SharePoint Introduces Template Gallery for Pages and News

SharePoint has introduced a new Template Gallery designed to streamline the creation of pages and news posts for organizations. This feature centralizes a variety of pre-designed templates, allowing users to quickly build professional-looking content without starting from scratch. The gallery includes templates developed by Microsoft, as well as custom templates saved within an organization’s own SharePoint sites. This enhancement aims to boost efficiency, maintain brand consistency, and improve the overall user experience for content creators across all departments.

The introduction of the Template Gallery marks a significant step in simplifying SharePoint’s content management capabilities. Previously, users often had to manually configure layouts, web parts, and design elements for each new page or news item, a process that could be time-consuming and prone to inconsistencies. The new gallery addresses this by providing a curated selection of modern, ready-to-use templates tailored for various communication and storytelling needs.

Centralized Access and Discoverability

The new Template Gallery consolidates all available page and news templates into a single, easily accessible location. This means users no longer need to search across different sites or configurations to find a suitable starting point for their content. Whether it’s for HR announcements, project updates, or general company news, the gallery offers a structured way to discover and apply templates.

This centralization significantly reduces the time spent on design and layout, allowing content creators to focus more on the substance of their message. The gallery presents templates in a visually intuitive interface, often with previews, making it easier for users to select the best fit for their specific needs. This improved discoverability is crucial for encouraging consistent use of best practices and maintaining a cohesive digital presence.

Microsoft’s Out-of-the-Box Templates

A key component of the new gallery is the rich collection of modern, out-of-the-box (OOB) templates provided directly by Microsoft. These templates are professionally designed to cover a wide array of common scenarios, such as employee benefits pages, product news updates, event announcements, and visual topic introductions. They serve as excellent starting points, offering structured layouts and pre-configured web parts that align with modern design principles.

For instance, an HR department can leverage a pre-designed template to quickly create an informative page about employee benefits, complete with sections for program overviews, important links, and contact information. Similarly, a project manager can utilize a “Product News” template to share timely updates with stakeholders, ensuring a polished and consistent presentation of key highlights and next steps.

Custom and Site-Specific Templates

Beyond Microsoft’s offerings, the Template Gallery also prominently features custom templates that organizations can create and save. This allows businesses to develop their own branded templates that align precisely with their unique identity, workflows, and communication strategies. These custom templates are then made available within the gallery, ensuring that all employees have access to approved design standards.

The ability to save and reuse customized templates is particularly valuable for maintaining visual consistency and reinforcing brand style across an organization. For example, a company could create a set of templates for department landing pages, campaign announcements, or leadership communications, which can then be easily applied by various teams. This standardization simplifies internal communication management and reinforces the company’s language and values.

Enhanced User Experience and Efficiency

The introduction of the Template Gallery is designed to significantly enhance the user experience by making content creation faster, more intuitive, and less demanding. The process of creating a new page or news post now typically begins with the automatic opening of the template gallery, guiding users from the outset.

Users can select a template, customize the content by adding or modifying text, images, and web parts, and then publish their page. This streamlined workflow eliminates the need for extensive design knowledge or manual configuration, empowering a broader range of users to create high-quality content effectively. The changes made to a page created from a template do not affect the original template itself, offering flexibility for customization.

Faster Page Creation

One of the most immediate benefits of the Template Gallery is the drastic reduction in the time required to create new pages and news posts. By providing a pre-built structure, users can bypass the initial design phase and jump straight into populating the content. This is especially beneficial for organizations that frequently publish updates, announcements, or project information.

For example, a marketing team launching a new campaign can select a campaign landing page template and rapidly populate it with relevant text, images, and calls to action. This speed allows for more agile communication and quicker dissemination of important information, a critical factor in today’s fast-paced business environment.

Reduced Decision-Making and Improved Quality

The structured nature of templates helps to reduce the cognitive load on content creators by simplifying layout and design decisions. Instead of facing a blank canvas, users are presented with well-thought-out layouts that are optimized for readability and engagement. This guided approach not only speeds up the creation process but also leads to a higher overall quality of content.

Templates often incorporate best practices for layout, such as optimal text widths and the strategic use of sections and columns, making content more accessible and pleasant to read. This built-in guidance ensures that even users with limited design experience can produce polished and professional-looking pages that adhere to organizational standards.

Integration with Microsoft Teams

The Template Gallery’s integration with Microsoft Teams further enhances its utility for modern collaborative workplaces. Teams is often the central hub for communication and collaboration, and the ability to seamlessly create and share content from SharePoint within Teams streamlines workflows.

When users create content using SharePoint templates, it can be easily shared and accessed within Teams channels or feeds. This ensures that important information is readily available to the right people at the right time, fostering better collaboration and information flow across the organization. The synergy between SharePoint’s content creation tools and Teams’ collaborative environment creates a more cohesive digital workspace.

