12.9.11.2 Working with OpenDocument style files

This section explores the internals of the ODT exporter and the means by which it produces styled documents. Read this section if you are interested in exploring the automatic and custom OpenDocument styles used by the exporter.

Factory styles

The ODT exporter relies on two files for generating its output. These files are bundled with the distribution under the directory pointed to by the variable org-odt-styles-dir. The two files are:

• OrgOdtStyles.xml

  This file contributes to the styles.xml file of the final ‘ODT’ document. This file gets modified for the following purposes:

  1. To control outline numbering based on user settings.
  2. To add styles generated by htmlfontify.el for fontification of code blocks.
• OrgOdtContentTemplate.xml

  This file contributes to the content.xml file of the final ‘ODT’ document. The contents of the Org outline are inserted between the ‘<office:text>’…‘</office:text>’ elements of this file.

  Apart from serving as a template file for the final content.xml, the file serves the following purposes:

  1. It contains automatic styles for formatting of tables which are referenced by the exporter.
  2. It contains ‘<text:sequence-decl>’…‘</text:sequence-decl>’ elements that control how various entities—tables, images, equations, etc.—are numbered.

Overriding factory styles

The following two variables control the location from which the ODT exporter picks up the custom styles and content template files. You can customize these variables to override the factory styles used by the exporter.

• org-odt-styles-file

  Use this variable to specify the styles.xml that will be used in the final output. You can specify one of the following values:

  1. A styles.xml file

     Use this file instead of the default styles.xml

  2. A .odt or .ott file

     Use the styles.xml contained in the specified OpenDocument Text or Template file

  3. A .odt or .ott file and a subset of files contained within them

     Use the styles.xml contained in the specified OpenDocument Text or Template file. Additionally extract the specified member files and embed those within the final ‘ODT’ document.

     Use this option if the styles.xml file references additional files like header and footer images.

  4. nil

     Use the default styles.xml

• org-odt-content-template-file

  Use this variable to specify the blank content.xml that will be used in the final output.