Templates that cannot be overwritten

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scotch81
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Templates that cannot be overwritten

Post by scotch81 »

Hi,

I was thinking about this today, about templates. I realised that a few times I made a template using the .ott format and accidently overwriting it.

An example- writing cover letters when applying for a job. I usually make each cover letter tailored for the job I am interested in applying, so I use a general cover letter (template) and add or delete relevant information and click on save as a normal document and send it off. A couple times I have been tired and accidently clicked on save and thus losing the original template.

I want the ability to write the template but not be able to over write it but be able to save it as a normal document using the save as bit. Not sure if I'm clear?

Is there a way to lock the templates?

Thanks in advance!!
OOo 3.0.X on Ubuntu 8.x
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acknak
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Re: templates that cannot be overwritten

Post by acknak »

Templates have this protection built-in; you've somehow managed to get around it ;-)

Once you create a template--the part that stays the same for every letter--the best way to save it is using File > Templates > Save. Once that's done, the best way to use the template to create a new letter is File > New > Templates and Documents. When you do this, the new document will require you to give it a name when you save it the first time, and it can't overwrite the template it was made from.

Also, when you do this, your template is squirreled away apart from your working documents, so there's even less chance of "losing" it.

That's the best practice, but it's not absolutely necessary. You can simply save any document as a template file type, in any location you want. You do lose some features when you do that, but nothing too crucial.

For a "plain" template file, if you do File > Open > mytemplate.ott, then OOo will start a new, untitled document just like before, and there's very little chance to overwrite it unless you manually enter the same filename again.

However, if you open the template from the recent documents list (File > Recent Documents > mytemplate.ott), you will be editing the template itself, not a new, untitled document, and any save goes over the previous version of the template.
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JohnV
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Re: Templates that cannot be overwritten

Post by JohnV »

I think you now understand that you should not use File > Templates > Edit. Correct?
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