Transform SharePoint Pages From Classic To Modern UI

Overview

SharePoint Online now has introduced Modern UI, which is built using JavaScript and CSS. As a result, it loads faster compared to the classic version. If you are using classic SharePoint sites, this is the right time to move toward using modern sites. In the classic SharePoint sites, we have been using web part pages, wiki pages, publishing pages. Compared to this, we have only one option in modern UI, that is, the modern page.

In this article, we will see how we can start transforming our old classic SharePoint pages to the modern experience. SharePoint does not offer any tool for this transformation. This has to be carried out manually with analysis of classic inventory and understanding offerings of new experience.

Step 1 - No Custom Branding

The classic SharePoint site offered options for custom master pages, alternate CSS, and theme options to match with the organization's branding guidelines. None of these customization options are available in the Modern sites. The only possible option is Site Themes. Please refer to my previous article for more details.

Step 2 - Understand the Page Layout

Classic SharePoint

The classic SharePoint sites offered WebPart zones. The zones are arranged in a layout to present the content. A typical classic page layout looks like below.

We select any of the predefined page layouts based on the content to be presented. Firstly, analyze the zone and its position to represent our content.

Modern SharePoint

Modern pages provide more flexibility to create our own customized layout by adding multiple sections and choose the desired layout per section.

With this, we are not limited to the predefined options to present the content. We can design our own layout easily.

Step 3 - Understand the WebParts on Page

Most of the classic web parts are not available in the modern experience. The major things to analyze are:

Start by preparing the list of commonly used WebParts on classic site
Understand the webparts available in the modern site
Map the classic webpart to its close matching webpart on the modern site (e.g. Announcements can be mapped to News, Promoted Links can be replaced with Hero or Quick Links webpart)

The modern experience has a lot of new web parts available. It also offers web parts for better integration with Yammer, Twitter, and other social media. Most of the web parts to be missed from classic SharePoint are the Content Editor web part and the Script Editor web part which were all-time favorites of all SharePoint developers.

It does not necessarily mean we should just migrate the content and web parts as they are to the new experience. As we are moving to the new modern experience of SharePoint, this is our chance to re-architecture the look and feel and make use of rich UI to better present the content.

Step 4 - Start with Modern Page

Start by creating modern SharePoint site.
Click gear icon > Add a page.
The new modern page appears as below.
Start by specifying the name of the page, which will appear as a title to the page.
Background image of title section is optional. It can be changed or removed.
Multiple sections can be added to the page.
The layout can be set to individual sections.
WebParts can be added to each section to represent the content.
Click Save and close to save the changes.
Click Publish to make page available to all users.

Step 5 - Add Content and WebParts to Page

Adding content to a page is very easy; it's not difficult to start adding needed sections and placing webparts on them. Below is an example of how the modern page looks after adding the content and needed web parts.

In this example,

Text web part is the replacement of Content Editor web part on the classic site.
People web part is a replacement of Site Users web part on classic site.
Hero web part is the replacement of Promoted link on classic site.
Highlighted content web part is the new addition.

Summary

While moving towards a new modern experience, analyze the inventory in the classic site. Map the existing functionality with the modern experience. Gradually move the content from classic to modern experience with ease and be ready to adopt the modern experience.