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Matt Coats's avatar
Matt Coats
Iron Contributor
Aug 15, 2017
Solved

Modern Team Sites vs. Communication Sites--is there really a difference?

I may be late to this conversation if it's been had already, but now that my organization has gained access to more Modern page design features (editable banner, Hero web part, Events web part, layou...
Communication Sites
Modern Experience
SharePoint Online
  • Brent Ellis's avatar
    Brent Ellis
    Aug 16, 2017
    There are a few under the covers things that I have found are different (but those are minor so far).

    The main things I've found are:
    1) Comm Site default pages have a full width web part zone (modern team sites dont)
    2) Comm Site uses left navigation on top and has no "top navigation"
    3) Team sites have left navigation, if you want to hide them you have to do it with some CSS

    Other than that, I've technically been able to make Team sites look and act like comm sites, in most respects with a little CSS hackery. Like Andrew mentioned though, we are completely rethinking how we have done everything because of the new modern world, and we are having to do ALOT of mini-migrations from one site to another to make things make the most sense.
kath patterson's avatar
kath patterson
Iron Contributor
Sep 18, 2017

my pennies worth on this one is, that this is more a strategic separation than a technical one

You can see on the 'new site' dialgue that Microsoft are asking the basic question about a new site which is , collaboration or communication?

collaboration means a defined set of people who want to work together in a shared area, so this is tied to an O365 group.

communication means a vehicle to push out information and doesnt tie to a predefined group of people. so this is not ties to a group.

 

from a security and management perspective this is a very important first question as it dictates the site pattern on any platform and i think when you look at the way the 'new site' dialogue now flows you can see that patten being established. the fact that they have included a blank communications pattern site reinforces the fact that the style and webparts are not what makes it a comms site. Its the pattern.

 

so my guess is the style and webparts are not relevant as you have them in both patterns but setting the pattern is this is probably paving the way for features down the line that will be specific to the two basic patterns of site construction.

 

there are also parallels here with the old oslo vs seattle masterpages....

 

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