I have a website that operates through administrators. Obviously I have the ability to create content pages through drupal's dashboard, but is there a drupal included way (or module perhaps) that will allow me to limit what another logged in person could see? I know I can change permissions to what is accessible by different groups (i.e. users, partial admins, administrators, etc.). I want to be able to actually change what someone who isn't an admin will see. They shouldn't be able to see the drupal dashboard, for example, or certain sections of the "add/blocks" forms/create new content form.
If there is no option that comes defaul with drupal, firstly that is a huge undersight on drupals part, but is there another way to create this effect? One way I thought was to find drupal's core files that add the page (i.e. "node/add") and hardcode php permissions that check who the logged in user is. If they are admins, allow full priveleges, but if they are another group, then disable certain features of the page.
If this is the case, where can I find the files I'll need to edit? I'm having trouble doing so. It would be the actual form creation page that I'm looking for.
Thank you for any ideas and your time.