Project Templates
What templates are
A project template preserves the structure of an existing project so that the same arrangement can be reused when starting new work.
Templates save the project’s sectioned writing layout, but not the writing inside those documents. They are useful when several projects follow a similar structure, such as novels, research projects, poetry collections, manuals, or recurring editorial workflows.
Saving a project as a template
If your plan includes custom templates, you can save a template from either the projects overview or from inside the project workspace.
From the projects overview, open the actions menu beside the project and choose Save as template.
From inside the workspace, open Project actions in the sidebar footer and choose Save as template.
Give the template a name and, optionally, a short description to help you recognise it later. The description is only shown in your templates list and does not become part of projects created from the template.
Choose Save template to store the project structure as a reusable template.
Using generic names
Enable Use generic names when you want the saved structure to use placeholder titles such as Section 1 and Document 1 instead of copying the current section and document names.
This is useful when you want to preserve only the shape of the sectioned writing tree and begin each new project from a neutral starting point.
Leave this option disabled when the existing section and document titles are themselves part of the reusable structure.
Templates and project type
Templates included with Spleen can suggest a matching project type. For example, a novel template suggests Novel, while the poetry collection template suggests Poetry. You can override the suggested type before creating the project without changing the template’s starting structure.
When you save one of your own projects as a custom template, its project type is saved with the template. A new project created from it starts with that type selected, but you can choose another type before creation.
Managing templates
Open Account → Templates to see the project templates you have saved. This section appears when your plan supports custom templates or when templates from earlier Library access remain on your account.
Each template is shown with its name and description. Templates that are no longer needed can be removed from this list.
If you move to a plan without custom templates, your saved templates remain visible and are not deleted. You can still remove them, but you cannot use them to start a project until you return to Library.
Good to know
- Templates preserve writing sections and the documents inside those sections, not the text inside documents.
- Type and template remain separate: changing a project type does not change its structure.
- Saving a template does not change the original project.
- Generic names create a neutral structure with placeholder titles.
- Template descriptions are optional and are only there to help identify saved templates.
- Templates are managed separately from normal projects.
- An uploaded book cover is not saved as part of a template.
- Loose writing documents outside a section are not saved into custom templates.
- Sections and documents in Archive or Trash are not saved into custom templates.
- If the source project has a research structure, new projects created from the template can start with the standard research structure, but the template does not preserve research document content.