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LibreOffice / OpenDocument Templates

Templify processes templates written in LibreOffice Writer, Collabora Online or Apache OpenOffice, saved as OpenDocument Text (.odt) or OpenDocument Text Template (.ott). The template syntax is the same as for Word templates: everything in the Template Syntax, Placeholders, Conditionals, Loops and Format Specifiers guides works in LibreOffice too.

The output is always an OpenDocument Text document (.odt), also when the template is an .ott file.

Authoring a Template in LibreOffice Writer

  1. Create a new document in LibreOffice Writer and type the text of your document.

  2. Type placeholders, conditionals and loops directly in the text, exactly as in Word:

    Hello {{Customer.Name}}!

{{#if IsVip}}
Thank you for being a VIP customer.
{{/if}}

{{#foreach Items}}
{{Name}}: {{Price:currency}}
{{/foreach}}

  3. Format the text as you like. A placeholder takes the formatting of its first character, so a bold, red {{Name}} produces a bold, red name.

  4. Save with File → Save As and choose ODF Text Document (.odt), or File → Templates → Save as Template for an .ott template.

Tips for LibreOffice

  • AutoCorrect may turn straight quotes into typographic quotes ("Active" → “Active”). Templify accepts both in conditions, so you do not need to turn AutoCorrect off.
  • Do not save as Flat XML ODF Text Document (.fodt): that format is not supported.
  • If you save the template as a Word document (.docx) from LibreOffice, it is processed as a Word template and the output is a .docx file.

What Is Supported

Everything that works in Word templates works in OpenDocument templates:

Feature Notes
Placeholders, nested paths, indexes, format specifiers, expressions In paragraphs, headings, tables, lists, sections, text boxes and frames, footnotes and endnotes, headers and footers
Placeholders with mixed formatting A placeholder is found even when its characters are formatted differently, for example a bold Name in {{Name}}
Conditionals ({{#if}}, {{#elseif}}, {{#else}}) As blocks (markers in their own paragraphs), inline within one paragraph, over table rows and over list items
Loops ({{#foreach}}) Over paragraphs and other blocks, table rows and list items, nested to any depth, with @index, @number, @first, @last and @count
Markdown in values **bold**, *italic*, ~~strikethrough~~, combined with the template formatting
Line breaks in values A newline in a value becomes a line break
Headers and footers Including first-page and left-page headers and footers, and their left, center and right regions
Document properties Title, subject, author and other properties set by the application are written to the document metadata

Lists

In LibreOffice, bulleted and numbered lists are separate list items rather than numbered paragraphs:

  • Put loop and conditional markers in their own list items. Markers in a list work like markers in table rows: the marker items are removed, and the items between them are repeated, kept or removed.
  • A single bullet between normal paragraphs is a list of its own, so a marker there works as if it were a normal paragraph.
  • A marker inside a longer list must have its matching end marker in the same list. Otherwise processing fails with a "has no matching {{/if}}" (or {{/foreach}}) error.
  • Numbering continues across loop iterations. When a loop repeats a numbered list (for example a single numbered item between {{#foreach}} and {{/foreach}} paragraphs, or a numbered item in a repeated table row), the copies are numbered on (1., 2., 3.), as in Word. Each copy continues the first copy of the same list, even when other paragraphs or lists come between them. Other lists are not changed: a numbered list after the loop still starts at 1 unless you set it to continue in LibreOffice. In nested loops, the numbering also continues across the repetitions of the outer loop, as in Word.

Differences from Word Templates

A few things behave differently from Word templates, mostly because of how the OpenDocument format works:

  • Spaces collapse. OpenDocument shows several ordinary spaces in a row as one space, like a web page. Templify writes replacement values so that they appear exactly as given. But when a missing variable is removed (with the "replace with empty" setting) or an inline conditional is removed, two spaces can end up next to each other, and LibreOffice then shows only one. Word would show two.
  • Merged cells across rows. When a loop or conditional adds or removes table rows, cells merged vertically across those rows are not adjusted. Do not merge cells across loop or conditional rows.
  • Bookmarks are not renamed. Bookmarks copied by a loop keep their names. LibreOffice renames duplicates when it opens the document, so links to a copied bookmark point to the first copy. Frame, table and section names are made unique.
  • "Update fields on open" does not apply. LibreOffice updates page numbers and dates itself when it opens a document. A table of contents is not updated automatically. Use Tools → Update → Update All in LibreOffice.
  • Comments are not processed. Placeholders inside comments (annotations) stay as they are, as in Word templates.
  • Digital signatures are removed. A signed template produces an unsigned document, because the content has changed.
  • The preview thumbnail is removed. The thumbnail in a template shows the template itself, with its {{...}} markers. The output has no thumbnail, so file managers show a generic icon until LibreOffice saves the document again.
  • Document statistics are not updated. The page, word and character counts in the document properties (meta:document-statistic) are those of the template. LibreOffice recounts them when it saves the document.
  • Damaged or unusual packages are rejected. A package that contains an entry name twice, or an entry path that is absolute or contains .., fails with a clear message. LibreOffice does not write such packages.
  • Password-protected documents are not supported. Processing fails with a clear message.
  • Flat OpenDocument (.fodt) is not supported. Save the template as .odt or .ott.

Trying It Out

The Templify GUI application accepts .odt and .ott templates as well as .docx files. Select the template and a JSON data file, and the output is saved as <template>-output.odt. See Getting Started for the GUI and the JSON data format.

Next Steps