Skip to content

The "viewing as another user" banner

Recognize when you are viewing the Backoffice as another user, tell your own identity apart from theirs, and return to your own account.

When an administrator views the Backoffice as another user, a colored banner stays fixed across the top of every screen for as long as that view lasts. It is the one place to see whose view you are in and to end it.

Read the banner

The banner names two people so it is always clear who is who:

  • The user whose view you are seeing, shown after Impersonating.
  • Your own account, shown after Signed in as — this is the identity your actions are recorded against.

A chip on the banner shows the current mode: Read-only or Acting.

Switch between read-only and acting mode

The banner controls whether you can only look or can also make changes.

  1. In read-only mode you can view the other user's screens but not make changes on their behalf. To be able to make changes, click Act as.
  2. In acting mode any change you make takes effect on real data. To return to a safe, look-only view, click Switch to read-only.

Warning

Acting mode is highlighted in red because changes you make apply to real data as though the other user made them. Stay in read-only mode unless you specifically need to make a change.

Switch back to your own account

To end the other-user view and return to your own account, click Switch back on the banner. The Backoffice returns you to your own starting screen, and the banner disappears.