Reach your audience via SharePoint communication sites in Office 365
Published May 16 2017 10:11 AM 173K Views
Microsoft

SharePoint has always been at the core of collaboration – people working together on files, lists, and libraries. Our customer stories, like Shire Pharmaceuticals, share insights into the value of intranets that connect people and information seamlessly across use cases: from collaboration on to communication. Today, we are excited to usher in a new generation of the mobile and intelligent intranet, allowing you to communicate to people throughout your organization with beautiful, dynamic, mobile-ready communication sites and pages that keep everyone informed and engaged.

 

“The more we facilitate our employees to get information faster, to be more productive, the more that they can do to push therapies towards our patients." -- Nicole Rojas - Head of Digital Communications, Shire. Please review the full Shire video case study and learn more about their intranet they call The Hub.

 

To view more of what communication sites offer, please watch the new, related Microsoft Mechanics video, “An overview of SharePoint communication sites and pages,” and continue reading more information below, with screenshots and additional links.

 

 

Communication sites and related features will be released this coming summer. Let’s look at how they’ll work.

Create beautiful, dynamic communication sites

It is easy to move from working on the details of a project or campaign collaboratively in team sites to create broad-reach communication sites. Like SharePoint team sites, new communication sites are created in seconds by clicking Create site on SharePoint home in Office 365.  It is then easy to adjust page layouts and add web parts and to pull in valuable data and content from other services, like conversations from Yammer and videos from Microsoft Stream. The result is a vibrant, interactive, dynamic experiences for your site visitors.

 

A communication site shown in a desktop Web browser (left) and in the SharePoint mobile app (right). Features include a consistent logo, top navigation, page layouts, and new web parts: Hero, News, Events, Microsoft Stream, Yammer, and People (with more to come).A communication site shown in a desktop Web browser (left) and in the SharePoint mobile app (right). Features include a consistent logo, top navigation, page layouts, and new web parts: Hero, News, Events, Microsoft Stream, Yammer, and People (with more to come).

After the site is created, you create your pages – layering in your content, exactly how you want it to appear.  You select from single and multi-column layouts, leveraging dynamic web parts connected to various Office 365 services. Organizing and reorganizing web parts is easy, just drag and drop to tell your story the way you want.

 

When you create a communication site from SharePoint home in Office 365, you can choose from several site templates.When you create a communication site from SharePoint home in Office 365, you can choose from several site templates.

Communication sites dynamically pull in content from across Office 365. You have the right tools to design sites for upcoming events, campaigns, or product launches, report sites for teams to share their insights and expertise on topics, and many other scenarios where the key goal is to communicate effectively and broadly without barriers.

 

When you create a communication site, you are presented with several helpful tools:

 

Section layouts | You can use a variety of multi-column section layouts on your pages, to arrange information side-by-side – like an important video from Microsoft Stream to the left of a related Power BI dashboard. The page authoring toolbox has new Section layout choices.

CommSite_blog_003_section-layouts.png

 

Web Parts | You can use web parts to bring content and information from across Office 365 into your pages. Five new web parts will let you better inform and engage the audience of your communication site:

  • The Hero web part highlights important content
  • The People web part showcases notable members of the team
  • The Events web part calls out important upcoming events and lets you easily them to your calendar
  • The Microsoft Stream web part presents a gallery of videos from a Stream channel.

CommSite_blog_004_web-parts.png

Learn more about using web parts on pages and news--an article that highlights all web parts available in SharePoint Online.

 

Theming | Preview and apply custom styling and colors to your sites. IT administrators can manage the custom themes that are available to the organization.

 

Top navigation | Make it easy for visitors to get to important pages with the top navigation. Click Edit to add, arrange, and modify menus and submenus.

 

Site usage | How is your site doing? Review charts and reports that show daily unique user trends, most active readers, and page views. These insights are right at your fingertips. Click the upper-right gear and select Site usage.

 

Custom web parts | If you’re a developer, you can use the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) to create fast, modern, client-side user experiences and web parts that authors can add to their pages in communication sites.

