Questions & Answers

Your Data Stays in Your SharePoint

The data source is a regular SharePoint list. On first setup, the web part either creates a list with the required structure for you - question, answer, category, link, video, contact, order, and a published flag - or connects to an existing suitable list, whichever you choose.

Publication is controlled by a dedicated Published field: readers only see approved questions, while drafts and not-yet-triaged submissions stay hidden. Because everything lives in a standard list, you can edit content directly with familiar SharePoint tools, share and manage permissions for the list, customize its views and columns, and add automation with Power Automate.

Categories: Grouping and Filtering

Every question can be assigned a category - General, Leave and Sick Days, IT Support, or any others you define. The web part can group the list by category with clear section headers.

For large knowledge bases, enable the filter bar: a row of tabs appears above the list - All plus one tab per category. One click, and only the questions on the chosen topic remain on screen. The filter works together with grouping, sorting, and search.

Employees Ask Their Own Questions

The Ask a question button opens a simple form: an employee describes the problem, and the submission lands in the list as an unpublished item. An expert prepares the answer and publishes the question - the knowledge base grows on its own, shaped by what people actually need.

The button is shown only to users who have permission to add items to the list - the web part checks the actual SharePoint permissions, not just a setting.

Attachments, Useful Links, and a Topic Expert

Files can be attached to a question - guides, forms, policies: they are displayed as cards with recognizable file-type icons. The Link field points to further reading - a policy page, an article, an external resource. And the Contact field shows the topic expert with a live profile card, so it is immediately clear who to reach out to when the answer is not enough.

Each of these blocks can be enabled or disabled independently in the web part settings.

Fast Even on Large Knowledge Bases

For knowledge bases with hundreds of questions, enable paged loading: the web part loads and displays questions in batches of 10, 20, 50, or 100, and a Show more button loads the next page. Sorting is performed on the server, so the order of questions is always correct.

The page stays light and responsive regardless of the knowledge base size - on the desktop and on mobile devices alike.

Speaks Your Employees' Language

The web part interface is localized into 48 languages - from English, German, and French to Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, and Chinese. Every employee sees buttons, labels, and messages in the language of their Microsoft 365 profile, and relative dates ("3 days ago") are rendered in the format natural to their language.

Security by Design

All data - questions, answers, attachments, comments, ratings - is stored in a SharePoint list on your site and never leaves your Microsoft 365 tenant. Access is governed by standard SharePoint permissions: who can read, who can ask questions, who can publish answers. The web part respects these permissions automatically, with nothing extra to configure.