Project templates

This guide shows you how to start a project from a template and how to save a project of your own as a template you can reuse.

A template gives a new project real structure from the first compile (a document class, a title block, starter content) instead of a bare starter file.

Choose a built-in template

Four templates ship with the app: three LaTeX and one Typst.

Template	Format	What you get
Basic article	LaTeX	A single-file `article` with title, author, abstract, and a starter body.
Beamer slides	LaTeX	A Beamer presentation with a title slide and a few example frames.
IEEE conference paper	LaTeX	The two-column IEEEtran layout: `main.tex` plus a starter `references.bib`.
Typst article	Typst	A single-file Typst article with title, author, and a starter body in `main.typ`.

IEEE conference paper needs the IEEEtran class in your TeX distribution. See Choosing a compile engine.

Typst is not bundled with Typeward. Typst article compiles only when the typst command-line tool is installed and on your PATH. See Typst projects.

Create a project from a template

Press Ctrl+N (Cmd+N on macOS), or select New project in the projects library, to open the New project dialog.
In the Or start from: strip, select Template.
In the Pick a template dialog, select a card. Cards are ordered by name, and each one carries the template’s name, a format chip, a short description, and its tags.
On the second step, fill in Project name and the template’s variable fields.
Select Create. The button reads Creating… while Typeward writes the project.

Screenshot of the Pick a template dialog, where you choose which template a new project starts from.

The dialog’s own line reads “Built-in templates ship with the app. Custom templates live under your app data directory.” The Filter by name, format, or tag… field narrows the grid as you type, matching name, description, format, and tags together. With nothing left the grid reads No matching templates.

Fill in the variables

The second step is titled New project from plus the template you picked. Its line reads “Fill in the variables. They substitute into the starter files at create time.” Project name starts as the template’s name, and each template variable gets its own field.

Template	Fields
Basic article	Title, Author, Abstract
Beamer slides	Title, Author, Institute
IEEE conference paper	Paper title, Authors (comma-separated), Abstract, Index terms
Typst article	Title, Author

Abstract fields are text areas. Every other field is a single line, and pressing Enter in any of them submits the form. Back returns to the grid.

Four rules govern what those fields do:

Defaults prefill. Where the template carries a default, the field starts filled. Title and Paper title both start as Untitled.
The author field prefills from your profile. A variable named author with no default in the template takes the display name from Settings → Profile → Display name. That covers Basic article, Beamer slides, and Typst article. The IEEE template’s variable is named authors, so it starts empty.
Blank fields are fine. An empty field substitutes as empty text. Creation never fails because you skipped the abstract, and you can fill it in later in the source.
Substitution happens once, at creation. Files the template marks as templated carry {{variable}} placeholders that Typeward replaces with what you typed. Everything else in the template folder is copied byte for byte, which is why the IEEE template’s references.bib arrives untouched.

In all four built-in templates the root file (main.tex or main.typ) is the templated one. Prefilled or not, every field stays editable. Once the project exists it is ordinary LaTeX or Typst, with no link back to the template.

Save a project as a template

Any project you have open can become a template of your own. The Save project as template dialog describes the capture as “Capture the current project’s files as a reusable custom template. Build output and .typeward/.git metadata are excluded.”

The command palette is the only way in. The command carries no keyboard shortcut and no menu entry, and it is listed only while a project is open.

Open the project you want to capture.
Press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on macOS) to open the command palette.
Run Save project as template to open its dialog.
Edit Name, which starts as the project name.
Optional: Fill in Description (optional), which carries the placeholder “What this template is for.”
Select Save template.

The dialog reports Saved "<name>". It now appears under Custom in the template gallery. and the remaining button becomes Done. An empty name gives Give the template a name. instead, and a name already taken gives A custom template with this name already exists. Pick a different name.

Check what the capture includes

Saving copies the project’s files as they sit on disk, and skips:

the .typeward/, .git/, .svn/, .hg/, and node_modules/ folders
symbolic links
LaTeX auxiliary files: .aux, .log, .out, .toc, .lof, .lot, .fls, .fdb_latexmk, .bbl, .blg, .bcf, .nav, .snm, .vrb, and any file with .synctex in its name

A saved template has no variables. The capture records concrete file contents rather than placeholders, so the gallery’s second step shows only Project name for it and the files are copied through unchanged.

Find your custom templates on disk

Custom templates live under templates/custom/ in Typeward’s app data folder, one folder per template, each holding the captured files plus a template.json manifest. The folder name comes from the template name under the same sanitizing rule as project folders. See Data locations.

The gallery has no delete button. Remove a custom template by deleting its folder.

Add variables to a saved template

Edit template.json by hand to turn a captured project into a real template:

{
  "id": "my-thesis-template",
  "name": "My thesis template",
  "description": "Department layout, with the front matter already set up.",
  "format": "latex",
  "tags": ["thesis"],
  "rootFile": "main.tex",
  "variables": [
    { "key": "title", "label": "Title", "default": "Untitled" },
    { "key": "author", "label": "Author", "default": "" },
    { "key": "abstract", "label": "Abstract", "default": "", "multiline": true }
  ],
  "files": [{ "path": "main.tex", "template": true }]
}

Each entry in variables becomes a field in the gallery’s second step, labeled with its label and prefilled with its default. Set "multiline": true for a text area.
A file listed in files with "template": true gets {{key}} substitution at creation time. A placeholder whose key you never declared resolves to empty text.
Files you do not list are copied verbatim, so a .cls file, a figure, or a .bib file is never at risk of accidental expansion.
Typeward re-reads the folder every time the gallery opens, so a hand-edited manifest shows up the next time you open Pick a template.

Check that it worked

Typeward writes the new project into your projects root and opens it in the editor. The folder name is derived from the project name: letters, digits, hyphens, and underscores survive, and every other character becomes a hyphen. A project named My thesis gets the folder My-thesis, and the projects library shows the name you typed.

A template you saved appears in the grid the next time you open Pick a template, sorted by name among the built-in ones. Despite what the save dialog’s message says, there is no Custom section, and nothing on the card marks a template as yours.

If it does not work

Rename the project when creation stops with an error. Typeward refuses to create the project if the derived folder already exists in your projects root.
Check template.json for a JSON error when a custom template stops appearing in the gallery. Typeward skips a manifest it cannot parse, without a warning.

Next steps

Your first project walks through the editor and your first compile.
Typst projects covers what a Typst project needs before it compiles.