I'm having problems with group permissions

[cmsforchurch]

I recently redid our church Web site using CMS Made Simple.  All the staff and and volunteers are thrilled with how easy it is for them to update the Web pages themselves.  I especially like the fact that I can use Group Permissions to make sure each volunteer is only allowed to make updates to the pages to which they are I assigned.

However, I am having a few problems trying to figure out what combination of permissions will allow the groups to make the kinds of updates I want them to do.  I want each group to update and add pages only in a particular topic area.  So I created groups for each topic, created a base page for each group, and added their group as an additional editor of the base page.  On the Group Permissions page, I selected the check boxes for each group to "Add Global Content Blocks", "Add Pages", "Manage Menu", "Modify Files", and "Remove Pages".  Following are a few things that this combination of options doesn't seem to allow.  Can you tell me what options I should select in order to allow the user to do these things, without giving them permission to change content of all pages?

1) Options Tab on the Edit Content Page - In addition to editing the main content of a page, I want them to be able to select if the page they are working on should be shown in the menu, if it should be active, and maybe even allow them to update the page alias.  I wouldn't mind it if they had access to all the options on the Options tab.  However, using the above list of permissions, the Edit Content page shows them the Main tab and the Preview tab.  It does not show them the Options tab.  So they cannot access those additional options that I want them to use.

How do I give them the Options tab without giving them permission to update all the pages on the site?


2) Permission to Edit the Global Content Block They Created - With the above permissions, each group is able to create their own Global Content Blocks (I asked them to create global content blocks if they have any block of text that they want to have appear on more than one of their pages).  However, once they create a Global Content Block, they no longer have permission to edit that global content block.  Their newly created global content block does not appear in the list when they go to the Global Content Blocks page.

When they create a new page, the new page automatically shows up in the list of pages they are permitted to edit.  How can I get Global Content blocks to work the same way.


3) Reorder Menu Items - As each of my users creates new pages, it automatically places the new page at the bottom of the list.  I want them to be able to move their pages up and down in the list of pages they are permitted to edit, usually to put them in alphabetical order, so they can control the order of the options in the navigation menu.  However, with the above permissions, when they go to the Pages list, the Move column isn't shown.  I was hoping that by adding the permission to "Manage Menu", that they would be allowed to move the items on the Pages list, but that didn't help.

What permission do I need to add so these users can rearrange the order of the pages they create?


4) Group Order - As I created each group, the new group name was added to the bottom of the list.  Is there any way to get it to list those group names in alphabetical order?  It would make it a lot easier to use if the groups were listed alphabetically on both the Current Groups page (when you click on Users & Groups / Groups), and in the Additional Editors selection box on the Options tab of the Edit Content page.

I am using CMS Version 1.8.1.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[Dr.CSS]

Sorry I don't really use the permissions much but...

1) I believe you go to Site Admin » Global Settings then the advanced setup tab down lower you will see those properties in a box, hold Ctrl key and pick ones you want on main tab and hit submit they should show up there for them...

[ChrisF]

I'm having some of the problems you are as well. The only way to allow a user to reorder the pages is to allow them to manage all content. There was a "Modify Page Structure" option in earlier versions of CMSMS but that appears to be gone now. I'm hoping this will be brought back in some way since it is important for group users to be able to move the pages they own and create, but not have access to all pages.