How to Use SharePoint Designer with Office 365: A Comprehensive Guide to Enhance Your SharePoint Experience

SharePoint Designer is a powerful tool created to help manage, customize, and automate workflows in SharePoint environments. If you’re working with Office 365 (now known as Microsoft 365), you might wonder how SharePoint Designer fits into the cloud-centric workflow, especially as Microsoft increasingly promotes Power Automate for workflows. Here’s a comprehensive guide on how to use SharePoint Designer with Office 365, its limitations, and alternative solutions for design customization in a modern workplace.

Step 1: Verify Compatibility

SharePoint Designer 2013 is the last version released, and although Microsoft no longer updates or supports it, the tool can still connect to SharePoint Online (the SharePoint version behind Office 365) for certain development and workflow purposes. Start by ensuring you have SharePoint Designer 2013 installed on your PC. Compatibility is best when both Windows and Office are up to date, and you’re using the 32-bit version of SharePoint Designer if your Office installation is 32-bit.

Step 2: Connect to Your SharePoint Online Site

Launch SharePoint Designer and choose Open Site. Enter the URL of your SharePoint Online site (e.g., https://yourcompanyname.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursite). You’ll be prompted to sign in with your Office 365 credentials. Once connected, you can access lists, libraries, and site structures.

Step 3: Customize Workflows and Pages

With SharePoint Designer, you can:

- Create and customize workflows (2010 and 2013-style only)

- Edit list forms and views

- Modify site pages and master pages (classic experience only, not modern pages)

- Set site permissions and navigation

However, note that SharePoint Designer cannot create or customize modern experience pages—its capabilities are limited to classic sites. For workflow automation on SharePoint Online, consider Power Automate as an alternative, since Microsoft is phasing out SharePoint Designer workflows in favor of cloud-based options.

Step 4: Save and Publish Your Work

Remember to regularly save your changes and publish any new workflows or page customizations. When working in a cloud environment, test your updates on a subsite or sandbox before applying them to your live site to avoid disruptions.

As a designer, I see that the evolution of workspace and content management tools in Office 365 signals a move toward visually integrated, more collaborative environments. When you want to visualize, layout, and plan your space or digital content for teams using SharePoint, leveraging a room planner not only streamlines your design process but also enhances cross-team collaboration and project management, offering a future-ready approach to digital transformation.

Tips 1:

Familiarize yourself with modern SharePoint’s limitations regarding customization. Microsoft is gradually deprecating classic workflows and page customizations with SharePoint Designer, so always check the latest documentation, and plan for migration to Power Automate and modern site design features.

FAQ

Q: Is SharePoint Designer still supported for Office 365?

A: No, Microsoft has discontinued SharePoint Designer, and it’s no longer supported for Office 365. However, it still works with certain aspects of SharePoint Online (classic sites and workflows) for now.

Q: Can I use SharePoint Designer for modern SharePoint sites in Office 365?

A: No, SharePoint Designer doesn’t support the customization of modern SharePoint pages—its features are limited to classic site collections and workflows.

Q: What are alternatives to SharePoint Designer in Office 365?

A: Alternatives include Power Automate for workflow automation, Power Apps for form customization, and SharePoint Framework (SPFx) for advanced customizations.

Q: Can I create 2013 workflows with SharePoint Designer for SharePoint Online?

A: Yes, you can create and manage 2013 workflows with SharePoint Designer, but support for these workflows is being gradually phased out in favor of Power Automate.

Q: Will my existing SharePoint Designer workflows stop working?

A: Existing workflows continue to run for now, but Microsoft could retire support at any time. Start planning to migrate workflows to Power Automate or other supported solutions.