In past versions of SharePoint, it was extremely difficult to locate the various levels in which permission inheritance was broken within a site.  SharePoint 2010 has made it easier to both locate and manage these instances of broken inheritance.

Permission inheritance in SharePoint looks like the following:

·       Site

o   Lists/Libraries

§  Folders / Document Sets

·       Items/Documents

§  Items/Documents

Permission inheritance can broken at any point in this hierarchy.  To find the instances of broken inheritance and easily manage them, do the following:

At the site level:

·       Select Site Actions à Site Permissions

·       If inheritance has been broken on the site, you will see an “yellow/orange” bar running across the top of the page, with the words written as follows:

o   Some content on this site has unique permissions which are not controlled from this page. Show me uniquely secured content

·       Click the link à Show me uniquely secured content

·       A dialog will pop up showing the lists or libraries containing the exceptions

·       To view the list or library, click its name.

·       To manage the permissions, click the Manage Permissions link next to the appropriate list or library.

o   If there are unique permissions within the list or library, you will again see the “yellow/orange” bar stating additional “uniquely secured content.”

o   Follow the steps above to manage the unique permissions at the folder or item/document level.