This guide describes how to use the WP User Manager Plug-in to facilitate other users registering for access to edit or add content to a site. This may be especially helpful for faculty who have a course WordPress site in which multiple students need to be added as authors to the site. Using this plugin prevents the owner of the site from having to create user accounts and share username/password information with other users
Settings for WP User Manager
1. Install the WP User Manager Plug-in. Activate the plugin after installation.
2. Click on Login Settings. Under Allow Users to Login With, select username or email. Save changes.
3. From the Settings menu, find the section Emails. Adjust the following settings:
- Set From Name to the name of the website.
- Set From email to your email
- Set Email Template to default email template
- Ignore the logo.
Save changes.
4. Under Profiles, deselect all options. Under Default Display Name, select Username. Save Changes.
User Registration Settings (for the people who will become the new users)
5. From the WordPress Dashboard, navigate to Users > Registration forms.
6. To edit the default registration form, click on Customize Form.
7. From the available fields, drag the following fields to the left in the Form Fields section: First Name, Last Name, Username, Password, Email.
- Click on Settings.
- Make sure the Registration Role is Author. This will automatically enroll students as authors, meaning they can only author/edit their own posts. Learn more about additional user roles in WordPress if you’d like for other people to have expanded editing privileges on the site.
- Save Changes.
Customizing WP User Manager Emails
WP User Manager will automatically email the additional users to confirm their registration. Upon registration, an email be sent that will include their username and password for later reference.
WP User Manager can also send a password recovery request email when they request a password reset.
These emails can be changed by navigating to Users > Emails. Follow these instructions to tweak these emails if desired.
Adding Registration and Log-In Pages to Footer
The footer of your website is a nondescript place to add the links to the registration and login page. You can refer additional users to this part of the website when it is time for them to register on the site so that they can begin authoring content.
- From the WP Dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Menus.
- Select create a new menu.
- Call this menu Footer. Select Create Menu to save. [Any other menus already created will show up in the Display Location].
- In the list of pages to the left, find and select Register and Log In, both marked by the WP User Manager icons.
- Select the blue Save Menu button.
- From the WP Dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Customize > Widgets.
- Depending on the theme, you should see at least one Footer Widget (some themes have more than one). Select the footer widget that corresponds to where you’d like to put the registration and log in pages.
- Click the + sign. Search for Navigation Menu.
- Add a title for this section, such as “For Students.”
- Under Select Menu, select Footer (the menu you created above). You’ll see these changes in real-time on the site.
- If you like the placement of the menu, click the blue Publish button to accept the changes.
Testing the Registratration Form
- Log out of the WordPress site OR visit the website from an Incognito Window in Google Chrome
- Navigate to the Register page.
- Sign up with a different email address than the one you use on the site, which is most likely your Colgate Gmail account. Sign up with a personal email address to see what the registration process will look like for students, including what the registration email looks like.