Reach and engage your audience

When you publish a page, you can be confident that your page reaches your audience wherever they are, no matter what device they are on. Your communication site looks great on the web, on PC or Mac, on mobile browsers, and in the SharePoint app. It, too, is easy to share communication sites and pages with others via email – just like you would share a document via the built-in share button in the upper right of the page.

 

Add the Yammer web part to engage your audience, to spark conversation, to encourage best practice sharing, and to solicit feedback. The Yammer web part embeds the feed from any Yammer group or topic into a SharePoint page in the browser. A new web part, coming this summer, will bring that experience to mobile devices as well.

 

A community built with a SharePoint communication site, including a web part showcasing featured community members, and an informative chart alongside a related Yammer discussion.A community built with a SharePoint communication site, including a web part showcasing featured community members, and an informative chart alongside a related Yammer discussion.

Collaborate and communicate throughout your intranet

With the combination of team sites connected to Office 365 groups and the reach of communication sites, SharePoint gives you the tools to collaborate, inform and engage, with a few core people or with broader audiences across the organization. Throughout the lifecycle of your projects, your launches, and your internal campaigns, the SharePoint intranet helps you move seamlessly from concept to final product – all with powerful, dynamic user experiences that do what you want them to do to clearly communicate your message throughout your company.

 

Thanks,
Mark

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When will communication sites be available in Office 365?

A: Communication sites will begin roll out to Office 365 First Release customers Q2 CY 2017, with full worldwide rollout scheduled for Q3 CY 2017. This includes the five new web parts, section layouts, theming, editable navigation and the new site usage page. The same innovations will be available in SharePoint team sites, as well.

Q: How do communication sites compare to intranet sites based on the classic SharePoint publishing infrastructure?

A: Communication sites are complimentary to the sites and portals you’ve built using the SharePoint publishing infrastructure. The publishing infrastructure continues to be supported both on-premises and online. Communication sites are out-of-box sites you can use for internal campaigns, reports, product launches, and other scenarios that address broad audiences across the organization. Communication sites are easy to create: they require no code or design expertise. Simply point-and-click to add pages and parts. Communication sites are mobile-ready by default, looking great across browsers and devices, and in the SharePoint mobile app. For scenarios that go beyond those supported by communication sites today, Microsoft’s vibrant partner community has great expertise and offers services and tools that can help you build your mobile, intelligent intranet with SharePoint in Office 365.

158 Comments
Microsoft

Hi Dennis,

 

All great feedback, with some feedback on your feedback. Like a good techno-charged song, we're entering the feedback loop. Let's rock it!

  • Yes, all will come to team sites as well. Section layouts, reordering and all new web parts go equally to team and communication sites. You won't see them until communication sites are turned on for your tenant - per your chosen release program and our phased rollout approach. 
  • Team is addressing a number of usability components, somet differing per the various browsers/platform. We'll ensure this one is noted.
  • Hero web part layering means stacking on top of each other - the default look and feel if you select the Showcase site design. Naming feedback taken.
  • I believe the Hero web part only works in the full-widht or single column layout. More here on Hero: ttps://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-the-Hero-web-part-d57f449b-19a0-4b0d-8ce3-be5866430645?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US#bkmk_commsites 
  • We're just getting started on the Events web part - which as you noted is a start on making it more modern against a SharePoint list.
  • Image gallery is a great area for growth - to enable visual options and nice interactivity for visitors.
  • And Forms are default for the forms created for lists by default.

All great feedback as not ed above. And CC'ing @John Sanders per any web part feedback above; he's always listening and the team wants Web Parts to be top notched, used and useful :-).

