By default, all authors have complete access to all Library folders and all actions that you can perform to develop, modify, publish, and export content. However, your administrator can also restrict your ability to access content in any Library folder and perform actions on that content. An administrator can assign the following permissions:
The following permissions can be set for any folder in the Library:
List Folder Contents: Authors cannot save to folders with this permission. An author can view the names of documents in a Library folder but cannot open a document in any editor and perform actions that would change the document content or its location in the Library. An author also cannot make a copy of the document in any way.
Read: An author can open a document in an editor, but cannot perform any actions that would change the document content or its location in the Library. An author can make a copy (including Save as) of the document and store it in a folder location to which they have appropriate permissions.
Modify: An author has complete access to the folder and its documents and can perform any action (create, modify, copy, delete, publish, export, and so on).
When an author works in a folder with documents that have List or Read permissions, they are alerted when they cannot perform an action due to permission restrictions. Each folder and document in the Library (or the Details view of the Outline Editor) displays the active permission setting in the Permission column which can appear in any view.
If you need access to a document that has permission restrictions, you should contact your administrator to determine whether you can obtain the access that you need.
Also note the following about permissions:
The Permission column only appears in the Details view. You can add this column to any other custom view.
If you move a document from one folder to another, the document inherits the permissions of the folder to which it is moved.
When you create a new folder in the Library, it has no permissions of its own, but inherits the permissions from the parent folder.
Permissions are not preserved on exported content.
Permissions are enforced when you are working online or offline.
All authors should have at least Read permission to the System folder or any subfolder within it. If an author has List Folder Contents permission to the System folders, functions such as publishing/preview, role and template assignment, topic editing and recording, attachment icon assignment, assigning styles from a style sheet, and so on, do not work.
If you are working offline and your administrator changes your permissions, the changes go into effect the next time you are online. Also note that if you create documents in a folder to which you no longer have permissions, these documents do not appear in the folder when you connect to the server and work online; instead, they appear in the Lost documents view. You can switch to the Lost documents view and decide whether to delete the document or move it to a folder in which you have the appropriate permissions. Also, if you move a document to a folder in which you no longer have permissions, the move is ignored when you connect to the server and work online. A message appears on the Developer status bar alerting you when there are lost documents in the Library. You can double click on the message to automatically display the Lost documents view.
Permissions have no impact on your ability to assign any author as the Owner. Therefore, you could assign an author as the Owner of a document in cases where the author may not have access to the document. Authors should be careful to only assign ownership to documents that are accessible to other authors.