SharePoint — Project Site Setup Guide

What is a site template?

SharePoint templates are pre-built layouts that add ready-made pages and web parts to your site so you're not starting from a blank canvas. Templates cover common use cases like project tracking, department hubs, event planning, and training sites. The key thing to know upfront: which templates you see depends on how your site was created.

Apply a template to an existing site

• Click the gear icon (top right) and select Apply a site template. If you don't see this option, go to Site contents and look for it in site settings.
• A panel opens showing the templates available for your site type. Hover over each one for a preview of the layout and included pages.
• Select the template that fits your needs and click Use template.
• SharePoint adds the template's pages and web parts to your site. Your existing content is not deleted -- new pages are added alongside what you already have.
• Go to Site contents > Pages to review everything that was added, then delete or customize pages that don't apply to your project.

Choose a template when creating a new site

• From the SharePoint start page, click + Create site and pick your site type -- Communication site for a broadcast-style site, or create through Microsoft Teams if you want access to the full template catalog including Project Manager. Just be aware that the Teams-connected path comes with a permissions trade-off (see below).
• On the template selection screen, browse what's available for your site type. Read the preview for each -- some add just a home page layout, others add multiple pages and lists.
• Select your template, name your site, set the language and time zone, then click Finish.

After applying any template

• Browse all added pages under Site contents > Pages
• Delete pages you don't need -- templates tend to add more than most people use
• Rename pages and update placeholder text to match your actual project
• Use the sections covered in this guide (web parts, quick links, countdown, etc.) to customize what was added

Accessing Change the Look

• Open your project site and click the gear icon (Settings) in the top-right corner.
• Select Change the look from the settings menu.
• A panel opens on the right with five tabs: Theme, Header, Navigation, Footer, and a preview of the current site.
• Make changes in any tab; a live preview updates in the main window before you commit anything.
• Click Save at the bottom of the panel to apply your changes site-wide.

Changing the theme

• Choose from Microsoft's built-in preset themes (Teal, Blue, Orange, Red, Purple, Green, Gray, and more), each with a coordinated palette for links, buttons, and headers.
• Click a theme swatch to preview it instantly on the live site behind the panel.
• Presets apply consistent colors across every page automatically. Use this when you want speed over full customization.

Header options

• Layout: choose Minimal (small logo and title), Compact (standard height), Standard (default), or Extended (large hero-style header with more space for a background image).
• Background: upload a background image or select a solid background color to appear behind the site title.
• Logo: upload a square site logo (recommended 200x200px or larger, PNG with transparency works best) which displays next to the site title in the header.
• Site title alignment: left or center align the site name within the header.

Navigation options

• Edit top navigation links directly in the panel: add, rename, reorder, or remove links and link groups.
• Choose between Megamenu (multi-column dropdown showing nested links at a glance) and Cascade (traditional single-column flyout submenus).
• Drag links up or down in the list to reorder them; nested links can be indented to create dropdown groups.
• Toggle whether navigation appears on the left as a vertical menu (classic) or across the top (modern, most common for project sites).

Footer options

• Toggle Show footer on to display a footer bar at the bottom of every page.
• Add a footer logo (often smaller or a monochrome version of the header logo).
• Add footer links such as Contact, Policies, or related project resources; these appear consistently across the whole site.

Site logo and thumbnail

• The site logo set in Change the Look also becomes the site thumbnail used in SharePoint search results, the SharePoint start page, and the Teams file tab if the site is connected to a team.
• You can also update the logo directly from Site information (gear icon > Site information > camera icon on the logo).
• Use a clear, square image; SharePoint automatically crops and scales it for the header, app tiles, and search cards.

Hex codes and the color picker

• Click any color swatch in the theme builder to open the picker, which offers a gradient map, an RGB slider, and a hex input field.
• Type a hex code directly (e.g. #0D2240) for exact brand color matching instead of eyeballing a shade.
• SharePoint automatically generates complementary tints and shades from your primary color for hover states and secondary UI elements.

