In 3.6.1 I have created a simple edit layout that our content authors will eventually use. It's all looking and working pretty good except that the author user who has acquired the lock can't seem to release it in Simple Edit mode.
They can Apply for Approval which triggers workflow, and exit editing mode, but then in the admin interface the lock is still held by the author user and the approver would have to wait ten minutes for the lock to expire. Is this a bug or a feature or can I do something to get around this? I really don't want my content authors in the admin interface.
Thanks,
Sarah
Locks are automatically hidden from the Simple Interface and status changes (like workflow) do not require a lock. 
[quote]Locks are automatically hidden from the Simple Interface and status changes (like workflow) do not require a lock.
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I thought it may just be the way it has been designed - it is just that the approver receives an automated email and can’t do anything for ten minutes until the lock expires.
I have another issue when going to simple edit a page that is already live. As an author user with read and write access you can select ‘Safe Edit’ from the status select menu (%details-F_status_change%) but the commit button disappears and alt-s isn’t possible - so the page isn’t editable.
When logged into the admin interface as the author user you can successfully change the status of the page to safe edit.
Is it not possible in simple edit to change a page’s status to safe edit?
Sarah
There’s a feature request for this here, but hasn’t been looked at since June.
OK so it seems as if our authors will have to learn the admin interface to edit an existing live page…
I'm also playing with a preview link on my simple edit layout - I can load the correct page using the %asset_url% keyword, however if you try to click back you get the IE page expiry message and have to refresh.
What I would really like to do is preview in a new window however if I set the target to blank I just get a blank window with about:blank in the Address field. Something similar to the ‘show in new window’ link on the Preview screen would be good.
Any ideas on what is wrong with my link?
<A HREF="%asset_url%" TARGET=”_blank”>Preview page</A>
Sarah
[quote]OK so it seems as if our authors will have to learn the admin interface to edit an existing live page…
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Unfortunately, that won’t suit us.
Marcus, the bug (feature) you refer to seems to relate only to having various screens on one layout so I’m not sure it is completely related. We will probably keep screens separated as they represent different actions. The breakdown we will probably apply is: detail, metadata, content, workflow.
Would it be possible to unlock a screen when the user changes screen using the drop-down (keyword: %screen_menu%). To me that seems like a logical step: you lock the screen when you select it, so why not release when you leave it. Given that workflow doesn’t require locks, and that the only people annoyed by the 10 minutes wait would be people approving/rejecting workflow, they would have had to leave the content (or details or metadata) screen to go to the workflow screen, therefore releasing the locks for the next people to do their work.
It’s not as easy as locking a screen as you would have to know what screen you are on and some people would use single layout for multiple screen, but I don’t think it would be a major change in the behaviour of Matrix. Hiding locks from simple edit users is a very good, but leaving them stranded because of it isn’t (and 10 minutes is long). I think it would improve the quality of Matrix and make the simple edit more useful.
Sorry for the waffle, I hope this makes sense.
I'm not sure when this is going to be fixed, but one way to temporarily alleviate the problem would be to reduce the lock time to 5 minutes (from 10 minutes), or even less if you can find a lower happy medium.