Forum Discussion
No full width column option in subsite?
Lee-Martin What is the outcome goal you were trying to get to when you created the subsite in the first place? Modern site architectures are "flat" - so communication sites are not designed to have subsites. In fact, you cannot create a communication site that is a subsite so if you did create a subsite, it is a team site. As a best practice, I would not recommend creating subsites - even if you technically can. (I almost always disable subsite creation at the tenant level.) Instead, I would ask why you created the subsite? If you are looking to make a relationship between two sites, consider making one a hub and associating the other site to it. That way, both sites are communication sites - with the benefit of the full width section you want - and you can share navigation and search scope and theme without having to use subsites. But, you get the benefit of governance and permissions independence. If all you want to do is surface content from Site A on Site B, you may be able to use the News or Highlighted Content web parts on Site B and select Site A as the source. See: Planning your SharePoint hub sites - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn. For fun, you can also take a look at Goodnight, Subsites a holiday story for IT (microsoft.com).
I originally wanted one site, however I have a requirement that different sections require different branding, and as you cannot use multiple themes, subsites is my solution - I have been explicitly told not to use hubs
- If you want to use different branding and you can't make it so that all sites share the same theme as you would get with a hub, I would still not use subsites. You will have a much more "future proof" scenario if you make separate sites and connect the sites with links and roll up web parts (e.g. News, Highlighted Content, and Events). Another option is to use pages on the same site (assuming you need to share lookup lists or there is some specific reason you can't use separate sites) and rather than have a different theme for each element, use unique imagery to differentiate the concepts. You could use a consistent header image and overlay text for assets or content that go together to get the outcome you are looking for. I wouldn't let colors or theme drive a decision to use a legacy architecture structure when there are other ways to get that outcome without the dreaded "s" word!
- SusanHanley thank you - however the site doesn't have a requirement for News, Highlighted Content or Events..
I've tried the different layout methods as you mention, however it will not solve the issue if one area (subsite) needs to have a purple theme, another a red and the other a blue.
The main purpose will be a document search.- Did you try pages where the banner image was simply a color block - purple, red, or blue? You can put the different doc libs on pages with the banner color and it will pretty much look like the site has a theme! If you need buttons in different colors, use the Call to Action web part and use the same color block (I make one-color images in PowerPoint all the time for this purpose) as the background image and you have a button in a unique color. If you don't need any of the other features, I would hate to see you go to subsites just for this one non-functional reason. But, if the users won't budge, it doesn't have to be the sword you fall down on!