path: root/doc/kate-plugins/filetemplates.docbook

<chapter id="filetemplates">
  <chapterinfo>

    <title>File Templates</title>

    <authorgroup>
      <author>
        <firstname>Anders</firstname>
        <surname>Lund</surname>
        <affiliation>
          <address>&Anders.Lund.mail;</address>
        </affiliation>
      </author>
<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
    </authorgroup>
    <date>2006-01-10</date>
    <releaseinfo>0.1</releaseinfo>

    <keywordset>
      <keyword>KDE</keyword>
      <keyword>kate</keyword>
      <keyword>kdeaddons</keyword>
      <keyword>template</keyword>
      <keyword>macro</keyword>
    </keywordset>
  </chapterinfo>

  <title>Introduction</title>

  <para>The File Templates plug-in allows you to create files based on other
    files. You can use any file as a template, which will create a copy of the
    file with an empty &URL;, or use a special template file which may contain
    macros to fill in information like your name and email address, the
    current date and so on, and position the cursor at a
    convenient position in the new file.</para>
  <para>Furthermore, templates located in the template folder will
    be presented in the menu item
    <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>New from
        Template</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para> <para>The plug-in also
    provides a method to easily create a new template
    from an open document.</para>
  <para>The template folder is part of the &kde; file system, and
    consists of at least
    KDEDIR/share/applications/kate/plugins/katefiletemplates/templates and
    KDEHOME/share/applications/kate/plugins/katefiletemplates/templates. If your
    KDEDIRS environment variable contains additional directories, those are
    searched for a similar subdirectory as well. If equally named templates are
    found, the one in the local (KDEHOME) folder is chosen.</para>
  <sect1 id="katefiletemplates-menu">
    <title>Menu Structure</title>

    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <menuchoice>
            <guimenu>File</guimenu>
            <guimenu>New From Template</guimenu>
            <guimenuitem>Any File...</guimenuitem>
          </menuchoice>
        </term>
        <listitem><para>Presents you with Open File dialog that allows
            you to use any file as a template. If the chosen file has the
            extension <filename>katetemplate</filename> it will be parsed
            for template information and macros.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <menuchoice>
            <guimenu>File</guimenu>
            <guimenu>New From Template</guimenu>
            <guimenuitem>Use Recent</guimenuitem>
          </menuchoice>
        </term>
        <listitem><para>Presents a list of files recently used as
            templates, represented by their &URL;.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <menuchoice>
            <guimenu>File</guimenu>
            <guimenuitem>New From Template</guimenuitem>
          </menuchoice>
        </term>
        <listitem><para>The remainder of submenus contains links to
            templates. Click a menuitem to create a file as described by
            the menu item text.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <!-- Settings menu -->

      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu><guimenuitem>Manage
              Templates...</guimenuitem></menuchoice></term>
        <listitem><para>This will launch a dialog with a list of all templates
            found within the template directories, along with options to add,
            edit or remove templates.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="katefiletemplates-use">
    <title>Using a &kate; Template</title>
    <para>When creating a file from a template that contain template
      macros, some macros appears as editable variables in the text. Such
      variables appears as underlined words in the text.</para>
    <para>The first variable will be selected, so you just have to type to edit
      it.If the document text contains more instances of the same variable,
      they are changed as you edit. To move to the next editable variable,
      press the TAB key. When the last variable is edited, the list is
      dropped, and your TAB key works as normal.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="katefiletemplates-create">
    <title>Creating your own templates</title>
    <para>To create a new template, use the
      <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu>
        <guimenuitem>Manage Templates</guimenuitem></menuchoice> Item to launch
      the template management dialog. In that, click
      <guibutton>New...</guibutton> to launch the File Template Wizard. You
      will be asked for an optional file to turn into a template and prompted
      for template information settings, and a template file will be created for
      you.</para> <para>Alternatively, you can create a template manually by
      adding template information to the top of any file, add text and macros,
      and save it with the <filename>katetemplate</filename> extension.</para>
    <para>The template menu gets automatically updated if you chose to store
      your template in the template directory.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="katefiletemplates-edit">
    <title>Editing templates</title>
    <para>To edit a template, use the
      <menuchoice><guimenu>Settings</guimenu>
        <guimenuitem>Manage Templates...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. Select the
      template you want to work on and click <guibutton>Edit...</guibutton>,
      and the template file will be opened. Close the dialog, edit the template
      file as desired, save it and close it. Changes to templates takes
      immediate effect, you can activate the template to test your changes after
      saving it.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="katefiletemplates-format">
    <title>The &kate; Template Format</title>
    <para>If you use files with the extension
      <filename>katetemplate</filename>, they will be parsed for template
      information, macros and a cursor position.</para>

