Bug 70577 - FILEOPEN: EDITING: Doc files with forms get opened with read-only text
Summary: FILEOPEN: EDITING: Doc files with forms get opened with read-only text
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Writer (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: BSA
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2013-10-17 14:56 UTC by Callegar
Modified: 2013-10-31 21:12 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Test document (872.00 KB, application/force-download)
2013-10-17 14:56 UTC, Callegar
Details

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Description Callegar 2013-10-17 14:56:35 UTC
Created attachment 87795 [details]
Test document

Problem description: 

Opening a .doc file with fillable fields, it is possible to fill the fields with text, but it is not possible to change the rest of the text in anyway. The status line indicates 'read only'. Trying to change the text reports 'Readonly content cannot be changed.
No modifications will be accepted'.

This is very similar to what reported in http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/2854.

Yet the issue here is that the proposed solution does not work. There is no document section to unprotect. In the format menu, sections is grayed out.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open attached doc
2. Try to modify text

Current behavior:

The text cannot be modified and there is no way to toggle the read-only status

Expected behavior:

It should be possible to toggle the read only status.        
Operating System: Ubuntu
Version: unspecified
Comment 1 Callegar 2013-10-17 15:20:57 UTC
This bug seems seems not to exist in OpenOffice 4.0.1
Comment 2 retired 2013-10-17 22:11:26 UTC
Which version of LO are you using?
Comment 3 Callegar 2013-10-18 07:26:51 UTC
I'm currently on 4.1.2, but to the best of my memory LO has always had this bug.
I notice it every time I need to fill in some forms prepared in MS Word (which fortunately is not very often). The form lock mechanism of word gets translated in a read-only document in LO that cannot be toggled in read-write.

Also all versions of OpenOffice prior to Apache had this bug.

I've just noticed that this is fixed in Apache OpenOffice and I hope that the fix can be easily spotted and imported.
Comment 4 Thomas van der Meulen [retired] 2013-10-21 09:49:49 UTC
Thank you for your bug report, I can reproduce this bug running 
Version: 4.1.3.1
Build ID: b42498da0e3f91b17e51b55c8295ec4f8f22087
OS: Mac osx 10.8.5. 

I have tried it with OpenOffice 3.4.1, 4.0 and 4.0.1 and there was no problem there.
Comment 5 Thomas van der Meulen [retired] 2013-10-21 10:41:14 UTC
Seems to work in every version since Openoffice 3.3.0 but not in LibreOffice not even in LibreOffice 3.3.0 
OOO330m19 (Build:6)
tag libreoffice-3.3.0.4
Comment 6 Rob Snelders 2013-10-21 12:37:49 UTC
There is a option for this.

Tools->Options opens the options-dialog

Then go to:
LibreOffice Writer->Formatting Aids

Then there is a option for "Cursor in protected areas". When you disable that then you are able to edit every part of the document.

--

To me that seems a good way to have a option. But the description seems wrong. Anybody got good idea's for that?
Comment 7 Thomas van der Meulen [retired] 2013-10-21 13:37:01 UTC
So it looks that you shouldn't be able to edit the text. only if you disable the option you should be able to edit is so we should come op with a better name to describe "Cursor in protected areas"
Sergio do you got any idea or anybody else?
Comment 8 Callegar 2013-10-21 13:51:52 UTC
Thanks for the help!!! Good to know about the option and not to need other tools to deal with these documents with form lock. 

Still, I have some comments...

1) The option is not really easy to find and possibly misnamed.  In fact, you can actually place the cursor in protected regions (and see it flashing there). What you cannot do is editing these regions.

2) One may wonder if this is an option that pertains to LO as a whole (to be found within the LO options) or if it should be something related to the single document (e.g. to be found in File->properties). Personally, I would prefer the second option. The big difference is how LO remembers the option. If it is related to the whole of LO when I have to edit a doc with locked forms I need to change the option, edit, change it back. If it is related to the single document, then remembering to switch it back is less critical.

3) It is still unclear to me if there is a way to load the doc, remove the protection, save the doc without the form lock protection as you can do in MS Office.
Comment 9 Cor Nouws 2013-10-31 21:10:06 UTC
(In reply to comment #6)
> There is a option for this.
> 
> Tools->Options opens the options-dialog
> 
> Then go to:
> LibreOffice Writer->Formatting Aids
> 
> Then there is a option for "Cursor in protected areas". When you disable
> that then you are able to edit every part of the document.
> 
> --
> 
> To me that seems a good way to have a option. But the description seems
> wrong. Anybody got good idea's for that?

The description is correct when using protected sections that you can insert in Writer..
Comment 10 Cor Nouws 2013-10-31 21:12:45 UTC
(In reply to comment #8)
 
> 3) It is still unclear to me if there is a way to load the doc, remove the
> protection, save the doc without the form lock protection as you can do in
> MS Office.

What I've seen in a mail:
"Save the document to the local disk
In the command terminal

	libreoffice -invisible -convert-to fodt m$documentname.doc

Use a text editor to open the fodt file (m$documentname.fodt), search
for the element 'ProtectForm' and change the attribute 'type' from
"true" to "false". Save the file

In the command terminal
	libreoffice -invisible -convert-to odt m$documentname.fodt

The last command is optional; converting to odt will be recognised by
non-LO software such as m$ word, otherwise use LO to export the
document to PDF if necessary."