 

Last, here's a copy/paste of all communication sites links to read more:

○ "SharePoint communication sites begin rollout to Office 365 customers" GA -- [June 27th, 2017 on blogs.office.com]: https://blogs.office.com/2017/06/27/sharepoint-communication-sites-begin-rollout-to-office-365-custo...
§ First tweet on launch day from @SharePoint: https://twitter.com/SharePoint/status/879731406439456768
§ My LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/launch-sharepoint-communication-sites-begin-rollout-office-kashman?tr...
§ AMA (6/28): https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Communications-Sites-AMA/bd-p/CommunicationsSitesAMA
§ Shire + MVPs webinar (Jul.13th)
□ Registration page: https://resources.office.com/en-us-landing-shire-webinar.html
□ 1st tweet from @SharePoint: https://twitter.com/SharePoint/status/880487397452009472
□ My LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/webinar-shire-planning-building-hub-modern-digital-office-kashman
□ Chris Bortlik's LinkedIn post for local attendees: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6286197449174327296/
® Landing page for in-person: https://www.microsoftevents.com/profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x2201759e9ff
§ "SharePoint: inform and engage your employees" webcast (Jul.19th), registration link: https://resources.office.com/ww-landing-SharePoint-Inform-and-engage-your-employees.html?lcid=EN-US
§ Key, new support.office.com articles
□ What is a SharePoint communication site? - https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-is-a-SharePoint-communication-site-94a33429-e580-45c3-...
□ Create a communication site in SharePoint Online - https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-a-communication-site-in-SharePoint-Online-7fb44b20-a...
□ Add a page to a Communication site: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Add-a-page-to-a-Communication-site-ce16986a-25ec-4907-b820-...
Add or remove columns on  a page: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Add-or-remove-columns-on-a-page-fc491eb4-f733-4825-8fe2-e1e...  
□ Hero web part: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-the-Hero-web-part-d57f449b-19a0-4b0d-8ce3-be5866430645?...
□ Events web part: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-the-Events-web-part-5fe4da93-5fa9-4695-b1ee-b0ae4c98190...
□ People web part: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Show-people-profiles-on-your-page-with-the-People-web-part-...
Sue Hanley "8 tips to get started with SharePoint communication sites": http://www.computerworld.com/article/3205245/enterprise-applications/8-tips-to-get-started-with-shar...

 

Iron Contributor

This is how communication with respect to O365 should be done. Thank you @Mark Kashman - I wish there were more open lines of communication like this one. Looking forward to Jeff Taper's Twitter appearance on Monday. Keep on rockin that feedback loop.

Bronze Contributor

Hi @Mark Kashman , any update on the FR Full Tenant rollout - has it started? The AMA mentioned July 4th, though this seemed like an unsual release date for a US product :p

 

Anyhow, another question I have is around News. It is established that News in CommSites will (when the mobile app supports it) will trigger a push notification. Will this be true for News in general Team Sites as well (e.g. group connected ones)?

Brass Contributor

Hi, 

Loving the communication sites! We've built one to test it out. I've noticed that when the site is displayed elsewhere, e.g. SharePoint, the mobile app, Delve, the site is just called 'Home' - it doesn't have the name of the site. Other sites are displayed as 'Site Name - Home'.

This could get confusing, especially if we were to have more than one comms site. Thanks for any advice you can give to help us get around this.

Microsoft

Hi @Sarah Parry. Home is where the heart is... though a name is always clearer. Looping in @Nate Clinton who can provide insight into what's coming when the SharePoint mobile apps get updated to properly handle the new communicaiton sites; this update is not yet in the various app stores yet (as of July 7th, 2017). As a small test, and hint at what's to come, I can see the proper/desired name of the communicaiton sites listed; I'm on the Android beta version of the SharePoint mobile app - FYI (same is true on my demo iOS device). So the updates should clear things up, #comingsoon.

 

Cheers,

Mark

Microsoft

Hi @Ivan Unger. We'll be off by a few days, with signs signaling a push to a larger portion of FR next week. Cc: @Andy Haon.

 

And per news + notifications - we're making progress on notifications all up, with more at to share at Ignite 2017 (Sept 25-29), beyond what we shared showed during the May 16th SharePoint Virtual Summit. The general answer is yes, in the sense that news articles all up enter into the Microsoft Graph and bubble up via SharePoint home, SharePoint mobile apps and within the sites themselves - and would poteintially trigger a notification (we're looking at the signal to noise ratio and the threashold of notifications from an app in general - but it's more the inferred value/importance of the news that is being considered, in parallel to the list of them coming in... once you go Graph, you never go back! The right news, at the right time, on the right device -- might be a good way to think about how we're planning it - with plenty of feedback to come :-),

 

Cheers,

Mark

Microsoft

Thx, @Dennis Gaida. Appreciate hearing that. And as for @Jeff Teper taking over the @SharePoint Twitter handle, we kicked off awareness today: https://twitter.com/SharePoint/status/883402267415560195 - share the news and get your questions and feedback ready for Jeff!