Seamless Content Sharing

The seamless integration allows for the quick production and publication of materials that can be immediately shared through Teams. This is particularly useful for disseminating company-wide announcements, project milestones, or team updates. Users can craft their message using a SharePoint template and then efficiently distribute it within their Teams channels, reaching their intended audience without delay.

This eliminates the friction that can occur when moving content between different platforms. For example, a project team can create a status update page in SharePoint using a dedicated template and then share a link to that page directly in their Teams project channel, ensuring all team members are informed and aligned.

Customization and Flexibility

While templates provide a structured foundation, they also offer significant flexibility for customization. Users can modify the content, add or remove web parts, and adjust layouts to meet their specific requirements without altering the original template. This balance between standardization and flexibility is key to the gallery’s effectiveness.

The ability to personalize pages created from templates ensures that content remains unique and tailored to its purpose, while still benefiting from the consistency and efficiency of a template-based approach. This means that organizations can maintain a strong brand identity and adherence to design guidelines without stifling creativity or individual content needs.

Modifying and Extending Templates

When a user selects a template, they are essentially creating a copy that they can then modify freely. Changes made to this new page do not impact the original template or any other pages created from it. This allows for extensive personalization, such as adding specific data visualizations, integrating custom web parts, or adjusting the visual elements to match the exact tone of the communication.

For instance, a marketing team might use a general “Announcement” template but add specific product images, a video embed, and a custom call-to-action button to tailor it for a product launch campaign. This level of customization ensures that the content is not only well-structured but also highly relevant and engaging for its intended audience.

Accessibility and Readability Enhancements

Many of the new templates are designed with accessibility and readability as core considerations. Microsoft has focused on creating layouts that use optimal text widths, clear sectioning, and appropriate font choices to make content easier for everyone to consume.

Features like the “One-third right” section layout, which pairs text with a complementary visual element, help to break up content and guide the reader’s eye. This attention to detail ensures that information is not only presented effectively but is also accessible to users with diverse needs, aligning with broader digital inclusion goals.

Structured Content for Better Engagement

The templates’ emphasis on structured content, such as through the use of horizontal sections and well-defined columns, helps to improve engagement by making pages easier to navigate and digest. Long blocks of text are broken down into more manageable pieces, interspersed with visuals and clear headings.

This approach is particularly effective for longer articles or detailed information pages. By presenting content in a visually appealing and organized manner, templates encourage users to spend more time on the page and absorb the information more thoroughly. This contrasts with older, less structured page designs that could overwhelm readers and lead to lower engagement.

Future Updates and Expansion

Microsoft has indicated that the Template Gallery is an evolving feature, with plans for further updates and the introduction of new templates. These future enhancements may include templates specifically designed for video content, improved support for features like “Amplify” to reach a broader audience, and potentially more AI-driven design capabilities.

The ongoing development of the Template Gallery suggests a commitment to continuously improving SharePoint’s content creation tools. This forward-looking approach ensures that SharePoint remains a dynamic and relevant platform for organizational communication and collaboration, adapting to new technologies and user needs.

Support for Video and Broader Reach

Future updates are expected to include templates that better accommodate video content, which is increasingly important for modern communication. This could involve templates optimized for embedding video players, sharing event recordings, or presenting video-based news updates. Additionally, enhanced support for features like “Amplify” will help organizations share their content with a wider audience, increasing its impact and reach.

The inclusion of video-centric templates and broader distribution tools signifies SharePoint’s adaptation to evolving content consumption habits. By providing specialized templates for rich media and tools for wider dissemination, SharePoint empowers organizations to create more dynamic and impactful communications.

Best Practices for Utilizing Templates

To maximize the benefits of the SharePoint Template Gallery, organizations are encouraged to review their existing template strategy. This includes evaluating current page templates, establishing clear naming conventions and categorization for custom templates, and defining governance and ownership for template management.

Aligning template usage with the broader internal communications strategy ensures that the templates support organizational goals and reinforce brand messaging. By adopting a thoughtful approach to template creation and deployment, businesses can ensure they are leveraging this feature to its full potential.

Developing a Template Strategy

Organizations should consider developing a comprehensive strategy for their SharePoint templates. This might involve identifying the most common content types and use cases within the company and creating specific templates for them, such as department landing pages, campaign templates, or knowledge base articles. A well-defined strategy ensures that templates are not only available but also relevant and effectively utilized.

Furthermore, establishing clear guidelines on when and how to use specific templates can help maintain consistency. For example, defining that all project update news posts must use the “Project Update” template ensures a uniform presentation of project information across the organization.

Governance and Customization

Effective governance is crucial for managing custom templates. This includes determining who has the authority to create, approve, and update templates, as well as establishing standards for design, branding, and content structure. Implementing these governance measures helps to ensure that custom templates remain aligned with organizational policies and brand guidelines.

While templates offer a starting point, they should be viewed as flexible frameworks rather than rigid rules. Encourage users to customize templates to fit their specific needs, but within the established governance framework. This balance allows for both consistency and adaptability, ensuring that SharePoint remains a powerful and versatile tool for content creation.