Using Site Templates in SharePoint Online: Beginner’s Guide (2024)

Last Updated on April 30, 2024

Noticed the site templates option in the settings panel?

In this guide, let’s talk about SharePoint site templates, how to apply a template, create custom ones, and answer common questions.

Let’s get started.

The concept of site templates is easy to understand, though needs some explanation.

In its most basic form, site templates are thekeyto thedifferent types of sitesyou can create in SharePoint Online.

Modern SharePoint site templates include:

• Team sites
• Communication sites

There are other basic site templates like anenterprise wikiand a publishing portal — both of which are classics.

Note: For more on the different types of sites, go here:SharePoint 101: Types of Sites in SharePoint Online.

Now here’s the twist…

Site templates can also refer to site designs, which is what site design templates were called in previous SharePoint versions.

As the name suggests, these templates started out assite skins. But now, they include functionalities and content.

Site design templates can come from two sources:

• Microsoft
• Your organization

These templates can help you save time in creating SharePoint sites for specific purposes that you will soon see.

With themodern experience in SharePoint, applying a site template is as easy as clicking a few buttons.

If the site already exists, then you can skip this part and head over directly to step #2.

If you still have to create the site:

• Theeasiestway is through the start page in SharePoint Online
• But you can also create new SharePoint sites from the SharePoint admin center
• Sites also get created when you cancreate a Microsoft 365 group

From the start page, access it using thehomebutton in SharePoint.

Then, click thecreate sitebutton:

The next part is to select thestructural templatefor your site.

Related: How to Create a SharePoint Site From Template: Full Tutorial

Simply click on it:

The next page will allow you to enter a name and other information for the site.

Click thefinishbutton to start the site creation.

Note: For a complete guide on communication sites, go here:SharePoint Communication Site: The Beginner’s Guide.

Step #2: Apply a site template

Right after creating a new site, the system will prompt you if you want to start designing your site and browse templates.

If the existing site you have isn’t new, you can still use a template quite easily from the site’s homepage.

Click thesettings icon>apply a site template:

A small window will then appear containing templates for the type of site that you have.

You will also see two tabs or categories of templates, with thedefaulton templates from Microsoft.

Click atemplateto see more information about it.

To apply the template to your site, click theuse templatebutton from the preview and apply template page.

Here are somenotesyou need to know

• The site templates have their own content like pages, lists, etc.
• The new content will not overwrite or merge with any existing content that you have.
• You can always delete the new content if you don’t like them.

Later on, you will see the modern team sites also have a different set of design templates from Microsoft.

Step #3: Customize the site template

A design site template is a good starting point for creating a custom site.

The available site templates from Microsoft are already great if you don’t have a design in mind already.

But if you want to use the site templates as a stepping board, then you can always edit out everything.

If you want to edit the homepage design, click theeditbutton in the upper-right corner:

This will open thepage editorwhere you can change the layout, add/remove web parts, and edit content.

Note: For a list of all the modern web parts, check here:Modern SharePoint Web Parts: List of All Available Web Parts.

Once you’re done, click therepublishbutton in the same place where you found the edit button earlier:

As I wrote earlier, the templates will come with their own content, including pages, lists, and even libraries.

Check them out in thesite contents. You can always delete the ones you won’t need anymore and edit the ones that you do need.

The templates that you will find in the gallery will depend on the type of site.

Communication site templates

Here are the available templates along with their default description:

1. Crisis management – Share news, provide support, and connect people to resources during a crisis.
2. Department – Engage and connect viewers with departmental news, highlight upcoming events, and provide easy access to frequently accessed files.
3. Human resources- Provide employees access to information regarding their benefits, career, compensation, and organization policies.
4. Event – Provide attendees information on attending speakers, session schedule, registration, and answers to frequently asked questions.
5. Leadership connection – Build organizational culture by connecting leadership and team members through engaging in conversation, news, and events.
6. Learning central – Provide an internal landing experience for your organization that serves as the single place where events, news, and extra-curricular resources are showcased.
7. New employee onboarding – Streamline and refine new hire onboarding by engaging and guiding new employees through your onboarding process.
8. Showcase – Spotlight a product, event, or team using visual content like images and video.
9. Topic (default) – Engage viewers with informative content like news, announcements, and events.
10. Volunteer center – Provide a central hub for volunteers in your nonprofit organization to engage and access key information and resources for training, onboarding, upcoming events, and more.
11. Blank – Create your own custom site starting with a blank home page.

Team site templates

Here are the available team site templates along with their default description.

Note: The templates below with the asterisk symbol (*) are Microsoft 365-connected templates.

