WordPress Training Tutorial: Adding and Managing Users

Adding and Managing Users

You can add users to your WordPress site. It can be helpful to have multiple user accounts so that other people on your team can access your website admin and dashboard areas. Other users can also create additional posts and contribute to your blog.

To add a new users, click “Users’ in the Dashboard. Next, click “Add New” to add a new user. Use the textboxes provided to fill in the information for the new user. In the “Username” textbox, input the username of the new user. This field is required. In the “E-mail” textbox, input the e-mail address of the user. This field is also required. You can use the “First Name” and “Last Name”textboxes to input the first name and last name of the user. Use the “Website” textbox to input the website of the user. Use the “Password” textbox to input a log-in password for the user. This field is required and the user will need this password in order to log in to your site. Type the password again in the “Repeat Password” textbox. The “Strength Indicator” will tell you how strong your password is against attackers or anyone looking to steal your password. If you wish to send your password to the new user by email, click the “Send Password?” checkbox.

Finally, determine the role of the user by selecting a choice in the “Role” drop-down. Choose “Administrator” if you would like the user to have access to all of the administration features on the website. Choose “Editor” if you would like the user to be able to publish posts, manage posts, and manage other user posts. Choose “Author” if you would like the user to be able to publish and manage their own posts and upload files. Authors cannot manage other user’s posts. Choose “Contributor” if you would like the user to be able to write and manage their own posts.

Contributors cannot publish posts or upload media files. Finally, choose “subscriber” if you would like the user to be able to read comments, leave comments and receive newsletters without being able to create regular site content. Once you are done creating a new user, click the “Add New User” button at the bottom of the page.

To see a list of all site users, click “Users” in the Dashboard, and then click “All Users”. A list of all currently created users will populate on screen. On this page, you can add new users or manage the users you currently have. Users with roles other than Administrator will see fewer options in the dashboard navigation when they are logged in, based on their role. At the top of the page, the categories of users you have for your site will be listed.  To view all users, click the “All” link at the top of the page. To view another category of user, click the link that corresponds to that category at the top of the page. All of the users in that category will then be listed on screen.

Use the “Bulk Actions” drop-down to apply a bulk action to a set of users. Use the checkboxes next to each user name to create a set of users. Then use the “Bulk Actions” drop-down and select “Delete”. Click the “Apply” button to delete that set of selected users. To change a role of a user, click the checkbox that corresponds to that user and select the role in the “Change role to…” drop-down. Once you have made your selection, click the “Change” button.