What are Modern SharePoint communication sites?
SharePoint is always been at the heart of the collaboration. So, they came up with Modern Team sites and Modern collaboration sites.
- Team site is for collaboration between teams i.e. sharing files, manage tasks, keeping track of events and having conversations between team members.
- SharePoint Communication Sites is share/communicate the information all along the organization, keeping them informed and engaged in events, projects etc. inside the organization.
In the Team site, everyone can contribute to content whereas in the communication site there will be specific persons assigned to add content.
As we can see in the Picture team sites is to collaborate and work together and communications sites is to share or announce the events or projects that are vv
Here we are going to Know more about SharePoint Communications sites and their structure, navigation, Creation, Page templates and Webparts.
What SharePoint communications site can offer you?
- These SharePoint Communication Sites are easier to build and maintain.
- We have a brand-new way of publishing content to Larger Audience.
- It has a responsive website where content author can share the content in matter of minutes across your organization.
- This site is a Self-Serve mode where it is focused on content and Layout and not on technical back end process.
- It is easy to engage all the audience in the organization about what happening inside through these communication Sites.
- It gives great look and feel experience to the sites.
- These modern sites are mobile friendly intranet where it can be Adjusted into Mobile screens.
- While Building a site you can get several layouts/Templates to choose from them.
Site structure and Navigation in Communication Sites
In the classic Team site, we used to have a site hierarchy where we used to have a department’s root sites and its corresponding departments as subsites.
When it comes to communication sites all departments are at the same level and each site could be a Modern Communication site or a Modern Team site.
All these sites are connected through a hub site with the help of global navigation provided by the Hub site.
There is no current/left navigation in communication sites everything I connected through Global navigation.
We have a search box Upper right-hand Corner.
The information/News displayed in the hub site is aggregated from all the sites connected to a hub site.
How to create a Modern SharePoint Communication Sites?
- Sign into Office 365.
- In the top left corner of the page, select the Office 365 app launcher icon and then select the SharePoint tile. If you do not see the SharePoint tile, click the Sites tile or all if SharePoint is not visible.
- At the top of the SharePoint home page, click + Create site and choose the Communication site option.
- Create Site command, if you do not see create site command, please make sure that you have admin permissions
SharePoint communication site templates
There are three site templates/designs provided by the communication sites. They are
- Topic – This template is to present large amount of content such as events, news, project details and more happening in the organization
- Show Case – This template is to present information on a product or team or event with images.
- Blank – this template allows you to start from scratch.
Let us dig deep into these templates and webparts present in these templates.
Topic Site Template:
These templates come with web parts that allow you to have a larger amount of content such as images, events, profiles, documents, etc.
Topic Site template comes with a landing page that looks Like an intranet page.
Webparts in Topic Site Template:
Hero webpart:
Hero webpart has multiple layouts populated with images, news, texts, and links where you can use your images, links, and documents.
You can display up to five items in the Hero webpart, and you can add compelling images to draw attention to each
We can customize these layouts in the Hero webpart and replace them with your choice.
To change Layouts, you need to edit the page and need to click on the edit icon (pencil icon) to change the layout.
To change the image, you need to click on the Bottom Corner edit icon on the image.
News Webpart: You can engage a team with important or interesting stories by using the News web part. Here you can have max of 4 news posts at a time
Events webpart: We can display all upcoming events and make people updated and participate. We will be having 4 layered layouts for showing upcoming events in this webpart.
Documents: We can display the document library on your home page where you can open and edit documents directly. The best way is to add the Highlighted content web part that lets you dynamically show documents from a library, site, site collection, or all sites. We will be having 4 layered layouts for showing Important documents in this webpart for easy access.
Quick links: You can have all the links that are required frequently. We will be having 4 layered layouts for showing Important Links in this webpart for easy access.
People profiles: It has people details present in delve.
Showcase Template:
This webpart is to showcase your product or event happening in the organization. This would be perfect to showcase a product or Team with images and corresponding information besides.
For example, to present a cricket team with their name and the information besides.
The Showcase design also comes with a home page that includes several web parts ready for you to customize
Webparts Present in this Template:
This is a simple site with a new Hero webpart and a classic image gallery webpart on the home page.
This Blank template allows you to build your site from scratch.
We do not have to develop the webparts from start as the SharePoint is providing with Built in webparts.
These are the featured webparts
These are the featured webparts present in modern SharePoint. We have many more webparts all these webparts would be discussed in detail on another blog.
Customizing Page Layout:
Not only changing Webparts we can also customize page layouts based on our requirements.
Conclusion
- SharePoint Communication site has new method of using Mobile and intranet intelligence, allowing you to communicate to people throughout the organization with beautiful, dynamic mobile ready communication sites and pages which keeps all informed and engaged.
- We can start using communication for its beauty and smartness.
- Communication sites comes with full of inbuilt options in such a way that creation of site makes much more beautiful and easier in little time.
- Communication site makes us to think about content instead of technical back end development.
- O365 is one of the most successful products from MS products till date and communications sites add more grandeur to it.
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