1. Crisis communication team* – Centralize crisis communication, resources, and best practices.
2. Employee onboarding team* – Guide new employees through your team’s onboarding process.
3. Event planning* – Coordinate and plan event details with your team. Use ready-made event recap and event status news post templates to quickly get your team up to date.
4. IT help desk* – Manage technical requests, track devices, and share training materials.
5. Project management* – Create a collaboration space for your team where you can access frequent tools, share project updates, post meeting notes, and upload team documents.
6. Retail management* – Unite retail managers, keep them informed, and provide access to popular resources.
7. Store collaboration* – Coordinate and prepare retail teams by sharing store news, resources, and training.
8. Syntex contracts management* – Prepopulated and preformatted template for contracts management teams with a prebuilt tutorial to help with using Microsoft Syntex.
9. Team collaboration – Manage projects, share content, and stay connected with your team.
10. Training and courses – Prepare course participants and students for specific learning opportunities by sharing course resources, news, and events.
11. Training and development team – Brainstorm and plan opportunities to help others learn and grow.

Note: Many of the templates here were also mentioned here:SharePoint Intranet Homepage Examples (Free Templates).

How to create custom site templates?

Remember the window where you can add templates from Microsoft and from your organization?

Your organization tab will contain custom site templates that you create yourself, which is why it’s currently empty.

Before you proceed, note that creating custom templates needs an advanced understanding of JSON for creating the site script.

1. Create the site script using JSON

Think of a site script as the instructions for SharePoint when you create a new site.

The actions inside the site script, specified in JSON, will describe what will happen to the new site — like applying a theme.

Before you get started, make sure to install theSharePoint Online Management Shelland connect it to your tenant.

You can use this code for the connection part:

Connect-SPOService -Url https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com -Credential 

After connecting the shell to your tenant, you can now create and assign the JSON.

You can check thelatest JSON schema filefor reference.

Below is a sample script fromMicrosoftthat creates a new custom tracking list that sets the description and adds fields to the list.

$site_script = ' { "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/site-design-script-actions.schema.json", "actions": [ { "verb": "createSPList", "listName": "Customer Tracking", "templateType": 100, "subactions": [ { "verb": "setDescription", "description": "List of Customers and Orders" }, { "verb": "addSPField", "fieldType": "Text", "displayName": "Customer Name", "isRequired": false, "addToDefaultView": true }, { "verb": "addSPField", "fieldType": "Number", "displayName": "Requisition Total", "addToDefaultView": true, "isRequired": true }, { "verb": "addSPField", "fieldType": "User", "displayName": "Contact", "addToDefaultView": true, "isRequired": true }, { "verb": "addSPField", "fieldType": "Note", "displayName": "Meeting Notes", "isRequired": false } ] } ] } '

The next part is to add the site script to SharePoint so it becomes usable.

Here’s how to do it using PowerShell:

C:\> Add-SPOSiteScript -Title "Enter the title here" -Content $site_script -Description "Enter the description here"

The result of the code above is thesite script ID.

Take note of the site script ID as it’s a requirement when you create the custom site template.

3. Create the custom site template

The last part is fairly easy.

This time, what you need to do is run the code to create the template and use the site script ID you got earlier.

Run the script below and enter the ID in the site script parameter:

C:\> Add-SPOSiteDesign -Title "Enter the template title" -WebTemplate "68" -SiteScripts "Enter the ID here" -Description "Enter the template description here"

The web template parameter refers to thetype of site that the template is for.

Here is a reference:

• 68 – communication site template
• 64 – team site template
• 1 – team site with group creating disabled
• 69 – channel site template

Note: For more on the types of sites in SharePoint, read this:SharePoint 101: Types of Sites in SharePoint Online.

After all of this, you will find the new custom site template in the organization tab when applying or using a site design template.

Frequently asked questions

Here are answers to common questions related to what we’re talking about:

SharePoint now has pre-built design templates for modern team and communication sites.

The templates contain:

• Page templates
• Pre-populated pages
• Post templates
• Web parts

If you want to check what templates are there, see the section above on available site design templates in SharePoint.

Can you apply a site template to a site associated with a hub site?

Yes and no.

Yes, since you can do the actions I described above on how to use a site template for a site associated with a hub site.

However, it’s a no since the site will revert to the hub’s theme after you republish.

This is because the site will inherit the theme from the hub — because that’s what hubs are for.

Note: For more on creating a hub site, go here:How to Create a Hub Site in SharePoint Online.

Can you use a site template for a subsite?

Yes, you can apply site design templates to subsites.

If you apply a custom site template you created to a subsite, you will have to allow it first through subsite creation in the admin center.

Can you hide site templates from the settings panel?

Yes, you can use the following script to hide/show the site template gallery in your tenant:

Get-SPOBuiltInSiteTemplateSettings -Identity <object>

So what do you think about SharePoint Online site templates? Share your thoughts in the comments.

For inquiries and other concerns, kindly use thesite’s contact pageand I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.