LOWriter: Made long 300 page text: can I save it as template?

[captlibre80]

Greetings
I am new to using advanced features of LOWriter like styling for long documents around 400 pages.

Question:

1. Should I and/or can and/or should I save that long document as a template OTT format and not worry about it? I have limited custom styling I wish to save for this document and desire to make more custom styling
2. Then after saving template, how do I reset LOWriter back to default styling settings?
3. is the above proper procedure?
4. if I save ODT to OTT then back to ODT is that OK?
5. IT looks like when I save as OTT and close it, and re-open it: it shows “untitled” in the top bar and when I try to save it asks me to save it as a ODT. Confusing but I guess makes sense since I guess OTT is not regular file to work with?

Thanks

[ajlittoz]

@captlibre80

Should I and/or can and/or should I save that long document as a template OTT format and not worry about it? I have limited custom styling I wish to save for this document and desire to make more custom styling

.ott template files are intended to contain the collection of styles required by a document category (private letter, business letter, academic paper, novel, …) and initial “constant” text.

Therefore I doubt that any document in any category ever need 300 pages of shared text. You should reconsider what is common to your various files (title page skeleton; front material like copyright, publishing information, intellectual property; empty TOC, skeleton chapter with header and footer, empty alphabetical index, perhaps back material). All in all, this should amount to at most 20 pages depending on the sophistication of your layout; usually 10 pages is a maximum.

But if you’re in a mood to create a 300-page template, Writer won’t object and can perfectly manage it.

@captlibre80

Then after saving template, how do I reset LOWriter back to default styling settings?

Saving a template and making it your default are two separate things. If you’re writing documents requiring several different templates, don’t one of them the default and select the appropriate one at creation time with File>New>Template. Note this can always be done, no matter which template is the default.

To reset or change the default template, File>Templates>Manage Templates

@captlibre80

is the above proper procedure?

I am not sure to have understood your procedure.

Ideally, always manage your templates from within Writer. Then, they will be stored in the directory where Writer expects to find them. Tools>Options, LO>Paths allows you to define additional user directories for templates so that they are not hidden inside “internal” directories and you can manage them easily with your file browser.

@captlibre80

if I save ODT to OTT then back to ODT is that OK?

Don’t try to save “manually” as .ott. This effectively creates a bare template but some nice properties are not enabled. To manipulate/create templates, File>Templates>xxx. The templates will be known to Writer and document auto-update when you modify a template becomes possible.

@captlibre80

IT looks like when I save as OTT and close it, and re-open it: it shows “untitled” in the top bar and when I try to save it asks me to save it as a ODT. Confusing but I guess makes sense since I guess OTT is not regular file to work with?

A template is a “universal” “neutral” model from which you derive a specific .odt document. Therefore Writer protects the template by not allowing overwrite and the template can be used for other new documents. Since the document created from the template is a new one, its name is Untitled1.odt by complete ignorance of your purpose.

It is not “confusing”. It is intended (and logical), once again to avoid overwrite of valuable files (a good template requires a lot of work).

PS: when asking here, always mention OS name, exact LO version (and save format).