Core Features and Objects of Microsoft 365 Services · Topic 3 of 6
SharePoint Admin Center, Sites and Permissions
AB-900 SharePoint admin center: team and communication sites, libraries and folders, plus the Owners, Members and Visitors roles on every site.
- 4 min
- The SharePoint admin center manages sites. Libraries and folders live inside a site.
- Team sites are for collaboration and are connected to a Microsoft 365 group. Communication sites are for publishing.
- Owners have Full Control, Members have Edit, Visitors have Read.
What it is
SharePoint in Microsoft 365 stores and shares an organization's files and intranet content. Its main object is the site. Inside a site, files live in libraries, and libraries can hold folders. The SharePoint admin center manages sites for the whole organization, while site permissions decide who may open or change the content of each site.
How it works
Objects and where you manage them
| Object | What it is | Where it is managed |
|---|---|---|
| Site | A web space for a team, project or department | SharePoint admin center > Sites > Active sites |
| Library | A container for files inside a site, such as Documents | In the site itself, by site owners |
| Folder | A way to group files inside a library | In the library, by people with edit rights |
The admin center works at the site level. It lets an administrator create, delete and restore sites, set storage limits, change sharing, and see site details. Libraries and folders are usually managed day to day by the people who own the site. Administrators may take part when a site has a problem, but the admin center is not where you create a folder.
Site types
- Team site is for collaboration. It is usually connected to a Microsoft 365 group, so it comes with a shared mailbox and can have a team in Microsoft Teams.
- Communication site is for broadcasting information to many readers, such as a news or policy site.
- Hub site links related sites together so they share navigation and search.
Other settings in the admin center are organization wide, such as the sharing policy under Policies > Sharing, which sets the most open way that content may be shared.
Site roles and permissions
Access to a site is given through three default groups.
| Role | Typical permission level | What they can do |
|---|---|---|
| Owners | Full Control | Everything on the site, including managing permissions and settings |
| Members | Edit | Add, change and delete content |
| Visitors | Read | View and download content, but not change it |
On a site connected to a Microsoft 365 group, group owners become site owners and group members become site members. A site collection administrator is a person with full control over the site who can also manage settings above the level of the site's own owners. A global or SharePoint administrator can manage any site through the admin center.
Permissions are inherited. A library inherits the permissions of its site, and a folder inherits from its library. If one folder needs a different audience, you can break inheritance and give it unique permissions, but doing this for many items becomes hard to manage. Prefer to give access at site level and use groups.
A person can also be given access to one file or folder through a sharing link. Link types include links for anyone, people in your organization, people with existing access and specific people. The strictest is specific people.
A worked example
HR needs a place to publish its policies to all staff. The administrator creates a communication site, makes the HR team the owners, and gives all staff Visitor (read) access. Inside the site, a library holds the policy documents. The salary documents are in a folder that only three managers can open, so the site owner stops inheriting permissions on that folder and gives the three managers access. Later, a sharing link for specific people is used to send one document to an outside auditor.
How the exam asks about this
- "Where do you view all sites in the organization and delete one?" SharePoint admin center > Sites > Active sites.
- "A user must read but not change documents on a site. What role?" Visitor, with the Read permission level.
- "A site is needed to broadcast company news to all employees. Which type?" A communication site.
What to remember for the exam
- The SharePoint admin center manages sites. Libraries and folders live inside a site.
- Team sites are for collaboration and are connected to a Microsoft 365 group. Communication sites are for publishing.
- Owners have Full Control, Members have Edit, Visitors have Read.
- Permissions are inherited from site to library to folder unless inheritance is broken.
- Use groups to give access, and use the narrowest sharing link that works.
Unique permissions on many folders and files make a site hard to audit and are a common cause of oversharing. The exam favours simple, group based access at site level.
Common mistakes
Looking for libraries and folders in the admin center. The admin center lists sites. Libraries and folders are managed inside each site.
Giving Edit to someone who only needs to read. Choose Visitor for read only access.
Assuming sharing a file changes the site's roles. A sharing link gives access to one item and does not make the person a site member.
Check yourself
Which three default groups give access to a SharePoint site?
Owners (Full Control), Members (Edit) and Visitors (Read).
Where do administrators manage all sites in the organization?
In the SharePoint admin center, under Sites > Active sites.
What happens to a folder's permissions by default?
It inherits them from its library, which inherits from the site, until someone breaks inheritance to set unique permissions.
Topic 3 of 6 in Core Features and Objects of Microsoft 365 Services
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