User's Manual

Page | 17 WordPress User Manual for Beginners
5. Administering WordPress
This section describes the range of tasks that usually carried out only by
Administrators.
5.1 Manage Section
The only extra facility that an administrator has in the 'Manage' section of the site, is
Media Library, Import and Export
5.2 Managing Users
WordPress has the incredibly useful ability to define different levels of users. It
doesn't have the level of power that you get with full content management systems
where tens of pages of content are being created daily.
However, managing users in a complex system can quickly become a full time job
and the level of control in WordPress is usually perfect for the smaller organisation.
You have five levels (roles) of user:
Administrator The very highest level of user – the Administrator can do anything
other users can do, as well as:
 Change all settings
 Switch themes
 Activate and edit plugins
 Edit Users
 Edit Files
 Manage options
 Import
Editor We recommend that the highest level that someone is assigned is Editor –
even the administrator will find that the Editor level is adequate for most tasks while
preventing the possibility of inadvertently making a critical change to the site. An
Editor can do anything a lower level of user can do as well as:
 Moderate comments
 Manage categories
 Manage links
 Enter unfiltered html (as in html with any content at all – careful, this is a
potentially dangerous facility!)
 Edit published posts
 Edit other contributor's posts
 Edit pages
Author Most people creating content through posts on the website will be Authors.
An Author can do anything a lower level of user can do as well as:
 Upload files
 Publish posts
Contributor A contributor really doesn't have a great deal of power. Contributors can
create and edit their own posts, but they can't upload images. They can still insert
images that have already been uploaded.
Subscriber A subscriber can read content on the website and make comments.
Although depending on your settings for your site, it's possible for non-subscribers to
make comments also.