How to Add and Manage Users in WordPress

As your WordPress blog grows, you will likely end up wanting to add additional authors to your team. Rather than having to post everything using your own administrator account and username, you can create additional user accounts so that others can publish and edit posts on your blog. You can add as many user accounts as you like while also setting restrictions to each new account. For example, you can add Contributor accounts for regular contributors to your blog, and these will require review by someone with an Editor account or greater before publication. All except administrator accounts are restricted to only posting articles, and users will not be able to install or modify things like plugins or themes or alter the source code of your website. This guide takes a look at adding and managing user accounts in WordPress.

1 – Adding a User Account

To add a new user account, the only information you will need is the user’s email address.

1. Log in to your WordPress administrator dashboard and open the “Users” section from the sidebar. Click “Add New.”
2. Enter the required details as well as any optional ones you require. Choose a strong password using the password strength indicator as a guide. Be sure to choose a suitable role from the drop-down box beside “Roll”. Only Administrator accounts will have access to all of your website’s content and settings.
3. Click “Add New User”.

2 – Managing User Accounts

You can customize different user accounts in a variety of ways. In addition, and depending on the user roll selected, other users themselves can also change certain settings pertaining to their own user accounts.

1. Return to the main Users page by clicking on the button in the sidebar.
2. Mouse over the user’s name and click “Edit”.
3. Modify the colour scheme and other settings as required and click “Update User”.
4. To delete a user, mouse over the user’s name and click “Delete”.

3 – Understanding User Roles

In WordPress 3.8 and later, blog owners can choose from five pre-defined roles for new users. Those with multiple WordPress blogs all linked to the same account can also choose a sixth role entitled “Super Admin”. This role will allow the user full-rights access to all blogs on the network. Administrator accounts provide full access to a single site, while editors can publish and edit posts by themselves or other authors and contributors. Authors can only publish and edit their own posts, contributors can write and manage their own posts but not publish them, while subscribers can only manage their own profiles.