In this blog post I will be going through the various configuration options available within a modern Sharepoint site offered as part of Microsoft 365 suite. This is my first attempt setting up a modern Sharepoint site, so I decided to document my experience for others who may want to know more about Modern Sharepoint.
If you’re testing, you can sign up for a free 365 E3 license which includes a number of services including Sharepoint. You can sign up for a free 365 E3 trial at the following link Microsoft 365 E3 Trial
You’ll be prompted to setup a unique onmicrosoft.com tenant url as part of the registration process. I have configured imrancloudbuild.onmicrosoft.com, therefore my default sharepoint url is imrancloudbuild.sharepoint.com
After setting up your account, you’ll find that the out of the box Sharepoint design provided by Microsoft includes a nice layout and is mobile responsive.
- Let’s move on and create a modern SharePoint site, click SharePoint to visit the admin center
2. Click + Create site (You could also amend the existing default Sharepoint site. For the purpose of this demo, i’ll be doing both, going through the options available when setting up a new site and also working with the default site later)
3. A couple of options appear
Examples of communication site scenarios.
- Official corporate news
- HR team communicating benefits and compensation information
- Travel team publishing guidelines about corporate travel
- Policies and procedures
Examples of team site scenarios.
- Project team working together to complete deliverables and manage tasks.
- Holiday party planning committee, planning the annual get together. If you have work locations in multiple geographies, you may have many holiday party committees and each party committee team site might be in a different language.
- Human Resources team members – everyone who works in HR.
- Executive Committee – different leadership groups within the organisation.
- Extranet site to work with Partner A.
- A different extranet site to work with Partner B.
More info on the difference between both sites can be found at the following Microsoft link Difference between Team Site and Communication Site
4. For the purpose of this demo, I will be setting up a SharePoint communication site
5. For the purpose of this demo, I will be selecting Topic
- Topic to share information such as news, events, and other content.
- Showcase to use photos or images to showcase a product, team, or event.
- Blank to create your own design.
No matter which one you choose, you can add, remove, or reorder web parts as required.
6. Select a name for your new site. My new site is HR. Click finish
7. If we had clicked the option to create a Teams Site instead of a communication site, here is an example of the options and what the site would have looked like
Input details and click next (Teams Site example)
and here is the default Teams Site
8. Back to our communications site, let’s take a look at the available options
9. Click Site contents
10. Click Site settings
- Site Usage – Allows you to check your Sharepoint stats, such as number of views, most viewed posts, what devices are used to connect to your site, etc.
- Recycle Bin – deleted content resides here, with the option to permanently delete or restore
11. After clicking Site Settings, you’ll find a number of settings, including the option to delete your Sharepoint site, permissions, language settings etc.
We’ll start with changing the Modern Sharepoint Title and logo. Click Title, Description and logo
12. Change details as required and click ok. I have changed my site name from HR to Cloud Build Hub and uploaded a logo. Save the changes
13. Let’s check the changes, click the home link
Changing Modern Sharepoint template
14. Next, let’s take a look at the various templates available in case you don’t prefer the default template for your new Sharepoint site. Again, click change the look available under site settings. See step 11
15. Microsoft provide a number of different templates including the ones below.
16. After clicking a template, there is an option to Try it Out before you decide to apply the template. See screenshot below.
After clicking Try It Out, a further option appears where you can select to apply the template or cancel
Inviting members to a Modern Sharepoint site
17. What if you want to invite other members of your team to assist you with setting up the site? You can do this by clicking the share link at the top right corner of the site and granting members access.
Create a new menu link Modern Sharepoint
18. Next, I’ll create a new menu item, linking to my Blog, click Edit
19. Hover over pages and click the + icon as shown below
20. I type the details to my blog, click ok, and then save
And there is the new menu item
21. If you wish to reorder the items below, drag and drop the links as required.
Note that the admin links will not be visible to regular users and exist for the purpose of administration of the Sharepoint site only.
You may notice an option to add a label as shown below. A label is useful if you wish to add a top menu link such as Company, and upon clicking Company, additional menu items appear. In this case Company is the label.
Microsoft offer two types of menu layouts (Mega menu and Cascading menu). The default is Mega menu. If you wish to change the menu layout, click the cog icon towards the top of the site and click change the look as shown below
and then click navigation, change the menu to the cascading style. You may prefer the cascading menu over the Mega menu so experiment with both after creating a label and sub menu links.
Grant all users within the organisation read only access to Modern Sharepoint site
22. At some point you will want the Sharepoint site to be visible to all users within your organisation
Click share
Type everyone and click the option Everyone except external, click ok, and click share. I’ll cover external sharing in part 2
Ensure read only is selected
23. If you wish to add addition colours to your site without changing your site theme, click the cog found towards the top right corner, click the option change the look and click Theme
Note: At the time of writing this post, only certain parts of the site colours change when using Theme colours.
And select the colours of your choice
24. As you can see, only certain parts of the site have changed to the colour red
You could also use the customize option to change to a different colour that is not already part of the default theme colours provided by Microsoft.
Select the Header and Footer options if you wish to change the colours
Header colour has changed to grey
Stay tuned for part 2 where I will continue to go through the various settings offered as part of a Modern Sharepoint site.
