Since the start of the New Year, Microsoft’s SharePoint team has been busy addressing and resolving existing issues within the platform.
In a bid to enhance the user experience, new features have been added to the service in response to customer feedback, offering individuals and businesses the additional support they require.
This commitment to quality means that January’s Roadmap Pitstop for SharePoint is filled with exciting updates, including the highly requested custom search results page, which gives users greater creative freedom during the page building process.
With support for Windows 7 ending last month, businesses who haven’t already upgraded to a supported system like Windows 10 must focus on bringing their business up to speed in order to access new features.
Only once this has been achieved can they unlock the true potential of SharePoint and some of the exciting updates outlined below:
Image resizing
Most users like to include images alongside their written content in order to bring their page to life, while helping readers retain information by offering real examples.
However, these images are often forced into the set dimensions of the page, which can leave vital information missing or cut out of the picture, creating headaches for businesses who rely on such pictures being high quality.
For this reason, Microsoft has given users the ability to resize images in the modern SharePoint experience, allowing them to edit the photo to fit around existing content on the page.
Using the Image web part, individuals can currently insert an image onto a page, whether it’s from their SharePoint site, computer or external web location.
Once resized, the image will automatically adjust with responsive flow across various screen and device sizes, allowing readers to access important information remotely if needed.
Custom search results pages
As mentioned in the introduction, the custom search results pages for SharePoint sites has been a long-awaited feature within the community.
With this update, admins who have specialised search needs can now build a custom search results page, modernising the existing experience to take full advantage of the specialist features at their disposal.
The custom page can be built using open-source search web parts from the SharePoint Patterns and Practices community or any custom parts developed within the SharePoint Framework (SPFx).
Once created, these modern pages can be customised to meet your unique requirements, with a range of bespoke themes available to choose from.
It’s worth noting that SharePoint site owners can customise their results page on modern group-connected team and communication sites.
Email notifications for comments/@mentions
Modern businesses rely on quick collaboration and communication between members of its workforce.
Currently, when a user comments on a document, presentation or spreadsheet and @mentions someone, then that individual receives an email notification containing a direct link to the comment.
Now, instead of taking you directly to the comment, this new update allows users to see the comment thread and surrounding document context within the email app.
This means users no longer need to open the document separately, streamlining the entire process of monitoring and responding to incoming communications.
The feature will be automatically switched on, so if you’d prefer to adjust the setting then it can be accessed via PowerShell.
Streamline important processes...
Microsoft’s commitment to quality is evident in their regular update cycles, as they look to introduce new features in direct response to customer feedback.
SharePoint has become a staple of many modern businesses, used to streamline communications and enhance collaboration, throughout all levels of the organisation.
With the platform’s popularity continuing to grow, it’s crucial that businesses take steps to stay ahead of the competition and unlock the true potential of SharePoint, as part of their existing investment in Microsoft.
If your business needs help finding the right solution or requires support with upgrading their unsupported systems, then contact our in-house team and begin planning for the future.