SharePoint Designer [EOL] Reviews

We primarily use it as a management system for an internal website accessible for collaboration within the organization.

I like the ability to directly share documents. I like this feature so much.

There is room for improvement in the setup process. 

I have experience with this solution. I have been using it for two years. 

It's been stable for me. I haven't encountered any issues with the sites I've developed locally within the organization as long as the license remains valid.

It's very stable. I haven't had any issues with outages or needing to republish content. It's always accessible to authorized users, so it's stable.

The stability is almost a ten out of ten for me. 

My initial site wasn't designed for high scalability, but I fixed it, and it can be adapted for larger workloads if needed.

Our company has around 300 end users using it. However, we don't have plans to increase the further usage. 

I used WordPress for my personal use. 

The initial setup is not really complex but can depend on company specifics. So, it's a bit complex.

The deployment didn't take too long. Maybe just a few hours. 

I deployed it myself on the cloud through Microsoft 365.

I already had a Microsoft 365 license, so deployment involved integrating SharePoint Designer with my content and giving access restrictions to specific users. It wasn't a lengthy process.

We have a team of four IT staff members. 

I've leased Microsoft SharePoint Designer for the enterprise, not System Center. It's for private work, web development specifically.

It's a good solution, even though some users don't seem to actively use it all the time. Maybe it's the organization's fault for not enforcing its usage more. But for what we've used it for, it's been a very good solution.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. I would recommend using this solution for an intranet website. Apart from WordPress, SharePoint is the next point for our internal website.

It's SharePoint 365, which is the Microsoft Suite that comes up for enterprise solutions. 

We are dealing with pervasive client-specific data.

One of the projects that I can mention here is that we created a platform for collecting data from many different clients, then collating that data, and then further analyzing it using statistical analysis on something. 

This particular tool was built on SharePoint so that the clients can enter their own data. We looked at many different other solutions, for example, the web solutions. That web solution would have taken a lot of time to develop, therefore, we used SharePoint, which was a handy tool.

The best part was that it could also be accessed by the client. It was an internal SharePoint tool that we created, and we got it opened for the different clients so that they can enter their own data by logging into our servers. That's how we collected the data from them. It was a three-month-long data collection process in which we did the analyses.

We like the highly customizable websites that you can build. For example, when we were building it for the client, we could design and customize it according to what the client wanted as that was the requirement so that they can access it and see their own logos and stuff, subsequently entering their own data. Customization is one of the best parts of it.

The data collection platform has value. So we had different kinds of access for different clients, and they could collaborate on one particular, for example, an Excel file uploaded on SharePoint. They enter their own data. Ten-odd people could access the same file, enter their own data, and save it on our servers. Collaboration is one of the other big things with SharePoint.

Exporting the whole SharePoint website is an issue. For example, let's say I want to deploy it in the client environment. Right now, this was based on our own company's environment and if I wanted to deploy that onto the client's environment. To do this, I will have to recreate everything from scratch, which takes a lot of time. There should be a way somewhere where I can download the custom designs I have made and upload them to the client servers so that we can configure them on their servers. 

Secondly, when you have uploaded data, for example, from an Excel spreadsheet, you download it in the form of a dot IQY file. This IQY file is a bit tough to work with as it's a server-side file. If there was any option where you could just download the flat files and work with them, that would have been great. 

I have had hands-on experience in bits and pieces, not the complete tool.

I have been using it for the past six months, however, in terms of the company, they have used it for more than four or five years.

It's a stable product. 

Obviously, the way you design it is a very big factor. It's generally hosted on enterprise servers, which seldom go down. The servers for different companies do not go down so easily. Therefore, stability is there. The way it can be designed and customized requires minimal coding as well. Therefore, there's no chance of getting errors and stuff. 

Scalability would be an issue. There were the minimum number of folks that we were working with, however, if you want to deploy a SharePoint site, for example, to millions of people, the servers have to be accordingly configured. It completely depends on the servers. That's the major thing when you're deploying a SharePoint site. That's why scalability might be an issue, however, I'm not sure about that as we haven't tested a fully scalable website on SharePoint.

There's a dedicated team, on the product who know the SharePoint site in and out, however, they are not all developing the websites. They're there to enhance the backend systems and understand our queries and resolve them. The SharePoint developers are within my team itself.

In my team, probably five to six people know how to develop a SharePoint site, and in my company, there's a dedicated team who do SharePoint and that's a 15-member strong team.

I don't deal with support. 

We had our point of contact in our 15-member team. They know the platform in and out. Those were our primary contacts. We did not contact Microsoft. All our queries were resolved using that team of developers.

The solution  has a steep learning curve. Once you start working on it, hands-on, then it becomes generally easier. That said, once you open the software for the first time, you probably might find it very jarring or tough. Later on, when you start working on it, it gets easier. For me, I've worked with a lot of software in my lifetime, and SharePoint, once you start working on it, does become easier. 

The time it takes to deploy varies as we have to give access permissions, et cetera. 

We developed it on our systems and then gave access to the clients to enter into our servers and then enter their data. Now, this particular process was not very streamlined for us, however, it fulfilled our purpose. We did not have any issues with the timelines of deployment. We just recreated everything on the client's environment. In that sense, there was no actual deployment.

