Bug 70574 - Feature Request: Open files in "read mode" as default
Summary: Feature Request: Open files in "read mode" as default
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: Read-Only
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Reported: 2013-10-17 11:26 UTC by Felix Schmidt
Modified: 2023-06-10 11:25 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description Felix Schmidt 2013-10-17 11:26:55 UTC
In our company, we often use the same file to work on from network shares. But more often than not (90% of all cases) I only want to read the Document, not to edit! But when I open a File, it is opened in "edit mode" and will be locked for others until I manually disable the "Edit File"-Button.

If I want to edit and it is locked, I have to call my colleague to disable editing, as he most likely only wanted to read what i wrote before, and forgot to disable "edit mode". This is annoying!

I could open the File with "-view" parameter, but then it is write protected, the "edit file button" is grey and I am not allowed to save the File anymore.
(So this is NO duplicate of Bug #62845)

So I think it would be an useful option, to open a document in "read mode" ("Edit File" unchecked) as default.

What I would like to have: 
- option to open documents in "read mode" as default
- after opening, I can click "Edit File" button to edit and save the file, if I want to
- don't show "File is locked by ..." dialog on startup, if it is opened in read mode (it will be shown when i enter edit mode anyway)

As Bonus I would like this behaviour on Network shares only, local files may be edited directly. But this is really optional.

This Feature would make the workflow of all users in collaborating teams much more comfortable. 
Also it would protect from accidental edits and overwrites, as I must confirm (by just one click), that I really want to edit this document.
Comment 1 tommy27 2013-11-22 06:44:51 UTC
as far as I know, no OOo/LibO/AOO version has this option.

change version field to "inherited from OOo" and status to "NEW"
Comment 2 Felix Schmidt 2013-11-22 13:39:44 UTC
I tried with AOO 4.0.1 today and there it works as expected using the "-view" command line parameter.
Comment 3 tommy27 2013-11-22 19:24:43 UTC
sorry I did not know that
I change version to "unspecified".
which LibO version you are experiencing this issue?
Comment 4 Grobe 2023-06-10 10:44:28 UTC
I was just about to create a feature request when I found this post.

I do experience another issue. Since I have a backup solution that read folder date stamp, it turns out that every time I open an old document file (if only for viewing purpose), the modification time stamp for the parent folder is getting updated (because the lock file being created within that folder). This cause the backup to potentially grow unnecessarily in size.

I know this isn't an Libre Office specific issue because other software also does this.

However - I do believe this could be resolved with a quick fix:
 - In the Options - Load/Save - General, it could be added a check box labeled "Always open as read-only"

Or - since I often opens the documents from the Libre Office start screen, it should pe possible to right click at a document there and select "open read only".
Comment 5 Grobe 2023-06-10 11:25:13 UTC
I just found a workaround for Nemo file manager (Linux using the Cinnamon desktop among others).

Follow this steps:
 - Right click at the main menu (in most distros it's located lower left corner).
 - Select "Configure" from the list of options.
 - Select Menu tab
 - Click "Open the menu editor"
 - Locate the entries for Calc (follow same procedure for Writer and/or Impress)
 - Select the item "LbreOffice Calc"
 - Click "Properties" button (or just double click the Calc icon)
 - In the Command field - add the "--view" options, the full command should be like "libreoffice --calc --view %U"
  - Hit Ok button and close all open window (after doing the same with Writer if you want that).

This step will cause all documents being opened in Read mode for this specific user profile. I tested a little and also found that it also applied to files opened from within Libre Office start screen (list of recently opened documents).

Other file managers should have similar way of solving this.


Nb: Unlike Windows, this step will only have effect on the current user profile.