Default permission levels

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes six permission levels by default. You can customize the permissions available in these permission levels (except for the Limited Access and Full Control permission levels), or you can create new permission levels that contain specific permissions.

Although you cannot directly edit the Limited Access and Full Control permission levels, you can make permissions unavailable for the entire Web application, which essentially removes those permissions from the Limited Access and Full Control permission levels.

The following table lists the default permission levels.

Permission level	Description	Permissions included by default
Limited Access	Allows access to shared resources in the Web site, so that the users can access an item within the site. Designed to be combined with fine-grained permissions to give users access to a specific list, document library, item, or document, without giving them access to the entire site. Cannot be customized or deleted.	View Application Pages Browse User Information Use Remote Interfaces Use Client Integration Features Open
View Only	Members of this group can view pages, list items, and documents. If the document has a server-side file handler available, they can only view the document by using that file handler.	Limited Access permissions View Item View Versions Create Alerts View Page
Read	Allows read-only access to the Web site.	View Only permissions Open Item
Contribute	Can create and edit items in the existing lists and document libraries.	Read permissions Add Items Edit Items Delete Items Delete Versions Browse Directories Edit Personal User Information Manage Personal Views Add/Remove Personal Web Parts Update Personal Web Parts
Design	Can create lists and document libraries and edit pages in the Web site.	Contribute permissions Manage Lists Override Check Out Approve Items Add and Customize Pages Apply Themes and Borders Apply Style Sheets
Full Control	Allows full control of the scope.	All permissions