It’s currently very easy to accidentally hit the “X” next to a list item in a Base, and without an Undo feature, this can make it kind of anxiety-inducing to even have a Base open. Doubly so on mobile, where an undo feature would be hard to access.
Like with normal pages, I would love to just toggle on a “Reading view”. And embedded Bases could inherit this property from the page they’re embedded into.
As the Obsidian team has said this feature isn’t currently planned, here’s how to do it with CSS.
Edit: updated for Obsidian v1.11.4
Documentation: How to use CSS snippets in Obsidian
Prevent edits while still being able to click on links:
/* Prevents editing items in base rows; allows link clicking */
.bases-tbody {
pointer-events: none;
& :is(.mod-date + .clickable-icon, .internal-link, .external-link) {
pointer-events: auto;
}
}
You can make the table read-only then add exceptions:
/* Locks down base rows with the exceptions listed in `is()` */
.bases-tbody {
pointer-events: none;
& :is() {
pointer-events: auto;
}
}
Or you can list the table items you want to make read-only:
/* Prevents editing base items that are listed in `is()` */
.bases-tbody :is() {
pointer-events: none;
}
Here are some selectors you can put inside is().
By name:
| Base item | Selector | How to use |
|---|---|---|
| file property | [data-property="file.file property name"] |
Replace file property name.E.g., [data-property="file.tags"] |
| custom property | [data-property="note.your property name"] |
Replace your property name with your property’s real name, not its optional display name in the base. |
| formula property | [data-property="formula.your formula name"] |
Replace your formula name with your formula’s original name, not its optional display name. |
By type:
| Base item | Selector |
|---|---|
| checkboxes | .metadata-input-checkbox |
| lists | .multi-select-container |
| list items | .multi-select-pill-content |
| dates | .mod-date |
| “open daily note” linked icons that “Daily notes” core plugin places beside a date | .mod-date + .clickable-icon |
| text | .metadata-input-longtext |
Quick overview, I have a table displaying customer data (names, addresses, etc) which I don’t want to modify from within bases/table view, I only want to view. When displaying a list within the table, each list item has an X to remove it, which means it could be possible to accidentality delete list entries by mistake.
I want to be able to prevent this happening, some ideas:
Apologies if I’ve missed that this is already a function
Agree with this! And thanx @dawni for the brilliant workaround!
A bit more cumbersome than using CSS but I think another workaround could be to rely on formula properties in a dedicated view to get the desired properties displayed 
…
I mean, instead of simply selecting a key to add in the base (using the Base GUI), one can create a formula property and use something like myProp in the formula box to display its value which would be somewhat uneditable/read-only (afaik/iirc 
) as one would need to edit the formula first to edit the values it displays (or update the values of the property in the relevant notes).
This is just a thought though 
Are these css files still valid? I tied the following to lock down the field “name” but It didn’t seem to work.
/* Make your time
is() */.bases-tbody :is(name, ) {
pointer-events: none;
}
To lock down a column based on the name of your property, you can do:
.bases-td[data-property="note.your property name"] {
pointer-events: none;
}
The one you were using (from my earlier post) is for property types. This one is for property names.
When did they say that?
Here’s a time on Discord. In case you don’t have an account and the insider’s badge to see it yourself, I’ll paste the chat below.
I don’t recall if that’s the comment I saw four months. And I don’t know the team’s future plans. It’s merely what showed up in a search just now.
our fellow Obsidian user:
Is a read / edit mode planned for bases? Or at least for when a note is in read mode? I just noticed it’s pretty simple to remove a tag from a list, and thus a embedded base.
kepano:
No, bases will still be editable in read mode, like checkboxes and properties
but this is easy to change with a snippet if you want
Alright, thanks
Under my current Obsidian version, this code no longer allows for clicking on the “file name” link column to visit a file. I can click on tags, however. I think this worked before . . . did something change?
.bases-tbody {
pointer-events: none;
& :is(a, .metadata-link, .mod-date + .clickable-icon, .internal-link .multi-select-pill-content) {
pointer-events: auto;
}
}
Glanced at the DOM in v1.11.4, and it looks like deleting .multi-select-pill-content will take care of it.
Don’t know whether both text links and multi-select links changed or I had just missed a comma the first time—though no one complained before, so I’ll assume a change.
Thanks for calling it out.
Will update the earlier comment after getting a chance to check that this edit works for various links—file, lists, multiselect pills—and that no additional selectors have become unnecessary. Feel free to call out any other issues you encounter with it.