We had a set of 120 different people who are users. We gave them group user access. It was relatively quick, and we did it in one or two days. Obviously, there were certain issues related to the firewall and their own SharePoint servers, which created an issue, however, these were diagnosed fairly quickly. 

I'm not sure of the exact cost of the solution. 

The enterprise provided the solution to us. It comes with a larger package, however, I'm not sure about the pricing that is there with our company.

As an enterprise, I'd say it is completely worth the money. 

The turnaround time was also an issue that we turned to SharePoint. We explored a lot of different other platforms that we can use. For example, Smartsheet. However, it could not fulfill the customizations that we wanted. That's why we worked with SharePoint.

We're customers and end-users. 

I am not a very extensive Designer since I am managing a team. Most of my team members are experts here. I am mostly trying to manage the development part. I do not know each and every detail, the intricacies of the SharePoint website.

Web development is a very steep learning curve. It takes a lot of time to become a master. Therefore, we use SharePoint to make sure that we could deliver for clients. Being in consulting, you have to deliver the outputs relatively quickly. 

I'd advise users to start exploring it on their own to get to know the menus and different options that they could get. Try different tutorials. There are plenty of tutorials available. That helps in knowing exactly what you have to do. Just start exploring the system.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It's intuitive and customizable. 

My job involves using SharePoint daily. It's like my online desktop. I have shared drives, documents, and most of my work stuff there.

It saved me a big time once! My car got broken into, and they took my laptop with all my files. But I didn't have to worry because everything was backed up on SharePoint. It was a lifesaver!

For me, it's flexible enough for most things. But maybe they could improve the user interface to make it easier for everyone to navigate and use. That would be a big plus.

I have experience with this solution. 

I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. There haven't been any major issues, but I haven't explored all the features yet. 

So, for the features I've used, it's been very stable. But I don't want to overstate it.

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. 

Everybody in my company uses it. There are around 6,000 end users in my company. 

The initial setup is really easy. I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one being difficult and ten being easy.   

But it depends on how you're using it. For someone with an IT background, it's a breeze. So, for me, it was pretty straightforward.

The deployment process was short. It just took a few minutes.

It's good. We have everything up there. We don't need to worry, and we can easily work everywhere. We don't need to worry about our physical devices. We can easily log in to any device with it. So, it's something I would recommend.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

I am not a heavy user. I have a team that does it. We use the solution to set up sites within the teams we have. We do it for clients as well.

The product helps us with document control and sharing within the organization. It also helps us with versioning.

The product makes it easy to share documents. We do not rely on emails anymore. The product is very user-friendly.

Adding guest users is a bit difficult on SharePoint.

I have been using the solution for at least eight years.

I never had any issues with the tool’s stability.

The product has a high scalability. I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

The product does not have a technical support team. It’s hard to connect with Microsoft and Google. They will send you to a third party. We have to work with their partners.

Negative

The initial setup was straightforward. The solution is deployed on the cloud. All the solutions from Google and Microsoft are meant for non-IT personnel.

The pricing is fair. We would always want to negotiate, but the pricing per user is acceptable. We get the whole system.

We use Microsoft 365 because it is easy and user-friendly. We don't need to customize it because we use the solution as is. The product works the way we use it. People should not get a solution based on what they see out there. They need to understand their users' needs first, then, based on that, they must select the right system. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

I'm using the solution for creating different sites in our organization. We also use it for a file repository mainly. 

It's provided us with a centralized document database that is available to all collaborators 24/7.

There are good features in general.

It helps centralize and store files. 

It's easy to share files. 

The solution is okay at scaling.

I've found the stability to be excellent. 

The setup process is simple. 

I have no notes for improvement. 

The solution does not need any additional features. 

I've used the solution for two years. I have a bit of experience with it. 

I'd rate stability nine out of ten. It's reliable. The performance is good. It doesn't crash and freeze and there are no bugs or glitches. 

The scalability has been okay. I'd rate its scalability seven out of ten.

We have local partners that provide support. It's not directly with Microsoft. In general, we haven't needed any support. We can manage the platform ourselves. 

We have not used any other solution. 

The initial setup is easy to deploy initially. It's not overly complex. 

I don't deal with the pricing. I don't deal with licensing aspects. 

We are using the business version of the solution.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. We're mostly happy with the solution overall. 

I played with the Designer, and it showed recommendations for the PPT style. It was very easy for me. I am very new to the design and it was easy to use, select, and design. There are several selections to design. Those who are new, like me, will find it helpful.

We primarily use the basic functions of SharePoint in our organization.

I didn’t need any other features apart from the PPT. Although, I came across many features during the training that could be helpful.

It’s very convenient for me to update. Last time I used a function called Word. It is a good function, which I can use to coordinate easily. It is easy for me to maintain the DTP, even though I have limited access to the website. It is applicable and makes my drop-down wonderful when the task gets busy or you don’t have access to everything. It is a good workaround and a good solution.

It is a good solution for small companies. Although, SharePoint does not have enough resources to cover the security parts. Most users do not know a lot about technical and security things, but this feature should be there because everyone wants to feel protected.

