Permissions                                                      Settings

The preferred method for managing permissions and settings is at the group level.  The obvious reason for this is so that permissions and settings can be set globally so that do not have to be set individually for every user in a vault.

However, a common misconception is that the permissions and settings applied at the group level is done the same way.  This is not the case.

Permissions are hierarchical in nature (i.e. a parent-child relationship).  This means that any changes made to group permissions are automatically applied to all users in that group.  Further to this, when a user is added to a group, they automatically inherit those permissions. This is indicated by a group icon if looking at permissions at the user level…

Settings shown at the group level are user settings.  There is no such thing as group settings. When viewing settings at the group level, you are viewing a summary of all the user settings in that group. This is shown in the screenshot below…

• A setting with a checkmark means that all users in that group have that setting.
• An empty setting means that no user in that group have that setting
• A setting with a box indicates that some users in the group have the setting while others do not.

The confusion in thinking that there is such as thing a group settings may lie in the fact that any settings that are changed or added at the group level are applied to existing users in the group. This can be thought of as a batch process. In other words, a one time update of those settings to all users already in the group.

Therefore, if you add a user to the group after the fact, those changes, nor any of the original settings are applied.

So…if settings can not be reliably applied at the group level for new users, how can we add group settings to a new user without having to manually apply settings to each user individually?

The answer is on the first page of the New User dialog.  When adding a new user, fill out the user details and then use the Copy permissions and settings from User: pull-down to select another user that is already a member of the group you want to assign the new user to.

Then simply click Next > and then OK without filling anything else in.

This way, the user will then then be assigned to that group automatically AND get all the applicable settings that all other users have in that group.

HINT: When creating a new vault, follow the order of operations shown below to ensure all users in a group get the same settings at the group level. Then you would only use the above method for new users being added to the vault after the fact.

1. create new groups and users
2. assign all users to the applicable groups
3. Apply settings (and permissions) at the group level.