Allow for templates

[TechGnome]

It would be nice to be able to set up templates - in addition to the 3 samples that come out of the box. Use case: I just spent 20 minutes setting up my current project to use a layout format based on the Save the Cat beat ... which involved a lot of copying & pasting. It would be nice to 1) Save this off as a template so that if I wanted to use it as a base for additional projects, I could, and 2) it could be shared with others wanting to do the same.

[vkbo]

Thanks!

This can easily be implemented by extending the sample project logic to allow for unpacking template projects from a file dialog, or from a repository of submitted templates.

This requires the need for exporting a project as a template, which is simply to create a zip file of the nwProject.nwx file and the contents folder.

This is a branch-off from a discussion in #798.

[vkbo]

Added to this issue for future reference:

There is a discussion about the Snowflake method in #853. This may also be accommodated by a template. Perhaps one that is shipped with novelWriter.

[vkbo]

The new Welcome screen that will be available in 2.3 has an option to copy another project when creating a new project. The logic behind that option was added just now in #1680, so I consider this issue resolved.

What is and isn't a template project is up to you. novelWriter will take any project as the source, so if you want a pure template project, you need to create a project for that purpose.

I plan to add the option to save a project as a single file, which will make this feature even easier to use, as moving around single files is easier than whole project folders. But for now, the template is a project folder like any other.

[vkbo]

The source project can now also be a zip file containing at least a nwProject.nwx file and any number of .nwd files in the content folder. This feature can also be used to create a new project from a backup of another project.