First Impressions of Confluence Cloud from an Atlassian Veteran

[#1]

I have been using Jira & BitBucket for close to seven years now.  But I’ve never had the opportunity to use Confluence until about three months ago when I changed companies.  My previous company used an alternative tool for knowledge management and collaboration with no desire to consider Confluence.

Now that I have had the pleasure and opportunity to use Confluence for a few months, I thought I’d share with you all some of my first impressions about the functionality and features that I enjoy the most.

Ease of use navigating the REST API documentation

Shortly after I read through the onboarding documentation in Confluence.  One of the first things I was requested to assist with was writing some python scripts that would call the Confluence REST APIs. One of the teams was looking to location all instances within a given space where a specific string was used.  I have worked with the Jira REST APIs a little bit and finding everything I needed in the Confluence REST API documentation was extremely easy including examples using CQL and generating API tokens to use for authentication.

Templates help with visual discovery of important macros

I haven’t had to create very many pages in Confluence yet.  Although, one part of my job is going to be updating our internal knowledge base with KB articles containing best practices for our users about the Atlassian tools.  I’m a very visual person and seeing a list of macros with basic icon doesn’t really help understand the best time and place to use them.  However, the Template Library has been fantastic!  So far, I have mainly been making use of the How-to Article template.  I never would have thought of using the information box on my own as a great way to break things up visually, while still conveying all the important information.  I’m looking forward to using more of these templates in the future.  I can already tell that one of the change management templates will likely be used in the near future.

Real time collaboration on content creation

I saved the best for last!  Being able to collaborate on a draft in real time has been a game changer, especially during the pandemic.  At my previous company, trying to collaborate on a draft article was challenging on a good day.  When we were forced into lockdown, this became almost impossible!  Using Confluence, I have been able to write a draft how-to article.  Then jump on a zoom call with my boss to review it in real time and make edits and modifications without having to share my screen.

I know that I have only just started to sink my teeth into Confluence. There are many features that were release in 2020 that I have barely started using yet and I’m really excited to keep exploring all that Confluence has to offer!

[Deleted user]

@Jimmy Seddon 

great news, look if you were using sharepoint before, I think there is nothing wrong with saying sharepoint is not a good product for enterprise information management, and Confluence wins on all sides. It's important to inform users and prevent them from getting bogged down in the sharepoint swamp, in my opinion.

[Jimmy Seddon]

@[deleted] I appreciate that!  However, it wasn't SharePoint.  It was the product that company made which is why I wanted to be respectful enough not to mention it.  Thanks!

[Teodora V _Fun Inc_]

Only the chosen ones know what it means to me reading an article about Confluence by @Jimmy Seddon 😍

[Michelle Rau HP]

I can relate to what you said about the icons in the macro list. I created my own "macro directory" to help get a handle on that.

Nice article and great to hear that a very experienced Atlassian user gives Confluence the thumbs up!

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-articles/Customized-quot-macro-directory-quot-has-multiple-benefits/ba-p/1507841