It is possible to change comments that are not made by myself. For example, the formatted dummy text from https://extensions.libreoffice.org/en/extensions/show/132 contains comments authored by "LibreOffice Design Team". Modifying these comments is accepted and does not change the author. We should either block it completely (to remove and to resolve should be enough) or at least add a not "edited by <>" or modify the author. By the way, MSO has the same problem.
Although blocking should be correct, it is always possible to do it by editing the file. Perhaps adding a remark with the last editor at the end of the comment text, and replacing it with the current one.
Why is it a problem – especially compared to non-comment content? Consider that any challenges for users to edit comments can lead to complications with users working from multiple devices. More rough thoughts: * Editing history (displaying change, edit state and timestamps) * Cryptography approach for high necessity of trust
I would prevent this altogether, nor insert an "edited by". Then you're going to get "edited by" comments edited by other users with their own "edited by inserts"... :-( I'd suggest something like a "weak locking", i.e. prevent editing other people's comments by default, but allow an "if you insist then ok" kind of a way to bypass the restriction. Not sure exactly how - some submenu entry, or context menu which takes you to a dialog where you can toggle this; and when you try the toggle, you get a warning pop-up of some kind. This approach would be consistent with also allowing users to change the identity registered as the author of a comment - to themselves or any other person.
Having worked with many long documents, books, reports with many comments by different reviewers, I do not see a big issue with the current state that anyone can edit existing comments. I have not seen any misuse of the current feature. However, if you consider it problematic that others can change a comment without any remark that the comment was newly edited, I suggest the following: -> Add a remark that the comment was edited by user xyz I would totally oppose to block editing a comment by some other user. This would break many workflows that people are using. For example, if I am writing a book with co-authors and reviewers, then I would like to add info to the comment e.g. formulating the rough idea of the comment or just to add who is going to work on the comment (without replying to it) or to delete info that has already been completed or that I don't agree with (without deleting the comment entirely or re-creating a new one). Also, the idea to track changes in a comment, seems to be overly clunky, as it makes the comments very long with all the changes. Also, the changed stuff in the comments would appear in the "Manage changes" list, which should not be the case. Concluding: I like the idea to add the info to a comment that "user xy changed comment on Jul 25 18:00)", but I think more is not necessary.
We discussed the topic in the design meeting. There are different opinions what should be done, ranging from nothing to block it completely. We could introduce an (expert) option to suppress editing of comments; the alternative of an annotation like "... edited by Foo" sounds good too but clutters the comment layout and requires standardization. Using the TC function has some charm (to preserve the clean layout we could show those TC in the sidebar only). Michael, is there any technical blocker to track changes in comments? (Btw, MSO365 allows changing comments and does not track changes. Which must not be taken as a prototype.)
This could work well with the ability to "adopt" comments: bug 162424
Comments in Writer don't use Writer's model but EditEngine, so i'm afraid change tracking isn't possible currently.