Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 40210
Add a Proctect Document Contents option to protection menu
Last modified: 2013-08-07 15:12:27 UTC
This is an issue that spawned off of 39999. The protection options in Calc are some counter intuitive. It would be more clear if they were changed to: Protect Sheet Protect Document Structure Protect Entire Document Where these functions would do the following: Protect Sheet - Same as now, protect sheets contents Protect Document Structure - Same as current protect document option Protect Entire Document - Does the combination of the two above, but for all sheets. (Could also read "Make document read only", but I thought this wording would work with the others better.) This would be better, because it makes more sense to people. There is some confusion (I know I was confused at first) about what protect document does. I understand now and it says so in the help, but while we are changing other things, let's make the ui more intuitive. This should be a relativly simple change. 1) Change where it says "Protect Document" to "Proctect Document Structure" 2) Add a third command and have it do what the first two do. Thanks for considering.
Hi, IMO this feature request is useless. 1.) We work as all other Spreadsheets work in this case. So a change would bring up compatibility Issues. 2.) Another Menu entry into full Menus. 3.) Open Document read only is a feature from XMLSecurity and is implemented for OOo2.0. 4.) Protection against changing Documents content is implemented by using Digital Signatures which is implemented since OOo1.9.65 Frank
Hi fst, as you are not evaluating feature-requests, please avoid your comments here, especially sentences like "IMO this feature request is useless.". The decision about feature-requests is done by the responsible ones.
Regarding fst's comments... 1. The argument that other spreadsheets work the same is not valid. If you want to be like all other spreadsheets, then what is the point in developing OO? 2. I'm sure there will be many more menu entries added to OO in the coming months and years. How else do you propose to add features? 3. I think this is a sensible option, but that is more appropriate to the person opening the document, not the person creating it (which is what this issue is about). 4. Digital signatures (as I understand the phrase) is more applicable to large companies. I simply want an easy, intuitive way to protect what I input. At the moment it is not clear. Equally, stating that a beta product answers my needs (which in this case it doesn't in any case) is not really a sufficient answer.
Hi fst, If I understand digital signatures correctly, it will allow you to detect a change was made in the document, not nessisarily where in the document and doesn't actually cause the UI to prevent data be changed. Of course to make sure you can detect a change you will need the signatures, but the problem is that protecting the entire document requires many error prone steps by a human. OOo has a limit of 256 worksheets. Should the spreadsheet creator have to lock each sheet individually? To be able to deal with that in a flexable way, you would need a multiple selection window to lock individual sheets. In that window you could have a "Select All"/"Unselect All" toggle button. That is not being asked for in this case. Just one option that saves much tedium. Can you not admit that if you had to do this you would probably end up unzipping the file and editing the XML directly (just immagine several files!). Adding a "Protect Entire Document" just logically completes the subject. You already have everything else, and this is the last link to close the circle.
Hi, what's about using the context menu of the sheets and select all sheets. After that go to Tools-Protect Document-Document ? This will protect all sheets and you do not need to protect each sheet after another. Frank
Hi Frank, "what's about using the context menu of the sheets and select all sheets ... " Yes, that would do it for me. It's a pain when you have 20 or more sheets. Brian
First, I think the argument about adding more menu entries to the main menus is not a worthy reason to reject the issue. It will be one more menu entry in a sub menu, who cares? Honestly, I don't understand why this is such a negative idea. And I don't think the solution of usiong digital signatures is a good one. That sounds a like a lot of complication when I just want to protect a document. Are there any actual pheasability reasons issue why this can't be done other than one person feeling that it is not worth it ir useless?
Hey Peschtra, I want the menu solution to protect an entire spreadsheet just as much as you. I think your suggested menu items sound good: Protect Sheet Protect Document Structure Protect Entire Document Right now though, the OOo 2.0 development has long since closed. We have been only doing bug fixes for months already so right now, getting other people to vote for this issue is the best thing you can do to make sure it gets included as an enhancement in the next office version. Write to your friends and other users on the lists, etc. I already gave two votes. The more people vote, the higher the demand and the higher the priority for inclusion. Majority rules. Thanks for your help. (BTW, in response to your initial note, changing text on the UI is never "simple" because it can mean writing a UI specification, requires changing the online Help and documentation, retranslating UI and Help/Docu into 40+ languages, getting a developer to implement the functionality it in the first place, testing it, etc.)
This is off topic now a little, but when did it close? Why does it close so long before the release date? When is the next version that features will be added?
This issue is strongly coupled with Issue 60305 due to the way sheet/document protection works internally. I'm refactoring this part of the code, so I can add hook for content protection option so that the requested functionality can be added later.
internally added a document content protection flag (in scsheetprotection CWS), but it's just a flag to store the check box state for now. http://eis.services.openoffice.org/EIS2/cws.ShowCWS?Path=SRC680%2Fscsheetprotection01 Instead of making this a distinct menu item, why not provide two check boxes in the password dialog, one for the structure and another for the content, as protection options?