Understanding User Roles

Plainpad has two user roles that determine what actions a user can perform within the application.

Administrator

Administrators have full access to all Plainpad features. This includes:

  • Note Management — Create, edit, and delete their own notes
  • User Management — Create, edit, and delete user accounts
  • Application Settings — Configure global application settings
  • System Information — View system status and version information

The first account created during installation is always an administrator account.

Regular User

Regular users have access to note-taking features but cannot manage other users or application settings:

  • Note Management — Create, edit, and delete their own notes
  • Personal Settings — Change their own profile, password, and preferences
  • Search — Search through their own notes

Privacy Between Users

Each user's notes are completely private. Regular users cannot see, search, or access notes belonging to other users. Administrators also cannot read other users' notes through the application interface.

With encryption enabled, even someone with direct database access cannot read encrypted notes without the user's passphrase.

Managing Users (Admin Only)

As an administrator, you can manage users from the settings panel:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Users
  2. Click Add User to create a new account
  3. Fill in the user's name, email, password, and role
  4. Click Save to create the account

You can also edit existing users to change their role, reset their password, or deactivate their account.

Continue to Application Settings to learn about configuring Plainpad.