[wpmudev-video video=”create-edit-user” width=”760″ height=”428″]
You add a new user by clicking on the “Users” link in the admin menu inside the WordPress dashboard, and then clicking “Add New.”
Add a new user inside the WordPress User Administration Panel
There are only 3 pieces of required information to create a new user:
- username
- email address
- password
All other fields in this view are optional.
If you wish your user to be notified of his new account make sure to click the check box for “send this password to the new user by email.”
The user role selection box determines the capabilities you can assign to the new user, which vary in the following ways:
Subscriber – This is the default setting for a basic user which can login and read content only. They have no posting capabilities, other than the ability to leave comments on posts on the front end of the site.
Contributor – This is the next level up from Subscriber, and contributors have the ability to add content, but not publish it. Content added by contributors are put into the administrator’s “pending” posts panel for approval before publishing.
Authors – Can do everything a contributor can do, and can also publish their own posts. They cannot, however, edit content created by other authors to the site. They can only edit their own submitted content. Authors can also add media to the site and their own posts.
Editor – Can do everything authors can do, and have the ability to edit content created by other authors on the site.
Administrators – Have complete control of the site and all its areas, including themes, plugins, and user creation and editing.
Editing users
To edit a user, hover over the user’s name in the All Users panel in the WordPress Admin. Links to edit or delete that user will appear – click edit. This brings up the edit profile screen, showing more information options than when the user is created.
You, or the user, can add various snippets of additional information, including a nickname, which determines how the user’s name is displayed on the front-end of the site – like in comments, post meta, and forums.
Users can add additional information to their profiles, such as social media sites, website links, an short bios.
WordPress also includes fields for several social media profiles and a text box for biographical information. These inputs can be especially handy for a multiple author site that wants to show off personal information for its authors. This increases engagement with your site and interest in its member users.