How to Setup Communication Site in SharePoint Online
Microsoft recently announced the rollout of modern Communication sites in Office 356. This new template is available only for those who enrolled for “First Release user in your tenant“. You will now have a new site template “Communication site” along with the Team site.
The good news is that in coming months it would be released full worldwide for all Office 365 customers.
In the past, SharePoint publishing sites were “Classic” SharePoint Online (SPO) sites where publishing feature providing you with features as publishing pages in your intranet site, richer navigation configuration experience, etc.
Classic SPO sites lacked few key features such as responsiveness, dynamic content and provided a limited user experience.
Communication sites are intended to showcase your product or service, inform and engage others with the enhanced user experience. You can share news, stories, statistical reports and other information in a visually compelling format.
It’s a site collection that is responsive, mobile friendly and adapted to display information in a dynamic way.
Just keep in mind, Communication sites are not intended to build Intranets, they are just additional blocks for you overall Intranet. You also need to understand the various parameters while setting up the SharePoint intranet and extranet, the nature of the line of businesses, governance, content authors and quantity.
Create a Communication site
- Sign in to Office 365
- In the top left corner of the page, select the app launcher icon and then select the SharePoint tile. If you don’t 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.
4. Select one of the following site designs:
- 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.
5. Give your new communication site a name and, in the Site description box, add some text that lets people know the purpose of your site.
6. Click Finish. Your site will be created and will appear on the sites you’re following. Your site will not inherit the permission settings or navigation of other sites.
Setting the Layout for Communication Site
The new layout section offers you to change the page layout for any of the site designs to display your content effectively.
Note: You can’t really disable Communication site creation unless you remove the Create site button from the SharePoint home.
The motto of an organization is to provide push information through publishing, select collaboration tools, work together and smarter.
How to achieve
Organisations need to move towards a new world with three components.
- Communicate using Communication Portals
- Modern workplace for productive tools
- Personalized workspace with Dashboard
Conclusion
Organizations think SharePoint portal as a centralized place to get various information such as documents, news, team members, departments, etc.
You can now use new modern site templates to make a digital workplace and leverage Communication sites for a global SharePoint intranet. By choosing the right tools, you can make business user’s lives well-organized, exciting, and easier. You can implement and transform your business process automation (BPA) to achieve your goals.
There are richer capabilities and features are on its way and I will be covering and sharing those features in details at “SharePoint Blogs”.
In my next blog, I will talk about “Modern Team Site” template, stay tuned…