84 Users & Collaborators

User Roles in Pressbooks

There are several different user types in Pressbooks, each with a different level of access to accommodate the user’s role within the team.  Below are each of the user roles, and what they have access to once they’ve been added to a book, listed from most to least access.

You can also choose whether all users can view chapters set to ‘Private’, or if they will be limited to Administrators and Editors. To do so:

1. Hover over Settings 
2. Click Sharing & Privacy 
3. Find Private Content 

This settings asks you to choose who can see private front matter, chapters, and back matter. Select either “Only logged in editors and administrators” or “All logged in users including subscribers.”

Different user roles also have access to different interfaces while within Pressbooks. See the chart below for a list of those interfaces each role has access to. Thanks to Lauri M Aesoph at BCcampus for compiling this information.

Adding Collaborators and Assigning Permissions

You can add existing Pressbooks users to your book, or you can create new users.

To add an 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, and select their role
4. Choose whether or not to send the user a confirmation email
5. Click Add Existing User 

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To add a new user: 

1. Select the Users tab on the left sidebar menu of your book’s dashboard
2. Click Add New 
3. Under Add New User fill in the email address that will be linked to the user’s Pressbooks account, as well as their username in Pressbooks, and select their role.
4. Choose whether or not to send the user a confirmation email
5. Click Add New User

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Managing Users and Changing Permissions

Sometimes a book administrator will want to change user permissions or delete users from a book. Follow the steps below to access the list of users on a book and change a collaborator’s status.

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

You can also use the Search Users function to search for a particular user if there are many on the book.

To change a user’s role:

1. Select the user you’d like to change by clicking the checkbox next to their user image and ID
2. Click and open the “Change role to…” dropdown menu and select the desired role
3. Click Change 

The user’s new permission level will be reflected in the Role column.

To remove users:

1. Select the users you would like to remove (NOTE: Selecting the checkbox next to Username at the top or the bottom of the user list will select all users)
2. Click and 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 what users are on a book quickly by viewing the Users panel on the book’s Dashboard page. The Users panel will display 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.

Sharing with a Group of Readers: Password Protected Chapters

If you want to share your book with a large group of readers but not make the book open to the public, it can be impractical to add each individual reader as a Pressbooks user.

Instead, you can password protect the chapters of your public book so that only individuals to whom you have given the password can access the content. Note that there is currently no global option for this feature; you must add password protection to each chapter individually.

To add a password to chapter: 

1. 1. Select the chapter you would like to add the password to
   2. In the Status & Visibility menu, make sure “Show in Web” is selected
   3. Select the checkbox for Require a Password 
   4. Type in your chosen password
   5. Click Save (or, for new chapters, Create)
   6. Repeat for each chapter you want password protected

1. Go to Organize and find the global privacy setting at the top of the page (NOTE: You can only access the global privacy setting on upgraded books while using Pressbooks.com.)
2. Set the book’s global privacy to Public 

After, your book homepage will be accessible to the public. However, each chapter when navigated to will state “Protected: [Enter Chapter Title Here]” at the top, and prompt the user to enter a password.

If the correct password is entered, the user will have access to that chapter, and all others in the book that have the same password.