The Workfbench suite introduces huge improvements to the way content is managed in Drupal. It provides a single user interface for users who only need to work with content. That means no need to "learn Drupal". It allows you to set editor permissions based on your organizations structure, not your web site's. You can even create editorial workflows that allow users to create content, but not publish it, while other users may review content, and decide whether it needs an additional revision, or that it is ready to be published, and do so.

Let's take a quick look at each of the modules in the Workbench suite, and what they do.

Workbench:

Without Workbench, a user needs to learn multiple Drupal paths in order to view their user profile, find content, and add content. With Workbench, a user only needs to go to the "My Workbench" dashboard, and can access everything they need from there.
Modules like Workbench Access and Workbench Moderation enable sophisticated editorial workflows, and ensure that only appropriate content is published.

Workbench Access:

The Workbench Access module allows you to assign users as editors of sections of your site. For example, a museum exhibits manager may need to be able to edit content within their department, but not content within the gift shop section of the site.

Workbench Moderation:

The Workbench Moderation module allows you to create arbitrary review states that content must move through before it is published to the site.

Here's an example workflow:

• A user with "Author" permissions can create new content, and mark the content as "Needs Review".
• Then a user with "Editor" permissions can make changes to the content or move it back to the "Draft" state for further editing by the author.
• Finally, a user with "Publisher" permissions can approve the content and publish it to the site.
• At that point, the author could make new changes to the content and send those changes through the review stages without affecting the published revision of the content.

Workbench Media:

The Workbench Media module allows media files to be uploaded to the site without having to be associated with a particular piece of content. It also creates a view that clarifies which piece of content is utilizing each media file.