Is that a template, or how can i do that

Question

hi there,

we have changed our self hosted jira to the atlassian cloud service. with that change, we want to begin our documentation in confluence.

by chance i found that site https://kb.i-doit.com/

in the right upper corner by the questionmark i found "information to confluence" an there the version "Confluence 5.10.7"

my question:

i like the design of https://kb.i-doit.com/ with the menu bar on the left site and the whole formating features (i see at once what part of the text is to read, and what should be in a shell, or so).

what do i all need (plugins, template or what else) to make such a site with confluence in the cloud?

kind regard

AW-Support

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Ah, no, fair enough.  I highlighted the word "theme" to try to give you something specific to search for, but I'm happy to explain more.

Template has a specific meaning for Confluence - it's a template for creating page content.  It's nothing to do with look and feel (although content can contain structured and coloured stuff like tables and so-on, it does not change the way the overall application behaves)

A theme defines how Confluence is laid out - where the menus go, where the content is contained, the stuff in the menus, and it also gives you the site-wide css (fonts, graphic elements, colours, etc).  Confluence really only ships with one theme nowadays, but you can add more.

It is more than possible to write your own theme and install it as an add-on in Confluence.

RefinedWiki and Brikit are both vendors who have themes that are more clever - they don't just provide a single theme, they provide a lot of themes and a huge amount of flexibility for customisation within their themes.  (Themebuilder from my company is a third option, but it's very powerful and needs you to invest time in it to be worth it.  Refined and Brikit don't need anywhere near as much time to work off-the-shelf)

The website you've pointed to definitely has been themed.  It feels like a Refined or Brikit theme, but it's hard to tell.

AW Support · Answer

hello Nic, what do you mean with "created by the Brikit or Refined Wiki add-ons". i'm completly new in confluence, so diverse standard wordings are strange for me. is Brikit a factory who made templates for confluence. must we buy that, or are there some free template. if yes (for free), can you give me a URL, where i can look for that. are the templates compatible with the cloud version from confluence?

kind regards

AW-Support

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

They have a custom theme, probably one created by the Brikit or Refined Wiki add-ons.

(As a side note, their customisation breaches their licence agreement as it doesn't have the "powered by Atlassian" required)