Sharepoint modern sites highlighted content web part

The Highlighted Content Web Part  is used for displaying content from one or more buckets – more than one list, library, or data source in a single place on a page.

It allows users to dynamically display content from a document library, a site, a site collection, or all sites. This content can be filtered and sorted according to a range of criteria, and it updates automatically as new content is added that meets the selected criteria.

Here are some of the key features of the Highlighted Content web part:

1. Content Source: Users can specify where the web part should look for content. Options include the current site, a document library on the current site, a different site, all sites in the current site collection, or all sites.

2. Type of Content: The web part can display a range of content types, including documents, pages, news, videos, images, and more.

3. Filtering and Sorting: Users can filter content based on properties like file type, the date it was modified, or a specific managed property. They can also sort content by most recent, by the author, or by other properties.

4. Layout: The web part supports several display layouts, including a list, a grid, and a carousel.

5. Custom Query: For more advanced users, the web part supports the use of CAML, KQL, or FQL queries to specify exactly what content should be displayed.

Steps to add and configure a Highlighted Content web part are as follows: -

1. Navigate to the page where you want to add the web part.

2. If your page is not already in edit mode, click the Edit button at the top right of the page.

3. Click on the plus (+) button where you want to add the web part, and then select the Highlighted Content web part from the list that appears.

4. After adding the web part, you can configure its properties. Click on the Edit web part icon (it looks like a pencil) on the left side of the web part to open its property pane.

5. In the property pane, you can set your desired content source, filters, sort order, layout, and custom query if needed.

6. After configuring the web part properties, click the X at the top right of the property pane to close it.

7. Click the Save or Publish button at the top right of the page to save your changes and make the updated page visible to others.

Here are a few scenarios and use cases: 

1. Dynamic News Feed: Highlighted Content can be used to create a dynamic feed of news posts from your site or multiple sites. You can set the content type to "Pages", filter by the Page library, and sort by the most recent to display the latest news.

2. Project Documents: If you're working in a team site for a specific project, you can use the Highlighted Content web part to display the most recent or important project documents. Set the content source to the current site, choose "Documents" as the type of content, and sort by Modified (descending) to show the most recently updated documents at the top.

3. Company-wide Highlights: On a company intranet home page, you might use Highlighted Content to display important content from across multiple sites. You could set the content source to "All sites", filter by a specific property or keyword, and use the Carousel layout for a visually engaging display.

4. Content Moderation: You can use Highlighted Content in conjunction with site column and managed properties for content moderation. For example, you might create a site column for "Approved" and add this to your site pages library. Content editors could then mark certain pages with this property. In the Highlighted Content web part, you could then filter on this property to display only the approved content.

Here are some more tips and considerations for using the Highlighted Content web part effectively:

Security Trimming: The Highlighted Content web part uses security trimming, which means it only shows content that the user has permissions to see. If different users see different content in the same Highlighted Content web part, it's probably because they have different permissions.

Performance: While the Highlighted Content web part can retrieve content from across all sites, keep in mind that doing so may impact performance. If the web part seems slow to load, you might consider limiting the content source to a smaller scope, such as a single site or site collection.

Custom Styling: As of my last update in September 2021, there are limited options for custom styling within the Highlighted Content web part itself. However, SharePoint Framework (SPFx) extensions can be used to apply additional customizations if required.

Managed Properties: The Highlighted Content web part supports the use of managed properties for advanced filtering. Managed properties in SharePoint are part of the search schema, and they can be used to create custom mappings for crawled properties. This can be very useful for implementing complex or specific content retrieval scenarios.

Audience Targeting: As of my last update, audience targeting was not available for the Highlighted Content web part. This means you can't specify different content for different groups of users within the same web part. However, SharePoint and Microsoft 365 are frequently updated, and it's possible that this feature may be added in the future.