To update content on a SharePoint page or site is a very simple process. Within large organizations, this process becomes increasingly more critical due to the volume of employees consuming the page's content. In this way, it's important to carefully review all content prior to publishing. With the help of a content approval flow, you can easily approve or reject proposed updates for a page. Today, we will give you a detailed overview of the SharePoint publishing approval flow. By configuring this SharePoint content approval flow, you can increase the compliance of your SharePoint sites with your organizational policies and quality standards.
How Page Approval Flows Work
The content approval process can be easily configured with the assistance of built-in software features. Begin configuring your flow by accessing your SharePoint page library options. From here, use Power Automate to design your content approval flow. This capability allows users to configure factors like approvers, flow name, and more.
Once the flow is configured, whenever a user updates the page with new content, the approvers are sent a notification email. From there, the approvers can review, approve, or reject the changes. Users can also add comments to increase the ease of communication during the approval process.
Let’s see the steps to configure a SharePoint Online approval flow for a site.
How to Configure a Page Approval Flow
In this example, we are configuring a page approval flow for one of our communication sites.
- First, go to the site’s Pages library by clicking the Pages menu option at the top.
- From the Pages library, click Automate.
- Click Power Automate.
- Click Configure page approval flow.
- A Configure page approval pane will appear to the right.
- Click Create flow.
- In the next window, you will see a list of apps that are used by the flow. If they are ready to use, you will see a green check mark. If there is no green check present, then you will need to configure the app.
- Click Continue.
- Enter a Flow name and assign Approvers.
- Click Create when completed.
Now the approval flow is properly configured.
Let’s now double-check that the flow works appropriately by editing a page.
- Go to the page that you want to edit and click the Edit option in the top right corner.
- We changed the cover image of the page here.
- Click Submit for approval to take the changes live after approval.
- In the next window, add a message regarding the changes you made. We recommend expressing why certain changes were made to support a rapid approval.
- Click Submit.
- The approver will receive an email notification.
- After reviewing, the approver will decide whether to Approve or Reject the changes.
- The approver also has the option to add a comment for the actions they have taken.
- Click Submit.
- The approver can additionally see the status of the approval.
- The page will be published with the latest changes if it is undergoing approval.
How to Disable a Page Approval Flow
It's critical to have the ability to disable the content approval process when needed. Complete the following steps to do so.
- Go to the Pages library.
- Click the Settings icon at the top right corner.
- Choose Library settings.
- From the Settings Page that opens, click Versioning settings.
- On the next page under Content approval, there is an option titled, Require content approval for submitted items?
- To disable the page approval flows, select No.
- Click OK to save the changes.
How To Delete the Flow
You can also delete your flows by completing the following steps.
- Go to the Pages library.
- Click Automate > Power Automate > See your flows.
- You will be taken to your Power Automate My Flows page.
- Select the flow you want to remove, then click the ellipses next to its name.
- Select Delete.
These are some quick ways to manage your SharePoint Online Page Approval Flows. Try out these options and let us know about your experience, and feel free to leave us questions and comments below.
Have a great day.