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Yovanka Barnard's avatar
Yovanka Barnard
Copper Contributor
Jul 31, 2017

SharePoint Beginner Questions

Hi All,

 

I only started setting up SharePoint online one week ago.  I have some beginner questions I can't seem to find solutions to on videos.

 

Please assist if possible:

 

1.  Can a subsite be saved as a template?  So that I can copy the template everytime I get a new project.

 

2.  How do I edit the column properties of a column I added for metadata?  Let's say I need to add an additional option to the dropdown list.

 

3.  Did some of you integrate Smartsheet with SharePoint?  If so, any good techniques or so?

 

Thanks.

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  • Dean_Gross's avatar
    Dean_Gross
    Silver Contributor
    Jul 31, 2017
    While you can save a subsite as a template, you should be very careful with this. If you decide that you want to make a change to the original, you will need to manually make the same change to every site that was created from the template. This can quickly become a NIGHTMARE.
    There are better approaches using the SharePoint Patterns and Practices (PnP) provisioning tools, but this is not something for beginners :)
    • Yovanka Barnard's avatar
      Yovanka Barnard
      Copper Contributor
      Jul 31, 2017

      Thanks Dean,

       

      Yup - As a beginner I find SharePoint's interface quite challenging at the moment but I am willing to learn.  

       

      I would like to set it up right from the start though to avoid manual changes in the future.

       

      Do you have any info/links/documents on where I can read up on or do research on the PnP you are referring to?

       

      Thanks for the advice.

       

      Y

      • Dean_Gross's avatar
        Dean_Gross
        Silver Contributor
        Jul 31, 2017

        In addition to the links already provided, https://dev.office.com/patterns-and-practices is a good place to start.

        Since you are just getting started with SP, i would recommend going slowly. As you are discovering, there are a lot of options. Some are better than others, and the first way you learn how to do something may not be the best in the long term.

        Ask specific questions in this forum, there are many people in here with years of experience.

        Instead of trying to learn all of the features, try to solve a specific business problem and just learn the features that are needed to solve that problem.

        While SP has been around for many years, it is changing quickly and lots of info you may find on the internet is out of date, this community is a great place to get the up-to-date info.

    • jcgonzalezmartin's avatar
      jcgonzalezmartin
      MVP
      Jul 31, 2017
      Agree with Dean, don't use the Save as template functionality...it's better to invest on learning PnP staff and do it following best practices...same applies to any change / modification you want to make in your information architecture
  • Pieter Veenstra's avatar
    Pieter Veenstra
    MVP
    Jul 31, 2017

    Hi Yovanka Barnard,

     

    Welcome to the SharePoint community!

     

    Are you running in Office 365 with SharePoint online or are you using on-premises SharePoint?

     

    1.  You can create a template from a site if your site is not using the publishing features. So for teams sites  the option should be available. go to site settings -> Save site as site tenplate (Please also see:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2492356/-save-site-as-template-option-isn-t-available-in-sharepoint-online-in)

     

    2. This depends on how you created the column. If the column has been crersted on the list then go to list settings and modify the column there. If the column was created at the site  collection level then go to the root of the site collection and change it within site settings. 

     

    3. I have no experience with Smartsheet. I had a quick look at their site and it looks a bit like MS Project. It looks like Smartsheets could simply be stored within SharePoint, but there might be bettter options avialable. It might be worth it to contact Smartsheet about this.

     

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