SharePoint 2019 is a major overhaul over its predecessor (SharePoint 2016), and what makes it truly special is the way Microsoft has envisioned it for a richer and more intuitive end user experience. Here are the key highlights from the new release:
1. Modern user experiences across devices to transform business collaboration
SharePoint 2019 recognizes that a great user experience isn’t just about a slicker UI, it’s about creating an intuitive engagement with the tools and content people need to achieve seamless collaboration.
The most discernible change in SharePoint 2019 from its predecessors is the shift from a classic experience to a modern one. SharePoint 2019 is designed with an eye on the trends in team collaboration. It therefore debuts many useful features from SharePoint Online (cloud version) into the latest on-prem version, with the goal to boost end user experience across devices.
Enhancements include availability of communication sites for on-premise experiences; these sites act like a communal room for groups to share news, reports, other info, in a visual format. Also, everything from team sites to the Recycle Bin now get the brand-new responsive UI. Other relevant highlights include modern lists and libraries, reduced restrictions on file/folder naming and sizes, and cloud-enabled search.
2. Users can build collaborative sites on the fly with built-in templates
SharePoint 2019 delivers a more responsive platform to share content, news, updates and key information for collaboration projects. Enabling rapid provisioning over the classic version, SharePoint 2019 introduces a very useful feature that is an internal capability of Office 365. The 2019 on-prem edition of SharePoint enables building intranets and projects truly effortless with built-in templates. Users can create a responsive site by choosing a template of their choice from three high-level categories of Topic, Showcase, and Blank. This results in sites that look great on the web, in the SharePoint mobile app, on PC and on Mac, promising seamless access and collaboration from any device.
3. Improved search experience
Another noteworthy improvement in SharePoint 2019 is its modern search experience that suggests relevant content before users even begin typing. With cloud-powered capability, SharePoint 2019 offers a new search experience that provides search results for users as they type.
4. Modern lists and libraries
SharePoint 2019 makes available a modern list experience that dramatically simplifies how end users create, curate, and interact with content with a rich set of capabilities that perform seamlessly across devices and browsers. Similarly, modern libraries make the task of sharing files and collaboration extremely simple. With an updated UI, SharePoint 2019 delivers a faster and more intuitive way that is similar to the consumer-focused OneDrive. The new library and list experience in SharePoint remain evidently faster, mobile optimized, and easier to use.
A few noticeable enhancements include
- Ribbons replaced by a new command bar
- Files can be pinned at the top
- Columns can be rearranged, grouped and filtered inline
- Columns can be added to list directly
5. Modern site pages and web parts that don’t require any coding
SharePoint 2019 makes customizing site pages a lot simpler with new web parts that don’t require any coding. Modern pages in SharePoint are fast, responsive and have flexible layout. This ensures anyone can quickly build layout and begin authoring content without any coding or complexity.
6. Annoying restrictions on files and folders removed
SharePoint takes away several annoying limitations that go in file naming and file size. To illustrate, files and folder names now support including “%” and “#” as special characters. The same has been enabled for file path and its limit has been raised to 400 characters. Another major improvement that brings SharePoint 2019 on par with OneDrive for Business is the support for larger file sizes up to 15 Gb (up from 10 Gb in SharePoint 2016).
7. Crafted for mobile driven collaboration
SharePoint 2019 makes collaboration more accessible on the go, and more intuitive and personalized, making it truly seamless and simplified for users to access their organization’s collaboration site on mobile devices while away from the office.
Summary
Microsoft has shown great commitment in overhauling the SharePoint user experience with a gamut of new features, thoroughly improved UI, intelligent and autonomous workflows and a host of new features and enhancements that make content creation, access and collaboration exceedingly simple and seamless across devices. It delivers a better experience to on-premise users while bringing the power of cloud-based features within their reach.
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