{"id":829,"date":"2017-03-21T14:03:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T14:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/?p=829"},"modified":"2025-11-28T14:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:56:09","slug":"optimize-the-permission-levels-for-users-in-microsoft-sharepoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/microsoft-sharepoint\/optimize-the-permission-levels-for-users-in-microsoft-sharepoint\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimize the permission levels for users in Microsoft SharePoint"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft SharePoint is well known as a collaborative software solution for the enterprises in handling business documents among the users across the organization. For this, it allows you to create a SharePoint site, which as a platform for the sharing of the content among the users. Here, at this point, it should be noted the there are various types of content which hold different kinds of privacy to access. For instance, you might want to provide access only to members of your team, or you might want to provide access to everyone, but restrict editing for some.<\/p>\n<p>Accordingly, SharePoint allows you to determine the permission levels across the users. An easy way to do this is to use the default groups and permission levels provided accordingly. However, you may often need to set more specific permissions beyond the default levels.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here, we present a brief overview about different default and user permission levels:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Default permission levels<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Default permission levels allow you to quickly and easily provide common levels of permissions for one user or groups of users. A little details are as following:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Full Control<\/strong>&#8211; This is the highest level permission, which contains all available SharePoint permissions. By default, this is assigned to the owners group. It cannot be customized or deleted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0Design<\/strong>&#8211; This permission allows the users to create lists and document libraries, edit pages and apply themes, border and style sheets on the SharePoint site. There is no SharePoint group that is assigned this permission level automatically.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Edit- <\/strong>This permission level allows to add, edit, and delete lists; view, add, update, and delete list items and documents. By default, this is assigned to the Members group.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Contribute- <\/strong>With this permission level, users can View, add, update, and delete list items and documents.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Read<\/strong>&#8211; This allows to View pages and items in existing lists and document libraries and download documents.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Limited Access<\/strong>&#8211; This enables a user or group to browse to a site page or library to access only a specific content item. Here, they do not have permissions to open or edit any other items in the site or library.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Approve<\/strong>&#8211; This lets the users to edit and approve pages, list items, and documents. By default, \u00a0 \u00a0the\u00a0<strong><em>Approvers\u00a0<\/em>group<\/strong> has this permission.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u00a0\u00a0<strong>Manage Hierarchy<\/strong>&#8211; this helps the users to create sites and edit pages, list items, and documents. By default, this permission level is assigned to the\u00a0<em>Hierarchy Managers<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0<strong>Restricted Read<\/strong>&#8211; with this, users can view pages and documents, but not historical versions or user permissions.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0<strong>View Only<\/strong>&#8211; users can view pages, items, and documents. Any document that has a server-side file handler can be viewed in the browser but not downloaded. However, the file types, such as video files, .pdf files, and .png files, can still be downloaded. These do not have a server-side file handler, and so cannot be opened in the browser.<\/p>\n<p><strong>User permissions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As provided by SharePoint 2013, there are 33 permissions to be configured in the default permission levels, except for the Limited Access and Full Control permission levels. Thus, you can also create a new permission level to contain specific permissions, such as, list permissions, site permissions, and personal permissions. They depend on the objects to which they can be applied, such as, Site permissions apply to a particular site, List permissions apply only to lists and libraries, and Personal permissions apply only to certain objects, such as personal views and private Web Parts.<\/p>\n<p>To know more about how these permission levels can be configured according to the type of users, or contact our SharePoint expert, please<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/contact-us\/\">click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/microsoft-dynamics-business-central-nav-add-ons\/?utm_source=MetaOption%20LLC&amp;utm_medium=Blogs&amp;utm_campaign=Add-Ons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Explore Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and NAV Add-Ons (opens in a new tab)\"><strong data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\">Explore<\/strong><\/a><strong data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/microsoft-dynamics-business-central-nav-add-ons\/?utm_source=MetaOption%20LLC&amp;utm_medium=Blogs&amp;utm_campaign=Add-Ons\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Explore Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and NAV Add-Ons (opens in a new tab)\"> Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and NAV Add-Ons<\/a> <\/strong>from MetaOption which helps your businesses and boost your operations efficiently across various industries.<\/p>\n<p>For more information and a tailored demonstration, please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/contact-us\/\"><strong>contact us at MetaOption to learn more: 888-895-4233.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Frequently_Asked_Questions\"><\/span>Frequently Asked Questions<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_are_permission_levels_in_Microsoft_SharePoint\"><\/span>What are permission levels in Microsoft SharePoint?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<div>\n    Permission levels define what users can view, edit, create, or manage within a SharePoint site based on the access assigned to them.\n<\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_are_default_permission_levels_useful\"><\/span>Why are default permission levels useful?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<div>\n    They provide quick, ready-made access controls like Full Control, Edit, Contribute, and Read, making it easy to manage common user scenarios.\n<\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_I_create_custom_permission_levels\"><\/span>Can I create custom permission levels?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<div>\n    Yes, SharePoint allows custom permission levels where you can choose specific permissions for sites, lists, libraries, or personal views.\n<\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_Limited_Access_in_SharePoint\"><\/span>What is Limited Access in SharePoint?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<div>\n    It allows a user to access only a specific item or document without giving them rights to other parts of the site or library.\n<\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_do_permission_levels_improve_security\"><\/span>How do permission levels improve security?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<div>\n    By assigning the right access to the right users, you protect sensitive content, prevent unwanted edits, and ensure only authorized people can manage documents.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft SharePoint is well known as a collaborative software solution for the enterprises in handling business documents among the users across the organization. For this, it allows you to create a SharePoint site, which as a platform for the sharing of the content among the users. Here, at this point, it should be noted the\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/microsoft-sharepoint\/optimize-the-permission-levels-for-users-in-microsoft-sharepoint\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[761,11],"tags":[369,561,25,559,562,410,304,557,560,558,563],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microsoft-sharepoint","category-general","tag-microsoft-sharepoint","tag-permission-levels","tag-sharepoint","tag-sharepoint-2013","tag-sharepoint-2013-nj","tag-sharepoint-consultation","tag-sharepoint-development","tag-sharepoint-permission-levels-2013","tag-sharepoint-permissions","tag-sharepoint-permissions-levels","tag-user-permissions-and-permission-levels-in-sharepoint"],"featured_image_src":false,"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"MetaOption","author_link":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft-sharepoint\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Microsoft SharePoint<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/category\/general\/\" rel=\"category tag\">General<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Microsoft SharePoint is well known as a collaborative software solution for the enterprises in handling business documents among the users across the organization. For this, it allows you to create a SharePoint site, which as a platform for the sharing of the content among the users. Here, at this point, it should be noted the\u2026&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metaoption.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}