Ubuntu – How to edit a LibreOffice Writer template file (.ott) directly

libreofficetemplates

I have a certain template file for LO Writer.

How can I edit that file directly, i.e. not by creating a new .odt file and saving it as a .ott file again?

This question is based on the following experience: under Windows, it is possible to right-click the file and choose something along the lines of Edit this file, which then open the .ott-file itself instead a blank new document.

Best Answer

Like most LibreOffice file formats, the .ott file is just a compressed archive. Rename it to filename.zip and open it with the archive manager. You will find several files and folders in it. Most likely you want to edit the contents.xml file. When you're done, compress the files and rename the file to newfilename.ott. Unless you have made a mistake somewhere, you can open this file with LibreOffice. LibreOffice is not very lenient towards errors in the XML markup, and will refuse to open the file if you forget to close a tag, for instance.

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