Use SharePoint web parts to showcase data from inside and outside Office 365
Published Feb 20 2018 09:26 AM 40.2K Views
Microsoft

Increase the impact of your communications by including live, up-to-date information and content from inside and outside of Office 365 throughout your intranet – on your sites, on your pages and within your news articles.

 

We’re pleased to announce that many of the web parts we shared at Microsoft Ignite are rolling out now into the Office 365 production environment, plus a few important updates. Expect to see these within your page authoring toolbox within the next few weeks:

 

  • NEW
    • Planner – display tasks and progress from your team plans
    • Twitter – highlight individual tweets and full feeds
    • Office 365 Connectors – embed information from 3rd party services like Bitbucket, JIRA, and RSS
    • Kindle Instant Preview – reference an important Kindle book with one-click to preview or buy
  • UPDATED
    • Power BI - embed interactive Power BI reports directly into SharePoint
    • Image - offers automatic alt-text suggestions with the help of intelligent image analysis

The full, expanded SharePoint page authoring toolbox, showing all available web parts.The full, expanded SharePoint page authoring toolbox, showing all available web parts.

SharePoint web parts are building blocks for your site pages and news articles – which you configure to bolster your message and encourage engagement. You can highlight files, videos, images, maps, lists, Yammer discussions and more. Just click the + sign and pick the right web parts.

Let’s dive into the details of what’s new.

 

Planner

Put this task into your next Plan: Try the new Planner web part. Planner provides a simple, visual way to organize teamwork – your tasks, deadlines and progress – all organized as you work together. Now, you can bring your plans directly into SharePoint team sites. You can add them to any page – especially the home page. Or a news article – like a weekly status update with assignments and progress clearly visible, and always up to date no matter when someone catches up on the team news.

The Planner web part in 'charts' mode on the home page of a SharePoint team siteThe Planner web part in 'charts' mode on the home page of a SharePoint team site

Planner boards bring progress to life. The embedded Planner web part displays tasks by buckets – like “To do” or “In Progress” – plus the unique buckets you create. It’s easy to view, add and edit tasks without leaving the context of your work.

The Planner web part in 'boards' mode on the home page of a SharePoint team site.The Planner web part in 'boards' mode on the home page of a SharePoint team site.

You can add a plan in seconds. Put the Planner web part where you need it, select an existing plan from the drop-down menu, and choose whether you want it to be more overview (Charts) or the buckets of individual tasks in a Kanban view (Boards).

 

Learn more about how to bring your Planner plans into SharePoint.

 

Office 365 Connectors

The single source of truth can come from many sources; information is best delivered live, referenced from its original source. And we know not all relevant information is maintained within the intranet. The right external data enhances and augments your message and keeps it fresh.

 

When you use an Office 365 Connector, you bring in information from third-party services like Asana, Bitbucket, Jira, GitHub, Stack Overflow and more – with more becoming available over time.

The Office 365 Connectors web part, after clicking "See all."The Office 365 Connectors web part, after clicking "See all."

Note: Connectors within SharePoint are only available for use within group-connected SharePoint team sites. Also, you can add even more Office 365 Connectors to bring in interactive content from more apps and services to keep your team members current; just choose the O365 Connectors web part, and then click the Add button.

 

Learn more how to use the Office 365 Connector web part.

 

Twitter

If you really want to keep your pages and news articles up-to-the-minute, highlight live tweets and feeds from Twitter handles, curated collections or via a search widget. Put what’s being said externally right alongside the context of what you are working on internally.

The Twitter web part showing the @SharePoint feed alongside an image and a video.The Twitter web part showing the @SharePoint feed alongside an image and a video.

Site members will now be able to showcase Twitter feeds and individual tweets right inside SharePoint pages and news. It simple to add the Twitter web part within the layout, and then plug in the desired Twitter address, individual tweet links, curated collections, or search widgets.

 

Learn more how to bring Twitter tweets into SharePoint.

 

Kindle instant preview

One of the best parts of a good podcast these days are the book recommendations typically at the end of the show. With the Kindle instant preview web part, you can reference a book you want to recommend or promote. Your readers can then easily PREVIEW the book using the Kindle Instant Preview web part or go straight to BUY.

Kindle instant preview embedded within a SharePoint news article.Kindle instant preview embedded within a SharePoint news article.

Search for the Kindle book you want to share, click the Embed link within the sharing options, grab the HTML code and paste it into the Kindle instant preview edit pane.

Learn more about embedding Kindle instant previews.

 

Use all SharePoint web parts as the list continues to grow and web parts get updated

We continuously update existing web parts, and bring new, useful ones your way – like the recent, fully-released Power BI report web part – allowing you to embed interactive Power BI reports directly into SharePoint. Another example is the recent update to the Image web part that offers automatic alt-text suggestions with the help of intelligent image analysis – to help make your message more accessible to all.

 

Learn more about using ALL web parts on pages and news articles; this ‘how to’ highlights all SharePoint web parts that are in production 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 Targeted Release customers two weeks from the time of posting and will be completed within 3-4 weeks. We are targeting end of February 2018 for complete worldwide roll out.

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