Documentation team meeting minutes Friday December 12th, 2025 --** 15:00 UTC **--

Presents: Dione, Edward, Olivier

Completed Actions Items:

Calc Guide : Chap 8 Printing…(Olivier)
Master document (Olivier)

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=167650
Wrong shortcut keys for double underline

Pending Action Items:

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=168924
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157395

AI: New GSOC Improvements

AI: + use redirect for some languages to books.lo (olivier)
AI: + move legacy docs to safe place (nextcloud? wiki?) (olivier)

AI Review Chapt 18: (Ed Olson)
+ F2 + Ctrl+Shift+enter (Olivier)

AI Review Chapt 19: (Ed Olson)

AI: New chapter (Appendix) on keyboard shortcuts (Dione)
AI: Submit bug for Keyboard shortcut dialog

AI: Getting started with Base chapter needs rewrite?

Topics

Help pages (recurring)

  • Updates and fixes
  • New pages for new features

Documentation website pages

Guide Bugs reported in Bugzilla

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=137487

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=167965
Levels of sorting in Calc

Getting Started Guide (recurring)

Calc Guide (recurring)

Writer guide (recurring)

AI: New chapter (Appendix) on keyboard shortcuts (Dione)
AI: Submit bug for Keyboard shortcut dialog
+ Have a search field or checkboxes row for
quick find of available/existing shortcuts

Draw Guide (recurring)

Misc (recurring)

Help Chatbot
+ stalled
+ See Franklin Weng presentation in Budapest on LLM for LibreOffice

File management in NextCloud.
+ pending

Provide sample spreadsheets?
+ pending
Videos
+ Stalled - under evaluation

Sanity check extension
+ Latest release 25.10

General Info:

Doc team Telegram - group

Doc team in TDF Jitsi

Doc team pad for minutes
https://pad.documentfoundation.org/p/documentation

Next meeting:
+ Fridays at 15:00 UTC.

Hello Olivier

After receiving an email from ilmari about themes in Impress has raised a question.

Do I include information on how to use and create themes in the Impress, Draw and Math user guides?

Regards
PeeWee

Hello Olivier

Impress Guide 252 and IG252 Chapter 2.

I have replaced the PDF and Published files.

Thanks to iImari, I had missed out a complete section on Impress Themes and this section now in the user guide and chapter 2.

Regards
PeeWee
Technical Writer

Hello Peter

The Theme thing was for release 24.2, and according to the patch

https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/156123

it was removed in August 26 2023, which correspond to LibreOffice 24.8 or later and is not available anymore.

You had added the change in the 25.2 book.

Olivier
PS: For what it worth, release 24.2 is outdated and may not worth the effort to fix the book.

Hello Olivier

Themes are available for Impress in LO 26.2.
I have added a new section at the end of IG26202-SlideMastersStylesTemplates with instructions on how to create new themes.

Regards
PeeWee

Hello Olivier

How do you delete a theme from LibreOffice?

You can create a theme, but there is no method given on deleting themes if a theme is no longer required.

Regards
PeeWee

Hello Olivier and ilmari

After carrying out a few tests on LibreOffice Themes the following is my conclusion.

Why use themes when LibreOffice templates and styles are very easy to use? A LibreOffice user will find that templates are styles are easier to use.
After creating a new theme, you CANNOT delete the new theme from LibreOffice. Only way to delete a custom is totally remove and reinstall LibreOffice.
A new theme cannot be renamed. A new theme will only use LibreOffice-1 or 2 and so on.
The benefit from creating accurate colours in LibreOffice is non-existent. Display of.colours in a display depend on computer OS, computer age, computer graphics chip and the type of computer display being used.
Themes option should be totally removed from LibreOffice.

Regards
PeeWee (Technical Writer)

1 Like

Hi @PeeWee

I also agree with the removal of the Theme feature for the same reason: Styles and templates are much more flexible and powerful than Themes.

Removals are a topic for the ESC, I’ll bring it to the weekly meeting.

Olivier

Hello Olivier

A couple of points I would like to raise for the documentation meeting this afternoon. I cannot attend because of previous commitments.