 

The “Godfather of #SharePoint” will be on video + tweeting from @SharePoint Twitter handle. #TeperTakeoverThe “Godfather of #SharePoint” will be on video + tweeting from @SharePoint Twitter handle. #TeperTakeover

Microsoft

Hi @Sarah Parry - can you give us some more info?  When you name the site in the provisioning flow, the site name that you give it should display in SharePoint Home, SharePoint Mobile and Delve.  Sounds like that's not what you are seeing.  

Microsoft

Hi @Ivan Unger - as @Mark Kashman said we are looking at expansion to a % of First Release tenants next week if all goes well from here.  We found 1 issue we wanted to fix before rolling our further.  We are all really excited to get this out to our customers, and we also have a really high bar for the experience we want to deliver to you all. 

 

When we deliver notifications for News it will work for both communication sites and team sites, and as Mark said we are working to make sure these are really relevant to you based upon the people you work with and for and also the sites where you work.

Copper Contributor

Hi, when we apply a background image for the title area, it only shows a gray display after that. Is this issue already known and is there already an upcoming fix for this? Thanks.

Bronze Contributor

thanks @Andy Haon for the update. I'll keep hitting that +Create Site button daily then ;)

Microsoft

 @Sheffer Soria - adding @Alyssa Danesh to the conversation.

 

We are delivering the ability to add your own custom title region image and also to eliminate the default as well if you want.  These capabilities are getting rolled out in conjunction with Communication sites.  What are you seeing?  It may not be rolled out yet to your environment

Copper Contributor

@Andy Haon, when uploading a photo, it shows something being uploaded. But when it finishes uploading the photo and asks you where is the focal point of the custom title region image, it shows gray even after pointing a focal point. Please see photos below. Hope this gets fixed soon.

ScreenShot029.pngScreenShot030.png

Brass Contributor

Another week...

 

I must sound like a right whinge...but from these discussions with everyone testing and enjoying communication sites, i feel like i have the only company in the world who does not have the ability to create communication sites.

 

Is there anywhere at all i can go to find out exactly when my tenant will get this for 300 users? I have hung in there as requested...but this is now frankly, ridiculous thete isn't anyone i know who does not have this - colleagues and friends around the globe all have it...even the company next door yo me who uses the same tenant has it...but not me.

 

As much as it pains me and pains my budget i am going to have to pay for 3rd party tools to get the functionality i need gor the intranet.

 

Thanks microsoft!!

Brass Contributor

@Mark Kashman and @Andy Haon - thanks for your replies. I gave the site the not very exciting name 'Comms Test' and this name appears at the top of the comms site itself. The url uses .../sites/commstest/... But in SharePoint Home (where all my sites are shown) it's only identified as 'Home', whereas all other sites are 'Site Name - Home'. Sounds like something isn't right, so I'll raise a ticket with the helpdesk to investigate further. Thank you!

Microsoft

@Ian Cowan - our status from Friday that I replied to @Ivan Unger is the same currently.  

 

We are rolled out to First Release Select Users currently.  We are working to expand to a % of First Release tenants this week.  We found an issue we wanted to fix before rolling out further.  This is a big scope release for us with communications sites and major advances in page authoring and client side web parts.  We are all excited to get this out to customers, and we also have a really high quality bar for the experience we want to deliver to you all. 

Copper Contributor

I might be missing something... Or it is not ready for prime time, but how do we change the logo of a Communication Site?  With a team site i could do it through the Group, but can't find where to do it in a Communication Site.  Thanks!

Brass Contributor

 @Andy Haon

 

Thanks Andy. I appreciate that and i undertsand why communication sites are such a big thing for both MS and customers...quality/expectations etc.

