Working with Templates

What is a Template?

A template is a special document meant to be used as a starting point for creating new documents. For example, a business letter template might include company address, company logo, the current date, salutation, and signature. When you open a template file you are actually starting a new document with content already in place. After opening a business letter template you would only need to add the letter body and any recipient information.

A number of ready made templates such as envelopes and label sheets can be found on the Jarte templates page.

Creating Templates

Templates are created just as you would create any other file. Any file in Jarte's Templates folder is automatically treated as a template. Additionally, rich text files saved using Save As Template are treated as templates regardless of what folder they reside in. Save As Template defaults to Jarte's Templates folder. Note that Jarte supports both rich text and  plain text templates, but plain text templates must reside in Jarte's Templates folder. Advanced setting Templates Folder can be used to change the Jarte's templates folder location.

Jarte supports the use of special tags in template files. When a new file is started from a template the special tags are replaced with appropriate text as described below:

{{SHORT_DATE}} - This tag is replaced with the current calendar date using the short date format.

{{LONG_DATE}} - This tag is replaced with the current calendar date using the long date format.

{{CLIPBOARD}} - This tag is replaced by the current contents of the Windows clipboard.

{{CURSOR}} - This tag is removed from the new document and the text cursor is placed at the location in the text where the tag was positioned. Note that this tag should not appear more than once in a template file.

{{AHK_SCRIPT=<script name>}} -  This tag behaves the same as the {{CURSOR}} tag, but in addition it runs the specified AutoHotkey script file. <script name> must be the script's file name in Jarte's "Scripts" folder. For example, if you have a script file named My Special Script.ahk in Jarte's Scripts folder, and you want to execute that script from a template, then the appropriate template tag would be {{AHK_SCRIPT=My Special Script}}. Go to Help > System Information > Data Folder to see the location of Jarte's Scripts folder.

A script can be used to easily insert any text at the position of the tag, and you can use as many script tags as desired in the template file. Note that this template tag is only supported in Jarte Plus. See Working with Scripts for more information about creating scripts for use with Jarte.

Modifying Templates

In order to modify a template file it must be opened while pressing the Shift key. Otherwise, Jarte will create a new file based on the template rather than opening the original template file itself. After changes are made to the template it must be saved using Save As Template.

Creating New Documents from Templates

A new document can be started from a template simply by opening the desired template. Jarte includes its Templates folder in the Favorite Files list by default. If you keep your templates in the Templates folder then a document can be started from a template by selecting the Templates folder in Favorite Files list and then selecting the desired template.