User Roles in Pressbooks

Users can be assigned to one of the following roles within an individual book project: Administrator, Editor, Author, Collaborator, or Subscriber. Each of these user roles provides different levels of access, as described in the table below:

Different user roles also have access to different interfaces while within Pressbooks. The chart below (courtesy of BCcampu’s Lauri Aesoph) summarizes which dashboard links are visible to which types of users:

Changing the Visibility of Private Content

By default, private content will only be visible to users with the role of administrator. You can allow all users to access private content by changing the Private Content setting in your book. To do so:

1. Click Settings -> Sharing & Privacy in your book dashboard
2. Find the Private Content option and select All logged in users including subscribers
   
3. Click Save Changes

Adding Users and Assigning Permissions

You can add existing Pressbooks users to your book, or you can create new users. If you need to add many users at once, consider using the Bulk Add feature. Network managers, will always see the ‘Add Users’ option for individual books. This option will also be visible to ‘book administrators’ if your network manager has selected the “Allow Book Administrators to Invite New Users as Collaborators” option in ‘Network Options’. Instructions for using each of the three ‘Add User’ options are included below.

Add Existing User

1. Select the Users tab on the left sidebar menu of your book’s dashboard
2. Click Add New 
3. Under Add Existing User, fill in the user’s account email
4. Select their role
5. Click the “Add Existing User” button

Users invited by this method will be sent a confirmation email requiring them to accept the invitation to be added to this book. They will not appear in the book’s user list or be able to access the project until they have confirmed their participation.

Add New User

1. Select the Users tab on the left sidebar menu of your book’s dashboard
2. Click Add New 
3. Provide a Username and Email address to be used for this new user.
4. Select the desired Role for this new user.
5. Click “Add New User“

A confirmation email will be sent to the new user’s email address. This new user must confirm the creation of their account and accept your invitation before they will appear in your book’s user list and have access to the project.

Add Users in Bulk

1. Select the Users tab on the left sidebar menu of your book’s dashboard
2. Click Bulk Add 
3. Enter the emails for each person you intend to invite to the book (place one email address per line with no additional punctuation)
4. Select the desired Role for these users.
5. Click “Add users“

Note that the Bulk add feature allows you to add both new users and existing Pressbooks users to your book at the same time.

Any new users added via the Bulk Add option will be sent an email asking that they confirm registration of their account. Users will not appear in your book’s user list until they’ve confirmed their account. Existing users will immediately appear in the user list without requiring special confirmation.

You will receive a notification at the top of the screen that lets you know which users were added, which need to confirm their accounts before they’ll be added, and which users were unable to be added. Please note that some networks may only allow users with specific email domains to be added as users on their network. Contact your network manager if you have any questions about allowed or banned email domains for users on your network.

Managing Users and Changing Permissions

Sometimes you may wish to change user permissions or delete users from a book. Follow the steps below to manage users and their permissions within your book.

To access users: 

1. Select the Users tab on the left sidebar menu of your book’s dashboard
2. Click All Users to view all users in any role on a given book

To change a user’s role:

1. Select one or more users by clicking the checkbox next to their username(s) (selecting the checkbox next to Username at the top or the bottom of the user list will select all users)
2. Open the “Change role to…” dropdown menu and select the desired role
3. Click Change 

The new role for any affected users will be reflected in the Role column.

To remove users from your book:

1. Select one or more users by clicking the checkbox next to their username(s) (selecting the checkbox next to Username at the top or the bottom of the user list will select all users)
2. Open the “Bulk Actions” dropdown menu and select “Remove“
3. Click Apply 

This will remove all selected users from the book.

Book Dashboard Users Panel

You can also see which users have been added to a given book by viewing the Users panel on the book’s Dashboard page. The Users panel displays the icon, username, and role of each user on the book (except for subscribers). The total number of users, as well as the number of users in each role, will be stated at the bottom of the panel. You can also use this panel to navigate directly to the Add New Users and Organize Users pages.