Author-it lets you define your own customized release states to show where a particular component is in its life cycle. Use these release states to determine which actions your users can perform on objects. For example, a topic with release state of "In Review" may not be able to be edited by some users, and only a senior editor may be able to delete a "Published" style.
The release states you define should suit your organization's content control process; they will probably differ slightly from those used by other organizations even if only in name.
The actions you control are the same as those for folder actions: