What is a SharePoint communication site?

Marcel

Source: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/what-is-a-sharepoint-communication-site-94a33429-e580-45c3-a090-5512a8070732

A SharePoint communication site is a great place to share information with others. You can share news, reports, statuses, and other information in a visually compelling format.

Note: Some functionality is introduced gradually to organizations that have set up the targeted release options in Office 365. This means that you may not yet see this feature or it may look different than what is described in the help articles.

SharePoint communication site topic designSharePoint communication site showcase design

Mobile view

SharePoint communication site on a mobile device

What does a communication site include?

When you create a communication site in SharePoint Online, you can start with a blank site or choose one of the other site designs, each of which comes with a default set of web parts. The options available are:

  • Topic to share information such as news, events, and other content.
  • Showcase to use photos or images to showcase a product, team, or event.
  • Blank to create your own design.

No matter which one you choose, you can add, remove, or reorder web parts as needed.

If you have permission to edit the site, there’s also a link at the top of the communication site to add a new list, document library, page, news post, or web app to the site.

Add a new item to a SharePoint site

Topic

When you choose the Topic design, you get a home page that includes several web parts ready for you to customize. The web parts included by default on a Communication site that uses the Topic design are:

  • Hero: Use the Hero web part to bring focus and visual interest to your page. You can display up to five items in the Hero web part, and you can add compelling images to draw attention to each. For more information, see Use the Hero web part on a modern page.Hero web part on Communication site
  • News: You can keep your team in the loop as well as engage them with important or interesting stories by using the News web part. For more information, see Use News Headlines and News List web parts on a modern page.Default News on Group team site
  • Events: Display upcoming events using the events web part. For more information, see Use the Events web part.SharePoint Events Web Part
  • Highlighted content: Use the Highlighted content web part to dynamically display content from a document library, a site, a site collection, or all sites. By default, this web part shows your most recent documents. For more information, see Use the Highlighted content web part.Highlighted content

Showcase

The Showcase design also comes with a home page that includes several web parts ready for you to customize. Here are the web parts included by default on a Communication site that uses the Showcase design:

  • Hero: Use the Hero web part to bring focus and visual interest to your page. With the Showcase design, you can choose from two layouts, Tile and Layer, and add compelling images to draw attention to each item. For more information, see Use the Hero web part on a modern page.SharePoint hero web part
  • Image gallery: Use the Image gallery web part to share collections of pictures on a page. For more information, see Use the Image Gallery web part.SharePoint Image Gallery web part

Blank

When you start with a blank communication site, there’s no need to remove web parts you don’t need. Just choose your page layout and add the web parts you want.

SharePoint communicatoin site blank design

Customizing the page layout

In addition to changing the order of web parts on a page, you can also change the page layout for any of the site designs. For more information, see Add, remove, and change columns on a page.

Section layout

 

View usage data for your SharePoint Online site

Marcel
Source: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/view-usage-data-for-your-sharepoint-online-site-2fa8ddc2-c4b3-4268-8d26-a772dc55779e?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

As a SharePoint Online site owner, you can view information that shows you how users are interacting with your site. For example, you can see the number of people who have visited the site, how many times people have visited the site, and a list of files that have received the most views.

To view usage data for your site, click the settings gear Settings icon and then click Site usage. You can also click Site contents in the left-hand menu and then click Site usage in the top navigation bar.

Site Usage in SharePoint Online

Important:

  • Some functionality is introduced gradually to organizations that have set up the targeted release options in Office 365. This means that you may not yet see this feature or it may look different than what is described in the help articles.
  • Lifetime stats are shown for sites created after February 2018. Sites created before this date will show stats from February 2018 forward.
  • At this time, views are counted for internal, authenticated users only.

What’s on the site usage page

Unique viewers

SharePoint Unique Site Visitors

Shows the total number of unique viewers to your site for the last 7 days, last 30 days, and last 90 days.

Site visits

SharePoint Online Site Usage - Site visits

Shows the number of visits to the site over the last 7 days, last 30 days, and last 90 days.