Site Branding vs. Change the Look

• From the site, click + New in the command bar and choose Page, or open the Pages library from Site contents and click + New there.
• Pick a page template: Blank (single full-width canvas), Visual (large hero image with title overlay), Basic text (simple heading and text body), or other layouts like Article Left/Right.
• Click the title region at the top of the page and type a page name; this also sets the page's URL segment.
• Add web parts to the body using the + icons between sections (covered in later sections of this guide).
• Click Save as draft to keep working without publishing, or Publish to make the page live for everyone with site access.

Setting a page as the homepage

• Publish the page first; a draft cannot be set as the homepage.
• Go to Site contents > Pages, select the page, and choose Make homepage from the command bar (or right-click the page).
• The homepage is what loads when anyone navigates to the site's root URL.

Draft vs. Publish

• Save as draft: visible only to you and other users with edit permissions; safe for work in progress.
• Publish: makes the current version visible to everyone with view access to the site. Always publish when a page is ready.

Creating a list

• From the site, click + New and select List.
• Choose to start from a Blank list, import from Excel (upload a workbook and SharePoint converts it to a list), or copy structure from an existing list already on the site or tenant.
• Name the list (for example, "Project Tasks" or "Risk Register") and click Create.

Adding columns

• Single line / multiple lines of text for descriptions or notes
• Number or Currency for budgets, hours, or counts
• Date and time for due dates or milestones
• Choice for status dropdowns (e.g. Not Started, In Progress, Complete)
• Person or Group to assign owners or task leads
• Lookup to pull values from another list on the same site (e.g. linking tasks to a Projects list)

List settings and views

• Open List settings from the gear icon while viewing the list to manage columns, versioning, and permissions.
• Create multiple views (e.g. "My Tasks," "Overdue," "By Status") to filter, sort, and group the same data differently for different audiences.
• Switch between Grid view (Excel-like editing), Calendar view, Gallery view, or a Board view for Kanban-style tracking.

Adding the list to a page

• Edit a page, click + in a section, and search for the List web part.
• Select the list from your site and choose which view to display.
• Publish the page; the embedded list stays live, meaning edits made directly in the list are reflected on the page automatically.

• Click the gear icon and select Site contents to see every object that makes up the site.
• The Site contents page lists all pages (the Pages library), document libraries, lists, subsites (if any), and installed apps or web part extensions.
• Click any item's name to open it directly, or click the details icon (i) next to an item for quick info without navigating away.

Document libraries vs. lists

• Document libraries store files (Word, Excel, PDFs, images) with version history, check-out, and co-authoring support.
• Lists store structured data in rows and columns (tasks, contacts, issues) without file attachments as the primary content, though files can be attached to list items.

Version history

• Right-click any file or list item and choose Version history to see every saved version with timestamp and editor name.
• Restore a prior version with one click if a change needs to be undone.

Recycle bin

• From Site contents, click Recycle bin in the left-hand link list (or via the gear icon on some sites) to view recently deleted items.
• Deleted pages, list items, and files remain recoverable for a default of 93 days before permanent deletion.
• Site owners can also access a second-stage recycle bin for items already deleted from the first-stage bin.

• Edit the page and hover between sections until the section layout icon appears, or click + and choose Section.
• Select the layout option that includes a vertical section (shown as a narrower column running down the right side of the page).
• Add web parts to the vertical section the same way as the main body: click + inside it.

What works well in a vertical section

• Quick Links to frequently used documents or tools
• Events web part for upcoming meetings or milestones
• Countdown web part for at-a-glance deadline tracking
• Yammer/Viva Engage conversations or a Site activity feed

Resizing or removing

• Only one vertical section is allowed per page; it spans the full height of the page, not just one horizontal section.
• To remove it, delete every web part inside it, then delete the empty section using the section's trash-can icon.

Adding the web part and links

• Edit the page, click +, and search for Quick Links.
• Click + Add a link and choose a source: browse to a document in a SharePoint library, paste an external URL, or select from recently used items.
• Repeat to add as many links as needed for project resources, team documents, or external tools.

