CEG's Linux User Group

Recently I was creating a Presentation. Since I was not satisfied with any of the available templates, I decided to create one on my own. So I just googled out and found out the different formatting options and a few tips on creating an OOo(OpenOffice.org) template. Here are some of them which might be of help to you.

1. First decide how your template should look like. Planning is the first step of any process. :)
2. Secondly, collect the necessary images. You can edit your images using THE GIMP, an open source Image editor.
3. Now that you have collected all your necessary items, we will start creating the template. Open OpenOffice.org Presentation by going to Applications->Office->OpenOffice.org Presentation.
4. It will ask you to choose what type of Presentation you want to create. Choose "Empty Presentation" and click on Create.
5. Now before we could proceed, you should have a small idea about VIEWS. Once OOo Presentation opens, the view which appears is known as the Normal View. Any changes made in this normal view affects only the current slide. But the main purpose of the template is that the changes made in it should be reflected in all the containing slides. This can be achieved by editing the Master Slide. The Master Slide decides how all your slides should look. To edit the Master Slide you should switch to Master View. To do this goto, View->Master->Slide Master.
6. Now that you are in the Master View, any changes made here are reflected in all the Slides. You can change the background of this slide, edit its colors and also change its fonts. You can do almost anything. I'll give you a few tips on these.
7. To edit the background of the template, you can use Format->Page. This allows you to choose a background color or a gradient and others.
8. This initially gives an impression that it confines our editing options to those few available colors. But this is not actually true. We can edit these colors and gradients to our need. Goto Format->Area. Browse through the tabs and you have your answers. (Choose your custom color and it gets added to the list of colors)
9. A presentation is not complete until it has the proper fonts in it. OOo gives us options to edit the fonts also. Right click on any of the text area until the "I" beam appears. Click on Edit Styles. This gives you a list of fonts to choose from.
10. Once you are done with editing these slides, you will have to come back to the Normal view. To do this click on Close Master View button available in the Master View Pane just above the slide.
11. Your need may vary depending on the position of the page. Your front page may require only the Title & Author name. Other pages may require a Title and some text etc., To achieve this formatting you dont have to bother your Master Slide. This can be achieved using the layouts. In the Tasks pane, to the right of the window, click on the Layouts division. You will get a list of available layouts. You can choose the required layout from these.
12. Once you are done with creating the template, you will have to save it. This can be done in 2 ways,
    • Select File->Save As, and choose the Type as OpenOffice.org Presentation Template, or
    • Select File->Template->Save. You can give your template a name and save it in My Templates. You can even Organize your templates using the Organizer option.
13. It gets saved with the extension .otp

Now that you know how to create a template, its time for you to put your creativity into action and create your own template. It doesn't stop there. Create your template and share it with the world. :) Welcome yourself to the world of OpenSource.

References:

http://www.openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/03/templates_makin.html

http://panela.blog-city.com/howto_create_an_impress_openofficeorg_template.htm