What is a SharePoint group?
A SharePoint group is a group of users which can be used to permission a site. Groups can be re-used around the site collection and can be used to permission, sites, lists, libraries, folders and items. Using SharePoint groups allows the administrator to control access without having to edit individual permissions, only the SharePoint group membership requires editing rather than each permission level.
Creating a SharePoint Group
Select “Site settings” from the SharePoint menu.
Select “People and Groups” from the “Users and Permissions” menu.
Select “Groups” on the left side menu, this will show a list of all the groups on the site collection.
Create a new group by selecting “New Group” from the “New” drop down menu.
Enter a name and description for the new group.
The Group owner has overall control of the group settings and members. This is usually either an administrator or someone you have delegated the running of the group to.
You can decide to keep the membership of the group private to the users in the group or let everyone see the group membership. There is also an option to allow group members to edit the membership of a group. This is great for collaborative sites where members may wish to share with others without having to go to the group owner. It helps remove some of the burden from the group owner and can open up sharing and collaboration without admin intervention.
Membership requests allow users who are not members of the group, the ability to request membership. This can be set to auto-accept which is useful for open groups or the requests can be sent to an email address for approval by the group owner (or members if this option was enabled earlier).
Permission levels can be set when creating the group. Please note that setting permissions here will only apply to the site which you are currently on. It is advised that you create the group without any permissions and then go back into the sites to add relevant permissions to avoid any confusion.
Click “Create” to finish setting up the group.
Adding members to the group
Once the group has been created, you may notice that the only member is the group owner. Additional users can be added by going to the “Add Users” option under the “New” menu.
Enter the name(s) of the members(s) you wish you add to the group. Under advanced options, you will see that the default setting is to send an email to any users added to the group. This is optional and can be deselected. In addition to this, you can customise the personal message in the email invitation for these users.
Note: Active Directory security groups can also be added here if using DirSync (in Office 365)
Click Share to add the users to the group.
Permissioning a site with a SharePoint Group
Once the group has been created, it can be used to permission subsites, lists, libraries, folders and even items. To give the group’s members permissions on a SharePoint site, first navigate to the SharePoint site itself.
Select “Site Settings” from the menu.
Select “Site permissions” from the “Users and Permissions” menu.
Select “Grant Permissions” from the “Permissions” tab.
As you start to type in the name of the group, SharePoint will pick up the group name.
Click “SHOW OPTIONS” to view the permission levels.
Select a permission level from the drop down and decide whether you would like to send an email to the group.
Avoid adding the group to another SharePoint group (this is usually the default option and can over complicate your permissions). Use one of the permission levels available:
- Read – Can view the site but cannot edit any items or pages
- Contribute – Can add, edit and delete list items. User cannot create new apps or sites.
- Design – Users have contribute but in addition, they can also create and delete apps and subsites. Apply themes and designs.
- Full Control – Users can do anything on the site including change permissions (usually admins only)
There are other permission levels, you can also specify your own. For a full reference of permission levels please see the Microsoft site:
