Category: SharePoint Intranet

SharePoint 2013 does not provide a great experience for content publishers out-of-the-box. This is something that we need to address in nearly every intranet project we deliver. There are two main approaches that can be taken: Add some custom editing elements that simplify the experience, but are hyper-focused on a few key editing tasks. Use a third party add-in to provide a better user experience across a broader set of features and content types.   Custom editing elements Content publishers can click an onscreen element like this one. The editor can then add information to the page by filling in a simple form. This avoids any of the out-of-the-box SharePoint interfaces which can be confusing and overwhelming. We have provided a demo video that shows an example page content editing task. See video below: Advantages Disadvantages Drastically improves the experience for content publishers Reduces or completely removes the need for training No on-going licence fees Restricted to a small number of important areas (otherwise costs can quickly add up) Requires additional budget to maintain and enhance these features over time   Third party add-ins There are many options when it comes to third party add ins for SharePoint. Some are aimed at enhancing every aspect of SharePoint like Wizdom intranet-in-a-box. Others are aimed at enhancing things like page editing and design. A good example of this type of product is ShortPoint. Products like these still require some training for content editors, but offer an improved experience and greater flexibility when maintaining intranet content. Advantages Disadvantages Improves the experience for content publishers Reduces the need for training Has a wide ranging set of features (depending on the product) On-going licence fees (often fairly significant ones) You may be paying for features you dont need Requires support from the product vendor or consultancy   Summary Improving SharePoints content editing interfaces is not easy and comes at a cost regardless if you take the custom or prebuilt route. Therefore, it is important to identify and prioritise the areas where you want to give a lot of control to content editors. Typically more options for ways and styles of publishing = greater cost. By limiting the control given to content owners and making things as template driven as possible, you can keep costs more reasonable. A positive side effect of a template driven approach is often a cleaner, more simplified experience for your intranets end users. More recently, a significant way to improve the user and editor experience for SharePoint is to move to SharePoint Online as part of Office 365. SharePoint Online has a completely refreshed interface which makes things a lot easier for editors.