Read only content cannot be changed, no modifications will be accepted

edit

Have you tried 'Format' > 'Sections' ? Then select the Section (eg. Section1) with 'Write Protection' activated and deactivate it. Now it should be editable...

I found an answer that worked for me here:

1. Select at least one character prior to the field, all the field, and at least one character after the field.
2. Cut this content.
3. Paste it back as unformatted text.
4. Manually remove the “#” before and after the re-pasted content.
5. Manually reformat any character styles that were present in the original field i.e., bold, italic, etc.

The field is lost by doing this, but at least you have the content.

I solved my problem with protected forms by unsetting an option in the Options dialog:

Tools > Options ... > LibreOffice Writer > Compatibility > Remove the tick mark from the " Protect form " line.

I also got this problem after importing a Word ".doc" file with some embedded form objects ( check boxes ).

The file opens up just fine in Word, where I can check and uncheck the check boxes and edit the content with no problem.

But after importing and loading it into LibreWriter, the status bar showed "read only" and when trying to edit the contents a message popped up saying "Write-protected content cannot be changed, no modifications will be accepted". Check boxes could still be checked / unchecked, though.

The solution involving sections ( "Format" -> "Sections" ) didn't work, because it was grayed out ( --> no sections ).

Finally, the solution that worked for me was the one about "protected form":

• Go to "Tools" -> "Options" -> "LibreOffice Writer" -> "Compatibility" -> "Protect form"
• Make sure the "Protect form" option is unchecked.

Now you can check / uncheck the check boxes and edit / modify the contents of the document.

( Using LibreOffice 5.1.6.2 and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS )

I imported a DOC file whose content was protected. (And Insert -> Sections, Format -> Sections didn't work, because it was grayed out. Neither did saving without a password and/or in the ODT format.)

What worked was the following:

• Under Tools -> Options -> LibreOffice Writer -> Formatting Aids -> Protected Area activate "Ignore protection".

Notes:

• That will also remove protection from Table of Contents, etc. (if it was created as protected)
• One might want deactivate it again after editing, to prevent unintended edits in future
• I think I had to restart LO on the first activation, but couldn't reproduce it later (doc becomes editable immediately) - your mileage may vary

I imported a form from an RTF file, which included a table, which had some part of its cells somehow protected. Saving this as .odt file did not help.

What did help is the following:

• Save to a different format (e. g. MS Word 97/2000/XP/2003 (.doc)), that eventually does not support this protection.
• Close LibreOffice Writer.
• Open the new file (e. g. the .doc file) with LibreOffice Writer and test if the removal of the protection has been successful.
• Save back to a .odt file.

What else should 'Read Only' mean? One must have applied the setting and should have known what he (f/m) does.

If needs arise to cancel protection: There are different containers of text that can be protected (tables by every singel cell; frames - just to name two examples). Thus a refined design of using protection in a document / template is possible. A global switching off of protections will not be available.

I think the documents should be analised with the help of the navigator to identify the containers concerned - and, of course, the templates should be reworked to get documents as intended.

Editing: In a comment above "jerquee" linked in a thread from another forum on LibreOffice. There "jonhayes" had attached an example file to his post. Having studied that a bit with the help of an XML-editor I think the most likely cause of the problem is carelessly pasting content copied from non-odf source and containing incompatible or unsufficiently specified field-types. For better understanding you may refer to "owengs"'s contributions to this thread. The bug in LibreOffice should be to not refuse accepting pasted contents that cannot be thoroughly validated for one or another reason. We experience just another aspect of the "compatibility dilemma" enjoyed to the full by an unfortunately powerful competitor.

This is what worked for me (tried the "clip from one char before..." suggestion above but that just refused me as well) :-

1. Re-SAVE the document from Libreoffice in the "OPENOFFICE DOCX" format (the one right down at the bottom of the format selector - NOT Windows DOCX) ;

2. The close and Open the resulting document anew: the locked section is now unlocked.

Small disruption to some centring but nothing problematic.

Good luck all

I see that this has been a problem for some time. I have a document that was created in MS Office. It has a table in it. A very simple table. I can open the document in MS Office and fill in the table. I can open the document in OpenOffice and fill in the table. When I open the document in LibreOffice, it claims that the cells cannot be written into and there is no way to change that. I have tried everything I have read here and elsewhere. LibreOffice is treating the table incorrectly and, as a result, this form and others like it cannot be used in LibreOffice. If anybody has a way to fix this (and I am starting to doubt that there is a fix given the back-and-forthing) I would appreciate having somebody tell me what it is. And I will tell you up front that the solutions which center on unprotecting the cells do not work because apparently LibreOffice, while it says the cells cannot be written into, does not have an option to kill the protection. In fact, there is no option presented no matter how much I right click.

Got this error message in LO 5.4.2.2 in Ubuntu 17.04. In my case, it also said "read only" in the status bar at the bottom of the screen.

Solution: uncheck the following option Tools / Options / LibreOffice Writer / Compatibility / Protect form

All other solutions failed for me.