Editor

What Permissions do Editors Have in WordPress?

The “Editor” role is one of the default user roles in WordPress, alongside “Subscriber”, “Contributor”, “Author”, and “Administrator”.

Editors have a great deal of permissions when it comes to the content on your site. This role is designed to allow users to manage your content. They can publish, edit and delete any content on your site. However, they are normally not allowed to change any settings on your site.

Editors in the WordPress Dashboard

Editors can log in to the admin area of a WordPress site, and this image shows what they can see. Here are some of the key links that Editors can not access:

Plugins
Appearance
Users
Settings

If Editors try to access any settings pages, they'll see this message: “Sorry, you are now allowed to access this page.”

Contributor denied access to WordPress dashboard

Editors Post Permissions

There are almost no limits on what Editors can do with WordPress posts and pages. They can create, publish, edit and delete the posts of any user, including Administrators. They also have those same permissions for Categories and Tags. In short, be careful who you place in the “Editor” role, because these users have a lot of power.

Editor Permissions Overview

This next image shows a chart which shows how Editors fit in alongside other WordPress user roles.

Can You Change the Editor Permissions?

Yes, you can give the Editor more permissions than they have with a default WordPress installation.

The PublishPress Capabilities is an excellent way to view and change the permissions for each user role.

This next image shows the permissions available to Editors for Posts and Pages, inside Capability Manager Enhanced. The Editor has full permissions over all the content on your site, except for Categories and Tags.

If you want to change any of the permissions for Editors, placed a check mark in the boxes above.

If you're interested in the technical details, read this guide to where users and permissions are stored in the WordPress database.

How Do PublishPress Plugins Work With Editors?

PublishPress has a ton of different features available to improve the experience for WordPress users.

The key to everything for Editors is the PublishPress Capabilities plugin. This allows you to increase the permissions for the Editors so they have more control over your publishing workflows.

You can create publishing workflows for Editors, including automatic notifications.
You can set up a pre-publishing checklist so Editors know exactly what to include in each post.
Click here to see Editors permissions for PublishPress screens.