Forum Discussion

Iron Contributor

Aug 09, 2018

Default view mode/edit mode behavior for Word and Excel Online files

I can't find the documentation for this, but I think it's a relatively new feature. I want my Word/Excel/PowerPoint online files to open in view mode instead of edit mode. When you open an Office Onl...

SharePoint Online

Copper Contributor

Nov 07, 2018

I want to do this as well. I have trolled through all the settings that I could think of with no success. Were you able to find out how to do it?

bynum
Iron Contributor
Nov 07, 2018
No, I haven't found out anything more.
- Onno van Ewyk
  Copper Contributor
  Nov 07, 2018
  Hi Bynum Hoekstra
  I had a bit of a look around and found this blog post in which some of the responses give hope for a solution.
  - AndrewFiveP
    Copper Contributor
    Jul 09, 2019
    Onno van Ewyk I've replied to this blog post with a solution for this issue. Please see my reply below:
    
    Hi All,
    
    You can achieve setting the default to 'View" mode by using SharePoint Column Formatting.
    
    Simply update your column (in my case I updated Name to keep the experience seamless) with the following json and your documents will now open in Preview instead of Edit:
    
    {
    "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/column-formatting.schema.json",
    "elmType": "a",
    "txtContent": "@currentField",
    "attributes": {
    "target": "_blank",
    "href": "=if(indexOf([$ContentTypeId], '0x0120') >= 0, '?id=' + [$FileRef], @currentWeb + '/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc='+ [$UniqueId] + '&action=View')"
    }
    }
    
    What this does is checks if the item is a folder and uses existing behavior to open the folder otherwise it will open the document in view mode.
    
    Hope this helps anybody looking for a way to solve this issue!

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