Know Your Content : Live Docs

[#1]

What are they?

Live docs look like a page, act (mostly) like a page and (maybe) even smell like a page, but they’re not pages! They’re a relatively new addition to Confluence, and another tool we have in helping folks quickly find information and help collaborate. 

Join me on Feb 26th for a live session where we explore them.

 Live docs help fill a gap that exists due to how page drafts work.  When a page is created it lives in a draft state, and when a page is updated those updates are also saved as a draft (they’re “unpublished”). This makes it incredibly easy for someone (*cough* me *cough*) to add or change content on a page, close the tab or wander off to do something else and never publish the content.

I’m personally guilty of doing this quite a bit. My spaces are littered with pages that are drafts (e.g. never published) and existing pages that have “pending changes” (e.g. updates I made but never clicked publish for). This means I’ve got a ton of knowledge IN Confluence, but it’s essentially invisible to everyone else.

Use Cases

While we certainly aren’t limited to Just these, they are some that make good use of the “instantly live” feature.

 

Meeting Notes

Typically I’m using a Page with a Meeting Notes template - which is great for me, but typically meetings are with other people (citation needed). This means other folks can benefit from seeing what the notes of the meeting are while the meeting is running. Live docs give us an easy way to instantly share the document with others in the meeting (and those who aren’t!).

Brainstorming

Another great situation that typically involves other people and benefits from having things instantly visible to others. Having it published immediately allows others to add their ideas, or to provide feedback on what they’re seeing.

Retrospectives

Retrospectives also benefit from the “instantly live” aspect of live docs. This is doubly so for virtual teams (which pretty much every group has) as individuals won’t be in the same room. Allowing teams to quickly (basically in real time) share their ideas helps them capture more ideas and learn more from their experiences.

Negative Use Cases

The “instantly live” nature of Live Docs also suggests some use cases where you’d want to AVOID using them. Typically these relate to more sensitive or confidential topics. These include things like:

• Basically anything that needs review - This could be a policy, process or other document that needs someone to sign off on what it is before it goes live. Here, the “instantly live” aspect of Live Docs works against it as information won’t be approved before people can see it.

• Anything confidential - If there’s any amount of confidential information in the doc a Live Doc may not be the best option. It’s much better to be careful with stuff like this and keep it locked down before sharing it.

Other thoughts

You can convert Live Docs to a static page. This means you could start with something as a team-brainstorm, and then convert it into a Page. For example, a small working group may work on a restricted Policy Live Doc, then after they think it looks good, make it a page. This would prevent future updates from instantly being live, while still allowing the original document to be worked on together.

Curious how you’re using Live Docs - share below!

[Dustin Smith]

Love this write up! ❤️ One thing I see folks who are exploring Live Docs for the first time get really excited about is your last note about how easy it is to convert to a Page. A workflow I see happen a lot is when a team comes out of a brainstorm using a Whiteboard and starts using Rovo to transition from a freeform phase to a more sequential longform phase, but still with lots of editors from the brainstorm. Live Docs are a perfect fit here and then once the group has what their working on in a state thats ready to share/review, 2 clicks and they just convert to a Page. I've also seen groups flip back to a Live Doc from a Page once they get a bunch of feedback and want to do an update blitz. 

The ability to do this quickly is so handy and I hear people say all the time they've stopped doing their early collaboration stuff in Google Docs or Word (with the messy and manual copy/paste operation into Confluence that also removes version history), and instead just use the Live Doc shortcut (livedoc.new) to start drafts in their personal space and then when its time - flip the Live Doc to a Page and move it to the appropriate Space if needed.

[Stavros_Rougas_EasyApps]

@Robert Hean consider talking about in chat how some apps and macros do not work the same or at all with live docs.

Example, we have a Redirection app that doesn't work as expected on live docs as it loads a popup which is not possible in a live doc. I don't have a list of the apps where functionality is different or doesn't work at all.

That would be a useful list to create.

[Elena_Communardo Products]

This is a super helpful breakdown, @Robert Hean thanks for sharing!

I love the idea of Live Docs for meetings and brainstorming; it seems like a great way to keep everyone in sync in real time. I can definitely see myself using them for team retrospectives too, especially for remote teams.

One question: do you have tips for managing “pending changes” in Live Docs so the info doesn’t get lost or overwritten by accident?

[Robert Hean]

Heya @Elena_Communardo Products  - curious if you have more context? I haven't run into a pending change with a live doc.

[Elena_Communardo Products]

Hi @Robert Hean , my bad. I might have mixed this up with the draft/pending changes behavior on regular pages. Sounds like Live Docs don’t have that issue since everything’s auto-published, which honestly makes them even better for meetings and brainstorming.