What I was wanting to know is when i will get it...as you alluded to you delayed again. How as customers are we expected to know that at the risk of sounding like whingers, repeating as i am the same question time and time again. The delays in my view are unnacceptable. I honestly feel like the only company in the world, now joined by one other you mention who, even as fast track customers do not have the ability to create communication sites.

 

I am on the cusp of having to invest a considerable amount of money renting third party portal apps to create something with communication sites functionality to meet a deadline. Money i dont have but have to find...

 

All i am getting from Microsoft are platitudes. There is no gaurentee when i will get it...and without that, i cant rely on you so i can plan. I can't tell my board well just wait...its coming, there may or may not be delays and you will get this, err sometime.

 

All i want to know is when with more accuracy...because even today i now have to start finding a lot of money behind the sofa to pay for something i should not have to...

Bronze Contributor

@Ian Cowan

To be honest, I believe you are a little overreacting and misjudging the situation. I'd wager that the tenants that have CommSites enabled are in the single digit percentage. Microsofts communication was pretty clear: Rollout to first release begins by the end of Q2, which they did. With thousands of tenants, there are of course multiple deployment phases, which are splitted into the different release channels chosen by the tenant administrators, and then further splitted by Microsoft into different release rings. 

If you want guaranteed release dates and full functionality you have to switch to the General Release channel. Otherwise you will be affected by a phased release approach that is out of your control.

I don't know about yours, but my tenant is set to "first release full tenant", which means we don't have it enabled either. As do all the other FULL FR tenants, and of course GA tenants.

There's currently a 1 week delay for the next FR ring, so in my opinion > no big deal, even though I'm in the same boat as you, want this desperately :)

 

Steel Contributor

@Ian Cowan -- remember the First Release program is just that -- first release.  It's Microsoft's way of getting the community involved in their products and helping to shape the direction and gain feedback for the future.  You shouldn't be shaping your business decisions and rollouts on a first release product (that said, I may have done so a time or two) as they are many times not quite ready for primetime, nor are they advertised to be production-ready (they've stated quite the opposite).  

 

All that said, I feel your pain as I've been in the same situation.  Fortunately, however, Communication Sites are VERY far along as far as production quality (so much so that I only have a single complaint and haven't experienced any bugs yet).  They're fast and easy to setup, and once you get them, after you take a tour, you'll be on your way in no time.

Brass Contributor

Thanks Clint/Ivan

 

I know there is that risk of being seen as over-reacting/drama queen. I don't think it is beyond the skill of Microsoft to advise with more clarity. You are the first person I know of who doesn't have it yet. The company next door to me who uses the same provider had theirs weeks ago...when yo9u ahve a board asking why you intend spending thousands when there is this...it's not the easiest conversation when his partner next door has it for free!!

 

Lessons learned...I was using 3rd party some time back, but learned, watched and waited for communications sites. Looks like I will have to go back to plan A and pay the fees to meet the deadlines I have of 1st Sept. Communications sites made everything so much easier for end users and editors and of course integrated...been a long time coming, guess it will be a little longer.

 

Shame... by the time I get to use it in a year from now, it should be polished product :)

Steel Contributor

I think it is safe to say that most of the people reading this conversation do not have Communication sites in their production tenant yet.

 

I have stopped checking for the feature daily but as soon as I see confirmation they have expanded past Select First Release it will be the second or third thing I do every morning.

 

Copper Contributor

Is there a suggested way or a plan for a global navigation webpart (mega menu'esque) that can be centralized (centrally maintained) and made available to all the communication sites we'd have on our portal?  How is this being handled on sites (for example) like MSW?

 

Thanks!

Silver Contributor

Global Nav has been a gigantic weakspot in SharePoint forever.  I suspect the use of SPFX Extensions (I think they are called) are supposed to close this gap, but it will be considered Custom Development.

 

I would love to see Microsoft actually pull off some kind of Out-of-the-Box mega menu that can be turned on, turned off, and customized by administrators not by code, and made available on EVERY site collection, regardless of Group Site, Modern Team Site, or Communication Site.

