Should folders have a "view"?

[Ned Lindau]

Hey folders beta crew:

One of the biggest decisions for folders is whether they should have a view. In other words, when you click on a folder, should it...

1. just expand and collapse in the content tree (like it does today)
2. load a folder "view" on the right

The pro of #1 is that folders feel fast to interact with and navigate, and that they are completely distinct from parent pages. The pro of #2 is that it may feel more consistent with other the way everything else in the content tree behaves when you click on it (along with some other, more in-the-weeds benefits).

Question for you all:

Would you rather have a folder that behaves like #1 or #2 above? And if #2, what would you expect to see in the folder view when you click on it?

A few examples of what #2 could look like:

Something similar to the child pages macro:

Something similar to "All Content":

Thanks team!

- Ned

[Clare Lawson]

Can we have both? :) 

[Ned Lindau]

- "Do you want A or B?"

- "Yes"

🤣

Out of curiosity, how/when would you use each option?

[Clare Lawson]

I need a visual!  Can you mock something up? :) 

[Ned Lindau]

Added some mocks to the original question. Curious to hear your thoughts!

[Amanda Barber]

I agree about the pro for #1, but think I most expect clicking a folder to take me to a view that's essentially a page with the table of contents macro already made for me. I'm not opposed to #1 and that has worked for me, but part of me expects to "drill in" like you do in Google Drive.

[Ned Lindau]

@Amanda Barber added a mock — let me know your thoughts

[Amanda Barber]

I like the "All Content" view!

[Stavros_Rougas_EasyApps]

Make is as close to Google Drive/Workplace experience as possible for me is a general rule. For the better or for the worse this is what all users understand. Part of the swimming upstream with Confluence, which hinders adoption, is that few understand or want to understand a wiki logic.

Try to include a mockup, you will get more feedback.

[Ned Lindau]

Added a mock

[Scott Beeson]

Folders are going to end up being a page with a children macro that you can't edit, aren't they? 🤔

[Ned Lindau]

What would you want to see here @Scott Beeson? 

[Scott Beeson]

I absolutely love Page Properties and Page Properties Reports, so I'm probably the wrong person to ask. I'm struggling to see value in folders.

I'd love to see Page Properties developed out further. I think it's underutilized by most people.

[Scott Beeson]

This is what most of my site looks like until you get to a lower level.

[Stephen Watson]

I prefer #1; otherwise, there's little distinction between a folder and a parent page.

[Filip Callewaert]

i like the way how it's shown on the right with extra context information (excerpt/summaries)

[Ned Lindau]

@Filip Callewaert which option do you like best in the list above?

[Filip Callewaert]

something similar to "all content" as I get much more context information

[David]

I vote for option 2.  Our users often have the page structure section collapsed and we use the child pages macro to navigate.  I would love to see folders become something like the Child Pages macro as it is similar to Google Drive or OneDrive.

[Stavros_Rougas_EasyApps]

Option 1: offers little additional value to what already exists.

Option 2: better but if was more like Google Drive, if it has a child then folder is only named

If it is the bottom level shows a preview which is not simply the first characters, more like the first page.

[Vincent Holloway]

I like #1 and if trying #2, I like the "All Content" view over a child macro as it emulates a Google Drive view. I personally appreciate the toggle between Card and List view as well.

[Anne-Sophie G]

Hi @Ned Lindau , thanks to the team for the Folders feature! 

Can you please let us know which of the two options discussed here won? 

In my company, we like folders but the issue with option #1 is that if you embed a link to a folder, when someone clicks on the link they get redirected to the first page in the folder.

For instance, let's say that I write in a page "Please find all our processes related to X [here]", where "here" is a folder link. But when you click on the "here", Confluence opens the first process in that folder, and then you are left there wondering where the other processes are. It would be more natural that Confluence opens a listing/preview of all processes, so option #2.