Override LinkFilename with Title

Question

Dear all,
within the view of a SharePoint 2013 document library, I show these two columns (amongst others):
LinkFilename - "Name (linked to document with edit menu)", e.g. "filename1"
Title, e.g. "This is my title of interest"
I want to replace the text of the LinkFilename column with the value of the title column so that I can remove the title column.
Background:
The filename itself is of no interest for the users, only the title is. But the title has neither a link to the file nor an edit menu.
My Approaches:
When using the following JS using JSLink I managed to replace the text, but also the link to the file was gone (obviously):
(function () {
var overrideNameField = {};
overrideNameField.Templates = {};
overrideNameField.Templates.Fields = {
"LinkFilename": { "View": overrideNameFieldTemplate }
SPClientTemplates.TemplateManager.RegisterTemplateOverrides(overrideNameField);
function overrideNameFieldTemplate(ctx) {
var title = ctx.CurrentItem.Title; ctx.currentItem
return title;
The second approach was overriding the title column with the link to the file.
Unfortunatlely this lead to the issue, that the IE dialogue "Open Document" (How would you like to open this file: Read Only / Edit) did not show up (and all Office files would open in read-only mode).
(function () {
var overrideNameField = {};
overrideNameField.Templates = {};
overrideNameField.Templates.Fields = {
"Title": { "View": overrideNameFieldTemplate }
SPClientTemplates.TemplateManager.RegisterTemplateOverrides(overrideNameField);
function overrideNameFieldTemplate(ctx) {
var title = ctx.CurrentItem.Title;
var fileRef = ctx.CurrentItem["FileRef"];
var fileLeafRef = ctx.CurrentItem["FileLeafRef"];
if (title) {
return "<a href='"+ fileRef + "'>"+ title + "</a>";
else {
return "<a href='"+ fileRef + "'>"+ fileLeafRef + "</a>";
I prefer a solution with JSLink (client-side rendering).
Any help is appreciated.
TIA
Markus
x123cx

Answer 1

Sorry, but in my view, this is not the answer we are looking for. This merely adds the drop-down menu, but what we really want is to make the Title text link to the actual document, just the same as "Name (linked to document
with edit menu)" would.
Clicking a such linked Title should show the question about read-only or edit (checkout):
Adding
ListItemMenu="TRUE"
to the Title does only the bold part of what we want, it adds the
drop-down edit menu. What is still missing is the bold italic
part, the link to the document.
And before anybody posts it, let me state that at least for me (Sharepoint 2010), adding
LinkToItem="TRUE"
does not help, either. And neither does one more property or the combination of both:
LinkToItemAllowed="Required"
We do get the Title linked that way, but what happens on clicking the link is a pop-up:
It gives access to the properties of the document, to version history and check-out, and again to the Name, linked to the actual document.
Clicking that further link, Name, finally opens the document. However, it opens the document forcibly read-only, without the prompt for read-only or edit (checkout). So, this time, the link on Name does not do the same as if we had "Name (linked to
document with edit menu)" directly in the view.
Sorry to be verbous, but it seems needed to make the point clear.
Summary
We would like to have something like "Title (linked to document with edit menu)" similar to the standard "Name (linked to document with edit menu)".
In fact, it should not only work for Title, but for any property, also custom added ones.
The edit menu part can be solved via adding ListItemMenu="TRUE" to Title or custom properties.
The particularly difficult part seems to be a real link to the document, opening the document after showing the prompt for read-only or edit (checkout).
Anybody has a clue?