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      While SP has been around for many years, it is changing quickly and lots of info you may find on the internet is out of date, this community is a great place to get the up-to-date info.

      • Yovanka Barnard's avatar
        Yovanka Barnard
        Copper Contributor
        Aug 01, 2017

        Thanks Dean.

         

        I agree.

         

        Maybe you can give me some advice on what I am trying to start off in SharePoint and ask specific questions like you mentioned.

         

        Objectives:  

        *Entire team to upload various documents to SharePoint which are accessible for internal and external resources.

        *Create a site per project and make use of webparts to display documents according to metadata "tags".  For example:  Per department or per subcontractor,etc.

         

        Current challenges/thoughts/brainstorm ideas:

        *I have 96 projects for which I need a site each

        *I would like to have a site template with the logic built in so that I do not need to go and add mulitple webparts 96 x times and everytime I get a new project, if it makes sense.  But as you said ~ working with a template is not such a great idea...My end goal is to use the same site structure for mulitple projects in the most efficient way?

        *I downloaded SharePoint Designer but get this error message if I want to create a new site:  See image uploaded.  Any advice on how to solve this?

         

        Next steps in mind:

        *Starting off with a mock sharepoint site for the team to use and explore.

        *Build the site from there?  But still not sure how I will then duplicate it for future projects and how adjustable it will be for changes as the sharepoint portal improves and advances.

         

        That's all.

         

        If this is not the right forum to ask these types of questions please provide me with links to the appropriate forum(s).  As I mentioned ~ I am new to all of this. :)

         

        Thanks for the advice thus far.

         

        Y

  • 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

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