LibreOffice Writer Template

A design template for writing technical documentation with LibreOffice Writer.

The design looks the same on Mac OSX, Linux, and Windows as all fonts, colors, etc. are available on all platforms.

All of the styles included in this template are listed below. I did not customize every possible style as I updated the ones that I use when writing technical documentation. Further, I am not a designer. I'm 100% confident that a professional designer make a more attractive template, so please don't hate on my design skills. :)

This repo will not get many pushes as there's little reason to constantly update a template.

Tested on:

• LibreOffice: 4.2
• Ubuntu Linux 14.04, Mac OSX 10.10 (Yosemite), Windows 7

Example file

View Example file.pdf to see the template's theme.

The example file has a large amount of formatting on a single page, so it's a lot more colorful than an actual documentation file contains (which as more black).

Installation

Installing the template involves downloading the .ott file then saving the template to your templates directory. The final step is to copy the table styles file to the LibreOffice config directory.

Template file

Setting up the template file involves the same steps on Mac, Linux and Windows.

1. Download the Tech Docs Template.ott file to your Downloads folder.
2. Navigate to your Downloads folder, then double-click the Tech Docs Template.ott file to open it in Writer.
3. Select File, select Templates, click Save As Template....
4. In the Template Manager dialog box:
   • Double-click My Templates.
   • Click Save.
   • Enter a template name of Tech Docs Template (or some other name that you'd like to use for this template).
   • Click OK.

Table AutoFormat file

Close LibreOffice if it's open.

Install on Mac

1. Download the autotbl.fmt file to your Downloads folder.
2. Open a terminal an run the following commands:

# Backup your existing autotbl.fmt file
cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/LibreOffice/4/user/config/autotbl.fmt ~/Library/Application\ Support/LibreOffice/4/user/config/autotbl.fmt-bk

cp ~/Downloads/autotbl.fmt ~/Library/Application\ Support/LibreOffice/4/user/config/autotbl.fmt

Install on Linux

1. Download the autotbl.fmt file to your Downloads folder.
2. Open a terminal an run the following commands:

# Backup your existing autotbl.fmt file
cp ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user/config/autotbl.fmt ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user/config/autotbl.fmt-bk

cp ~/Downloads/autotbl.fmt ~/.config/libreoffice/4/user/config

Install on Windows 7

Note: I'm unable to get the table AutoFormat file to work on Windows.

1. Download the autotbl.fmt file to your Downloads folder.
2. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:/Users/<user name>/AppData/Roaming/LibreOffice/4/user/config.
3. Make a copy of autotbl.fmt.
4. Copy the new autotbl.fmt file that you downloaded from the Downloads folder to the LibreOffice config folder:

C:/Users/<user name>/AppData/Roaming/LibreOffice/4/user/config.

Getting started

Create new document

Let's start by creating a new document based on our template.

1. Open LibreOffice Writer.
2. Select File, select New, click Templates.
3. In the Template Manager dialog box:
   • Select the Templates tab.
   • Double-click My Templates.
   • Double-click the Tech Docs Template file.

Update the title property

1. Select File, click Properties.
2. Select the Description tab.
3. Change the Title field. The title is inserted into the footer of every page.
4. Click OK.

Template styles

Paragraph styles

Default font style

• Default Style: The default font style that is used as the basis for other styles. Also used as the default style in the document.
• Text Body: Similar to Default Style.

Headings

• Title: Document title at the top of 1st page.
• Heading 1: Level 1 heading. Typically used as a section heading.
• Heading 2: Level 2 heading. Typically used as a sub-section heading.
• Heading 3: Level 3 heading.
• Heading 4: Level 4 heading.
• Heading 5: Level 5 heading.

Blockquotes

• Information: Emphasize key points that the reader should learn. Blue.
• Alert: Highlight warnings and other danger areas. Red.
• Hint: Provide the reader with tips and tricks. Green.

Code blocks

• Code: Highlight large code blocks.

Table fonts

• Table Heading: Provides a bold, centered font for table column or row headings.
• Table Contents: Default font for values places within a table.

Image subtitle

• Caption -> Image: Small font size to write captions below an inserted image.

Character styles

• Inline Code: Inline code is used to hightlight code placed in the middle of a normal sentence such as y = x - 1.

Frame styles

• Graphics -> Image: Centers an image and prevents text wrapping.

Table AutoFormat styles

• Table: Default table style for this template.

How to apply the various styles

Mouse over the icons in the Styles and Formatting pane to view the text tip.

Paragraph styles

1. Press F11 to open the Styles and Formatting pane.
2. Click the Paragraph Styles icon in the Styles and Formatting pane.
3. Select the text you want to format, then double-click the style you want to apply.

Character styles

1. Press F11 to open the Styles and Formatting pane.
2. Click the Character Styles icon in the Styles and Formatting pane.
3. Select the text you want to format, then double-click the style you want to apply.

Frame styles

1. Select Insert, select Image, click From File....
2. Select an image, then click OK.
3. In the Writer document, select the newly inserted image.
4. In the Styles and Formatting pane, click the Frame Styles icon.
5. Double-click Image. (Hint: If Image is not visible, then expand Graphics)

Table AutoFormat styles

1. Press Ctrl + F12 (or Cmd + F12 on Mac) to open the Insert Table dialog box.
2. Press the AutoFormat button.
3. Select Table, click OK.
4. Change any other table settings you want to change, then click Insert.