SharePoint Permissions – Permission Levels

This is the third in a series we’ve been doing on SharePoint Permissions. Here are the links for the previous blogs:
SharePoint Permissions – Friend or Foe?
SharePoint Permissions – Security Groups


In our last blog we talked about Security Groups and why they are important. Security groups are only one piece of permissions management. Let’s focus this week’s attention to subject permission levels.
Permission levels are shockingly easy to understand once you remove the other elements of permissions management. A permission level determines what a person or group can do in a site, list or library. By default each site comes with some standard permission levels:

• Read - Can view only
• Contribute - Can view, add, update, and delete
• Design - Can view, add, update, delete, approve, and customize
• Full Control - Can view, add, update, delete, approve, customize, and manage permissions

Notice how each level grows from the last one. The advantage is if you need to provide a group with ability to read documents, edit documents, and delete documents, you only need to give them Contribute access and they are off and running. It really is that simple. There are other permission levels out there and custom permission levels can be created, but that is another blog.

Join us next week, when we’ll wrap up permission with Permissions Inheritance.