How to open Office 365 documents in "Viewing" mode by default?

Question

Is there a way to open Word, Excel, or Powerpoint documents in 'Viewing' mode by default? This option seems to be in online apps only and working in the context of Microsoft Teams (i.e. part of an organisation).

I usually work with documents shared by my colleagues, and I want to initially open them in "Viewing" mode, and switch to "Editing" mode later if necessary.

Googling didn't really help. It seems people either have the opposite problem or the suggested solution is to update individual document protection status, which isn't always possible.

Edit: clarification

When I open a document, the "mode" is "Editing", as you can see from the image below. Ideally, I'd like the document to open in "Viewing" by default.

Answer 1

Microsoft changed the default mode to Editing a couple of years ago, and that has caused endless complaints by users. Coupled with the auto-save option, this can cause unintended document changes, and also headers and footers don't seem to be displayed in Editing mode.

This change was announced in the blog Edit faster in Word, Excel and PowerPoint:

Now, when you click a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file in OneDrive for Business or open a sharing link to a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file in your browser, you will open directly into edit mode, allowing you to jump into work faster than ever.

To open a document for viewing, you can right-click on a document from SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business and click Preview.

If the Preview option is not available in your case, I have found some workarounds, but no firm solution. I list them below, although I don't know if they apply to your case.

Word online documents opening in edit mode has this comment by Microsoft Moderator Cliff Gu, for a change on the server:

As a workaround, you can set Require documents to be checked out before they can be edited to Yes in Version settings in Library Settings.

Another user named Joe McGiven Corban remarked on the same post:

Hi all - just a thought, maybe train your staff to always click on the ... (elipse) and select Preview from the menu bar. This means it simply a view of the doc, and then at the top left you can choose to open in Word Online or the Word App. The X at the top right closes the doc. After playing around with Preview a bit, this seems fine. I still agree that this change isn't ideal, and preferred the old way.. but play around with preview, it may help many of you with this issue.

The post Office Online: Word and PowerPoint Documents open in Edit Mode contained this advice:

I have found a way around ... site contents, navigate to document library setting, advanced settings and Open in the client application. This works for me due to the formatting of the document and it opening in edit view in the browser was throwing out the document format.

Answer 2

Another option is to manually doctor the link.

The normal URL for SharePoint includes an action=default field. The URL is not altered by modifying the "Edit/Review/View" button setting, but if you paste the URL into an editor and change that field to action=view, then the doctored URL will always open up in view mode, but will also give you the "Edit document" option on the command bar above the document.

The doctored URL can be shared with colleagues.

Answer 3

If one can open the document at Desktop App (Word, Excel, etc) by syncing with one drive or before uploading at SharePoint.

Then one can set his document to open as Read-Only.

When open it at Ms Teams or online browser, it will open as Viewing as default:

Answer 4

I have created a Google Chrome extension to force Sharepoint Online documents to open in Reading View instead of Edit View. This extension can also be deployed to many users via Group Policy.

SPO View It Chrome Extension

SPO View It GitHub Source Code

Answer 5

Open the file in the desktop version of Excel, then Save a Copy. Underneath the filename go to Options, then the Tools dropdown to the left of the Save button. Select General Options. On the ensuing popup, select "Read-only recommended".

After doing this, the file opens in Viewing mode in Teams by default.

Answer 6

I had the same issue with PowerPoint decks always opening in 'Editing' mode. The only workaround I found that successfully solved this problem for me (in Office365) is by opening the slide deck in Desktop app, going to Review -> Always Open as Read-Only, then saving it. This results in the deck always opening in 'View' mode in SharePoint afterwards.

Answer 7

Not sure when this was added, but unchecking the "AutoSave files stored in the Cloud by default in [Excel/PowerPoint/Word]" under "Options > Save" prevents auto-saving when opening in the Desktop App. This effectively prevents saving edits as long as the user doesn't manually save.

Version 2208, Build 15601.20538.

Answer 8

You need to protect the file/document. On Word/Excel online go to File>Info>Protect Workbook/Document. It also has the subtext: To prevent accidental changes, this workbook has been set to open as read-only.

enter image description here

Answer 9

At least currently, there's a much simpler way to solve this, but you'll need permission to change the view Sharepoint uses to provide the list of documents.

The default view for a document library uses a field called "Name (linked to document with edit menu)" as the link to documents in the library. However, if that's replaced with the field called "Name (linked to document)" in the view, the document will open by default in Viewing mode.

Note that regardless of which version of that field is being used, "Name" shows up as the field label.

Answer 10

This is easy to do through the Trust Center option in MS Office 365.

1. First open MS Word and go to File->Options as shown below:

2. Then go to Trust Center and click on "Trust Center Settings":

3. Now go to "Trusted Documents" and tick the box to disable trusted documents. Similarly, go to "Trusted Locations" and tick the box to disable all trusted locations.

4. Finally, go to "Protected View" and tick all the boxes if they are not already ticked. That's all, the documents you receive from others will open in protected mode and you will not be able to edit them.