In a previous post, we offered a preview of Microsoft Office 2019 products, including Exchange Server 2019, SharePoint Server 2019, Skype for Business Server 2019 and Project Server 2019. The recurring themes in the initial product descriptions from Microsoft revolved around user experience, simplification, performance and collaboration, all of which contribute to more modern, user-friendly products.
Let’s take a closer look at Microsoft SharePoint Server 2019, which is modeled after the 2016 version but with more modern user experiences and capabilities. Since the classic SharePoint user interface made its debut in 2002, many new features have been added. Rather than continuing to pile on features and expecting organizations to cobble them together in the old interface, Microsoft realized it was time to modernize.
Microsoft rolled out more modern SharePoint Pages in SharePoint Online that allow you to build new Sites without reinventing the wheel in terms of customization and configuration. With SharePoint Server 2019, now in preview, modern SharePoint Pages are available in the on-premises platform.
Modern SharePoint Pages are easier to navigate and edit, especially on mobile devices. Classic SharePoint just shrunk the page to fit the mobile screen and forced users to zoom and scroll sideways. The new, mobile-responsive Page delivers a better user experience without compromising functionality.
Instead of wasting time trying to make a new SharePoint Site look as little as possible like classic SharePoint, you can create a new, compelling Team Site in minutes without any specialized technical expertise. With a modern Team Site, you can quickly and easily share Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents, images, videos, and other content and applications to streamline collaboration. SharePoint Sites are now backed by an Office 365 Group, which means you can integrate calendars, mailboxes and OneNote notebooks. Every Team now has a SharePoint Team site, bringing almost all of Office 365 under a single pane of glass.
Updated List and document Library experiences simplify the creation and sharing of information and offer noticeable improvements in filtering, conditional formatting and attention views. Similarly, modern Communication Sites provide an intuitive, visually appealing platform for keeping Teams informed and engaged. You can then label and classify Sites to indicate the presence of sensitive and/or compliance-related data. By default, modern Sites are more secure because they limit the addition of scripts to the Pages.
The new SharePoint also delivers better and more reliable performance. Classic SharePoint required the layout of every Page to be sent over the network, which could sometimes create bandwidth issues. Because Pages in the 2019 version are primarily created in the web browser and can be cached on your device, performance bottlenecks are virtually eliminated. SharePoint Server 2019 also supports larger file uploads (up to 15GB) to account for the fact that text-based files are increasingly taking a backseat to video, audio and images.
AdaptivEdge has more than 200 combined years of experience across the Microsoft technology stack, developing customized deployment strategies for hundreds of projects. We have a practice dedicated to the creation and refresh of intranet sites based upon the SharePoint platform. Let us walk you through the modern SharePoint Server 2019 and show you how you can take advantage of new interfaces and features to support your business processes.
Written and composed by Principal, Steve Soper