    <sect2 id="katefiletemplates-template-info">
      <title>Template information</title>
      <para>While reading in the file, the parser keeps
        lines beginning with the phrase
        <constant>katetemplate:</constant> and searches them for
        template information in the form VARIABLENAME=VALUE. The first line not
        starting with <constant>katetemplate:</constant> will be taken as the
        start of the template contents. VALUE may contain any character but
        equal sign (=). Legal variable names are:
        <variablelist>
          <varlistentry>
            <term><varname>Template</varname></term>
            <listitem><para>This is the template name, displayed in the
                <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>New from
                Template</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry>
            <term><varname>Group</varname></term>
            <listitem><para>The group places the template in a submenu of
                the <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>New from
                    Template</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry><term><varname>Name</varname></term>
            <listitem><para>This is the name that will be set for the
                document, and displayed in the file list and title bar. If the
                name contains <userinput>%N</userinput> that will be replaced
                with a number, increasing if more documents has the same
                name.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry>
            <term><varname>Highlight</varname></term>
            <listitem><para>The plug-in will try to set the Highlight for
                the new document to the value of this variable. The value
                should be the name, as found in the
                <menuchoice><guimenu>Tools</guimenu>
                  <guimenuitem>Highlighting</guimenuitem>
                </menuchoice>.</para>
            </listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry>
            <term><varname>Description</varname></term>
            <listitem><para>A short informative description of the
                template. This is currently used to set a Whatsthis string for
                the menu item, but may be used for more purposes in the
                future.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry><term>Author</term>
            <listitem><para>A string identifying the author, for example
                in the form <userinput>Name &lt;email address&gt;</userinput>.
                This is currently used to set a Whatsthis string for the menu
                item, but may be used for more purposes in the
                future.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
        </variablelist>
      </para>

    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="katetemplates-macros">
      <title>Template Macros</title>

      <para>While parsing the template contents, macros in the form
        <userinput>%{NAME}</userinput> or <userinput>${NAME}</userinput> are
        expanded. If you use the <userinput>$</userinput> prefix, the
        expanded macro will be treated as a editable variable when a document
        is created from the template, whereas if you use
        <userinput>%</userinput> it is not, unless expanding failed.</para>
      <para>The following macros are expanded:
        <variablelist>
          <varlistentry><term>time</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to the current time in your locale
                format.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry>
            <term>date</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to the current date in short
                format.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry>
            <term>datetime</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to the current date and time,
                formatted as a string according to your
                locale.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry>
            <term>year</term>
            <listitem><para>The current year as a four digit
                number.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry>
            <term>month</term>
            <listitem><para>The full name of the current month, according
                to your locale.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry><term>day</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to the current day of the month.</para>
            </listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry><term>hostname</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to the 'hostname' of your computer.</para>
            </listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry><term>index</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to 'i'.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry><term>fullname</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to your full name, as defined by the
                owner addressee in your standard &kde;
                addressbook.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry><term>firstname</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to your first name, as defined in the owner
                addressee in your standard &kde; addressbook.</para>
            </listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <varlistentry><term>lastname</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to your last name, as defined in the owner
                addressee in your standard &kde; addressbook.</para>
            </listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <!-- <varlistentry>
            <term>username</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to your username.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry> -->
          <varlistentry>
            <term>email</term>
            <listitem><para>Expands to your email address, as defined by
                the owner address in your standard &kde;
                addressbook.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>
          <!--<varlistentry>
            <term>organisation</term>
            <listitem><para>This is your organisation, as defined by
                the owner address in your standard KDE
                addressbook.</para></listitem>
          </varlistentry>-->
        </variablelist>
      </para>
      <para>Any macro not in the above list is treated as a editable variable
        no matter the prefix.
        If the same variable occurs multiple times in the template, they can be
        edited at once after creating a document from the template.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="katefiletemplates-cursor">
      <title>Setting the cursor position</title>
      <para>The special macro <userinput>${cursor}</userinput> will be replaced
        with a vertical bar and added to the end of the list of editable variables,
        independent on its location in the text.</para>
    </sect2>

  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="katefiletemplates-thanks-and-acknowledgements">
    <title>Thanks and Acknowledgments</title>

    <para>
      &kate; Plug-in <quote>File Templates</quote> copyright 2004 &Anders.Lund;
      &Anders.Lund.mail;.
    </para>

    <para>
      Documentation copyright 2004 &Anders.Lund;
    </para>

    <!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->

    <!-- &underFDL; -->
    &underGPL;

  </sect1>
</chapter>

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