Automate365 provides exceptional control over the content and structure of your templates, enabling you to build highly customized and efficient blueprints for your Microsoft 365 workspaces. The specific content types you can include will intelligently adapt based on the type of Microsoft 365 workspace you're provisioning (e.g., SharePoint Site, Microsoft Teams) and the method you used to create your template (blank, copy from existing, or gallery).
Beyond content, this step also lets you pre-configure site-level settings, such as storage limits and default branding, that are applied automatically whenever a site is provisioned from the template.
Why granular control matters
Imagine you have a well-structured SharePoint site that has evolved over the years, containing a wealth of documents, pages, and perhaps some older, no-longer-used apps. You want to use this blueprint's proven structure for future projects, but you don't want to carry over all the old content, draft pages, or obsolete applications.
This granular control is invaluable here. Automate365 allows you to:
Clean unnecessary assets: By simply unchecking boxes for specific lists, old pages, or apps, you can prevent unnecessary "baggage" from being included in your new template.
Create efficient templates that provision faster: By stripping away superfluous elements and optimizing what's included, your templates become more streamlined, leading to significantly quicker provisioning times for new workspaces.
This powerful feature allows you to capture the best aspects of existing environments while streamlining and perfecting your provisioning process.
How to configure structure and content
Note: The steps for defining your template's structure and content are part of the larger template creation process. For detailed instructions on how to initiate a new template creation, please refer to our dedicated guides:
Log in to the BindTuning App.
Click Templates > Created by me.
Click the "Create template +" button.
Complete steps until section "Structure and content".
The options presented will depend on the process selected, as explained in the callout above.
What you can configure
The "Structure and content" section adapts dynamically based on your template's starting point and type.
Content types
The available content types also vary depending on the template type (SharePoint or Teams), though a Teams template will inherently include options relevant to its associated SharePoint Team Site.
Tip: This step allows you to create Site Pages, Teams channels, and include files directly within your template.
Site pages and Page Templates: Include specific pages, along with web parts configurations (BindTuning and OOB web parts)
Teams channels and tabs: Private, shared, and public channels
Document Libraries and Lists: Inclusion of specific libraries and lists, along with their security configurations.
App Catalogs and Solution Galleries.
Note: When starting with a blank template, this section initially only allows you to add pages or channels.
Alongside content, the "Structure and content" step lets you pre-configure settings that apply to the site itself once it's provisioned — independently of what pages, channels, or libraries are included.
Content dependencies
When defining the content and structure of your template, it is important to understand that certain content types are interdependent to ensure proper functionality in provisioned workspaces. The effectiveness of some configured elements relies on the inclusion of their associated components.
Consider the following example:
Web Part Configuration, SPFx Solutions, and Data Source (List/Library)
If the SPFx solution and its configuration are included, but the SharePoint list or library (data source) that the web part references is not included, the web part will appear in the new workspace but will be configured with a missing data source. This will prevent it from displaying content correctly until manually re-pointed.
Proper functionality of connected components, such as web parts and their data sources or underlying solutions, necessitates the inclusion of all dependent elements within the template's defined content and structure.
What end users can change
At the bottom of the "Structure and content" step, you'll find Allow users installing the template to change, with a checkbox for each settings group configured on this screen:
Structure and content options: governs whether the installer can adjust the site pages, channels, libraries, and other content selections you made above. Leave unchecked to lock the structure exactly as defined in the template.
Landing page options: governs whether the installer can change the landing page configured for the site.
Leaving a box unchecked enforces your configuration as-is for every site provisioned from the template. Checking it hands that group of settings over to whoever is installing the template, letting them customize it during provisioning.
Storage limit
If your tenant uses manual storage management, you can set a default storage quota for every site created from this template.
Toggle Storage limit on, then enter the quota in GB.
Allow users provisioning the template to change site storage limit:
Leave this unchecked to enforce the same quota on every site created from the template.
Check it to let end-users adjust the quota themselves during provisioning.
Note: If this template is deployed to a tenant with automatic storage management, the quota setting will be ignored. SharePoint manages storage automatically in that case, and manual quotas don't apply.
Branding
Toggle Branding on to define default logos (team picture, site logo, and site logo thumbnail) for sites created from this template, along with whether end-users are allowed to change them during provisioning.
For the full picture of branding across templates, see Understanding brand governance with Automate365 templates.