Creating users in WordPress allows you to add users with different roles and access privileges to your site. Once created, a user will be able to log in to your site with a username and password.
WordPress allows you to create users with specific roles. Different roles have different responsibilities and powers within WordPress. This is important if you have a team working on your site. It allows you to have a process where only certain users can do specific tasks, such as publish posts. It’s a good way to ensure quality control, spread out responsibility and keep everything in check.
WordPress user roles include site administrator, editor, author, contributor and subscriber. These user roles control the level of site management granted to a user including the ability to write, edit or publish content on your site. Users with lower access roles will see fewer options in the WordPress Dashboard when they are logged in.
Here’s an overview of the five different user roles in WordPress:
• Administrator: Access to all administrative features. When you install and set up WordPress you’re automatically given an administrator account.
• Editor: Can write, edit and publish posts and pages, as well as manage other users’ posts.
• Author: Can write and edit their own posts, as well as publish them.
• Contributor: Can write and edit their own posts, but they can’t publish them.
• Subscriber: Can only manage their own profile. This role is usually for readers of your blog and makes commenting and interaction easier (especially if you only allow registered users to comment).
Creating Users in WordPress
1. To add a new user to your WordPress site, log in to your WordPress site and click to expand the Users menu.
2. Click the Add New link located in the Users menu.
3. Enter the username, email address, first name, last name, website, and password for the user.
4. If this user is brand new, it’s a good idea to select to send this password to the new user by email.
5. Next, select the subscriber role for the user.
6. To see a basic overview of WordPress user roles, click the Help tab at the top of the screen. Here you’ll see details for how user roles relate to site privileges, so you’ll be able to decide which level of access to grant to your new user.
Editing Users
Once a user is created, you can mouse over their name in the Users list and an Edit link will appear. Click the Edit link to access the Profile edit screen. There are a number of helpful options here, most self explanatory, but a few could use some explanation:
• Visual Editor: If you need people to enter HTML and not use the visual editor, you can force them to use HTML by disabling the visual editor here.
• Admin Color Scheme: Change up the default colors a user sees in their WordPress dashboard.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Enable keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation.
• Toolbar: This turns off the WordPress admin bar when that user is logged in.
• Username: Note that the username cannot be changed.
• First Name, Last Name & Nickname: These fields allow you to enter this information for a user, so their first and last name can be used in blog post authorship.
• Display name publicly as: Once you enter a first name, last name and nickname you’ll have several options in this dropdown. This determines how WordPress will display this user’s name.
• Biographical Info: This bio paragraph can be optionally displayed, depending on your theme. This can help you quickly and easily create author pages for your blog team.
Note: Do not create a user named “admin.” This is one of the easiest ways hackers find their way into your site.
If you have the option of assigning the username during your WordPress installation, create a username other than “admin”. If you do not have the option of assigning the first username, it will be “admin” by default. All you have to do is then create another user as an administrator, with a different username. You can then log in as the new administrator and delete the old “admin” account from the User panel.