 

For years, I've used a custom HTML/CSS/JS Mega Menu embedded in all site collections using UserCustomActions, and it has been a critical component of adoption.  With modern sharepoint and lack of what I'll call "easy" customization options, we are starting to lose out on those benefits, and having to tell users "click here to go to the home page, then click where you really want to go from there", which is do-able, just inconvenient.

Steel Contributor

That would be a great native feature. We use a combination of custom menu code and LiveTiles to get that done now.

Steel Contributor

GlobalNav....... yeah, I had a feeling they weren't going to have it added in to communication sites right away.  The truth is, it feels like they are pushing everyone away from using a global nav and are wanting to use the Sharepoint home.

 

That said, I built a custom modern webpart that can be added to any page that looks at wherever you specify and builds navigation.  It's not optimal but it's a fix until/if they add in the global nav.

Microsoft

@Sheffer Soria - thanks for letting us know. Looking into it and will update you when we have a fix!

Microsoft

On global nav, we'll have more to share at Ignite this year. @Melissa Torres so she sees the feedback also.

 

For rollout update, we expanded yesterday to a % of First Release tenants.  Our numbers all look good today and we've not seen reports of blocking issues, so we will continue to monitor and I expect you'll hear from me soon on the next expansion.  I use @andyhaon on Twitter to communicate out these updates.

 

I think that brings us current with the feedback and posts, but let us know if there are still open questions.  Thanks again for your feedback.

 

Andy

Steel Contributor

@Andy Haon -- I have to say that's a little disappointing as far as the global nav (likely not hearing or seeing a solution for quite some time).  I didn't necessarily want to rely on custom solutions to fill that gap, and after working with Comm Sites, it's hard to not push them out.  That said, I don't want to sound like the whiny complainer, so I'll go sit in my corner and be quiet.  Truth be told, I'm extremely happy with the progression in the past year and love the Sharepoint Framework and modern sites, lists, libraries, etc.  Big things are coming I'm sure, and it's so awesome to be able to be as nimble as Office 365 and Sharepoint Online is with their cloud solutions.  I know some larger corps don't like this type of continually iterative cycle, but I love it.

Bronze Contributor

@Andy Haon is there any way to opt into that "first % of first release tenants" :p

Brass Contributor

@Mark Kashman @Andy Haon are there visual hints or some kind of interactive tutorial when the Comm sites are available?

Also is this release limited to North America or European tenants are going to get it as well in the coming days?

 

Thanks,

Bronze Contributor

@Benoit DELVAUX When you click "+ Create Website" you'll get the option to create commsites, also Modern Pages will have the the new Sections options enabled.

Microsoft

@Ivan Unger - yes! If you opt into First Release - Select Users, you will be the first ring of individuals to get it.

 

More info on how to do that here

Brass Contributor

@Mark Kashman and @Andy Haon, can I assume that what's true for News notifications would be true for Events notifications?  

Copper Contributor

Hello.  Can you please point me to the powershell commands to enable External Access for Communication Sites?

 

Thank you,

Ryan

Microsoft

Hi @Ryan Logan. You can start here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161388.aspx (to learn about the SharePoint Online Management Shell, aka PowerShell for SPO :) - it'll guide you to the tool, basic prep ... and then, ensure you have sharing turned on for your tenant (this doesn't enable for any site collection, just gives intent for site owners and admins of each site collection to then use external sharing and be enabled to invite guests. And then, head over to the "Set-SPOSite" support article: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161394.aspx using "sharingcapability" for the site collection as enabled. And I'm no PS guru, and this article I think is a good primer on topic: http://sharepointpals.com/post/How-to-enable-external-sharing-in-SharePoint-Online-with-Powershell

 

Cc: @Dave Cohen (US) if I missed a beat.

 

Hth,

Mark

Copper Contributor

Hey @Mark Kashman

 

I have one query related to site pages of communication sites, i want to create one column in site pages library which can be editable in edit properties of that page, so that i can divide my pages in some category, i have tried this out but unfortunately my created column is not visible in edit properties.am i doing any mistake or is there any limitations we have kindly help me on this, Thanks for your response in advance.

