Fixing Kingsoft Writer's default template

Introducing Kingsoft Office

Kingsoft Office is an up-and-coming contender in the field of office desktop productivity software that's dominated by Microsoft.  It's currently available for Linux and Windows.  While it doesn't quite compare to OpenOffice or LibreOffice in terms of breadth of features, it does focus on complete compatibility with the ubiquitous, but not at all standardized, MS Office file formats.  And it's also available in a free version that should fit most home users rather well, if you don't need Visual Basic for Applications macro support.

Unlike OpenOffice and LibreOffice, who are focused on compatibility while promoting their open, and very good in their own right, file formats, Kingsoft is focused nearly completely on bug-for-bug compatibility with MS Office. This means that documents created in MS Office should open in Kingsoft Office and look identical.  Also documents generated in Kingsoft Office and opened in MS Office should open with high fidelity.  Does this mean that you can use Kingsoft Office to edit documents from co-workers without fear of losing vital formatting?  I don't know.  But initial reports are promising.

Kingsoft Office is not open source, though it is freely downloadable.  It's produced commercially by a company in China, where Kingsoft Office is widely used, from what I hear.  It has only recently been becoming known in the English-speaking west, partly due to its well-received Android version of Kingsoft Office.Maybe it's a Chinese plot to steal all our data. Or maybe they are just tired of Microsoft running the show.  They are good at reverse-engineering and duplicating our products and technologies!  In this case I think we all benefit (unless it is a dastardly plot!).

Changing Kingsoft Writer's Defaults

The Kingsoft Writer US english default template is a little weird compared to MS Word and LO/SO.  For one, when you turn on the ruler, the default scale is in "characters."  Now I'm not sure what a character is precisely.  Is it an "en" or an "em" unit, dependent on the current font?  Is it based on the old standard of 10 or 12 characters per inch from mono-spaced, dot matrix printer days?  I haven't check it out.  As well the default tab stop is "2 characters," not the traditional 1/2" that we're used to.  So here I provide instructions on changing the default unit for display, and the default tab stop.  If you don't use inches and 1/2" stops, you can use whatever units you want, and whatever tab stops you want.

Kingsoft Writer's default blank document with strange units and the 2 character tabs

Changing the default units

As mentioned the default units are "characters."  To change this to something more sane, click on the little drop-down arrow next to the blue "Writer" button in the upper left-hand corner of the window if you're running the default UI. This accesses the classic menu, which is already on the screen if you're running in classic theme.  Select "Tools->Options."  You'll be presented with a little dialog box with lots of options.  We want to select "General and Save" on the left side.

Here you can select the "Measurement units" to be something you're more familiar with, like inches.  The option is a bit deceiving, though.  The ruler will still show "characters" unless you also uncheck the box that says, "Use character units."

Now you at least have a more familiar-looking document.  Be sure to cleanly shut down Kingsoft Writer, and these settings will be saved.

Editing the default template

Like in MS Office, the default template gives your new documents their starting settings, such as page size, margins, tab configuration, etc.  The easiest way to change this for all future documents is to edit this default template.  To do that, open the default template as if it were a normal document.  On Linux the default template is located in $HOME/.kingsoft/templates/wps/normal.wpt.  On Windows it is located in your user folder, C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Kingsoft\office6\templates\Normal.wpt  on Windows XP, or C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Kingsoft\office6\templates\Normal.wpt. Unfortunately once you open this template as a document, Kingsoft Office will not let you save it back to the same place. So save it somewhere else and then use Windows Explorer to copy your newly modified Normal.wpt over the one in the AppData or Application Data directory that I mentioned previously.

Opening the default template on Linux

Once the template is open, any change you make to the format of the document, when saved, will become the default.

Changing the tab stops

Even if you had previously change the display units, the default tab stops are still going to be "2 characters," which is a bit unusual.  Now that you're editing the default template, it's easy to change them.

Not sure where to find it on the ribbon, but it's in the conventional menu

In the Tabs dialog you can change the unit and the width of the default tab stops.  Be sure to save the template you're working on (save normally), and it will be the new default for blank documents.

Changing the default margin

If you don't like the default margins, you can change them in the template as well.  I prefer 1" margins, myself.  If you're using conventional menus, that's under File->Page Setup, just like in older versions of MS Office. The ribbon option is under "Page Layout."

As you can see it's about the same as it would be in MS Office or LibreOffice/OpenOffice. The only difference is that you can set the unit here and the value.  If it's not inches (or your preferred unit), feel free to set it.  Changing the unit does not convert the existing value, so if the margin was 25.4 mm, and you change it to inches, the value remains 25.4.  So you'll have to change the value after you change the units.

Save the template, and you're set!