Site template is one of the main components that defines the structure for managing content within SharePoint. SharePoint keeps on updating the existing site templates and introducing the new templates to the business needs for those times. Now, the web technology is a lot improved and SharePoint is also catching up with introducing new features to it. Communication Site is one of these new site template features to the SharePoint online to support the latest UI trend.
What is SharePoint Communication Site?
A place where we can view or share the data in a rich UI experience across different devices with minimal efforts from the team. It has modern UI features with highly customizable OOT web parts. The page designs enable the flexible responsive designs.
“Publish dynamic, beautiful content to people in your organization to keep them informed and engaged on topics, events, or projects” – Communication template description.
Team Site vs Communication Site
Team site is used to share the information among the users of a team and limited to the team; whereas Communication site shares the information to a broader audience and keeps them informed about news, events, and topics within the organization.
| Team Site | Communication Site |
| Modern UI | Modern UI |
| Subsite creation available | Subsite creation unavailable |
| Web part page, wiki page, site page and Link content types are available by default in Pages library | Site page, Link content types are available by default in Pages library |
| Left navigation is available on site page | There is no left navigation present in Site Page |
| Web Template : 64 | Web Template: 68 |
| Privacy Settings & member details will be asked during site creation | There is no security details will be asked during site creation |
| One design available | 3 sets of designs available |
Communication site Assets
Site Designs
There are three different designs available within the Communication site. For now, you must choose any one of the designs to create a communication site.
Topics
Topic site design template helps to share the information such as news, events, and other content.
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Home page has,
- Hero web part
- New web part
- Events web part
- Highlighted Content web part
- Quick Links web part
- People web part
Available Lists & Libraries include -
- Documents
- Form templates
- Style Library
- Events
- Site Pages
Option to select Page Template is available on creating new page from home page.
Showcase
Showcase site design template uses the photos or images to showcase a product, team, or event.
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Home page has,
- Hero web part
- Image Gallery web part
Available Lists & Libraries include -
- Documents
- Form templates
- Style Library
- Events
- Site Pages
Option to select Page Template is also available on creating new page from home page.
Blank
Blank site design template is used to create our own design.
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Home page has plain page and you can add any web part available for modern UI.
Available Lists & Libraries include -
- Documents
- Form templates
- Site Assets
- Style Library
- Events
- Site Pages
Page Templates
Site Page has three different built-in page templates for creating a new modern page.
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Page Templates
- Multiple Columns – Creates a new page with a single section with two columns. And each column contains text web part and Quick links respectively.
- Single Column – Creates a new page with a single section with single column.
- Blank – Creates a new page without any section. After the creation, we can add sections based on our requirement.
Section Layouts
Each page can have multiple sections and each section can have up to three columns. Within each column, we can add multiple web parts vertically. Section is equivalent to a web part manager and column in a section is equivalent to a web part zone.
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Section Layouts
Web parts
Office 365 team has rolled out some of the web parts to the site pages with rich and responsive UI.
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Web parts
How to create Communication Site
So far, we have learned the basics and overview of communication sites and its inner pieces. Now, we will see how to create a new communication site.
Note
At present (July’17), it is available only for first release tenant users.
- Click on “App Launcher” and then select “SharePoint” button, that redirects to the SharePoint Modern home page
Or
Directly type your SharePoint Tenant root site with sharepoint.aspx as shown below in the address bar,
https://mytenant.sharepoint.com/_layoyts/15/sharepoint.aspx
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SharePoint from App Launcher
- From the SharePoint page, click “Create Site” button. This opens the Panel with two options - Team site and Communication Site.
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Create Site
- Select Communication site in the panel. It asks us to select the Site Design and Title along with the URL and description.
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Modern Site Templates
- Select the Site Design and enter Site name, address (auto generated), and description. Then, click "Finish" button to create a new communication site.
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Create Communication Site
By using this new template, we can easily create Single Page Applications. For now, we can’t have this site as a subsite, and customization of components is also limited for the developers. In coming days, we can expect more new features related to this communication site template.