Use the Finder web part to help employees find Forms and Templates right within the page.
Results View:
To use this web part add it to any of your SharePoint sections:
Configuring search
When you first add the Finder to your page you will need to open the web part properties, and give it the name of the source library where documents will come from:
The libraries can be created before or after you configure the Finder web part.
These libraries are created under the Site contents.
You can create as many libraries as needed.
Whether you’re using an existing library or creating a new one, you can point to these libraries from web part properties, like this:
If your library lives on another site, simply add the URL to that site along with the library name like this.
( example - https://your.sharepoint.com/sites/HRSite/Documents)
If your library has folders, they will show up below the search box like this:
You can even tell Finder to only show one folder in a library.
In the screenshot above, we made it so only Contract-2024 folder will be shown from Contracts library.
When employee clicks on the folder or uses the search box, the results will be displayed like this:
Enabling quick previews on documents
You can make it so users can see a quick preview of the document before deciding to open it.
To enable that, simply toggle setting in the web part properties:
As a result your users will see this when hovering on the document:
Users can close the preview or expand it and view it in the new browser tab.
Styling your web part
To set the searchbox placeholder text, change the Searchbox Prompt web part property:
You can also choose the font size for your folder tiles in case your folder names have long names and don’t fit into the tile:
The Breadcrumb Text Color changes this text :
And, finally, you can define custom tile colors by adding them to the “color bank”:
NOTE: If you have more folders than color definitions in the “color bank”, the web part will use ORIGAMI pre-defined colors for the rest of the folders.
Adding a link
If you need the Finder to open a link instead of a file, you can create a link inside the document library like this:
Then:
If you do not see the option to Add Link to Document, you need to first do these quick steps on the document library: Disable Document Preview for SharePoint Links
That’s it, the app will recognize this is a link and behave appropriately.
Known Issue: Got more than 5,000 documents in your library?
Due to limits in SharePoint Online, if you have more than 5,000 items in your document library you’ll have to split them in separate libraries for the Finder to pick them up.
Known Issue: File names cut off?
If your filename contains a “.” in the name–the filename will be cut off. For example, file name “Test.File.May23.PDF” will show as “Test”. Please avoid using extra “.” as separators in the filename.
Known Issue: Got a 'Forms' folder in your document library?
Forms is a reserved folder name in a SharePoint document library and it’s not displayed in the Finder web part even if you have it showing in your document library. We recommend renaming your ‘Forms’ folder for ex.: ‘Forms Library’ or ‘Forms and Templates’
Known Issue: Have files and folders in the library but only folders show?
The Finder only shows either Folders or Files in one view, not both–this is by design to ensure better presentation to the user.
In other words, all files must be in folders and orphaned files will be hidden.
If your document library has a mixture of files and folders on the same level, the files will have to be placed into a folder. This applies to files and folders at the root of the document library and the nested ones.