LO Templates

LO templates are available for the LO Chapters and LO Master, but where is the LO template for LO User Guides? I do not create master documents, but create LO user guides for Draw, Impress and Math. If I create a LO User Guide template, the template gets rejected by the LO Sanity Check.

LO Sanity Check

Is the LO Sanity Check only for LO User Guides, or can I use the sanity check for a document that I create?

For example, if I create a LO user guide for Draw, then run the sanity check, I get a warning message stating that the template cannot be used because it is NOT an official LO template. The LO Sanity Check will not work for a document that I create using a template that I have created.

Regards

PeeWee

Hello Olivier
A couple of points I would like to raise for the documentation meeting this afternoon. I cannot attend because of previous commitments.

LO Templates
LO templates are available for the LO Chapters and LO Master, but where is the LO template for LO User Guides? I do not create master documents, but create LO user guides for Draw, Impress and Math. If I create a LO User Guide template, the template gets rejected by the LO Sanity Check.

LO Sanity Check
Is the LO Sanity Check only for LO User Guides, or can I use the sanity check for a document that I create?
For example, if I create a LO user guide for Draw, then run the sanity check, I get a warning message stating that the template cannot be used because it is NOT an official LO template. The LO Sanity Check will not work for a document that I create using a template that I have created.

Regards
PeeWee

The master template should be the guide template, if you don’t use a master document.

The sanity check performs checking on many items to ensure consistency with the template. However, it adds a comment on changes that requires approval by the author. If you habe 300 lists, you may get 300 comments which is not practical.

I advise to run the sanity check on each chapter before assembling the book.

And yes, the sanitycheck extension is closely tied to the supplied template. If you use a template of your own, the checks will break and cause more harm than good.

Cheers
Olivier

Hello Olivier

Thank you for your explanation and will follow your advice. If I have problems, I shall let you know.

Regards
PeeWee

  • SanityCheck macros are intended for individual chapters of guides and some do not run in a complete guide.
  • Although some macros can be used in Complete Guides or other ODT files, others can be destructive so several checks are made on the template and file names to avoid their use in other documents. The documentation (a little old) can be consulted at SanityCheck 1.0.9

The use of master documents is recommended and the easiest to assemble the chapters of the guides.
Any change to a chapter is reflected in the master document without the need to search and make the same change in an odt document with the final guide.

  • Once the guide is assembled it can be exported to a regular Writer (odt) document as a complete guide.

The Master Document (ODM) Template (OTM) has the necessary styles for the complete guide, and is technically the same that can be applied to a complete guide in ODT format.

  • The technique of creating a document (ODT) for the final guide and pasting the content of the individual chapters is also another way, but in addition to being more laborious, it is less reliable.
  • If you use the ODT document technique and then use a macro on an individual chapter, the changes do not apply to the entire guide and you will have to make the changes to the entire guide manually.
    With the master document technique the changes are synchronized in the chapter and the final guide.

There are two ways in which SanityCheck can be used to achieve an ODT document with the complete guide styles without using the master document technique.

Way 1: Create an ODM document and export it to ODT

    • Create a master document with the LO_UG_Master_26_EN template.
    • Change the cover, complete the CopyRight, etc.
    • Export the odm file to odt format (File > Export).

You will have an ODT document with the complete guide styles ready to paste the content of the chapters.

Way 2: Apply the template to an empty ODT document or a complete guide in ODT already created

- Empty ODT Document

1 - Create a blank document, no need to use any template
2 - Save it with the standardized name of the guides, for example DG268-DrawGuide.odt
3 - Use the menu SanityCheck > Prepare Document > Link template

  • Sanity Check displays a message warning that the document looks like a complete guide and allows you to apply the same master document template to the ODT file

- Complete guide in ODT format already created.

Use point 3 above

Thank you for the info Anotonio

I shall be trying all methods you advise and will let you know the result.

Regards
PeeWee

Thank you Antonio

Your first method of exporting the master guide works very well.

Regards
PeeWee