Ultimate Guide: 7 Key Insights about SharePoint News Digest

Author Ellen van Aken recently blogged about key features of SharePoint Online News Digest, providing an updated perspective to her previous writings. The author particularly emphasizes the importance of having contributor or edit access to create and dispatch a newsletter. This is essential, as the News Digest exists in your Pages Library, where authorized individuals can generate a page, augment a picture to the Assets Library, etc.

Crucially, if you have reading access alone, the 'Create a News Digest' feature would not be visible to you. Additionally, concerning the 'See All' button, she recommends not to panic if it is unseen as this could be caused by a simple glitch with the web part settings. One example where this might occur is if the 'Show title and commands' feature within the web part is disabled by the site owner.

If you find the 'See All' link absent, it might mean that the number of published news posts is insufficient. This link only shows up when the count of your published news posts surpasses the number set to be shown in the 'Number of news posts to show' option of the News web part. Hence, for instance, if the total number of your news posts is 2 and you've set the display option to 4, you won't see a 'See All' link in your news section.

In-depth features of SharePoint Online News Digest

van Aken also proposes that one should make it customary to use the Description field for a good summary of the post. It helps the audience determine if the combination of the title and summary offers enough details, or if they should read the full article. Moreover, one can send a News Digest from different news sites, which offers more flexibility.

Users can add a News Link to include a News post from another location or use News posts from one or more other sites if they aim to consistently include news from several sites. van Aken then suggests that links in the Digest will redirect to original posts when clicked from the site or Digest. Therefore, one should ensure full access to all the sites featuring in the Digest.

Excitingly, options for formatting the email Digest are available. Although Microsoft is still promising various options for this, she states that it's possible to perform some neat formatting from the Outlook Desktop app. The post concludes with some notices on issues with the Digest creation and dispatch, including possible troubleshooting tips.

In conclusion, she encourages users to discover more 'things to know' about the SharePoint News Digest.

Read the full article 7 more things to know about the SharePoint News digest

Learn about 7 more things to know about the SharePoint News digest

Expanding on the previous blog post titled "10 things to know about SP News digest", this post aims to bring further clarification and updates related to the SharePoint News digest feature.

1. Creating a Newsletter

Any user wishing to create and dispatch a newsletter must possess the authority level of a Contributor or Editor on a site. It's crucial for the user to have the appropriate access to generate a page and add images to the Asset Library. Critical points about this feature can be found in a former blog post titled "SharePoint Holmes and the Lost Link".

• Failing to see the “Create a News digest” option might indicate lesser access rights, such as those aligned to a reader's role.

2. “See All” Button Visibility

Not seeing the “See All” button should not cause unease; it could be an issue with web part settings. Some scenarios wherein the "See all" link might be missing can include:

• The Site owner may have implemented Hub layout for news.

• The Site owner might have deselected “Show title and commands” in the web part.

3. The Importance of the Description Field

Good summarization can be achieved by effectively utilizing the Description field of a post. This ensures readers can ascertain the information's relevance quickly and decide whether they want to read the entire post. For those who do not publish posts themselves, guiding your publishers on the productive use of the Description field would be useful.

4. Sending One Digest From Various News Sites

You can send a digest from various news sites. If the newsletter publisher wishes to incorporate one or more items from different sites into a digest, it's feasible via a few options outlined in the post "Combining SharePoint News from different sites".

5. Formatting the News Digest

The capability to format the digest email is indeed exciting. Microsoft is still developing official formatting options, but solutions have already been found for the Outlook Desktop app. You can do some formatting, even in Outlook for the web!

6. Email Sender Identity

Any dispatch from SharePoint will be sent from the user's email address. If a Digest needs to be distributed on behalf of another department, for instance, the Communications Department, it can be made possible by forwarding the Digest to the Organizational mailbox.

7. Delivery of the News Digest

Not all the subscribers may always receive your News Digest due to various reasons. Some of the reasons include problems with the email server, placement in Junk Mail, unintended blocking, or users intentionally blocking to reduce their reading workload. You can find some possible reasons and troubleshooting suggestions in the post: “Why does my SharePoint News digest not reach my colleagues?“.

Feedback

If you have noticed any other nuances related to the SharePoint News Digest, feel free to share them!

More links on about 7 more things to know about the SharePoint News digest

7 more things to know about the SharePoint News digest

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Sep 26, 2023 — Learn about 7 more things to know about the SharePoint News digest · 1. Required Access Level for Creating Newsletters · 2. Issue with the "See ...

Create and send a news digest

Create and send a news digest · Go to the page that has news you want to send in a digest. · In the News section, select See all. · Select Email a news digest.

Keywords

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