■ Choosing a Site Theme

FIGURE 5-2 SharePoint’s Editing Tools Insert tab offers a number of tools you can add to the pages in your team site.

Tip And if you want to add special functionality to your pages, you can click the Insert tab in the Editing Tools tab and click More Web Parts. You can add specialized tools to your page that enable you to gather information from your team, track the location of various team members, get info about the latest updates, post media, and much more. Check out the section, “Adding Web Parts” later in this chapter for the specifics on these great site tools.

One of the first choices you’re likely to make as you develop your team site will have to do with how you want the site to look. SharePoint Online makes it easy for you to apply a coordinated color scheme—which carries through all tools you add to the site—that creates a kind of distinctive look and feel for your team space.

We know a lot more about color choices than we used to, especially when it comes to creating a work environment with the right feel. Cool colors—like light blue or green— create a kind of relaxing atmosphere; you might use these colors when you’re working on a high-stress project and want to help everybody maintain their equilibrium and not stress out. For low-energy teams that need to be cranked up a notch, use vivid colors like reds and oranges to stimulate attention and get some of those creative juices flowing. By default, the Office 365 color choice is set to Default (no theme), which gives you a very basic, clean-cut look for your team site. To change the default theme to one with a bit more color definition, follow these steps: 1. Display the site by logging in to Office 365 and clicking Team Site. 2. Click Site Actions.

3. Choose Site Settings. 4. In the Look And Feel area, click Site Theme. 5. In the panel on the right in the Select A Theme window (shown in Figure 5-3), click the names of different themes to see the color combination on the preview grid on the left side of the screen. The fonts selected for headings and body text also change to show your selection. 6. When you have selected the theme you like, click the Apply button at the bottom of the list.

FIGURE 5-3 Choose from a variety of color palettes that control the color of hyperlinks, headings, and body text on your site.