SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide

SharePoint Site Permissions and Groups

Before delving into details regarding how to assign permissions to your site and the objects within it, let's review the permissions available, as well as Office SharePoint Server's groups functionality.

Tip

When assigning permissions, it is important to always use groups. You should never assign any rights to an individual user, even when those rights are unique to that person's position. Using groups to assign rights—even if initially those groups contain only a single user—is beneficial because it enables you to easily change the person's level of access if he changes job functions. It also makes it easy to assign those same rights to another person if a similar position is added in the future, and makes it easier to transfer those rights to another user in the case of turnover.

Using groups may require a little more effort and planning up front in some circumstances, but it will almost always save you time and trouble down the road. It also makes it easier to maintain a secure environment.

SharePoint Site Permission Levels

There are eight levels of permissions available for users and groups in Office SharePoint Server:

• Full control

• Design

• Contribute

• Manage hierarchy

• Read

• Restricted read

• View only

• Limited access

These permissions are explained in the following sections. If you are familiar with NTFS filesystem permissions, the available SharePoint permissions are similar, but much more capable.

Full control

Full control means exactly what it implies: users ...