It is always a good idea to look at your sites from the perspective of your users. But if you are using SharePoint with Active Directory as your authentication, it can be a little tricky to test your SharePoint site as a Reader or Contributor. One way to quickly test, is to use a generic AD user account and Internet Explorer’s Run As feature. Here are a few quick steps:
- Create a generic AD user account (or use an existing one)
- Log in as an Administrator to your site in your browser
- Add the generic account as a user and assign a site group
- Right click the icon for Internet Explorer (Shortcut, under Programs, etc) and select Run As.
- A user account box will pop up giving you an option to run the program as another user. Select The following user: and enter in the generic account login and password.
- A browser window will launch. Browse to the SharePoint site and login to the site as the generic account if prompted.
- Test and view your site.
Nice thing about this is you can run two IE sessions, one under your regular account, and one as the generic account user. In your admin account window you can alter and modify settings, and just hit refresh in the Run As window to see the results.