Microsoft has released many new features that address designing and editing content in SharePoint Pages. Some of them make the process easier, some make it faster, but the biggest hero for me is definitely coauthoring! Let’s go and check how it works.
Introduction
Pages are the key part of the SharePoint Online landscape. You can use them to display information, combine multiple data sources on one page, or showcase videos. They are everywhere. Editing options haven’t changed much in the last couple of years, but in the last few weeks, Microsoft has deployed many new features in this area.
In this post, I will go through:
- Coauthoring
- Toolbox
- Web part properties
- Design ideas
Coauthoring
One editor per page at a time – this was the only editing experience in pages for many years. If your colleague edited the page you had to wait until he finished. In many organizations, it was really annoying and caused many issues with outdated data.
When you edit the page today and your colleague does the same you can both do your work without blocking each other! This is a really huge update.
All changes are automatically saved and are visible in all sessions almost immediately. Comparing screen-to-screen changes are saved and rendered pretty fast.
The Undo button reverts only your changes and it won’t affect others work.
If there is someone else editing the page you can clearly see that on the top right part of the page. It looks exactly the same as in Word or Excel – additional editors are displayed as small icons with their profile pictures.
When you edit a webpart, other editors are not able to modify it. The currently edited webpart has additional indicators:
- A small profile icon on the top right corner of the edited webpart
- The edit icon is grayed out with information about which user is currently editing it
If you try to Update the page or Publish it you will get info that it will be published immediately. If other editors do not finish something it will be published in that state.
Other editors will get information about who published the page and they can go to the edit mode again.
The page history contains information about who edited the page even if it was in a coauthoring session. In this case, you should expect many more versions because of more changes created by multiple users.
Toolbox
The toolbox is a new pane with the most important features. It’s located on the left side of the page. This update seems small but it helps in many scenarios and I personally do like it.
- The web part section gives you the most common webpart just at your fingertip. If you click one it will be added below the currently selected webpart on the page.
- Stock images – you can quickly search for an image and embed it on the page with one click
- Section templates – last but not least options that give you a quick way to add a pre-configured section to the page
Webpart properties
The next improvement changes how we can modify webparts properties. If you select the second icon on the right pane the Properties pane appears on the right side of the page and is always visible. It shows the properties of each webpart you select.
This is extremely helpful when you want to adjust the properties of multiple webparts – just go through them and select desired options!
Design ideas
The design ideas feature is a new way to update sections on a page. It works in the same way as the Designer in PowerPoint. The feature analyzes text and images, and based on that it generates ideas with new layouts, backgrounds, text formatting, and image webparts which you can apply to the section. Design ideas work on a specific webpart/section but not on an entire page.
This feature is in the rollout phase right now and at the beginning of the release it supports the following webparts (more will come for sure):
- 1 Banner webpart
- 1, 2, and 3 text webparts
- 1, 2, and 3 text and image webparts
- 1 blank text webpart
When you select a new design idea it will replace the existing webpart but the content will be kept. If you don’t like it you can revert the changes using Undo button.
At this stage, it’s a nice addition and in many cases, it can speed up the process of creating and editing content. What is really great about it is the analysis phase – ideas are based on the content so if you have an image with chocolate, ideas will propose similar content (not concrete or football images 😉 ).
Summary
I love those improvements because they simplify editing pages and in many cases speed up the process. The coauthoring feature is one of the best (if not the best one) introduced in SharePoint in the last couple of years. Now you can work effectively with your colleagues on the same page!
But that’s not all – the upcoming months will be very interesting for design options in SharePoint. Here are the most interesting upcoming features
• Flexible Layouts (Rollout Start: March 2025)
Flexible layout sections allow authors to build pages without the strict column structure. Web parts can be dynamically resized and moved within the flexible section.
I saw this one in action and it’s definitely one of the most important features that will come. And it’s awesome!
• Author inline comments (Rollout Start: December 2024)
Author inline comments enable users to collaborate, provide feedback, and track issues within a page or news post
• Updated Hero web part with new layout & styles (Rollout Start: December 2024)
The reimagined hero web part will feature a carousel layout and a selection of new styles, creating an eye-catching and engaging experience at the top of the page.
• Create themes for SharePoint in brand center (Rollout Start: September 2024)
We’re bringing a new theme creation experience into the brand center, allowing you to easily create and manage themes for your sites and related experiences.
• Customize your individual sites and experiences with fonts and themes (Rollout Start: September 2024)
Site owners will now be able to create branded fonts and themes for their sites and experiences in the brand center by combining the branding assets that the organization provides or by creating their own.
