Note:  User groups cannot be defined in the free educational edition of PBworks.

User groups are a great way for Classroom edition Administrators to easily apply folder and page security settings for groups of students.  First, we'll go over creating and removing groups for your workspace.  Next, we'll go over adding and removing users from your groups.  Finally, we'll show you how to use groups to filter users in your users list and also use them to apply special page and folder security.

To get started using groups, make sure you're logged in as Administrator of the workspace, and click the Users tab at the top of the workspace.  

Remember, you won't be able to do anything with the User groups unless you are logged in to the workspace as an Administrator.

Basics

Creating a new group

1. First, click the "Select a group..." link below any user name in the Users list.  If the user is already in a group, this link won't say "Select a group...", but will instead give the group name.

   

2. In the dropdown menu that appears select "Create group"

   

3. Finally, type in the name of the group and click OK.

   

    

   The group will be created, and the user will be immediately moved to the group.  You'll see that the link under the name will show the group the user is currently a part of.

    

   

Deleting a group from a workspace

1. First, click on the group you want to delete in the Users list on the left hand side.

   

2. Click Delete Group to delete the group.

   

3. Click OK to confirm the deletion of the group.  This action will not remove users from the users list, however it will remove access for all members of that group (if the group had been given access before the deletion).

   

Managing Users

To move a user into a group, simply click the "Select a group" link under the user's name.

Then select the group you want to add them to in the drop down menu.  You can set them to any existing group, or select "No group" to take them out of all user groups.

Using Groups

The two key reasons for putting users into groups is to make sorting through users easier, and to make it easier to add users to the custom page and folder security of pages and folders.

Using groups to filter users

In the left hand side of the Users list, Administrators can click the name of the group to see all the members of that group.

Using groups to set page and folder security

When setting Page and Folder security, groups allow Administrators to easily grant the same access to all members of one group.  In the example below, the Blue and Red groups were selected from the drop down menu, and the Blue group was set with the permission of "Reader" and the Red group was given the permission of "Writer".  Using groups to add users makes assigning permissions to a group of students easy.

Additionally, you can make exceptions for any member in the group, when it comes to the permission.  In the example below, all of the Blue group members have the permission of "Reader", except for David, who has been given the special permission of Writer.