How to make the default view on a word document reading view on SharePoint

Question

The word document defaults to opening in separate pages view and I would like it to default to reading view when another user opens it

Answer 1

Hi @StaciS ,

You can achieve setting the default to 'View" mode by using SharePoint Column Formatting.

Simply update your column (Name column) 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')"
   }
}

Output(When user click on stored document in SharePoint online document library, it will open in View mode however in the top of document bar have "Edit button" click on it when users want to edit document.):

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.