Brass Contributor

Hi @Mark Kashman.  Great write up, great tech!.  Communications sites arrived for us on Friday, very impressive!  One thing that we see working in the write ups is Yammer in SharePoint Mobile (in some of marketing for Communications).  However for Yammer we see the 'This web part isn't supported in the SharePoint mobile app'.  Same for Microsoft Managed browser.  Is this something we can expect to work soon, options to enable, or just an issue for us? Works in Native browser IOS and Android. Thanks!

Microsoft

Hi @Joseph Boland - our first notications experience for the SharePoint Mobile apps will be for News.  In addition to News notifications, we are also looking at additional activities that will trigger notifications, but initially the focus is on new News that has been posted that is relevant to a particular user.

 

CC: @Emma Dong 

Microsoft

To update you all on rollout status, we expanded to a larger % of First Release tenants today and we expect to reach 100% of First Release tenants in the next few days.  We had an issue we needed to resolve in order to expand and we've completed that and our validation of the fix late last week, and so we expanded this morning.

Microsoft

Hi @Joseph Boland, thanks for asking and reasonable expectation on Event notification. Currently, we are full speed on shipping notification V1 that covers news notification and to exercise and prove out the pipeline. Next up, we will look into other notification scenarios. Event notification is an interesting and valuable one. If possible, could you elaborate a bit more on the scenarios and your expectation on how it will work? E.g., who should be notified when an event is added, or an event is close to happen?

 

Thanks for the suggestion:) 

 

cc: @Nate Clinton@Andy Haon

Copper Contributor

Having just been engaged to develop a team hub / intranet for one of our clients we couldn't be happier to see that Comm' Sites is available to us and offers such value to our clients. I.E. Quicker to market solutions at reduced cost. The feedback loop and response time for this project has been impressive to put it mildly.

 

I'm not normally one to heap praise but felt compelled to do so as I know our customer will be doing same to us and it only seems fair ;)

 

Keep up the good work team and we're all very excited here to see what's coming.

Copper Contributor

Is the analytics for the SharePoint Communication Site already available to the First-Release users? Where can we see this?

Copper Contributor

Hi, great start on the communications sites, really looking forward to exploring in much more detail. Something that has already come up is how can we add available domains for the Embed web part? The guidance currently available for SPO is not applicable as you cannot access the HTML Field Security option as a site collection admin. PowerShell has also provided a dead end. Any help greatly appreciated!

Microsoft

@Awake Kapoor - If you were able to add a column to Pages library successfully. You should be able to edit the column  using "quick edit" command  available on the Page. Make sure you are on a flat list view such as "All Pages" view as this command is not available in views that show grouped items(i.e. By Author, By Editor).

Edit_Custom_Columns.png

 

 

 

Iron Contributor

For the new "Section layouts", the image in the post show 6 options with one of them being "Full-width column". However, in my Team site I only see 5 options (shown below). Are full-width columns exclusive to Communication Sites (intentional) or are full-width columns supposed to also be available in Team sites (bug)?

 

 Section Layouts.PNG

Microsoft

Hi all,

Want to let you know that yesterday we expanded communication sites to 100% of First Release tenants.  Look forward to having more of you be able to use this and getting feedback.  We will be holding for a bit of time at this stage of rollout to continue to track our metrics, watch usage and also address a few items that we want to polish a bit further.

 

Microsoft

@Steven Tolboe - currently this full width option is available just in communication sites.  We are working on designs and options for this in team sites, but there are several considerations we need to account for with the left hand nav and the layout of the content in full width.

 

CC: @Lincoln DeMaris

Copper Contributor

How do I allow "everyone" / external com site visitors,  with SharePoint online (365)?

 

Silver Contributor

@Andy Haon I am unable to create Comm Sites from Chrome Browser, graphically, its all jumbled up, and I can't enter site title or proceed.  Works fine on other browsers. 

 

2017-07-21 08_54_06-SharePoint.png

 

 

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‎May 15 2017 09:38 PM
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