Re: [libreoffice-website] L.O. Templates and Extensions

On 13/11/2016 00:15, Tom wrote:

> frustrating question that does  NOT fit in any FAQ or other program type Help areas! 

> I was very disappointed to find nothing but a few useless templates 

It is more than a little disconcerting to see the "Inglenook and
TimeSaver Puzzle" at the top of the list, when selecting "All
categories" sorted on "Most Downloaded". That template almost epitomises
"useless template".(^1)

> to me, and not even a very good letter template.

I sympathise with your frustration in finding high quality templates.

The received wisdom that it is both faster, and easier to create one
from scratch, than hunting for something ready-made.

Whilst I disagree with that received wisdom, it is much easier to simply
assume that said templates don't exist in the ODF ecological system,
than spend time hunting for them.

By way of example, I spent between 40 and 80 hours scouring the Internet
for Project Management templates, finding nothing that met all of my
checkboxes.
I ended up spending the best part of 400 hours, creating a set of 70
forms,(^2) using Cynthia Stackpole Snyder's _A Project Managers Book of
Forms_. (John Wiley: 2013 ISBN 978-1-118-43078-1) as my primary
template. I'm not happy with them, but intussen they will do.
Furthermore, as I use them, I'll make the adjustments that they need.

> anything later than Version 4 of Writer for example. And even less for Calc.

Several things are at play:
* Creating templates that work with older versions of LibO;
* Creating templates that work with AnOO, AOo, EO, NO, etc;
* Complaints by MSO users, that the template doesn't work with their
software (^3);

I create templates with LibO, but test them with AOo, and EO on Android.
Those I've uploaded to the LibO Template Repository have been tagged
with LibO 3.3 through 5.1, or 5.2.

This cross-program/old version capability doesn't mean that the
templates don't use things like Classification. Rather, it means that if
it fails in not-the-bleeding-edge of LibO, it does so gracefully, and
remains functional.

> So my next trip was to OpenOffice.org to see if their templates

Their template repository has become an even bigger haven of spammers,
than LibO's template repository.

> with a full and expansive list of templates including all the ones I
> wanted and needed for Writer and Calc, my major interest. 

Sounds like what you want is
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ooop/files/Extension/2.6.0.2/OOOP-templates-nonfree-unified-en-US-2.6.0.2.oxt/download
and
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ooop/files/Extension/2.6.0.2/OOOP-templates-separated-all-2.6.0.2.oxt/download
or, maybe something else from
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ooop/files/Extension/2.6.0.2/

This underscores something easily missed.
Templates can be found in the extension repository, because the creator
decided it was easier to bundle umpteen templates together, than
individually describe them.

> Not even a good #10 business envelope template existed!

">New >Labels"

Something that is neither intuitive, nor documented.

> The same basic experience was had with Extensions also.


> time spend some time creating Templates at least,

The major issues I've seen, with "template hackathons" are:
* Potential copyright infringement;
* Pump and dump;

Whether or not templates legally qualify for copyright protection, is up
to the local judiciary to determine. I'm fairly confident that The
Document Foundation has better things to do with its money, then test
legal theories in courts in either the United States, or Germany.

"Pump and dump", even when from legal sources, generally produces low
quality work product, which nobody cleans up, and polishes into a high
quality work product.

One potential solution to the apparent lack of templates might be:
* Grab all of the templates at https://sourceforge.net/projects/ooop/;
* Do due diligence on each template;
* Add Dublin Core Meta Data to each template;
* Modify each template to current LibO template criteria;
* Upload the cleaned up template to the LibO repository;

>     I suggest starting with:

Whilst this list of what is needed, is a useful starting point for
anybody who wants to volunteer their services in creating the templates,
twould be a better use of the project's limited resources, if that
volunteer instead wrote documentation, explaining how to access, and use
the templates that are included with LibO, that are on that list.





^1: Does sort by "Most Downloaded" really do so? For both the developer,
and potential user, seeing actual download numbers can be useful. This
specific template (Inglenook.1-8-8.ots) serves a niche audience: Model
railroaders that are looking for an easy way to generate random
consists. The secondary audience is no bigger, especially since it is
barely hinted at, in the documentation that comes in the template.

^2: The only feedback on my templates at
http://templates.libreoffice.org/template-center, has been from MSO
users, complaining that the templates don't work with MSO.

^3: Technically, the set of templates I constructed, is a derivative
work, and as such, permission from the copyright holder --- probably
John Wiley --- to distribute them needs to be obtained.

jonathon


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