In one of my recent projects, our team created a SharePoint site to manage all project documents and updates in one place. As the project progressed, more people from various departments required access to the site to collaborate and contribute.
Instead of sharing files separately via email, we decided to add them directly to the SharePoint site, allowing everyone to work together within the site.
In this tutorial, we will see how to add users to a SharePoint site from your organization step by step.
Add Users to a SharePoint Site
We can add specific users to a SharePoint site with two different options below:
- Add Users to a SharePoint Team Site
- Add Users to a SharePoint Communication Site
Add Users to a SharePoint Team Site
For Team sites connected to a Microsoft 365 Group, you can share the site in two ways:
- Add members to the group – This option grants users access to the site and other group resources, including shared calendars, conversations, and files.
- Share the site only – You can share just the SharePoint site without adding users to the Microsoft 365 Group. They’ll be able to access the site, but won’t have access to group resources, such as calendars or conversations.
If you’re a SharePoint site owner, you can give others access to your site by adding them as owners, members, or visitors. (If you want to share a specific file or folder, that’s possible too.) Depending on your organization’s settings, you may also be able to share the site with external users outside your organization.
Follow the steps below:
- Navigate to the SharePoint site, select the Settings gear icon, and then choose Site permissions.
- Expand Add members. You can see two options:
- Add members to group
- Share site only
Add members to group
Here, we can grant users access to the site and other group resources. Select Add members to group.
Click on Add members.
Provide User names, select the permission level (Member/Owner). Click on Save.
Now you can see the specific user has been added under the Group membership.
Share site only
If you want to share only the site but not the group, then select this option:
Please enter the User names, Microsoft 365 Groups, or security groups to give them access to the site content and select their level of control (Read, Edit, Full Control).
Check the ‘Send email‘ option and add a description. Next, click on Add.
Additionally, you can change the permission level for a specific user (View, Full Control) by clicking on it.
Now, if you expand the Site Members group, you’ll see that the specific user has been added to it since I assigned Edit permissions.
Add Users to a SharePoint Communication Site
Next, we will see how to add users to a SharePoint Communication site step by step.
- Navigate to the SharePoint Communication site, select the Settings gear icon, and then choose Site permissions.
- Under the Permissions pane, select Share site.
- Enter the names of the users, Microsoft 365 Groups, or security groups you want to give access to the site. Then, choose their permission level — Read, Edit, or Full Control.
- You can also include a custom message in the email notification or uncheck Send email if you don’t want to send one.
- Once you’ve added all members and set their permissions, click Add to finish.
- Once everything is done, you can see the specific user has been added under the Site members, as shown below.
I hope this article helped you learn how to add users to a SharePoint Team Site and a Communication site step by step, with some examples.
Also, you may like some more SharePoint tutorials:
- Change a SharePoint Site From Private to Public
- Add Comments to SharePoint List Item
- Create a Hub Site in SharePoint
- Customise SharePoint List Toolbar Buttons With List Formatting
Preeti Sahu is an expert in Power Apps and has over six years of experience working with SharePoint Online and the Power Platform. She is the co-author of Microsoft Power Platform: A Deep Dive book. As a Power Platform developer, she has worked on developing various tools using Power Apps and Power Automate. She also makes Microsoft 365 videos and shares them on YouTube.
