Info Panels

[rebecca_m_kornblum]

It just occurred to me for the millionth time that it would be really nice to be able to put info panels INSIDE a numbered or bulleted list. If there is a way to do this, I'll be so grateful that I don't feel foolish for not knowing. If there isn't, how/where do I make this suggestion? I create Help Center articles with a lot of step-by-step instructions and any time I need to call out information within the steps, I have to get creative in how I present it since the info panels aren't available inline.

Thanks!

[Daniel_Domene_Kolekti · Accepted solution]

Hello @rebecca_m_kornblum , to add to what @Robert DaSilva mentioned, you could also look in the marketplace as there are a few solutions that might fit your use case.

Here's a short gif I just made of a couple of options I thought could work from Content Formatting Macros:

1. Tooltips (a flag with info will show when clicked)
2. Footnotes (you can add multiple footnotes to a page and will get grouped on the page later)

I'm also interested in learning more about your experiences creating step-by-step Help Center guides. At Kolekti, we recently released Guided Pathways for Confluence, an app designed specifically for that purpose.

If you're open to it, I'd love to schedule a quick chat to hear about your process and get your feedback on our app. If so, feel free to reach out to me at dmartinez@kolekti.com.

[rebecca_m_kornblum]

Hi Daniel,

I really like these ideas. They don't quite work for what I'm doing but they are certainly helpful to have for other documentation.

Thanks!

[Robert DaSilva · Accepted solution]

Hey @rebecca_m_kornblum 

You might be able to get away with using Tables for your step-by-step guides instead of the default numbered or bulleted list.

Tables have the ability to insert a numbered column to the left of all other content, and the table cells can contain whatever it is you want. It doesn't have the same look as the step-by-step guide, but it gets close!

Here's an example I just threw together to demonstrate:

As an aside, it looks like Atlassian is aware of the feature request. They have an open ticket on their public Confluence Cloud bug portal: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-67862. I would recommend giving that post a like and voting for the issue, as that's one of the main ways Atlassian prioritizes new features.

[rebecca_m_kornblum]

Hi Robert,

Thank you for that suggestion. I always love creative workarounds and would definitely do that for the occasional step-by-step guide but I write instructional help center documentation that can get pretty lengthy. I did not know you could add a numbered column in a table, though, so that is good to know! I really appreciate the link to the issue above and wIll add my two cents there.

Thanks,

Rebecca

[Barbara Szczesniak · Accepted solution]

@rebecca_m_kornblum This has been the bane of my existence for the last 18 months (I'm a 30+-year tech writer creating a user guide in Confluence for the first time). 

I finally started using Shift+Enter and emojis at the start of the new line to pretend to be a note/tip/warning/etc. It looks a bit cheesy and is confusing, since it's inconsistent styling with other places where I can use the panel.

Of course, I have to use this Shift+Enter method for any paragraph I want to include under a step. The biggest failing for this is when you want to put your screenshot under the step.