering, if you have to navigate each time in a big tree with many different locations and sub folders.