In the standard menu bar, you have the 'Edit File' button which turns edit mode on or read-only mode on, but there isnt a menu item for this functionality that i could find, as i believe it should be under the 'View' menu item. Tested on 4.2.5, 4.3.0 and master and confirmed its not available in 3.3.0.
After further consideration from bug 80538 comment 3, as there is a 'Edit' menu, it maybe more suitable to have it in that menu.
Quote by Mirek2 from bug 80538 comment 11 : "... and have an entry in the menubar as well (perhaps with a keyboard shortcut for quick access)"
I propose it be added to the bottom of the 'Edit' menu underneath a separator. Mirek2 suggested a shortcut key, so i'm suggesting ctrl+shift+e.
Patch under review: https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/#/c/10211/ Assigning a shortcut result in odd behavior. You can go to 'non-editable mode', but you can't go back. That's the reason why I didn't add it yet.
Joren De Cuyper committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=2420e776f728aee6171a8afe199ff84907152c39 fdo#80536 UI: Menu entry for 'Edit File' -> 'Edit Mode' The patch should be included in the daily builds available at http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More information about daily builds can be found at: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
Glad to see this has arrived in 4.4. Joren can you push a similar one into 4.3 but only with the xml modifications part, as the name change part will require translators to do more work and 4.3 is releasing soon.
(In reply to comment #6) > Glad to see this has arrived in 4.4. Joren can you push a similar one into > 4.3 but only with the xml modifications part, as the name change part will > require translators to do more work and 4.3 is releasing soon. Hi Jay, No I can't because there is a UI freeze. Due the fact a menu entry is part of the UI I may not push it. Also 4.3.0.3 is the last RC before pushing. If no blockers are found in this RC3 build, it'll be released as the official 4.3.0 version (probably this week). We should wait until 4.4 :-) Kind regards, Joren
Samuel Mehrbrodt committed a patch related to this issue. It has been pushed to "master": http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libreoffice/core/commit/?id=f5b24e71828fc6eb095fdd7167bdc8043525563d fdo#80536 Add a shortcut to "Edit Mode" menu entry The patch should be included in the daily builds available at http://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/ in the next 24-48 hours. More information about daily builds can be found at: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Testing_Daily_Builds Affected users are encouraged to test the fix and report feedback.
I hate the vague wording: a casual user can’t immediatelly tell what “Edit Mode” does. Why isn’t it worded “Read-Only Mode” or something similar?
I do also prefer 'Read-Only Mode' over 'Edit Mode' for the menu item, but are you comfortable with that on the toolbar button toolip, as the two have the same label associated with them.
This bug fix comes with LibreOffice 4.4 (release notes https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/4.4) LibreOffice will now display an infobar to indicate visibly when a document is being opened in read-only mode. This infobar replaces the “Edit file” icon in the main toolbar, as its labeling and usage patterns proved confusing for users. Activation and deactivation of read-only mode is also available from within the menu Edit ▸ Edit Mode or through the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+⇧ Shift+M. See a graphic of the work: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/File:Read-only_infobar.png
I've just discovered this feature in the Release Notes, and I must say it's a great improvement. Thanks you for this!