Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 95771
PDF export filter gives a false notion of security
Last modified: 2017-05-20 10:55:56 UTC
The PDF export filter dialog deceives the user into thinking DRM bits effectively restrict all users of the PDF file being exported. However, this depends entirely on whether the applications that will be used to open these files implement user restrictions or not; in fact, the majority of PDF viewers don't (evince, kpdf, xpdf, google docs, go-oo...). Attached patch resolves this by adding a short note in the dialog, and a slightly longer explanation in the corresponding help page.
Created attachment 57658 [details] patch
Frank, can you please comment?
Ping :-)
I do not think that the new string (see below) will fit into current UI and this will become even worse in other languages like French or Portuguese: "~Restrict permissions (only affects viewers that implement user restrictions)" If a document is not encrypted, one will always have the possibility to view/change the content of a file by using tooling to pass the restriction. Years ago I have talked with Legals thinking that content of PDF files could not be changed by other people at all, because it is a "read-only" format. Therefore I propose to add a detailed hint to the OOo help, that only content of encrypted files is secure.
Created attachment 58090 [details] dialog
Hi! > I do not think that the new string (see below) will fit into current UI and this > will become even worse in other languages like French or Portuguese: > "~Restrict permissions (only affects viewers that implement user restrictions)" What do you mean it will fit? I thought the dialog (screenshot attached) would simply either adjust its width or break the message in multiple lines. > Years ago I have talked with Legals thinking that content of PDF files could not > be changed by other people at all, because it is a "read-only" format. Therefore > I propose to add a detailed hint to the OOo help, that only content of encrypted > files is secure. Do you think the part of my patch that modifies help files archieves this? Or perhaps you'd like something more elaborate, explaining the technical background or so? Just let me know, I'll be glad to help.
Hi! I'd really like to get this solved. Please consider applying the patch I provided. Or if something in it needs to be improved, please give me details on how you'd like it and I will try.
@rmh: Thanks for your contribution, I really appreciate when people in our community try to make things better. Your idea is valid, it seems that Frank has some reservations against the concrete implementation. Unfortunately we have the problem that our dialogs don't have an automatic layouting capability. It is being worked on, but we don't have it yet. So indeed we quite often have the problem that texts in dialogs don't "fit". As some text in the dialog can be a small hint only, Frank thinks that adding something to the help content is the way to go. I wonder whether it is possible to add a FixedText below the two check boxes. Frank, what do you think? Perhaps including a hint to look into help? The help content patch looks good, we should add that users that want to make sure that their PDF is "safe" must use encryption, as Frank mentioned in his reply.
Created attachment 58309 [details] Proposal how to present the note to the user.
Created attachment 58310 [details] Corrected spelling. Please ignore first post.
Please see PDF_Note2.png attached to this issue. This would be a way to place a hint in the UI. Maybe we should think about a note icon that provides additional information in a tip help on mouse over. That would be easier to integrate into dialogs.
Thanks. I'll try to figure out how to provide this layout.
Created attachment 58330 [details] revised help part
As for the help part, how about this? (pdf_export_help.diff)
It was a little bit quiet here. :-) So how shall we move forward?
IMHO this would be more a case for an extended help tip
I'm adding this comment to all open issues with Issue Type == PATCH. We have 220 such issues, many of them quite old. I apologize for that. We need your help in prioritizing which patches should be integrated into our next release, Apache OpenOffice 4.0. If you have submitted a patch and think it is applicable for AOO 4.0, please respond with a comment to let us know. On the other hand, if the patch is no longer relevant, please let us know that as well. If you have any general questions or want to discuss this further, please send a note to our dev mailing list: dev@openoffice.apache.org Thanks! -Rob
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