Most unique viewers

Most unique viewers

Shows top 10 files and pages with the most unique viewers in the past 2 weeks.

Most viewed

Most viewed

Shows the top 10 files and pages with the most views in the past 2 weeks.

Shared externally

Externally shared files

List of files you have access to that have been shared with users outside your organization through a sharing link that requires them to log in before they can view the file. Files shared with anonymous users or files available to users with guest permissions are not included.

Permissions

To edit the permissions for any item in this list, click More next to the item and select Edit permissions. For more information, see Share SharePoint files or folders in Office 365.

Drilling down to more details

The usage data dashboard gives you a top level view of your site’s usage. To get to more details, such as how many times individuals accessed documents, see the following topic. You’ll need to have administrator or owner rights to the Office 365 site.

Monitor apps for your SharePoint Online environment describes how to monitor apps and documents from the Admin dashboard. From the Office 365 home page, click Admin center, and then click Usage. You can explore usage of email, files, OneDrive, and more.

Known Folder Move (KFM) for OneDrive – Migrate Your Files to OneDrive Easily

Marcel

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-OneDrive-Blog/Migrate-Your-Files-to-OneDrive-Easily-with-Known-Folder-Move/ba-p/207076

We’ve heard requests from several customers asking to make it easier to move their user data into OneDrive. To have a single button that they could push that would move content from the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders to OneDrive.

Today, we are making this a reality with the announcement of Known Folder Move (KFM) for OneDrive that will start rolling out to Targeted Release customers this week.

Known folders are global pointers in Windows representing a location on the user’s drive. They help users to organize their most important files and access them across different applications. KFM helps you move your docs, desktop, and pictures into OneDrive. Even the Screenshots and Camera Roll folders are included when the Picture folder has opted into KFM.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-OneDrive-Blog/Migrate-Your-Files-to-OneDrive-Easily-with-Known-Folder-Move/ba-p/207076

 

Admin control for attachments now available in Office 365 Message Encryption

Marcel
Administrators can now control whether Office attachments are protected for recipients outside of Office 365 when the Encrypt-Only template is used.  This was a key ask from Office 365 Message Encryption customers and is now available as a tenant-level setting.

Modernize your SharePoint team sites by connecting them to new Office 365 groups

Marcel

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-SharePoint-Blog/Modernize-your-SharePoint-team-sites-by-connecting-them-to-new/ba-p/201371

SharePoint powers content collaboration in Office 365. At work, it is important for every team member to streamline efforts and stay on the same page. Group-connected SharePoint team sites provide a central location to manage team files, input and connect to important data, and share timely news. With insight into what drives the most engagement and value, people can course correct and optimize for greatest impact.

Users have been adopting modern SharePoint lists and libraries and creating modern pages. And now it’s time to bring the full power of SharePoint and Office 365 to all your sites. We’re excited to announce that you can now further modernize your existing (classic) sites by connecting them to new Office 365 groups.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-SharePoint-Blog/Modernize-your-SharePoint-team-sites-by-connecting-them-to-new/ba-p/201371

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How can I expect connecting existing SharePoint sites to new Office 365 Groups to roll out to Office 365 customers?

A: The ability to connect existing SharePoint sites to new Office 365 Groups Communication sites will begin to roll out to all Targeted Release customers this week, and will be completed within 2–3 weeks. We then are targeting end of July 2018 for complete worldwide roll out into production.

Q: What types of sites can I connect to new Office 365 Groups?

A: You can connect top-level site collections that use the team site web template (also known as STS#0). You cannot group-connect subsites.

Q: What permissions do I need to have to connect my existing site to a new group?

A: Site collection administrators of the existing SharePoint site have the appropriate permissions to initiate the group connection process from the upper-right gear icon menu.  Global admins can use PowerShell cmdlet or API tools as well.

Q: What if my site has items with unique permissions?  Do they change?

A: The group connection process does not change permissions on items with unique permissions.

Q: Can I limit the availability of this feature to just my global admins?

A: Yes, there is an admin setting that lets you control whether this feature is available for site administrators from the gear menu.

Additional resources