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See the Difference in Your Confluence Exports: Native Exporter vs. Scroll PDF Exporter

Gabriella Evans _K15t_

If your team’s documentation is stored in Confluence, there could be times when you need to share or archive it outside the platform. Confluence’s native PDF exporter offers a quick and straightforward way to export your content. But if you need more than basic exports, there are Atlassian Marketplace apps – like Scroll PDF Exporter – which unlock advanced customization options. Scroll down to see a side-by-side comparison of both exporters.

What Confluence's Native Exporter Does Well

Confluence's built-in PDF exporter is a great starting point for those who want a simple and free export solution. 🤑 It retains the page structure and layout and is easy to use without any additional setup. With just a few clicks, you can generate a functional PDF reflecting your page’s layout, including tables, headings, and images.

For many users, this functionality covers immediate needs. But what if you require more advanced design capabilities?

When to Consider Scroll PDF Exporter

If your exported PDFs need to match brand guidelines, include tailored headers and footers, or handle versions, variants and translated content, use Scroll PDF Exporter. The app’s Template Editor lets you design templates that maintain consistency across teams so that every export needs your requirements. Here’s a quick run-through of what you can customize:

See the Difference

To demonstrate the difference between Confluence’s native exporter vs Scroll PDF Exporter exports, here are some examples made using the exact same Confluence content. With the native exporter, you get clean, functional PDFs that reflect the page’s structure but offers limited visual customization. By contrast, Scroll PDF Exporter produces documents with branded elements, advanced layouts, and a professional finish. The examples highlight how much more control you can achieve with a dedicated tool.

Document Type: Product Fact Sheet

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Document Type: Meeting Notes

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Document Type: Job Description

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Document Type: Medical Lab Diagnostic Report

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Document Type: Statement of Work

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Document Type: Request for Information

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What Do You Export from Confluence?

At K15t, we’ve built a PDF Template Library to showcase different Confluence export use cases using Scroll PDF Exporter.

We’d love to hear more about the types of content you export – whether it's technical documentation, meeting notes, or something more unique.

Let us know in the comments! 👇

Comments

Kristian Klima_gtcuat

THE killer feature for me is integration with Scroll Documents and Variants as it makes the PDF exporter an actual CONTENT app with direct support for my pet peeve - conditional content.

Once can have a single Confluence space for Cloud and DC version of their app documentation, and export a DC only PDF with DC only template, then export a Cloud-only PDF with a CLOUD only content.

The idea that it's literally on tap is incredible as otherwise one has to go selecting pages for every export natively ... and still unable to achieve granularity that PDF exporter and Scroll Docs offer.

Yulia Lenina _AppFox_

Great article, Gabriela!

Many of our customers, particularly those in regulated industries, need their document management processes to comply with standards such as ISO and other frameworks. Auditors often require documents to be exported with detailed metadata, including information about the approval process (workflow status, approvers, dates, comments, etc.), official versions or classification levels.

When our customers use Workflows for Confluence for managing their document lifecycle or set Classification Levels with Compliance for Confluence, the native export functionality sometimes doesn’t fully capture these metadata details. To ensure compliance and meet audit requirements, we generally recommend using Scroll PDF Exporter for accurate and comprehensive exports.

Gabriella Evans _K15t_

Hi @Kristian Klima, thanks for sharing the article you've written on conditional content – that's a good read. 👀

As you've mentioned, being able to keep all of your content within a single Confluence instance and then tailor exports for different audiences – like DC or Cloud – is definitely a powerful workflow and would take a lot more effort to achieve manually.

Gabriella Evans _K15t_

Hi @Yulia Lenina _AppFox_, it’s great to hear how Scroll PDF Exporter helps your customers meet their compliance needs, especially by exporting detailed metadata for audits. 🤩

In regards to what you've said about setting Classification Levels with Compliance for Confluence, it sounds like it could be great to get one of the templates you might already be using featured on the Template Library. I'll get in touch with you now about this. 🙂