Requirement

Some times you might want to hide the site settings drop down menu, especially if it is a publishing site and you want to hide the menu from your readers.

Solution

Modify your site’s master page and add the bold lines:

Css Class =”ms-siteactionscontainer s4-notdlg”>
<Sharepoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl runat=”server” Permissions=”AddListItems”>

..

..

..

</SharePoint:SiteActions></span>

</SharePoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id=”PlaceHolderGlobalNavigation runat=”server”>

 

Testing

This will hide the Site Settings menu from all users who do not have ‘Manage Web’ permissions to your site, a.k.a administrators.

Here is a list of permissions you can use.

ManagePermissions
ViewUsageData
ManageSubwebs
ManageWeb
AddAndCustomizePages
ApplyThemeAndBorder
ApplyStyleSheets
CreateGroups
BrowseDirectories
CreateSSCSite
ViewPages
EnumeratePermissions
BrowseUserInfo
ManageAlerts
UseRemoteAPIs
UseClientIntegration
Open
EditMyUserInfo

Applies to

SharePoint 2010