How to protect/unprotect document

[bob1]

I have some users experimenting with Open office 3.0, one problem they found, which I can't find a resolution to is to protect/unprotect a document.

in Ms Office 2000/2002, you go to tools, protect/un-protect document. I found the following in the writer help ---- right click in a table, choose Cell, when I do there is a message --- no selection possible ..... ??

The users work with fax cover sheets created in MS Word, where they must change fields ---- add entries in a from field, extension field. In Word, they unprotect the fax cover sheet, make changes in specific fields, they protect the document.

right now --- the only way we found to do the mentioned is in Word, "then" open up Writer.

Can someone tell me why when I open the document in Writer , right click in the table I want to change, choose cell, I see no selection possible. Yet if we open the same document in MS word, we can unprotect the document, modify any field and protect it - works in MS Office, yet trouble protecting/un-protecting in OO Writer.


Thanks,
Bob

[squenson]

I just tested with OOo 3.1 under Windows and it works very well: I can protect / un-protect each cell in a table, independently of each others. Much better that MS Office that can only protect / un-protect at the document level...

Which exact version do you use? Can you make some print screen like this:

cellprotect.PNG (13.48 KiB) Viewed 20163 times

[bob1]

I'm using version 3.0.0

[Hagar Delest]

If it's not available in 3.0.0 and don't want to upgrade, you can use sections that can be protected in their properties.

Thanks to add '[Solved]' at beginning of your first post title (edit button) if your issue has been fixed.

[shrdlu]

As of this moment the bug still exists in OO 3.1.1 for Windows, I haven't checked my Linux or Mac systems yet. OO Writer honours the protection status of a document but doesn't have any way of changing it. If a document has been locked in MS Word there is no way to unlock it without passing it through a copy of Word.

[squenson]

Sorry but I don't consider this a bug. If a document is protected, it's not the duty of another software to unprotect it. OOo Writer has a better cell protection mechanism, so simply stop using MS Word and only use the document in Writer.

[hussdl]

YES, this thread is old, but it ranks high on google when searching for "imported word document is read only" "libreoffice writer import unprotect document", etc.

So here's what's worked for me (using LibreOffice 3.5):

(0. Import a word document that is partially write protected and save as .odt)
1. Open protected .odt file with compatible archiver such as 7zip
2. Open settings.xml in text editor such as Notepad++
3. Search for "<config:config-item config:name="ProtectForm" config:type="boolean">true</config:config-item>", replace "true" with "false"
4. Save settings.xml and use archiver to replace that file within the .odt file
5. Save modified .odt file
6. Open modified .odt file, edit whatever you like