How to create tabs in Confluence

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Do you want to make it easier for users to read and navigate your Confluence pages? Let's talk about tabs - and how they can help you take control of overwhelming Confluence content.

What are tabs?

Tabs are a clever way to organise and present content. Tabs act as containers for related information or files, but you can only see the contents of one tab at a time. Even when you don't know what's in a tab, its label tells you what you could expect to find if you clicked on it.

Tabs help you focus on relevant information, making navigation easier whilst keeping your Confluence page clean.

The problem with tabs in Confluence

Unfortunately, Confluence doesn't have a built-in tabs feature. If you want to use tabs, you'll need the help of an app from the Atlassian Marketplace.

I don't want to install an app - how else can I clean up my pages?

Even if you can't or don't want to extend Confluence's functionality, you can still use built-in features to make your pages easier to navigate.

The Expand macro offers the nearest functionality to tabs. Expand macros keep your content neatly organised, and only show you the sections you choose to open. Learn more about using the Expand macro here.

However, Expands don't stand out against other content, meaning it could get lost on your page. We recommend adding an emoji (as above) to make each Expand a little more engaging.

Other options:

For more visual, customisable alternatives, you could format content in tables, use dividers to separate content, or even use custom panels to create headers for each topic.

However, none of these hide information you're not interested in. If you want your content to be engaging and space-saving, tabs are the answer.

How to add tabs to a Confluence page

To recap, you'll need the help of an app from the Atlassian Marketplace to use tabs on your Confluence pages. 

There are two types of apps: ones that only provide the tab macro and ones that include a suite of macros to format content in Confluence. For example:

• 1️⃣ Tabs for Confluence - adds a tab macro to Confluence.
  
  
• 2️⃣ Content Formatting Macros for Confluence - adds a tab macro plus extra macros to structure and style content (cards, numbered headings, tooltips, buttons, and more).

Both of the above allow you to create multiple tabs in one go (in one macro menu) without additional containers and style with the custom colour palette. 

Consider which type of app works best for you and your team's needs. In this guide, we’ll show you how to use tabs with Content Formatting Macros for Confluence.

Once you've installed the app, head back here to follow the rest of the guide.

Let's add some tabs to a page!

1. Open your Confluence page and click the ✏️ (edit) icon.
2. Click on the +v in the toolbar and search Tabs. Alternatively, you can type /tabs directly on your Confluence page.

🆘 I can't find the Tabs macro!

Likely, the macro hasn't been installed. If you're a Confluence admin, follow these steps to locate your installed apps. If not, speak to your admin to request the app.

3. Click Tabs for Confluence to bring up the editor dialog box. Here you can create all tabs in one window.

Top tip: Need to rearrange your tabs? Just drag them in the new editor window to reorder quickly and easily.

4. Now, it's time to press Save. You should see a blank macro container, ready to add content:

• To move existing content from your page, cut or copy it, click inside the container, and paste it.
• To add new content, click inside the container and start typing or insert files directly (you can add many types of content to tabs - scroll to the bottom of the guide to learn more).

5. Add more tabs by repeating steps 2–5, configuring a new macro for every tab you want. Remember to toggle "Is this the first tab?" to OFF for any following tabs in the group.
6. Click Publish to see your new tabs in action. That's it!

 

🚨 Please note: this guide is for Confluence Cloud. Data Center users can enjoy tabs as part of Content Formatting Macros for Data Center - learn how here.

See what's possible with tabs

Our guide shows you just one way to style your tabs, but there are so many options. Whether you want to reflect your brand identity or create something visually striking, it's your choice!

 

💡 For inspiration and ideas to present your tabs, check out our Tabs for Confluence examples.

FAQ: What can I put inside my tabs?

Tabs for Confluence supports almost all built-in Confluence features, meaning you can create tabs that are truly useful across your pages. Here are just a handful of the features you can add:

• Table
• Code Snippet
• Date
• Note Panel
• Blog Posts
• Decision Report
• Iframes
• Jira Issue
• Mention
• Emojis
• Trello Card
• Advanced expand (a more powerful version of Confluence's built-in expand macro)

To see the complete list of Atlassian macros and Content Formatting Macros you can use with tabs, head to our documentation and scroll down to Put Other Macros Inside.

If you've used tabs in your Confluence content, share your example in the comments below. We'd love to see what you create!