# Modes

Source: https://docx-editor.portone.io/docs/features/modes

Read-only, comment-only, and editing, and what each lets a reader do.

A document opens read-only, for commenting only, or for editing; the `mode` prop
([Props](https://docx-editor.portone.io/docs/props.md#mode)) chooses which.

## Read-only [#read-only]

No edits and no comments, and therefore no toolbar and no context menus.
The text can be selected and copied, and the document's comments can be read.

## Comment-only [#comment-only]

Comments can be added, edited, deleted, replied to, resolved, and reopened; the body and its
notes cannot be changed.
There is no toolbar, and the right-click menu offers Copy and Add comment only.
Undo and redo take back a comment, never a body edit.

## Editing [#editing]

Every edit and every comment, with the built-in toolbar unless `toolbar: false` leaves it out.
The right-click menu adds Cut, Paste, Delete, Insert footnote, and Insert endnote, and with
`locking: true` also Lock and Unlock.
Zoom, page guides, and the comment panel are available in every mode.

## Switching modes [#switching-modes]

The mode, the comment author, and who may edit comments can change on an open document; the editor
switches in place and keeps the view and its history.
Nothing about the mode is written to the saved file.

## Your comments and other people's [#your-comments-and-other-peoples]

Every comment records its author, and Edit and Delete are offered on your own comments and on
comments with no recorded author, such as ones written in Word.
`editableComments: "all"` opens every comment to everyone.
Replying, resolving, and reopening are open to every commenter.
[Who may edit a comment](https://docx-editor.portone.io/docs/editor-api/comments-and-notes.md#who-may-edit-a-comment) states the
rule precisely.

## Locked content [#locked-content]

Locked text cannot be edited in any mode, and no prop turns a lock off.
A lock travels with the file as a content control, and is drawn in yellow with an outline.
Typing or deleting there leaves the document as it was; the right-click menu says the content is
locked, and an application can show its own notice through `onEditRefused`.
Locking and unlocking are offered from the right-click menu while editing with `locking: true`.

[Modes and locks](https://docx-editor.portone.io/docs/editor-api/modes-and-locks.md) in the Editor API covers how a control of your
own reads the mode.