An authorized user is designated by the portal administrator in the User portlet, as shown:
If a user is allowed to log on to Oracle Portal, the user is considered an authorized user. If the user is not allowed to log on, the user is considered a public user. Authorized users may be further classified as a portal administrator, or a portal publisher, who can expose objects to the portal for later inclusion on a page.
An authorized user may create pages, layouts, and styles, as well as edit and delete the objects he or she has created. An authorized user also appears in the list of users to whom privileges may be granted for pages created by other users.