Group permissions

You can set varying and granular permissions for different groups and teams without having to divide your people into different workspaces! Instead, create groups inside one workspace and grant them different levels of access page by page. Here's how.

Create groups Change group access levels Workspace access Using tiered access ✏️ Wiki creation 🚧 Project development process 🗺 Planning FAQs Related guides

Create groups

Keep in mind that only workspace admins can create or edit groups. Given that's the case, here's what to do:

Go to Settings & Members at the top of your left-hand sidebar.

Select the Members tab in the sidebar of that window.

You'll see a list of all your members. To the right of the header Members, click Groups.

Click Create a Group. Name and choose an icon for your group ✨

Under your new group, click + Add a Member.

Add as many members as you want to any group.

You can also click Remove to the right of any group member.

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Note: Guests in your workspace can't be added to groups.

You can drag and drop to rearrange these groups. Just click the ⋮⋮ icon that appears on hover and drag up or down.

To rename or delete a group, click ••• to the right of its name.

You can always search someone's name or email to see which group they're in.

Change group access levels

For any page, choose which groups can read, comment, edit, and share it:

When you click Share, you'll see all of your created groups listed in the dropdown. Switch on the toggle to the right of any group to give that group access to the page.

Choose what type of access you'd like to give that group from the dropdown next to the toggle:

Full Access: They can edit and share the page.
Can Edit: They can edit the page's content, but they can't share the page. (This is only available on paid plans.)
Can Comment: They can only read and comment, not edit or share.
Can View: They can only read the content, and can't share it.
Disabled: Revokes their access to the page.

You can give multiple groups access at any level on the same page.

Permissions on any page also apply to all of their sub-pages.

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Note: You can disable access for a group, but still give individual members of that group access to a page by clicking Share and then Add people.

Workspace access

When you click Share, you'll also see Share with workspace listed in the dropdown menu. This allows you to set a baseline level of access for people in your workspace.

If it's Disabled, people will not be able to see pages unless they've been invited or are part of a group with access.

If it's set to Full Access, everyone will be able to share and edit any page in your workspace. That overrides group or individual-specific permissions.

If it's set to Can View, then that will apply to everyone except for individuals and groups that you specifically grant more access to.

Essentially, use Share with workspace to set the lowest permission level for everyone.

Using tiered access

There are a number of ways you can use combinations of groups and access levels. Here are just a few examples:

✏️ Wiki creation

Maybe you only want a few people creating and maintaining your organization's knowledge base, but you want everyone to be able to read it. Perhaps you want the executive team to be able to comment on this content but not edit it.

Create 2 groups: editors and executives.

Set Share with workspace to Can view.

Enable Full Access for editors and Can Comment access for executives.

🚧 Project development process

For anything your organization creates — whether that's blog posts, videos, products, etc. — you'll likely have creators, reviewers, people who just want to be informed, and people who don't need to be involved. Creating groups can help you streamline these workflows:

Create groups that correspond to each type of stakeholder.

Disable Share with workspace on all project pages.

Enable Full Access for creators, Can Comment access for reviewers, and Can View access for informed stakeholders. No one outside of these groups will see the page or its sub-pages in their sidebar.

🗺 Planning

You may want to take the time to get a document right before sharing it more broadly — like quarterly planning, new policies, early projects, etc. Using group permissions, you can share whatever you're doing with an ever-increasing circle of people, so they get to see it first.

Create groups for your immediate team, your executive team, teams you work with closely, and finally for the rest of your company.

Disable Share with workspace on all of these pages.

Enable Can Edit for your team (so they still can't share it), Can Comment access for people whose feedback you want, and Can View access for everyone else. No one outside of these groups will see the page or its sub-pages in their workspace until you want them to.

FAQs

How do I share with individuals and not whole groups?

You can share a private page with individual members of your workspace by clicking Share at the top right and then Invite a Person. Search for their name, set a level of access for them and press Invite.

You can also share a private page with a guest through the same mechanism, only you should type their email instead of searching their name and press Invite.

Why do I need to disable Share with workspace?

Why are these pages in the Shared section of my left-hand sidebar?

Those are pages shared with only specific groups or individuals. They aren't visible to the rest of the people in your workspace. In order for pages shared with groups to show up in this part of your sidebar, you need to disable Share with workspace. Otherwise, everyone in your workspace will still see it.

As a quick refresher, any page in the Workspace section of your sidebar can be viewed in some respect by everyone in your workspace. Any page in the Private section of your sidebar is for your eyes only.

How do permissions change if I move a page from Shared to Workspace in my sidebar?

First, all members of your workspace will be able to see your page and have full access to edit and share, so you may want to change that under Share at the top right next to Share with workspace.

The people or groups who you had previously shared that page with will retain their level of access to the page, but the Share with workspace setting will override it if it's set at a higher level. For instance, if Share with workspace is set to Full Access, groups that could previously only read your page can now edit and share it. If you disable Share with workspace, these groups will revert back to read-only access.

How can this be used instead of multiple separate workspaces?

We've seen people create multiple workspace instead of groups to set granular permissions. For instance, they create separate workspaces for Design, Marketing, their executive team, etc. so they can't access, edit, or get distracted by each other's work. You don't need to do this. Instead:

Disable Workspace Access. That way pages won't show for people and groups who aren't specifically granted access.

On every page, grant different levels of access per group. Those access levels will hold true for all the sub-pages on that page.

So, for example, you could have a section of your workspace just for the engineering team. Create a group of all your engineers, then on the top-level page for that team, turn on Full Access for only that group. Nest pages inside that page, and only the engineering team can access them, too!

Can I create a shared private page using groups?

Yes. If you create a page in the Private section of your sidebar, you can go to Share and toggle on access for a group inside your workspace. Choose their access level like you would on any other page. You'll see the page automatically move to the Shared section of your sidebar. Only you and the members of that group will be able to see it.

Can I @-mention a group or assign a group?

For now, no. However, this is something we may consider adding in the future.

Related guides

Add members to your workspace

Sharing & permissions

Real-time collaboration

Comments, page comments & mentions

Follow pages

Updates & notifications

Public pages & web publishing

Guest access

Something we didn't cover? Message us in the app by clicking ? at the bottom left on desktop (or in your sidebar on mobile). Or email us at team@makenotion.com ✌️