Open a chart without changing modified date

Hi Jorge

Thanks for reaching out on the Lucid community and I am sorry for the issue you have experienced with modified dates. The last modified time and date is updated any time that a user with edit access opens the document.  A new save is created anytime a user with edit access to the document opens the document which is why the last modified date is updated even when no changes are made. I can see how this can be misleading/confusing and have added your case in a report to our development team.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.

Any update on this? It's very confusing on when docs were last actually updated without having to scroll through and compare versions.

Thanks

The only workaround I found was to use the document status (e.g. completed or approved) to lock the document. It is a bit cumbersome but it does eliminate unwanted new versions and preserves the true last modified time and date.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Jorge

Thanks Micah ... that sounds like a valid workaround although it will require a lot of work on our part to lock / name all our old stuff.

Meanwhile the misleading "Last Modified" dates make a real mess of our ability to distinguish recent from old work!

May I suggest the following changes in code for a future release:

• On opening a document as Editor (only) prompt "Create new version?"
•  If yes proceed per current behaviour ... if no open a readonly view e.g. ignore edit privileges and behave as if it were a reader without edit permissions
• Add a "New Version" button or other control for readonly views where the reader is an editor.  In this case an editor who is in RO mode can override and create the new version without backtracking and reopening

Hey Robert

Thank you for keeping this conversation going and providing feedback for us to consider on this! Your comments reminded me of another possible workaround for this issue in addition to what Jorge and Micah have provided which is making multiple iterations or duplicates of a document. By duplicating you have the ability to rename the document by iteration as well as change the document status to "Draft" or "Pending" and finalized version to be "Complete" as Jorge was suggesting above. The difference here would be your duplicate would have it's own new revision history that would start once the duplicate is made. 

Again thank you all for your input and potential workarounds here. Please continue to voice your concerns and suggestions here in the Lucid Community! Cheers!

Good idea!  I just discovered that my particular account does not allow viewing account history so your new suggestion will be particularly (if clumsily) helpful.

Hey Robert

Glad to hear this could be helpful for you! Yes it is a bit of a "clunky" (for lack of a better term) way of doing it however this could prevent some accidental or unwanted changes. 

Please reach back out if you have any other questions concerns or if you just wanna share your work--we always love to see how our users are utilizing Lucidchart. Cheers!

I don't find this a very helpful answer. If I have a folder of 30 diagrams from a few years ago and I just want to refresh my memory of what's in each of them I don't want to have to duplicate each one before I open it to take a peek at it. I would have to delete all of those duplicates afterward too to avoid cluttering up my account.