New and updated web parts rolling out to SharePoint in Office 365
Published Nov 02 2017 12:37 PM 56.1K Views
Microsoft

If SharePoint sites are building blocks for your intranet, then SharePoint web parts are building blocks for your site pages and news – which you can configure to your needs. You can add files, videos, images, news, Yammer feeds and more. Just click the + sign and pick a web part from the toolbox to add content to your page.

 

We’re pleased to announce that many of the announcements and demos we shared at Microsoft Ignite 2017 will now be rolling out into the Office 365 production environment. Expect to see these new and updated web parts within your page authoring toolbox within the next few weeks.

 

Let’s dive into the details of what’s rolling out…

 

Large page and news authoring toolbox with search and categories

The toolbox itself has been updated to expand and more easily find the right web part by category or search. To get to the toolbox, hover over where you want to insert next and click on the + “plus” icon. And then to access the larger toolbox surface area, simply click its upper-right, inward-facing arrows icon. The toolbox expands and showcases all available web parts by categories, and you can use the upper search box to go directly to the web part you know you want to use.

 

When expanded, the updated toolbox makes it easier to find the web part you were looking for.When expanded, the updated toolbox makes it easier to find the web part you were looking for.

File viewer

Beautifully, visually highlight over 270+ file types within SharePoint pages and news article. This web part is an update (+ name change) to the Document web part, and continues to support embedding Word, Excel and PPT, and now renders PDFs, 3D files, text and code, and more.

 

Choose the File Viewer web parts to embed files of all types, up to 270+ file types. On the left is the File Viewer web part before you add content, and then two examples when adding content (.pptx & .cool respectively)Choose the File Viewer web parts to embed files of all types, up to 270+ file types. On the left is the File Viewer web part before you add content, and then two examples when adding content (.pptx & .cool respectively)

Highlighted content updates

Ability to choose from a specific document library as the source, more design and layout choices like Filmstrip and Masonry, plus additional filtering mechanism to refine by document type and control metadata mapping to influence the display of the search-based results within the web part. And finally, this update makes it possible to further refine a more personalized experience of each site visitor with refiners “tokens” to program results to be distinctly related to them with the [Me] token for example, or to the date, like the [Today] token.

 

Make your pages and news come alive by using the Highlighted Content web part and configuring it to show a set of content dynamically based on types, keywords and tokens.Make your pages and news come alive by using the Highlighted Content web part and configuring it to show a set of content dynamically based on types, keywords and tokens.

People updates

A new Descriptive display shows more profile information with room to add custom links and descriptions per person.

 

The People web part brings in the value of Azure Active Directory (AAD), the ability to add people information in context of the page or news, and an on-hover experience for site visitors to access the individual people cards per person.The People web part brings in the value of Azure Active Directory (AAD), the ability to add people information in context of the page or news, and an on-hover experience for site visitors to access the individual people cards per person.

Forms (Microsoft Forms, previously Excel Survey)

Collect information and feedback right within the context of your page or news article. Create your surveys at forms.office.com, grab the final Share URL and display the interactive survey right within the SharePoint user interface. You can choose to show the results after the user submits the form, too. And if you update the form at any time at forms.office.com, the survey will automatically be updated wherever you have used the Forms web part.

 

Add the Forms web part to display the survey itself and results after submission.Add the Forms web part to display the survey itself and results after submission.

Learn more about the new Microsoft Forms web part and how to use Microsoft Forms all up to create the original survey.

 

Spacer & Divider

Simple web parts that give you the ability to add physical space between web parts, or a visual line in between. Conquer space and divide, your users will send virtual “visually pleased” thank yous, no doubt.

 

Learn more about using web parts on pages and news; this article highlights all web parts that are in production for SharePoint in Office 365.

 

We are always open to feedback via UserVoice and continued dialog in the SharePoint community in the Microsoft Tech Community —and we always have an eye on tweets to @SharePoint. Let us know.

 

—Mark Kashman, senior product manager for the SharePoint team

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How can I expect the new and updated web parts to roll out to Office 365 customers?

A: New and updated web parts will begin to roll out to First Release customers two weeks from the time of posting—starting with First Release Select Users—and will be completed within 3-4 weeks. We are targeting end of December 2017 for complete worldwide rollout.

33 Comments
Deleted
Not applicable

Just a litte bit curious whether AutoCad dwg-files happen to be among the 270+ file types in File viewer?

Brass Contributor

ETA for Planner webpart? 

Deleted
Not applicable

Ah, a Planner webpart would be awesome, @Chris Knight!

Deleted
Not applicable

Love these updates! On Highlighted Content, I love that you are able to aggregate from multiple document libraries with multiple content types. However, will there be an update where the user can filter within the web part similarly like they can in a modern document library? 

Copper Contributor

Any thoughts on adding the ability to select content to display in News webpart? Or ability to have multiple News webparts displaying different content?

Deleted
Not applicable

I am not sure if this is what you mean @JoyApple, but you can already have multiple News webparts by using the webpart Highlighted Content. There you can select to have news from multiple sites, latest document, pages, videos etc and also control the content with filter options. 

Deleted
Not applicable

I thought they were adding site collection filter to the highlighted content webpart but they only put a selectable doc lib :(. Hub sites will help fix hay but I want to roll up news from a group of sites not from every site and right now it’s just all or nothing. Anyway. Might be something I can fix with meta data haven’t launched new modern homepage so haven’t had need to figure out yet :). 

