locked docx file

users
#1

Hi,

I am having a strange problem with a locked docx file. The file opens, it does not appear to be using LO's read only mode, but when I try to edit a file, for example when I delete some text, it simply inserts a strikethrough and changes the text colour. I can see all the last editor's corrections in a similar manner.

I tried using the "edit document" button, turning off read only mode in file-->properties and tools-->options-->security, and saving as .odt. No luck. I managed to rescue the content by copying and pasting into a new odt... and strangely all the last editors changes were implemented/hidden rather than being shown with a strikethrough, but this meant that some of the comments attached to deleted text were also removed.

Any idea what is going on here?

Thanks.

#2

Yes: you have the recording of changes switched on. In general, you can disable this by removing the tick from Edit | Changes > | Record.

But this may be intentional. You mention a previous editor. If this material is to be returned to that editor, he or she will not want to consider the entire document again from scratch to see what you may or may not have altered, but will want to be able to see exactly what changes you have made. If it is to be passed to someone else, they will want to see both the changes you have made and - hopefully separately - the previous changes. It is possible in Microsoft Word to lock what Word calls Track Changes, so the document can be edited but you cannot disable the recording of changes. I don't know whether that locking carries over into LibreOffice and back into Word, but I'd hope it would - and it sounds as though it has.

If this is the actual scenario, the previous editor will not thank you for upsetting the protocol by creating a new document! If you prefer, you may be able to suppress the display of your and other changes changes at Edit | Changes > | Show.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#3

I am having a strange problem with a locked docx file. The file opens, it does not appear to be using LO's read only mode, but when I try to edit a file, for example when I delete some text, it simply inserts a strikethrough and changes the text colour. I can see all the last editor's corrections in a similar manner.

I tried using the "edit document" button, turning off read only mode in file-->properties and tools-->options-->security, and saving as .odt. No luck. I managed to rescue the content by copying and pasting into a new odt... and strangely all the last editors changes were implemented/hidden rather than being shown with a strikethrough, but this meant that some of the comments attached to deleted text were also removed.

Any idea what is going on here?

Yes: you have the recording of changes switched on. In general, you can disable this by removing the tick from Edit | Changes > | Record.

But this may be intentional. You mention a previous editor. If this material is to be returned to that editor, he or she will not want to consider the entire document again from scratch to see what you may or may not have altered, but will want to be able to see exactly what changes you have made. If it is to be passed to someone else, they will want to see both the changes you have made and - hopefully separately - the previous changes. It is possible in Microsoft Word to lock what Word calls Track Changes, so the document can be edited but you cannot disable the recording of changes. I don't know whether that locking carries over into LibreOffice and back into Word, but I'd hope it would - and it sounds as though it has.

If this is the actual scenario, the previous editor will not thank you for upsetting the protocol by creating a new document! If you prefer, you may be able to suppress the display of your and other changes changes at Edit | Changes > | Show.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

Thanks, Brian.

That works. I can show/hide and choose to record changes with those options. Although you are correct regarding good editing protocol, I think in this case the options had been turned on by mistake at some point.. at least displaying the changes anyhow. It only happened on one of the documents I have to work on. In general, the editor is happy for me to format the articles and make some small edits. I am not sure we're tracking changes to the degree we should be. Before this quirk, I had been copying and pasting articles' content into a template and saving as ODT in order to get consistent documents and remove any MS quirks. Maybe that was not the best method afterall and I could have saved the docs as .odt then loaded the templates styles using the "overwrite" option -- but I'd been experieincing some quirks there and had discussed the best way to go about things on this list beforehand. I think my method is ok for the current project.. but no doubt I could improve the process as I learn more.

Regards,
Ryan