3 minutes read
The default SharePoint Online header is functional, but let’s be honest—it often lacks the polish and custom branding needed to truly make a site feel like your own. In the modern workplace, a professional and consistent digital experience is key to driving user adoption and engagement.
Fortunately, there’s a solution that allows you to transform your SharePoint environment from “out-of-the-box” to “on-brand” seamlessly. Meet the SharePoint Custom Header & Navigation Web Part—a powerful SPFx component designed to give you complete control over your site’s top-level navigation and visual identity.
Branding and Design: Make It Uniquely Yours
This web part is engineered to replace the rigid default header with a dynamic, customizable component that reflects your company’s branding.
Core Customization Features:
- Custom Logo: Easily replace the default site logo with your own brand image by simply providing an image URL.
- Custom Site Title: Choose to display a custom, configurable title, giving you the flexibility to rename the site’s display name in the header without changing the actual site name.
- Theme Flexibility: Instantly match the header to your site’s aesthetic with built-in ‘light’ and ‘dark’ theme options.
- Hide the Default Header: One of the most critical features is the ability to use a Visibility Toggle to hide the default SharePoint header. This ensures a clean, cohesive look and eliminates visual clutter, making your custom header the sole focus.
Dynamic Navigation Driven by SharePoint Lists
A truly custom navigation experience requires more than just static links—it needs a system that is easy to update and supports hierarchy. This web part excels by leveraging the power of SharePoint Lists.
Instead of hunting through site settings, your navigation links are managed within a specified SharePoint List. This means site owners and content editors can update the menu structure without ever touching the web part’s code or property pane (as long as they have edit permissions on the list).
Building Your Menu Hierarchy:
To enable powerful multi-level navigation (submenus), the list structure utilizes a smart self-lookup system:
- Title (Link Display Text)
- URL (Link Destination)
- Parent (A lookup column pointing to the same list, defining parent/child links)
- DisplayOrder (A number field to control the exact sorting of links)
This List-based approach makes managing a complex site map intuitive and highly scalable.
Seamless Usability and Management
Beyond features, this SPFx web part focuses on user and administrator experience:
- Mobile Responsiveness: A modern intranet must work on all devices. The custom header is fully responsive and includes a dedicated mobile menu to ensure your navigation is accessible and usable on smaller screens.
- Property Pane Configuration: All settings—from the list name that drives the navigation to the logo URL and theme—are easily configured through the web part’s standard Property Pane in edit mode.
- Permissions-Based Control: To maintain security and governance, the settings pane for the web part is only accessible to users with the necessary edit permissions on the configured navigation list, preventing unauthorized changes to the menu structure.
Conclusion
The SharePoint Custom Header & Navigation Web Part is an essential upgrade for any organization looking to enhance the user experience of their modern SharePoint site. It offers a perfect blend of high-end branding features, dynamic content management, and robust mobile usability.
If you’re ready to move past the limitations of the default SharePoint header and deliver a truly customized, professional digital experience, this web part is a worthwhile addition to your toolkit.
Ready to see it in action? You can often find a live demo or preview on the SharePoint Library website to see the transformation for yourself!