Customizing each link

• Click a link tile's pencil icon to edit its title and description.
• Click the thumbnail image to replace the auto-generated icon with a custom uploaded image, a stock photo, or a web search result.

Style options

• Grid and Tiles work best for a small set of prominent resources with thumbnails.
• List and Compact suit long reference lists where thumbnails matter less than scanability.
• Filmstrip creates a horizontally scrollable row, useful for many links in limited vertical space.
• Button renders each link as a rectangular call-to-action button.

Reordering

• In edit mode, click and hold a link tile, then drag it to a new position; drop it to save the new order.

• Edit the page, click + in a section, and choose the Text web part.
• Click inside the text box and start typing; a floating formatting toolbar appears above your cursor.
• Use the toolbar for Bold, Italic, underline, and heading levels H1 through H4 to structure content hierarchically.
• Apply bulleted or numbered lists from the toolbar for scannable steps or lists.

Inline images and links

• Select text and click the link icon to hyperlink it to another page, document, or external site.
• Place your cursor where an image should go and use the toolbar's image option, or drag and drop an image file directly into the text block.

HTML source editor

• Advanced users can click the "</>" (edit source) option in the text web part toolbar to view and edit the underlying HTML markup directly.
• Useful for custom styling, embedding specific markup, or troubleshooting formatting that the visual editor won't produce.

• Edit the page, click +, and add the Hero web part (or an Image web part for a single image with text overlay).
• For each tile, click Select an image and choose to upload a file, browse a stock image library, run a web search for royalty-free images, or paste a link to an existing image.
• Add a title and short description to the tile, then set a call-to-action link so the tile is clickable.

Layout options

• Choose from 1 to 5 tiles depending on how many featured items you want to highlight.
• Layers layout stacks multiple images with overlapping text for a dramatic single hero image.
• Side-by-side layout splits the web part into two even columns, each with its own image and text.

Focal point adjustment

• After selecting an image, click Reposition (or the focal point icon) to drag the focus crosshair to the most important part of the photo.
• This ensures the subject stays centered and visible when the tile resizes across desktop, tablet, and mobile widths.

• Click the gear icon and select Site information to open the panel.
• Edit the site name and site description so the site is easy to identify in search and in the SharePoint start page.
• Click the camera icon over the site logo to upload or change it directly from this panel.
• Click View all site settings from this panel for deeper options, including external sharing.

Sharing, hub, and privacy

• External sharing: controls whether people outside your organization can be invited to view or edit content; set at the site or tenant level depending on admin policy.
• Hub site association: in Site information, use "Association with hub site" (or Site settings) to connect this project site to an existing hub for shared navigation and search.
• Privacy setting: when the site has a connected Microsoft 365 Group, choose Private (only approved members can access) or Public (anyone in the organization can join and view).

Get to Site Permissions

• Click the gear icon (top right) and select Site permissions.
• A panel slides in from the right showing the three permission groups: Site owners, Site members, and Site visitors.
• Click Advanced permissions settings at the bottom of the panel for full group management.

Add Site Owners

• In the panel, click Site owners to expand the group, then click Add owners.
• Type the person's name or email, select them from the dropdown, and click Save.
• Owners have full control: they can manage permissions, change settings, delete the site, and do everything members can do.

Add Site Members (Edit)

• Click Site members in the panel, then click Add members.
• Search for the person by name or email, select them, and click Save.
• Members can add, edit, and delete content (pages, list items, documents) but cannot change site settings or permissions.

Add Site Visitors (Read-Only)

• Click Site visitors in the panel, then click Add visitors.
• Search and select the person or group, then click Save.
• Visitors can view content only -- they cannot create, edit, or delete anything on the site.

Permission level summary

• Owner -- Full control. Manage settings, permissions, and all content.
• Member -- Contribute. Add, edit, and delete content; cannot change site settings.
• Visitor -- Read only. View pages and files; no editing capability.