I’d like to learn more things. For example, I have several pictures and just want to put them on my DVD. The SharePoint Designer could give me a good recommendation for it. While at the same time, I want to use the original template. It’s the SharePoint Designer that gave me the original solution.

I have been working with SharePoint Designer for quite some time and have had a very good experience with it. The last time I used it, it was very easy for me to update.

SharePoint Designer is a stable solution. 

We reached out only once because we usually contact our IT team and then the SharePoint team for support. Most of the time, we get answers from our IT team first.

Positive

The initial setup was very easy for me.

I really don’t use it on my own; my company pays for it.

I would rate it an eight out of ten.

We create spreadsheets in Designer to collect data and integrate that with Power Apps and Power BI. We have about 50 or 60 users. 

Designer is easy to manage.

The user interface is sometimes not user-friendly.

I have been using SharePoint Designer for five years.

I rate SharePoint Designer nine out of 10 for stability. 

SharePoint Designer is scalable.

I rate Microsoft technical support nine out of 10. 

Positive

We used Excel.

SharePoint Designer is easy to set up. It's a cloud solution. We have about two or three people for deployment and maintenance. The deployment took one or two months. 

We deployed Designer in-house. 

We've seen a return.

I rate SharePoint Designer eight out of 10 for affordability.

I rate SharePoint Designer nine out of 10.

We are using it for the HR process. For example, we use it for personal leave, execution, and many things in HR. We create the forms and custom workflows and integrate them with Nintex workflows to automate the process. 

We also integrate this database with the Oracle 12C. It's a centralized database. After the flow or the workflow is done and approved, and there are many layers of approval, it'll go to Oracle. Basically, we integrate SharePoint with Oracle 12C.

SharePoint is great for content management of data. It makes our life easier.

Integrating SharePoint with other platforms is very useful. I can integrate SharePoint with Oracle and I can integrate Oracle with many databases. This makes our life here easier.

The initial setup was pretty easy.

The support on offer is helpful. 

The search capabilities need to be improved. They tried to make it better in the 2019 version, however, there's still more they can do. 

If the design code is in HTML, there is a bit of freezing that happens when opening in Sharepoint. 

I've been working with the solution for six years, and now I'm working as a programmer.

Just our developers use the solution. There are maybe 15 or so people using it at this time. 

Technical support has been excellent. They are always very helpful and responsive. We are satisfied with the level of support we get. 

I'm working on Nintex workflow and forms plus SharePoint. 

Also, I'm working in Azure, Power Apps, and Microsoft.

I found the initial setup to be very straightforward and simple. It's not overly complex or difficult. I deploy it every day for the end users. It's very easy.

We pay the licensing fees on a yearly basis. It's just a standard fee and there are no extras we need to add on or pay for. 

It's a very user-friendly solution. 

It makes programming and designing customization easier.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

Our use case for SharePoint Designer is customizing SharePoint.

What I found most valuable in SharePoint Designer is that through it, you can perform a lot of SharePoint functionalities, such as creating SharePoint lists and libraries, as well as customizing pages.

The pain point of SharePoint Designer is sometimes it gives you issues that can be resolved mostly by clearing the cache, but Microsoft should still work on it and make the product more stable.

Another issue related to SharePoint Designer is that with the newer SharePoint versions, Microsoft hasn't released a newer version of SharePoint Designer. Instead, Microsoft is recommending that you use the same old SharePoint Designer 2013. If Microsoft updates SharePoint Designer, the product will be more beneficial.

I've been using SharePoint Designer for ten or twelve years now.

SharePoint Designer is a stable product, and though sometimes it gives you issues, that can be resolved by clearing the cache.

SharePoint Designer has very good scalability.

We've never contacted technical support for SharePoint Designer. We just searched some online help forums where we get solutions to any product issues.

We haven't used a different solution for SharePoint. We've only been using SharePoint Designer.

The initial setup for SharePoint Designer requires no effort because it's a client application.

We implemented SharePoint Designer in-house. In the beginning, the vendor was involved, but after that, we did it in-house.

SharePoint Designer is a free product. It's SharePoint that needs a license, not SharePoint Designer.

Five people use SharePoint Designer within my company. Currently, there's no plan to increase the usage of the product.

One to two people take care of the deployment and maintenance of SharePoint Designer. Managers can use the product, but the technical staff uses it more.

Based on experience, I would recommend SharePoint Designer to other users because it's a product that's very easy to use, easy to set up, and provides a lot of functionalities in terms of customizing SharePoint.

My rating for SharePoint Designer is eight out of ten.

If you're working in a communication channel team, SharePoint Designer is a great solution because it helps to have some customized solutions in terms of communication and to create web experiences for external teams.

SharePoint Designer's integration with Microsoft tools could be improved.

I've been using SharePoint Designer for two years. 

SharePoint Designer's stability is really good.

SharePoint Designer is scalable.

SharePoint Designer's pricing is okay.

I would recommend SharePoint Designer for those building a solution for communication with audiences across the globe because SharePoint Designer will ultimately be a complete one-stop solution for customers. I would give SharePoint Designer a rating of nine out of ten.