Copper Contributor

Would love to have the Filter webpart back! Big part of a lot of my sites and it missing is holding us back from using the new features fully.

Brass Contributor

These are nice updates.

Not sure if anyone has noticed but Destinations is spelt incorrectly on the Forms section (in the screenshot on the left).

Iron Contributor
Any possibility a list of connectors will be available to see what the choices are? Struggling with simple items like Weather and Stock Tickers.
Iron Contributor

Are there plans to provide a dynamic version of the people web part? It would be helpful to point it to a group and have an expanded list of members displayed. 

Copper Contributor
Is there a Tasks webpart yet ? As one of the key list types we kinda need it. Or is there any idea when one will arrive if not in this batch ?
Deleted
Not applicable

Not yet. I haven’t seen an eta. Only tasks part coming so far is planner one. Unless there is specific functionality for the task list you need. Creating a custom list with the same fields actually works pretty good. 

Bronze Contributor
So, we've just received the new web parts here (thanks!) and I think I found a bug. I'm not able to "Add profile link" in the new "descriptive" people web part. Working on macOS 10.13.1 and I've tried Safari and Chrome, neither worked. Otherwise I love the new options. Only thing missing is the large toolbox + search from this announcement.
Deleted
Not applicable

Bummer, I thought the new web parts included the connector webparts too :(. Guess we gotta wait a little longer! 

Microsoft

Hi @Ivan Unger

 

Thank you for reporting bug. We are looking at it. 

 

And what do you mean by "Only thing missing is the large toolbox + search from this announcement"?

 

Thanks

Steve

Deleted
Not applicable

@Steve Zhang

He means the search box you get when adding new webparts, I have same thing, I have the new spacer and other web parts but not the new search box look, which isn't that big of deal because there isn't all the connector parts yet, but it's missing from the post.  Also why i have your attention if you don't mind seeing if this is a known issue, it's a pretty nasty bug :) https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint/Quick-Links-or-links-to-Comm-sites-doesn-t-use-rig...

 

Thanks!

Bronze Contributor

@Steve Zhang yep, @Deleted is correct, I meant the large webparts toolbox isn't available yet, but not big deal to be honest.

If I might drop some other feedback I've been receiving. I love the file viewer finally supports PDFs as well. Now if you could expand this functionality to allow the QuickLinks webpart to add PDFs (instead of just pages and Office documents) this would be great (current workaround is to get a link to the PDF first, even if it is part of the same website).

Microsoft

Toolbox is rolling out. It may take some time to get your tenant. 

And thank you for your suggestion for Quick Links. I will make a backlog for it.

Steel Contributor

The File Previewer and Highlight stuff is *amazing*. These are some wonderful announcements. Thank you so much, @Mark Kashman

Copper Contributor

Where would I see the toolbox if it was rolled out to my tenant?  I don't currently any of these options while editing my SharePoint Online site.

Copper Contributor

@Mark Kashman I'm not seeing the Toolbox or the +icon on SharePoint online. Where would I find this? Desperately trying to find a way to view pdf files without downloading.

Deleted
Not applicable

Hey Shery, 

    SharePoint Online by default now renders PDF's via the File views online. You should just be able to upload a PDF, then get the link to the document and when they open that link it should open via online. I guess you could not be in Targeted release and it's not pushed yet, but I'm pretty sure PDF's have been rendering in the browser for a long time now? What exactly is your experience and or goal here?

Deleted
Not applicable

But also, to answer you question to get the + icon, you must have edit rights to the page you are editing, then click edit in the top right corner of the modern page. This will then open up editing, where you can go to the body of the page and hover and you will see the + sign to add webparts. 

Copper Contributor

@Deleted It appears I'm not able to edit a modern page. I'm an admin too. I should have said we desperately need a way to keep pdf files from being downloaded to desktops. I would think that would be a huge deal for a lot of users.


Deleted
Not applicable

@Shery Kirby You should start a new Thread in the SharePoint community for this, not best place to go back and forth about your issue. I subscribe to that so I will see it and try to assist there. Link to community: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/SharePoint/bd-p/SharePoint_General

 

Bronze Contributor

Hi @Steve Zhang,

Quick ping on this thread. The large toolbox is missing the Quick Diagrams webpart. It's only available through search and not the UI.

Microsoft

Hi @Ivan Unger,

 

Which Quick Diagrams web part are you referencing to? We don't have Quick Diagrams web part. Do you mean QuickChart?

Brass Contributor
@Christopher Webb - you mentioned a Planner Webpart, which is exactly what I've been looking for - do you know if it got implemented? I can't see it, so did it get ditched?
Deleted
Not applicable

@Samuel Walker No, it's still in development. 

Deleted
Not applicable

@Samuel Walker actually, it's going to start being deployed in a few days per Admin center message. 

 

MC128305
Stay Informed
Published On : January 30, 2018
Planner, Office 365 Connectors, Twitter, Kindle Instant Preview, and auto alt-text are new Office 365 web parts that can be added to SharePoint Online modern pages. We'll begin rolling this feature out in the next few days. This message is associated with Office 365 Roadmap ID: 21048, 21051, 26303 and 26306.
Brass Contributor

@Deleted - thanks a lot for the reply. Excellent news!


Copper Contributor

Can any of these new web parts be used on the classic wiki page?  I'd like to use the News web part, it's great.

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‎Jan 29 2018 05:14 PM
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