Control Who Can Move WordPress Content to a New Status

By default, most WordPress users have access to the “Publish” button.

Anyone who is an Author, Editor or Administrator can publish content without permission from anyone else.

Only two groups do not have access to the “Publish” button: Contributors and Subscribers.

PublishPress allows you to create your own publishing statuses and user groups. So, in short, you can customize your publishing statuses, user groups, and the permissions that link them together.

How do the permissions work out for real users?

What Subscribers can see

If you're a Suscriber, you won't have any ability to write or edit posts at all.


What Contributors can see

This next image shows what users in the Contributor group can see. They can save the content using the “Save Draft” option.

Yes, Contributors can see the “Publish” button, but it does not work. They can not publish the content. If they click the “Publish” button, they will only have a “Submit for Review” option.


What Authors can see

The image below shows what users in the Author group can see. They can save the content to the “Pitch” and “Pending Review” statuses. Or, they can publish the content.


Changing the default status permissions

With the PublishPress Capabilities Pro, you can decide which user roles are able to send posts to each status.

  • Go to the “Capabilities” screen in your WordPress admin area.
  • You will be able to check the box and allow each user role to move content to each status.

These statuses can be created and renamed using the PublishPress plugin.

But wait … it goes much deeper. You can make it even better with PublishPress Permissions. If this plugin is installed, you can enable much more detailed options for each status. The image below shows the same screen as the image above – only with PublishPress Permissions installed.

With PublishPress Permissions installed, each status has five options and these can be configured for each post type:

  • Set: Move content to this status.
  • Edit: Edit your own content in this status.
  • Edit others: Edit content written by other users in this status.
  • Delete: Delete your content in this status.
  • Delete others: Delete content written by other users in this status.

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