Top 5 New SharePoint Features for Publishing

SharePoint is the primary tool in the M365 suite for designing and building your organization’s intranet. It’s primarily a no-code solution, offering prebuilt blocks and constructs that enable you to create modern, professional websites and pages with ease. Additionally, Microsoft continuously adds new features to enhance and enrich the SharePoint experience. Whether you’re new to SharePoint or looking to explore its latest capabilities, here are the top 5 newest features you should know about.

Flexible Sections

This new section type allows authors to create dynamic pages without being limited by a rigid column structure. Web parts within these sections can be resized, overlapped, grouped, and freely moved across the two-dimensional grid.

When adding a section to your page, you’ll see a new section type called “Flexible” in the section toolbox.

After adding a flexible section to your page, use the content pane Toolbox on the right side of the canvas to add web parts and media by either clicking or dragging them into the section.

Within flexible sections, web parts can be freely moved across the two-dimensional grid. When you drag and drop a web part, a drop hint will appear, and the top-left corner of the web part will snap to the nearest border. As you move web parts, alignment cues will help you position them relative to other web parts or align them to the center of the section.

Web parts within flexible sections are resizable using the resize handles located on their borders. The available size options vary by web part. For example, Text and Image web parts can be resized to nearly any width, while others like People and Quick Links offer four predefined size options, which align with their sizes in non-flexible sections. Custom web parts can also be added and resized using the four default size options. When resizing, resize hints will guide you.

To resize a section, use the resize handle at the bottom right corner of the section. The section’s height will automatically adjust when you add a web part to the bottom, expanding as needed.

Flexible sections also allow web parts to overlap. You can adjust their arrangement using the dropdown menu in the web part toolbar. Additionally, web parts can be grouped within these sections. This grouping remains intact across editing sessions and indicates that the web parts are related. When grouped, web parts will adjust together in mobile view.

This feature is currently being rolled out to Targeted Release customers and will continue to be available to all customers by the end of April 2025.

Editorial cards

Learn how to create an editorial card to enhance your SharePoint page with captivating content.

This thoughtfully designed component allows you to create visually striking card-style containers customized to suit your unique needs. Featuring a modern design and extensive customization options, the Editorial card web part ensures your content captures attention and connects with your audience.

Three Ready-to-Use Design Layouts

Start with three pre-designed layouts, each customizable to meet your specific needs:

• Image Overlay: Ideal for blending visuals with text.
• Color Block: Create bold, colorful sections.
• Split: Elegantly divide your content with this layout.

Each card can be customized with the following elements: Section/Category Name, Headline, Description, and Call to Action.

Unmatched Flexibility with Key Features:

• Advanced image editing options, including cropping, adjustments, filters, and focal point adjustments, along with the ability to add overlays.
• Multiple content alignment options to suit your design preferences.
• Four different call-to-action types to engage your audience.

Take full control of your text with advanced Rich Text Editor (RTE) capabilities. Style individual characters, adjust font sizes, and apply custom formatting to match your brand’s identity. Full custom font support ensures your pages reflect your company’s unique personality.

General Availability

This feature will begin rolling out in mid-January 2025 and will be globally available, including in GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments, by February 2025.

Carousel Hero Webpart

The Hero web part in Microsoft SharePoint Online has always been a key feature for creating visually striking pages. With the introduction of the new Carousel layout, we’re elevating your SharePoint pages and news to new heights. This exciting update introduces a sleek, dynamic design that enhances your content, providing a more engaging and immersive experience for users.

With the Carousel layout, you can showcase up to five slides within any section type. Each slide offers the following customizable elements:

• Background Media: Choose a background image, video, or link to a page.
• Topic: A concise 40-character headline.
• Header: A compelling 110-character title.
• Description: Add up to 500 characters for detailed context.

Mix and match different media types—images, videos, documents, or pages—to create a dynamic rotating display that captures your audience’s attention.

Add variety and creativity to your content with these new style options:

• Image Overlay: Enhance visuals with a subtle text overlay.
• Text Block: Focus on your message using bold, clean typography.
• Diagonal Split: Incorporate a modern split-screen effect.

Each slide can feature a unique style, giving you the flexibility to craft a visually diverse experience.

Switching to the Carousel layout is simple:

1. Enter Edit mode by clicking the Edit button at the top right of your page.
2. Select Carousel from the Layout options in the content pane or from the Layout categories dropdown on the canvas.

Bring your pages to life with the auto-play feature, which smoothly transitions slides every ~3.5 seconds, ensuring continuous engagement. Prefer static slides? You can disable auto-play and allow viewers to navigate at their own pace. A pause button is also available for those who need more time to read.

Design Ideas

The SharePoint Design Ideas feature leverages AI-powered suggestions to enhance the structure of your content. This tool enables authors to easily rearrange and reformat sections such as images, text, and banners within their SharePoint pages, helping them create more polished and visually appealing layouts.

Design Ideas analyzes the text and web part content in the section you’re currently editing, offering suggestions for new layouts, backgrounds, text formatting, and image web parts to enhance your section. Authors can then click on these suggestions to apply different design options.

When you start editing a new section with a blank text web part, Design Ideas will provide formatting options to help you get started. As you add more content to the section, Design Ideas will summarize your text and recommend suitable image web parts, background options, and basic text formatting to enhance your content.

At the beginning of an editing session, a red dot will appear in the Design Ideas content pane, indicating that suggestions are available. Clicking on this dot opens the Design Ideas panel for you to explore.

In this initial release, Design Ideas will be available for sections containing:

• 1 Banner web part
• 1, 2, or 3 text web parts
• 1, 2, or 3 text and image web parts
• 1 blank text web part

This feature will begin rolling out to customers in August 2024 and will be gradually available worldwide by the end of September 2024.

Banner Webpart

Authors now have the flexibility to remove the title area, which is no longer a mandatory feature at the top of a page. The title area is being redefined as a Banner web part, offering new layout options that allow you to add one or more banners to any column, including full-width sections.

With this added flexibility, you can choose to have no banners, a single banner, or multiple banners on your SharePoint page. If you opt to remove the title area, simply add a Banner web part to restore the title as desired.

Microsoft introduced two new Banner layouts: Author and Fade, which can be used across all section types, including Full-width, One-column, Two-columns, Three-columns, and One-third sections.

The first banner at the top of the page, when placed in a full-width section, acts as the page title (H1). It automatically syncs with the page title displayed on the command bar at the top of the screen. Any additional banners will serve as headings within the page. Note that the page title on the command bar is only visible in edit mode.