How to change look and feel of SharePoint site?

In this SharePoint Online tutorial, we will discuss in detail, how to change the look and feel of the SharePoint site.

We will also see, how to change the theme for a SharePoint site, then we will see how to change the header in the SharePoint Online site.

Finally, we will see, how to set the navigation for a SharePoint Online site.

Change look and feel of SharePoint site

We can simply use the change the look option to change the look and feel of a SharePoint Online site.

In this Change the look has the below 3 options to customize below:

• Theme
• Header
• Navigation

Let us see, how to customize a SharePoint Online modern site.

Change the look option is available on the Settings or gear menu. Open the SharePoint Online site and then click on the Gear icon -> Change the look like below:

Then it will open the option from where we can change the SharePoint Online site look and feel.

Change the Theme of a SharePoint Online site

Now, let us see how to change the theme of a SharePoint site. From the Change the look, click on the Theme option (see the above diagram).

Then it will open the Theme options, where you can see the current site theme. At the same time, it will display the Company themes, and also it will show you the default SharePoint themes.

• Choose one of the existing themes and click on the Save button.

• We can also customize the theme and change the color of the SharePoint Online theme. Here select a particular theme and click on the Customize button.

• Once you click on the Customize button, it will show you the main color and accent color, that you can change.

• This is how to customize the SharePoint Online site theme.

Customize SharePoint Online site header

Now, let us see, how to customize the SharePoint Online site header in the look and feel section.

• On the Change the look, click on the Header option.

• In this Header section, we have a few options to customize.
• Layout: We can change the header layout of a SharePoint site from the below 4 options:
  • Minimal
  • Compact
  • Standard
  • Extended

• Background: In this section, we can set a background color for the SharePoint site header. Also, if you want to add a background image, then you can click on the Image button to set a background for the header.

• Display: Here we have multiple options to customize the SharePoint Online site header.
  • Site title visibility: If you do not want the site title to be visible, then you can of the Site title visibility toggle button.
  • Site logo thumbnail: You can upload the site logo thumbnail, by uploading an image using the Site logo thumbnail button.
  • Site logo: We can change the logo of the SharePoint Online site by uploading the logo. Simply click on the Site logo button to upload the logo.
  • Logo alignment: We have the option to change the alignment of the SharePoint Online site logo by using the Logo alignment options. We can do left, center and right align the SharePoint site logo.

This is how to customize the SharePoint site logo by using the above options.

Customize SharePoint Online site navigation

Now, let us see, how to customize the SharePoint Online site navigation.

• On the Change the look, click on Navigation.

• This will open the Navigation options. If you want to hide the SharePoint site navigation, then disable the Site navigation visibility toggle button.
• Then on the Orientation, you can choose the Horizontal or Vertical menu options.
• If you want to have the Horizontal navigation option, then we can select the Menu style as the Mega menu or cascading menu options.

Once you set the Mega menu option, then you can customize the mega menu options by editing the menu. You can make a sub-menu, by selecting the Make sub link option.

This is how to set the navigation options of a SharePoint Online site.

Change look and feel of a SharePoint by applying a site template

Microsoft has provided a lot of default SharePoint site templates that we can use to change the look and feel of a SharePoint site.

Once you create a SharePoint Online site, it will show you to choose a template from the list of SharePoint site templates.

We can also apply the site template to an existing SharePoint site.

• Open the SharePoint Online site, and then click on the Gear or settings icon, and then click on “Apply a site template”.

• Then it will open the Select a template dialog box. Here you can see two types of templates, a few are From Microsoft and From your organization. If you already have templates saved, then they will be visible in the From your organization section.
• Click on the From Microsoft tab and then hover over a theme and then click on the Details button.

• This will show a preview of the SharePoint site template, here click on the Use template button.

• It will take some time to apply the SharePoint Online site template.

• Then the site template will be applied to the SharePoint Online site.

This is how to apply a site template to a SharePoint Online site.

Till now, we learned, how to change the look and feel of a SharePoint online modern SharePoint site.

Change look and feel of a SharePoint classic site

Let us see now, how to change the look and feel of a classic SharePoint Online site.

SharePoint 2013 onwards versions, Microsoft provides Change the look feature through which you can easily change the look and feel of the site. Click on the gear icon and then click on Site Settings.

On the Site Settings page click on the “Change the look” link which is under Look and Feel.

By default SharePoint 2016 provides various Themes like Orange, Sea Monster, Green, Lime, Nature, Blossom, Sketch, City, Orbit, Grey, Characters, Office, Breeze, Immerse, Red, Purple, and Wood.

To change to any theme, click any one of the themes and then click on Try it out -> like below:

Here also you can change the Color, Site Layout, and Fonts also. The difference between Seattle and Oslo layout is that in Osolo your left navigation will be hidden.

Then it will display in preview how your site is appearing in the new theme. If you want to keep the theme then click on Yes, Keep it or to go back to your current theme, click on No, not quite there like below:

All the above things are coming from Composed Looks which is a document library that has all the information. There will few things:

• Name
• Master Page URL
• Theme URL
• Image URL
• Font Scheme URL
• Display Order

Conclusion

We can use the look and feel of a SharePoint Online site to customize a SharePoint site. We have discussed, how to apply the theme, header, and navigation of a SharePoint site.

I have also explained, how to apply a site template to an existing SharePoint Online site. We have also checked, how to change the look and feel of a classic SharePoint site.

You may also like the following SharePoint site tutorials:

• How to set default storage limit for new sites in SharePoint Online?
• SharePoint communication site vs team site
• SharePoint Online communication site
• Site collection administrator in SharePoint
• SharePoint Online regional settings
• Disable content on a SharePoint site to be searchable