Organising pages in confluence

Question

Hi guys :)

I am trying to do some housekeeping for the new year and would like to organise our confluence areas.

We currently have an area for each client and then child pages are made under that parent.

The issue we have is that some clients have many projects going on at once and we need a way to clearly see which document relates to what project.

I have thought about adding a prefix to each document but wondered if there is a better way to go about it?

I would be great if under the main client name you can add folders for each project and then inside those break out the relevant pages for Onboarding, BRD and SOW etc.

Any help is appreciated :)

Darshanaa (ServiceRocket) · Answer

Hi @Laura Potter ,

Have you tried Space Manager for Confluence?

It helps to give you a visual view of your entire space(s) and you're able to clearly see which document relates to what project.

I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the app. Please feel free to leave any questions/feedback here.

Thanks & have a great day! :)

Mykenna Cepek · Answer

In Confluence, every page can serve as a folder -- since every page can have sub-pages.

So "under each main client" page you can have a "folder page for each project", with all the project-related pages underneath.

One thing I've found that helps is to differentiate these "folder pages" visually from other "content pages". That helps Confluence users more easily navigate a content-rich site. I give a specific example of what we're using further below, to spur your creativity.

In your case, this organization comes to mind:

* All Clients* Client 1* Client 1 Project A
* Client 1 Project B

* Client 2* Client 2 Project Y
* Client 2 Project Z* Lots of Project Z pages here

Note that by using the "Children Display" macro (with depth-1), you can have Confluence automatically create indexes for you for the "All Clients" and "Client N" pages. That reduces your manual maintenance, and also makes it easy for users to navigate.

The example I go into below would work well for the "Client N Project Q" pages.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

An approach I like is to come up with a style and design for "folder" pages, to make it easy for users to recognize and navigate them.

I'm including an example screenshot below. I created this as a template, to make it easy to reuse. There are just a few elements, all with specific user-focused purpose:

* At the top is just a two-row table with colored backgrounds, for high visibility and recognition. The second row is optional, for the most commonly needed link.
* The bottom is a two-column layout with one standard page macro in each column:* On the left is the Page Tree macro, configured with RootPage=@self, SortedBy =position, with "Search Box" and "Expand/Collapse" enabled, plus StartDepth=1. This allows for both quick searching and navigation, even if the left navbar area is closed.
* On the right is the Contributors Summary macro. This is configured for GroupBy=pages, Display=lastupdate (only), SortBy=update, max=20 (to speed page load time), Content=pages, and Hierarchy=descendents (to show all recently updated sub-pages). This area highlights the latest activity.

My goal was to have a consistent look-and-feel for these "folder" pages, making it intuitive for users to click through. Feel free to experiment, customize, etc.

In your case, maybe you have that top table include a few (only a few!) links to the most critical documents for each project (Onboarding, BRD, SOW, etc). Alternately, you could use the "Space Shortcuts" feature in the left navbar for those links.

I originally started with these "folder pages" having just a "Child Pages" macro, but evolved over time to this improved design.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

One other thought: If you have a need to index the "Onboarding, BRD, SOW" documents across projects, you could look into the Page Properties and Page Properties Report macros.

You might not need that, with client projects organized to be easily navigated. But those macros give you that "cross-cutting" functionality you can't do any other way (for when someone needs scattered documents aggregated into one place).

Kris G _Alacriz_ · Answer

This is pretty much possible using Confluence, @Laura Potter .

It offers an intuitive way of organizing content using spaces, pages, permissions, groups, labels, etc. where users belonging to one organization cannot access the content from another organization and so on.

Here are few links that are a good starting point to learn how to do that:

https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/organize-your-space/

https://confluence.atlassian.com/confeval/confluence-evaluator-resources/confluence-organizing-your-content

I hope that helps.

best,
Kris