Our SharePoint Permissions 101 presentation we used for our internal SharePoint user group.

1. SHAREPOINT
PERMISSIONS 101
Thomas Duff – 06/21/2013

2. Agenda
• Permissions In SharePoint
• SharePoint Groups
• Inheriting And Breaking Permissions
• Finding What Permissions Someone Has On A Site
• What Is “Limited Access”?
• Using Email Distribution Groups In SharePoint Groups
• SharePoint Groups vs. Active Directory Groups

3. Permissions In SharePoint
• Covers everything from Full Control (owners) to Read
Only (visitors).
• Permissions can inherit from a parent site or list
• Permissions can also be unique (breaking inheritance)
• You can customize your permission groups down to a
specific level of granularity
• For all permission options, see:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/cc721640(v=office.14).aspx

4. Using SharePoint Groups For Permissions
• The default groups are:
• Full Control
• Contribute
• Reader
• Site Actions > Site Permissions

5. Why Groups Instead Of Individual People?
• Technically, you can add individual people to a permission
list.
• Using SharePoint groups makes it easier to administer
permission changes.

6. CreatingA New SharePoint Group
• Use the Create Group icon in the Permissions page
Ribbon bar.

7. CreatingA New SharePoint Group

8. CreatingA New SharePoint Group

9. CreatingA New SharePoint Group
• New group created with you as only member:
• How it looks in the permission list:

10. CreatingA New SharePoint Group
• Important point: Even if you have Full Access in a site,
you may not be able to update/modify a group:
• Ownership of a group and who can modify it are part of
the group settings.

11. Adding People To A SharePoint Group
• Select the group to change and click New > Add Users:

12. Adding People To A SharePoint Group
• Click the address book icon to look up names:

13. Adding People To A SharePoint Group
• Select your names, click Add, then click OK:

14. Adding People To A SharePoint Group
• You can have an email sent to the new members:

15. Adding People To A SharePoint Group
• They are now a member of the group:

16. InheritingAnd Breaking Permissions
• Go to the permissions list for your list or site:

17. InheritingAnd Breaking Permissions
• Click on Stop Inheriting Permissions:

18. InheritingAnd Breaking Permissions
• Confirm:
• Permissions are now unique:

19. InheritingAnd Breaking Permissions
• You can set permissions down to the list, folder, or item
level:
• Best practice is not to go any lower than folder level.

20. SharePoint GroupsAnd Breaking Inheritance
• The names *within* a SharePoint group are not frozen,
and changes to the SharePoint group membership *will*
affect any site or list that uses that group.
• THIS IS THE BIGGEST MISUNDERSTOOD PART OF
UNIQUE PERMISSIONS!
• Do not *delete* a group in a list, thinking you are only
removing it from the list. You are deleting it anywhere it is
used.
• Use the Remove User Permissions button to remove (not
*delete*) the group from this list.

21. Finding What Permissions Someone Has OnA Site
• From the permission list:
• Enter person’s name:

22. Finding What Permissions Someone Has OnA Site
• All the permissions for the person (highest wins):

23. What Is “Limited Access”?
• Used and added by SharePoint when unique permissions
exist on a site:
• Just leave it there. SharePoint manages it.

24. Using Email Distribution Groups In SharePoint Groups
• These are groups in Outlook that start with [DL]:

25. Using Email Distribution Groups In SharePoint Groups
• You can use them for SharePoint permissions:

26. Using Email Distribution Groups In SharePoint Groups

27. Using Email Distribution Groups In SharePoint Groups
• Here’s how it then appears in your permissions list:

28. Using Email Distribution Groups In SharePoint Groups
• However, they are not set to be security-enabled by
default:

29. Using Email Distribution Groups In SharePoint Groups
• If you don’t find your [DL] entry, create a help desk case to
have it added:

30. SharePoint Groups vs.Active Directory Groups
• You may see the following:

31. SharePoint Groups vs.Active Directory Groups
• Active Directory groups are managed by the Security
Access Management group.
• There are pros and cons to using Active Directory groups
vs. SharePoint groups.
• If you find an Active Directory group in your permission
list, call to find out who is in it.
• This is still a topic we are discussing as a group to
determine how we want to handle this on a consistent
basis.

32. Questions?
• This presentation and associated Word document with
this information will be posted for all to use.