SharePoint navigation and useful features

SharePoint Online offers a wealth of navigation options to help your sites shine. In this update we share a few tips about navigation options and how they can help you get the most from your site. You’ll also find our termly round-up of new features from Microsoft’s SharePoint roadmap. 

Our top tips for planning SharePoint navigation 

There are different ways to set up navigation in SharePoint. In your SharePoint team site, you can choose between horizontal top-bar navigation or left-hand quick-launch navigation with just a couple of clicks. In addition, communication sites allow you to switch between mega menu and cascading menu (video) views.  

Here are some handy SharePoint navigation tips which we hope you find useful: 

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  You’re not just limited to the quick launch or top bar navigation options, you can also add navigation in your sites using page components like the call to action or quick links web parts. 

• Practically everything in SharePoint ends up at a URL you can create a link to, which means you can add practically anything in SharePoint to your navigation.  
• You can add links into the footer of your main site too – Just use the change the look option from the site settings (cog) menu as a Site Admin or Site Owner.
• Try not to make your home page too busy with links. Use pictorial elements like the hero web part to give your pages a combination of visual flair and navigation functionality. 

SharePoint features rolling out soon 

Visit Microsoft’s roadmap for SharePoint to find out about updates and new features. Keep an eye out for these features which we heard will be available in the next few months:

• Design ideas for quick weblinks (needs SSO) – giving you the option to use design ideas to apply colour schemes, stock images or icons to quick links to fit it to your site's design. 
• SharePoint card animation – a new editorial card web art to bring movement and interest to your pages.  
• Preview mode for pages and news – see what your modern pages and news articles will look like before publishing.  
• Author inline comments - allow users to collaborate, track changes and provide feedback in modern pages. 

SharePoint training, help and advice  

We recommend joining the Nexus365 User Group (NUG) on Teams and following the SharePoint Online User Group channel where you can find informal support and share your experiences or tips and tricks with others across the University.  

The SharePoint Online pages on the IT Help website have lots of useful information and the University’s SharePoint Service Home site also includes an extensive help and support section as well as frequently asked questions.  

Explore these walkthroughs and tutorials for more information.

Did you know?

You can now add custom colour themes to your sites using the new site branding options - if you use these in a hub site they will cascade down to any sites joined to your hub.