In the older versions of Odoo, before 16, there is “Edit” button, on click of which the view is opened in edit mode. Once the user is finished with the changes on click of “Save” the changes are stored in the database. That makes clear when the user is in Edit mode and when the changes are saved.
In newer versions of Odoo the “Edit” button does not exist anymore. The edit can be done by simply clicking on the field’s input area. This approach has positive sides, such as eliminating a few clicks for the user and doing the edits on the fly. However, it is a bit more challenging for the users to understand how it is working, especially for new users.
Here are a few general rules that can help in understanding how the Edit works in the newer versions of Odoo:
- Any editable field on hover has the bottom border line of the input area highlighted
- The field is getting in edit mode by clicking on it’s input area
- When the field is edited it is not automatically saved.
- There are three ways how the updated values are saved:
- The user can manually save them by clicking on the button “Save”. The button is represented with an icon and text shown on hover
- The user clicks on any workflow button in the view, for example “Confirm” button in the sales order
- The user exits the view. Even when the user closes the window or the browser if there is content that is not saved will be stored in the database. One exception from this rule is when the changes are done in a private window which is closed without saving the changes with any of the previous two steps.
Removing the edit button makes it easier to update changes on the fly, yet it can be confusing sometimes if the changes are saved or not because the user does not have any indication for that, except for very small icons, Save / Discard, at the top of the screen. So in case if a user works in a multi-window setup, they may be surprised why they don’t see the changes in all windows.
However, even though this way of edit may increase the learning curve for the new users, in the long run makes the interaction with the system more convenient.