Page Level permission on Google Sites

When you create a page, the page will use the permissions of your site by default. You can then change the page so that it has its own permissions. In addition, you can choose whether this page should be visible to new people you add to your site or whether they'll need specific permission from you.

This comes in handy for example in following cases:

• You want to create a private area for yourself or your team

• You want to create customer specific content and give access only to those customers

• You have some pages under construction which you wish to hide till those are ready

When you change your page's permissions, you'll have three choices:

• Use the same permissions as the Site 

• In this scenario, the page will mirror your site. For example, if you chose this for a specific page, anyone who can view your site can also view this page and anyone who can edit your site will also be able to edit this page.

• Custom permissions >  Add new users to this page In this scenario, the page will start with a list of people you specify. If you add someone to your site, that person will be added to this page with the same permission level as they have for the site.

• Custom permissions >  Do not add new users to this page In this scenario, the page will be disconnected from the rest of your site. For example, if you later allow more people to view your site, you'll have to also go to this page and add them if you want them to see this page.

Regardless of your choice, if you remove someone from your site, they will no longer have access to a specific page unless it is a public page.

Let's say you are the owner of a website with a Home page at the top and two pages -- called Private Page and Public Page -- underneath it. You want to share this site with your coworkers and allow them to edit both the Home and Public Page. However, your interns aren't allowed to see the financial data you keep on Private Page, and only accountants are allowed to edit that data. Everyone else can only view the Private Page.

To set this up:

1. Click the More actions button  and select Sharing and Permissions.

2. In the top right, click Enable page-level permissions.

3. In the dialog box, click Turn on page-level permissions.

4. Once you have page-level permissions on, you'll see the hierarchy of your site on the left side of the "Sharing and Permissions" page. At the top, click on the name of your site to set your site's permissions.

5. In the dialog box that appears for your site, add everyone in your company and set their access level to Can edit.

6. Find your Private page in your site's hierarchy and click on it.

7. Next to "Use same permissions as the Site," click Change.

8. In the dialog box that appears, under the "Use custom permissions" section, select Add new users to this page or Do not add new users to this page.

9. Click Save.

10. While on your permissions page for your Private Page, delete your interns from your page.

11. Finally, set everyone who isn't an accountant or an intern to Can view.

This will make your Private page editable by accountants, restricted for interns, and viewable by everyone else. In addition, everyone will be able to edit the rest of your site.

You can add individual Gmail users or add a Google Group email address to add the entire group of users for a particular area of your Google Site.

Setting up page-level permissions for public sites, or inviting a group to your site? Check out these common issues with page-level permissions.