SharePoint Membership & Permissions

Understanding Membership Groups

There are two membership groups in Teams: Office 365 groups and SharePoint Security groups. These groups grant different access to your site.

NOTE: References to internal users are those at KU, while external users are those not associated with KU.  

Office 365 Groups

• Grant access to site libraries, pages, lists, subsites, etc., including Outlook, Teams, and Planner associated with your SharePoint site. 
• Internal and external users can be added to this group. 
• External users are given Member role and cannot be made an owner in this group.  

SharePoint Groups

• Grant access to selected features of the SharePoint site, including the top-level site, subsite, library or list, etc. 
• External users can be made an owner when put into this group. 
• With this group, owners can set more granular permissions on subsites, libraries, etc. by placing users in a permission level, such as Owners, Members, Visitors. See permission level descriptions below.

View visual of these groups in screenshot below.
View ScreenshotComparison of O365 and SharePoint groups

Manage Permissions

SharePoint Permission Levels

Before adding users to the site, you will need to decide their permission group and if you want them to be added to the Office 365 group or SharePoint Security groups. 

Office 365 group gives everyone access to the SharePoint site and associated apps (Teams, Outlook, and Planner). Adding external users (outside of KU) to the Office 365 group gives them the same access except Conversations and the Outlook Calendar. If you need to set granular permissions on any part of the site, i't's best to use the SharePoint group instead of Office 365 group. 

There are three default SharePoint permission levels in every site:

• Site visitors - read-only access to the site, cannot make edits
• Site members - can edit and create content on the site
• Site owners - full control of the site

A site owner can decide to break permissions if a site, or content within a site, needs more restrictive access. These permission levels give access to everything on the site until the permission is broken.

See the Add Members section to learn how to add users to your Office 365 or SharePoint groups. 

Assign Specific Permissions

It is possible to assign permissions to a subsite or an app that does not apply to the entire site. To do this, you must first break inheritance of permissions, then assign permissions to that app. The screenshots below will be for a list, but it is the same process for a document library. 

How to break permissions on a list or document library:  

1. Navigate to the app you want to change and select the Settings icon at the top-right.  
2. Select List/Library settings
   View ScreenshotSelect List settings from dropdown menu
3. Select Permissions for this list/library under Permissions and Management.
   View ScreenshotSelect List settings from dropdown menu 
4. Select Stop Inheriting Permissions in the toolbar at the top-right.
   View ScreenshotSelect the Stop Inheriting Permission button from top menu 
5. Use Grant User Permissions and Remove User Permissions to customize the access to the page or app. 
   View ScreenshotGrant Permissions and Remove User Permission buttons in the top menu of page 

To break inheritance on a site:

1. Navigate to the homepage and select the Settings icon at the top-right.  
2. Select Site permissions.
3. Select Advanced site permission settings link at the bottom of the panel.
4. Select Stop Inheriting Permissions in the toolbar at the top-right.
   View ScreenshotSelect the Stop Inheriting Permission button from top menu 
5. Use Grant User Permissions and Remove User Permissions to customize the access to the page or app. 
   View Screenshot

Add Members

Once your site is created, SharePoint site owners will need to add members, apps, and provide navigation for the team.

To add KU users to the Office 365 group:

1. Select members located at the top-right are of the page.
   View ScreenshotSelect Members link
2. Select the Add members button. 
3. Enter their name or email. 

To add external users to the Office 365 group:

1. Select members located at the top-right are of the page.
   View ScreenshotSelect Members link
2. Select the go to Outlook link and add members from there. 
   View ScreenshotSelect go to Outlook link/span>
3. Select Add members from the top menu or Manage group members below the current members to add or remove. 
   View ScreenshotSelect Add Members from the menu

To add users SharePoint groups: 

1. Select the Settings icon and choose Site permissions. 
   View ScreenshotSelect Site permissions from the dropdown list  
2. Scroll to the bottom of the panel and select Advance permission settings. 
   View ScreenshotSelect Advanced permissions settings 
3. Select a permission group and add users.  
   View ScreenshotSelect the membership group, then select Add members

More on Setting Permissions

See Microsoft's support page to learn more about setting permissions for groups.

External Users

If external users are using Gmail, the invitation emails, verification emails, and other communications related to process will most likely go to the Spam folder. Notify users that emails may go to Spam. 

When adding or sharing document/folder links to external users, the external user will either need a Microsoft account or request a one-time code be sent from Microsoft before they will be able to open the file or access the site.

If the external user doesn't already have a Microsoft account, once they try to open a link to a file or invitation sent via email, they will get a message to create an account or request a one-time code to give them access. 
View ScreenshotSelect Create one or select the sign-in with a one-time code link

Other SharePoint Features

Find information about SharePoint's other features. 

Microsoft Updates & Tips

Support

Technical Support: itcsc@ku.edu  |  785-864-8080

Training Support: training@ku.edu  |  785-864-5155

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