Improve Highlighted content web part to support custom content types and their custom columns
I'd like to show users documents from an another site (different o365 group site). I came across the Highlighted content web part which is a very flexible and potentially useful function. However I can not filter my documents with it as it
1 does not show custom content type at the type or document type filters (even though my content type is directly inheriting Document), and does not lists my documents either (basically being Documents because of the inheritance)
2 can not select custom columns of my content type at the managed property filter.

We’re working on an option in highlighted content to enable custom queries where you can provide the KQL or CAML and specify your own query. This will enable you to search by custom content types.
22 comments
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Anonymous commented
Need to be able to choose custom content types
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Luke commented
The current version is also quite buggy. Filters don't work if you're trying to use a yes/no or multiple choice property (e.g. trying to filter pages from the page library based on additional column data)
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Dang75 commented
In addition to this suggestion I propose that the features to:
Show/Hide number of views
Show/Hide author
Show/Hide first published datebe added to the highlighted content webpart.
The News webpart already has this functionality but without filtering.
Really, wouldn't one well designed webpart that combines the functionality of highlighted content and the functionality of news be more practical than two webparts that each kind of do what you need but not really?
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Paulo Anica commented
May we filter based on user profiles metadata, for example by user department or any other type of user attributes ?
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Jakob Nøtseth commented
Changing the columns is important too, not just to custom query. One issue is getting the correct items, another is showing the necessary infomration.
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lb commented
Thanks for the info that you're working on this.
Any indications on the timeline?
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Anand commented
https://anandinnani.com/2019/03/19/sharepoint-online-change-highlighted-content-webpart/
You can use custom content types, custom columns and every thing. If you know CAML and if you have development background than you can make the changes to highlighted content web part
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Eric commented
It would be very useful to filter by the columns of the custom content type in this web part. I have content types that use different metadata columns, but currently I can't filter by those columns in this web part. I can pull in the content type, but can't filter by those custom columns.
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Ingrid commented
There is another uservoice for Hightlighted Content Web Part at https://office365.uservoice.com/forums/264636-general/suggestions/32071210-highlighted-content-web-part-allow-multiple-fil?tracking_code=6c324338cb595ad79c7457b975606d30 with currently 589 voices.
It belongs to missing functionality for AND-joins."I've found a MS Support article that describes the functionality of the Highlight Content Web Part. https://support.office.com/en-us/article/use-the-highlighted-content-web-part-e34199b0-ff1a-47fb-8f4d-dbcaed329efd
Therefore an AND join is supported but only for different filter types e.g. a filter by filename and a managed property is an AND join, a filter by filename A and filename B is an OR join.The problem is, that managed property is handled as one type and therefore as OR join. But it should be updated to handle each managed property as one filter type.
This is really a big problem for us. It is not possible to create a useful content query with this bug and other compareably WebParts for dynamic content are not available in der modern view at the moment. Please fix this asap."
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Gretchen commented
I'm able to filter as needed, but I can't modify the columns displayed which is really what I need to do to make this a useful webpart
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André commented
It is not only for document content types. The same happens with custom list content types based on tasks and issues.
When you select all, they are displayed, but when you select the parent content type, nothing is displayed..
Why? -
Daniel Westerdale commented
Yes this will be really handy. I noticed that one of the contributors on here mentioned filtering by a content type name or content type id (guid) , yet I am presented with a read only drop down with only OFTB content types. I wonder if this is related to permissions
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Ricky Kenny commented
If you're having trouble filtering by the Name of your Content Type, make sure you're using the 'SPContentType' managed property rather than 'ContentType'.
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Anonymous commented
This web part has clearly been rushed to release and isn't yet fit for any meaningful purpose. As well as the lack of filtering, the main issue is with the way items are displayed. Four preset layouts, with no way to customise the behaviour or appearance just isn't flexible enough. We're building an intranet with these tools, but without an equivalent of the old CQWP it's going to be a struggle. For example, using Highlighted Content WP, we can't make the tile images clickable, and we can't hide the Author name or Site links. All fairly large issues, which should be fairly easy to fix.
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Anonymous commented
We would like to be able pull similar documents from various Group sites (by CT) but then be able to display them in a grouped format so HR, Governance policies stay together etc.
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Anonymous commented
To help everyone there needs to be more functionality pulled over from the old Content Search web part. This would then manage the various content types people want to pull together and format how it looks
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Anonymous commented
Can I then filter on a column value from my ContentType?
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Anonymous commented
I was not able to filter by Content Type. I created 2 content types based on Site Page: Tech Pages and Social Pages. I got the IDs from them and tried to filter where Managed Property ContentTypeId equals the ID...not working
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Robert Caretta commented
Agreed, need to be able to pick additional columns in display.
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Åse Strömsrud commented
Choosing Content type doesn't help because the layout options are too limited. I wanted to show items from a custom list. I could filter out the items using managed properties, but not show them in any meaningful way. You can't chose which columns to show and the list layout isn't responsive.