How do you create automatic numbering on a confluence table for specific rows only?

[Si Scott]

I'm trying to replicate a word document deployment plan in confluence which has been created by using a table.  The plan has multiple sections, each section has a header row and directly below the header row is a sub header row which identifies each column.  The first column on the left is for the step numbers in the plan.

In confluence I can create separate tables for each "section" with a header row defined and directly below this my columns start.  The first row identifies what each column is used for.  Is there a way to add auto numbering to just the rows that are the steps?  Also, is there a way to select the row/column in each table to start the numbering sequentially so no numbers are repeated on the plan as a whole.  At the moment I have to add the step numbering manually.  So if a step is added, I have to manually change each number after the step which can be quite time consuming if the plan has 100 odd steps... Example below.

Any help MUCH APPRECIATED.  I'm a "pleb" so I don't have special admin rights or ability to import plugins.

[Ajay _view26_]

Hi @Si Scott 

I don’t think Confluence has a native table feature for “auto-number only some rows and continue numbering across multiple tables.”

So for your exact use case, the practical options are usually:
1. keep numbering manual
2. use one continuous table if possible, so the numbered column stays consistent
3. put the step number inside the cell as a numbered list/manual value
4. use a marketplace macro/app if you need Word-style numbering behavior

[Barbara Szczesniak]

@Si Scott A couple of questions:

• If you create the Confluence page by importing the Word document with this table, does the result look anything like the Word table?
• Is Rovo turned on in your Confluence instance? If so, you could provide the Word table as context to Rovo and ask it to create a Confluence table that best approximates the content from Word. (You can also ask it how it would create the table in Confluence, and it will tell you what will work and not work and its reasoning.) You can provide follow-up prompts in Rovo to fine tune the table. Since you are on Enterprise, there may be people in your company that are your Rovo experts that can help you with this. There are also many resources in the community that can help you; you might want to start with https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Confluence-articles/Get-excited-for-the-March-Skip-the-Blank-Page-event-Participate/ba-p/3190607 and the other posts and videos it links to.

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello @Si Scott 

One other native approach I’d look at is not using a normal table, but using a Confluence database for the steps instead.

Databases in Confluence are row/field based, can be shown in a Table view, and that view supports automatic row numbering. They also support sorting, so you could keep one master list of steps, sort by section/order, and let the numbering stay sequential automatically. Then you can embed that database view back into a page.

So for example:

• field for Section
• field for Action
• field for Comments
• field for Responsible
• optional field for Step order

Then use one Table view with Number entries turned on.

It will not look exactly like the Word layout with section header rows inside the table, but it is probably the closest native alternative if the real problem is avoiding manual renumbering every time a step is inserted.