Template talk #2: Confluence templates wish list

[Dilani Kahawala]

Hi Community!

Thanks for your feedback on the first post about templates! It’s incredibly helpful for us to hear the details of how you or your use templates and what problems you’re running into. In this next post we’d love to understand:

1. Have you ever wished Confluence came with a template for something? What was it for? (e.g. best practices for product envisioning, creative brief, 1:1s)

2. Admins can control which templates are available to users in which spaces. Do you use this ability to restrict? If so, why?

As always, the more details the better!

[Jiri Vizdal]

Hey there!

I would very appreciate central templates management across one or more workspaces - i.e. I need to have just one set of my own project templates which can be used multiple-times by many different users for the specific purpose (e.g. meeting minutes, status report, kick-off, etc.) and if needed I am able to change the selected template when the change propagates across all the pages where the template is used.

Kind regards, Jiri V.

[Arian Hintringer]

Yes please! We have the exact same requirement.

eg Project Charter, Availability Planning, Contact Persons,...

[Dilani Kahawala]

@Jiri Vizdal thanks for the feedback! Could you give me an example of the kind of change you might make that you'd want propagated across all the child pages?

[Jiri Vizdal]

Hi Dilani @Dilani Kahawala

Sure! Let's leave the technical solution aside for this moment (I am not sure if the solution should be designed as parent page + child pages or more likely it should be solved using master templates for many pages across one or more workspaces).

As indicated above - I need to be able to manage master templates for one or more selected workspaces from one place. Let's outline simple example as following:

• I need to have just one design of Meeting Minutes for one or more projects (workspaces). For this purpose I can use the feature of templates (Space Settings => Content Tools => User Created Templates), where I can design the relevant Meeting Minutes template as I need (incl. using integration with JIRA to display selected issue filters).
• Then, I can use this template within the current workspace + I am able to create new pages based on this template using "Create from template" feature.
• Now let's imagine the situation I need to change something on the Meeting Minutes template (e.g. working instructions, add/delete some part, etc.). Of course, I am changing the relevant Meeting Minutes template (Space Settings => Content Tools => User Created Templates), BUT there is no option to propagate the change across all already created pages, where this template has been used.
• Therefore, I am forced to update every single page manually...

Similarly, it can be used for any other templates as e.g. project charter, orgcharts, communication matrix, mandatory documentation checklist, security instructions across the running projects, closure & evaluation checklists, etc.

Another key feature is simple copying of the created page structure (parent + child pages) in the cloud version, where master template management would be highly desirable as well.

[Arian Hintringer]

• Project Charter
• Availability Planning including a way of submitting entries

[Greg Ranz]

Template page trees - A single page template with multiple child page templates connected following unique formats so that multiple pages are created without having to create various individual page templates in a particular sequence.  Thought this was what blueprints was going to be but not so much.  

[Erik Kramer]

I would like to have the new editor and old editor selectable when using the existing templates.

[Krishna Iyer]

I would really like the ability to create better templates in the cloud version (such as include pre-populated variables like date of creation or revision number for the document)

[Martin James]

I don't have any wishlist for a specific template but the Create from Template button needs improvements. Such as being able to predefine labels and selecting a path to where a page is created.

We want to be able to have buttons on the front page of each team space which the team can click on to create documents where they need to go. This will allow us to keep team spaces organised.

Template version control and tracking changes would be useful. 

[Morten Bjerregaard]

I would like the following:

Business Model Canvas

Roadmap

[Michiel Schuijer]

I would very much like templates for creating Jira project requirements!

I do a requirements gathering for new Jira (server DC) projects in our Confluence (server) and track changes and updates with inline comments on a prepared page.

The page  have prepared describes possible requirements and explains what people need to provide in details and why (in short). Inline comments then make it easy to spot, update and change in the same place, instead of going over Jira comments and after enough details are gathered I start and create a project in a test server based on that input and further refine it.

Currently I have created a page with such a setup, including Gliphy diagram examples for workflows, and people can copy this page to their own space so they can modify it for their needs. It would be great if there was an Atlassian example template, including nice pictures and help.

A page or page set template which will contain a setup that is easy to fill out for people with e.g.:

• a description of required Issue Types for the issue type scheme;
• a description of required Workflows for the workflow scheme, including diagram placeholders/example;
• a description of required Screens for the screen scheme;
• a description of required Field configurations for the field configuration scheme;
• optionally a description of required Notification/Priority/Permission scheme as well.

If you want I can share my example page.

Best regards

Michiel

[Erik Kramer]

Related to my previous comment, it would also be good if a site admin can disable all templates using the new editor. New users are often "trapped" by creating content inadvertently using the new editor (without realizing it) and get upset about not being able to conveniently get to the "classic" editor.

[Priya Dutt]

Is this for content creater because i want to create content for touristvisaonline my website