Main Content

Open Template Files

Each report output type has a default template file for each output type, Microsoft® Word, PDF, and HTML. Each template file contains a template library of document part templates. The names of document part templates for a reporter start with the name of that reporter to distinguish them from built-in Word templates. For Word output, the template library is in a Word template file named default.dotx. Its document part templates are in the Word Quick Parts Gallery. For PDF, HTML, and single-file HTML output, the template libraries are in default.pdftx and default.htmtx or default.htmt template text files, respectively. Each document part template is in a separate section of the template file. The default.pdftx and default.htmtx files are zipped files packages and must be unzipped before you can edit them.

Previewing Templates

Since R2024b

If you just want to preview the content and styles of a template, you can use tmplview. This preview works for all of the DOM templates types.

Open Word Template Files

To open a Word template file, which contains a template library, right-click the default.dotx file name and select Open.

Note

To open a Word template file, do not double-click its .dotx file name. Double-clicking its file name opens a Word document (.docx) file that uses the .dotx file as its template.

For some reporters, such as the Section and Chapter reporters, when you open the Word template file, a blank page appears. To see images of the individual templates, click the Explore Quick Parts icon in the Text section of the Insert ribbon. The document part templates for reporters are of type mlreportgen.

Word template with Explore Quick Parts button selected and called out with a label

To view the contents of an individual template, click its image in the Quick Parts Gallery to copy it into the main part of the document.

To see its holes, select Design Mode in the Developer Ribbon. If the Developer Ribbon is not displayed, select File Options and then, Customize Ribbon. In the Customize the Ribbon list, check Developer.

To display paragraph and other formatting marks, select File Options and then, select Display. Check Show all formatting marks.

Note

If you do not want to change the template file, remove all copied templates from the main part of the document before you close or save the template file.

Open PDF Template Library Files

To open a PDF template library file, use unzipTemplate to unzip the default.pdftx file. Then, use any text editor to open the docpart_template.html template library file. The template library file has an html extension because PDF templates are based on HTML templates.

Open HTML Template Library Files

Open an HTML Template Library File

To open an HTML template library file, use unzipTemplate to unzip the default.htmtx file. Then, use any text editor to open the docpart_template.html template library file.

Open a Single-File HTML Template Library File

To open a single-file HTML template, use any text editor to open the default.htmt template library file.