On Sun, 24 Dec 2017, Paul A. Rubin wrote:
Check ~/.lyx/templates/defaults.lyx. That's the document class (and settings) that LyX clones whenever you start a new document (File > New).
Paul, OK. That explains it. There's only 1 premable in defaults.lyx and it's for the letter class.
This part I cannot explain. Did you save the document after clearing the preamble and before inserting the text?
Yes, I saved it.
If you have specific preambles you would like by default for certain document classes (and not the same preamble for all classes), you can do the following. For each document class, start a new document and rejigger the preamble to your liking. Also make any changes to class options, page size, margins, fonts etc. that tickle your fancy. You can also include boilerplate in the document body. Click File > Save As... and then click the Templates button in the file dialog to get to your templates directory. Save it with an evocative name (e.g., Bitching Letter to Editor.lyx).
I don't know what I want in each class preamble, but I'll create bare-bones preambles, then modify as I learn and re-save as the class defaults.
When you want to create a new document of that class, rather than File > New, use File > New from Template... to get your personalized version of the class. You can also include boilerplate in the document body.
This is part of my issue: I could not find a template I wanted to use in ~/.lyx/templates/ so I created a new doc and, of course, it used the default template it found. Thanks very much for the solution, Rich