What Exactly is a SharePoint Template?

Are you considering implementing a free sharepoint template? If you’ve recently implemented SharePoint for your company, searching for a free intranet template can be tempting.

Templates offer a nearly irresistible promise: a neater SharePoint environment, simply, and for free. However, SharePoint templates are never as great as they promise to be. By simply draping your existing SharePoint environment in a pretty interface, you don’t get any of the added functionality that you really need.

The Pros and Cons

SharePoint templates are simply an interface for your existing SharePoint template. Imagine this as a cosmetic facelift. Instead of seeing the plain blue and white design with list-based organization, you’ll see your same SharePoint transformed into the vision of the designer. This is a great option if aesthetics is your only issue with SharePoint. However, if your SharePoint environment is lacking in functionality, organization or accessibility, a template won’t be enough to help you.

Different Types of SharePoint Templates

We discussed about what is SharePoint Template. Now, let’s talk about the different types of Templates.

• Collaboration Site Templates
• Enterprise Site Templates
• Publishing Site Templates
• Project Site Templates
• Departmental Site Templates

Other Choices

There is another breed of programs intended to improve SharePoint. Dock is a full-featured intranet platform built on the power of SharePoint. An intranet like this is like a SharePoint template plus countless extras. SharePoint intranet’s still implement the same cosmetic features of a template but they also add a host of productivity features like document management, enhanced search, employee directories and more.