Practical notes from real client work
SharePoint architecture, Microsoft 365 Copilot and AI workflows. Written from what's running in real tenants, not from the roadmap.
How to Show Different News in Different Places with the SharePoint News Web Part
Every news post on a site lands in one Site Pages library, so one Choice column is all it takes to split that news into separate feeds. I set up company news and blog posts as two News web parts on an intranet home page, then used news links to bring a deck and a video into the same feeds.
1 August 2023 · 8 min read
SharePoint Team Site vs Communication Site: Which Should You Use?
Team sites and communication sites are both SharePoint, with libraries, pages and news. The difference is who the site is for: a team site is a workspace for its members, and a communication site broadcasts to everyone else.
26 July 2023 · 7 min read
SharePoint News by Email vs Outlook Newsletters vs Viva Amplify: Which Should You Use?
SharePoint can already email your news, either as a digest of several posts or as one post in full. Outlook Newsletters and Viva Amplify do more, and Amplify costs more. This covers how the SharePoint options work and which of the four I'd use for each kind of internal newsletter.
18 July 2023 · 9 min read
How to Build an Employee Directory in SharePoint with PnP Modern Search
Build a people directory in SharePoint with the free PnP Modern Search web parts, and get a search box, a department filter, profile cards on hover and department pages that list their own team automatically.
12 June 2023 · 8 min read
How to Set Folder Permissions in a SharePoint Document Library
Every folder in a SharePoint library inherits its permissions from the library and the site. To lock one down, you stop inheriting, remove the groups that shouldn't be there and grant access directly. Here are the steps, how to check who has access, and why I keep folders with unique permissions to a minimum.
10 June 2023 · 7 min read
How to Build a Personalised SharePoint Intranet Home Page
A good intranet home page shows people what's relevant to their role instead of everything at once. I build one from a blank communication site with standard web parts, then use audience targeting on the news, links and navigation so different people see different content.
26 April 2023 · 10 min readGet these in your inbox. One email a week.
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