How to Enable SharePoint Designer for SharePoint Online?
Requirement: Enable SharePoint Designer for a SharePoint Online site.
SharePoint Online: How to Connect from SharePoint Designer?
SharePoint Designer is a powerful tool for customizing SharePoint sites. It offers a robust set of features for creating custom web pages, designing page layouts, and building custom form components. Additionally, you can connect to external data sources, control your SharePoint site’s appearance, create content types, and much more to fully leverage the SharePoint platform’s capabilities.
You can also use SharePoint Designer to create advanced views of lists and libraries and to edit the underlying HTML and CSS code of SharePoint pages. SharePoint Designer is a desktop application that must be downloaded and installed on your computer, You can download the latest 64-bit version of SharePoint Designer – Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2013 from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35491. After the installation, you can connect to your SharePoint site and make changes to SharePoint Online sites.
By default, SharePoint designer customizations are disabled for modern team sites/group sites in Microsoft SharePoint Online. It gives an error message, “The server could not complete your request.” when you try to open a SharePoint Online group site in SharePoint Designer.
Moreover, It gives a “You do not have permission to open this web site in SharePoint Designer” error message at times:
So, how to connect SharePoint Designer to SharePoint Online?
How to Enable SharePoint Designer in SharePoint Online?
Can you use SharePoint Designer with SharePoint Online? Does SharePoint designer work with SharePoint Online? Is SharePoint Designer still supported? Of course, yes! To enable SharePoint Designer for SharePoint sites, you have to allow custom script and enable SharePoint Designer at the site collection level!
Step 1: Enable Custom Script in SharePoint Online
Just follow these steps to enable the custom script:
- Sign in to Office 365 and go to the SharePoint Online Admin Center.
- Click on Settings from the left navigation >> Click on the “Classic settings page” link >> Scroll down to the “Custom Script” section.
- Under the Custom Script section, Set “Allow users to run custom script on personal site” and “Allow users to run custom script on self-service created sites” options.
- Click on “OK” to save your changes.
This enables SharePoint Designer in SharePoint Online. However, this change may take up to 24 hours to reflect. To enable custom script on a particular site collection immediately, use this PowerShell script through SharePoint Online Management Shell. Furthermore, when you enable custom scripting through the web interface, you enable it for all sites in the tenant. But you can enable or disable custom scripting on a specific site collection through PowerShell.
PowerShell to Enable SharePoint Designer in SharePoint Online:
If you want to enable the custom script at the site collection level, use this PowerShell script in SharePoint Online Management Shell:
#Set Parameters
$AdminSiteURL="https://Crescent-Admin.sharepoint.com"
$SiteURL="https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/creditpipeline"
#Connect to SharePoint Online Admin Center
Connect-SPOService -Url $AdminSiteURL -Credential (Get-Credential)
#Enable SharePoint Designer for the site collection
Set-SPOSite -Identity $SiteURL -DenyAddAndCustomizePages $False
To disable SharePoint Designer customization for a SharePoint Online site collection, use the following:
#Disable SharePoint Designer for the site collection
Set-SPOSite -Identity $SiteURL -DenyAddAndCustomizePages $True
Step 2: Enable SharePoint Designer for the Site
Once the custom script is enabled, the next step is to ensure SharePoint Designer is enabled at the site collection. Follow these instructions:
- Navigate to your SharePoint Online site >> Click on Settings >> Site information >> View All Site Settings.
- Click on “SharePoint Designer Settings” under Site Collection Administration.
- Check “Enable SharePoint Designer”.
You can also enable SharePoint Designer for the site using PowerShell:
#Config Variables
$SiteURL = "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/sites/retail"
Try {
#Connect to PnP Online
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Interactive
#Get the site SharePoint Designer settings
$Site = Get-pnpsite -Includes AllowDesigner
If($Site.AllowDesigner -eq $false)
{
#Enable SharePoint Designer
$Site.AllowDesigner = $true
Invoke-PnPQuery
Write-host "SharePoint Desingner Enabled Successfully!" -f Green
}
Else
{
Write-host "SharePoint Desingner is already Enabled!" -f Yellow
}
}
Catch {
write-host "Error: $($_.Exception.Message)" -foregroundcolor Red
}
Open SharePoint Online site in SharePoint Designer
Once the custom script is enabled, you can access SharePoint Online sites with SharePoint Designer with Site Collection Administrators / Site Owners or Designer permissions. To open the Sharepoint Online site from SharePoint Designer, do the following:
- Open Sharepoint Designer from the start menu and select the “Open Site” button from the File menu.
- Enter the URL of your SharePoint site into the dialog box that appears, and then click “Open.”
- Click on the page or workflow you want to customize in the left-hand navigation pane. You can create new workflows, templates, Style sheets, and Layouts too.
- Make your changes in the right-hand pane, using either the graphical user interface or the HTML/CSS style editor.
- Save your changes by clicking “Save” in the File menu.
All other changes, like customizing master pages, external content types, connecting to business data, customizing web parts, creating list items, and SharePoint designer workflows, are still supported for classic sites. You can also enable custom script with PnP PowerShell: How to Enable Custom Script in SharePoint Online using PowerShell?
Wrapping up
Enabling SharePoint Designer access for SharePoint Online is an important step in allowing full customization capabilities. While the SharePoint admin center provides a toggle switch to enable custom scripts, there are additional considerations around site level settings and permissions to keep in mind. Compared to manually enabling capabilities site-collection by site-collection in the admin UI, PowerShell allows admins to enable design for the whole organization in seconds.
With these simple steps, SharePoint administrators can enable the SharePoint Designer, and users can start launching Designer to brand sites, build workflows, integrate data, and take advantage of its graphical no-code environment.
Can I use SharePoint Designer with SharePoint Online? Yes! SharePoint Designer 2013 is still supported in SharePoint Online.
Make sure you have the custom script enabled for your SharePoint Online modern sites.
To hide a list or document library in SharePoint server or SharePoint Online: Open the site in SharePoint Designer, Right-click the target list >> Choose List settings >> General Settings >> Check the “Hide from browser” option and Click on the “Save” button to apply the changes.
More info: How to hide a List in SharePoint?
Yes, SharePoint Designer allows users to create custom workflows for specific business needs in SharePoint sites. This feature is particularly useful for automating business processes and improving productivity.
SharePoint Designer 2013 is the latest version, and it remains supported by Microsoft, primarily for use with Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2013 and SharePoint Online. However, Microsoft encourages users to explore modern alternatives for site customization and workflow automation, such as Power Automate and SharePoint in Microsoft 365.
I am getting to know more about this page.
What’s the url for the enable SPD page because Msft has now hidden it under site coll admin features?
Thanks!
Its under “/_layouts/15/SharePointDesignerSettings.aspx”
When you open SharePoint Online admin center, you must select the “Classic settings page” link to see the custom script section.
Yes! This settings available in classic settings page.