Trusted WordPress tutorials, when you need them most.
Beginner’s Guide to WordPress
WPB Cup
25 Million+
Websites using our plugins
16+
Years of WordPress experience
3000+
WordPress tutorials
by experts

How to Restrict Authors to Specific Category in WordPress

Managing a website with multiple authors can be difficult. If you fail to organize their content, then it can quickly lead to a jumbled mess, and cause a ton of problems.

Luckily, there’s a simple way to keep things tidy: restricting authors to specific categories. This promises to improve your editorial workflow, help readers find what they’re looking for, and even boost your WordPress SEO.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily restrict authors to a specific category in WordPress.

How to restrict authors to specific category in WordPress

Why Restrict Authors to a Specific Category?

If you have multiple people writing for your WordPress blog, then there is a chance that they may not select the appropriate category. One solution is to limit their options, by merging multiple categories or even deleting categories you no longer need.

However, if you’re happy with how the categories are organized on your site, then you can restrict authors to a specific category instead.

This helps them focus on their writing strengths, while also stopping them from posting in the wrong category. You can even assign an author to a single category, which essentially enforces one category per post in WordPress.

Overall, using categories properly can be very beneficial to your website’s SEO ranking as well.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to restrict authors to specific categories.

Restrict Author Categories Using PublishPress Permissions

The easiest solution is creating a permissions group where all writers have access to a specific category, or a set of categories. For example, you might create a group that restricts certain writers to the ‘Tutorials’ category on your WordPress blog.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the PublishPress Permissions plugin. For more instructions, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Permissions » Groups page from the admin sidebar and click on the ‘Add New’ button.

Click the Add New button to create a new permission group

Next, type in a title and description for your new Permission Group.

With that done, click on the ‘Create Group’ button to continue.

Type a name and description for the Permissions group

After creating the Permission Group, scroll to the ‘Group Members’ section.

Here, you can start typing the first author who you want to add to this group.

Type the author name in the search box

When the right person appears, click their name followed by the ‘Select’ button.

This will move the person to the ‘Current Selection’ column.

Author's name moved to the Current Selections option

Next, scroll down a bit and select the ‘Set Specific Permissions’ tab.

Here, open the ‘Post Type’ dropdown menu and select ‘Post.’

Select Post option from the dropdown menu

In the ‘Operation’ column, select ‘Assign Term.’ With that done, choose the ‘Limit to’ option under the ‘Adjustment’ column.

Next, open the ‘Qualification’ dropdown menu and choose ‘Categories.’

Configure settings

You will now see a ‘Select Categories’ section.

Finally, simply check the category you wish to limit the author to. You can even select multiple categories, if you want.

When you’re happy with your choice, click ‘Add Selected.’

Choose categories for restriction

You’ll now see all your Permission Group details.

Check them carefully, and if you’re happy to go ahead then select ‘Save Permissions.’

Click the Save Permissions button

You have now successfully restricted an author to a specific category.

Now, when someone from this permission group visits the content editor, they’ll only see their assigned categories.

Restricted category in the content editor

You can edit your permission groups at any time. For example, you might add new users or give them access to some extra categories.

Simply go to the Permissions » Groups page, find the group you want to change, and click on its ‘Edit’ link.

Edit permissions group

We hope this helped you learn how you can restrict authors to a specific category in WordPress. You may also want to see our guides on how to track WordPress category and tag analytics, and how to automatically tag your posts to save time.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, why it matters, and how you can support us. Here's our editorial process.

Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit

Get FREE access to our toolkit - a collection of WordPress related products and resources that every professional should have!

Reader Interactions

20 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
    Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
    You can get more details about the contest from here.
    Start sharing your thoughts below to stand a chance to win!

  2. Misty Rudkin

    It is useful plugin though if the category takes its children too, that’d be great.
    I am trying to edit on plugin editor and use get_term_children(), is there get_term_childrean_and_parent function in WordPress?

    • WPBeginner Support

      For editing the plugin, you would want to reach out to the plugin’s support and they can normally assist with modifications as well as possibly integrating it into the plugin. If you only modify the plugin then you could lose customizations when the plugin updates.

      Admin

  3. Morshed Alam Suman

    The plugin is closed now.

    • WPBeginner Support

      Thank you for letting us know about this, we’ll be sure to look into updating the article :)

      Admin

  4. Yashar

    please do not promote a plugin that is banned due to security issues

    • WPBeginner Support

      Thank you for letting us know about this, we will be sure to look into an alternative

      Admin

  5. abay

    how to restrict the comment to author user

  6. Felipe

    Short and useful. Thanks.

  7. Ebbin Jose

    How to restrict a role to two specific categories?

  8. Ed

    how about the author to two or three specific cats?

  9. Umar Hashim

    how to make published posts editable by allowed authors but need to be approved by administrator?

    Custom Post Type = Employee
    Employee A
    Employee B

    Author A assigns to Employee A Post
    Author B assigns to Employee B Post

    Both posts are already published (Employee A and Employee B)
    Author A updates Employee A Post, nothing changed with online version but post is saved as pending review, email sent to administrator, who review changes and allow publish or discard changes.

    can this be doable with Edit Flow?

      • Umar Hashim

        i have created the custom user role and i assign him edit published posts, but questions is how to make published post enable to be edited but not published again until admin review changes and allow to publish post.

        like Employee A page already published and online for viewers.. Author A assigns to Employee A page.. Author A do changes to Employee A page, now changes don’t get publish but email sent to administrator that changes to Employee A page has been made by Author A.
        administrator either approves changes or discard changes. on approval Employee A page online version updated for visitors.

        • WPBeginner Support

          If you are using the plugin we mentioned then you need to edit the user role and uncheck the Publish capability from that particular user role.

        • Umar Hashim

          I managed to get it in working.

          i used “Capability Manager Enhanced” plugin along with “Revisionary” Plugin.

          now published posts are submitted for review before going to publish online.

          but now issue is we are using Custom Fields by using “Advance Custom Fields” plugin on Custom Post Type “Employee”, in Revisionary preview screen, we are not able to see those Custom Fields but only WordPress default Editor.

          Is it possible to get Custom Fields Updates in Preview Comparision?

Leave A Reply

Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment policy, and your email address will NOT be published. Please Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.