Best practics for confluence

[Petr A]

Dear Community!

What are the best plugins you use to customize the default Confluence interface and create spaces/pages for your clients and documentation in general?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

So I will be clear that I have some bias here, as I work for Adaptavist.  The content formatting macros  is the first thing I reach for on every Confluence install, even before people come to me with an actual problem or improvement. 

But I've been saying something like that since I first got asked to be the "Atlassian Admin", and that was a long time before I joined Adaptavist.

There were a few others I used to add, but most of the Adaptavist ones have been merged into the CFM app, and CFM can cover most of the non-Adaptavist ones I'm thinking of.

The rest of the list is a bit more solution-focussed - all equally solve problems really well, but I would not get them for the sake of it, get them when you need them. 

• K15t's "scroll" products all do what they say very well. 
• Refined makes your Confluence far more visually appealing (and does more than just re-skin it) 
• Our Scriptrunner massively enhances your automation
• You absolutely should look at a diagramming app or two - draw.io, gliffy, and smartdraw are at the top of my list (unless you are mostly looking at mockups - then look to Balsamiq, which I'd still use alongside one of the other three!)
• Comala's Document management is the first place I'd go if you want to have processes around page creation and publication (but look at the rest of their apps too - you might find stuff in there you didn't even know you wanted!) 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

p.s. if you want to scare an older Atlassian admin, ask them about Themebuilder for Confluence.  

[Petr A]

Hi @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- 

Thanks for your reply!

Do you have examples of solutions using Content formatting macros?

I tested it, but did not find much advantage in terms of visualization - you can add buttons, but you can not edit their size. Why then add buttons, if you can insert an image and add a link using a OOTB solution? And similar examples that I have encountered. I would like to see a really finished example of the space/page in order to understand all the possibilities.

Thanks in advance!

[Levente Szabo _Midori_]

Hi @Petr A 

This Confluence best practices article is from a different point of view (mostly content lifecycle management best practices), but if you are just started to form some standards in your Confluence, it may still be worth a read.

A popular app to keep your Confluence spaces clear of outdated pages, have automatic status updates and automatically notify content owners to take action is Better Content Archiving for Confluence.

Among many other content lifecycle management features, it allows you to have an overview of your Confluence page statuses and content health:

Free trial >>

(Please note that Better Content Archiving is a supported and paid app, and I'm part of the team developing it.)

[Steffen Burzlaff _K15t_]

Hey @Petr A ,

+1 what @Rilwan Ahmed has said. It really depends on what you actually need.

If you're looking for a public facing documentation you could take a look at app of my team Scroll Viewport for Confluence Cloud.
It allows you to generate a documentation to a public facing website without the need to change your Confluence UI.
You can still customize the theme to your needs and you can also connect SSO services and add a custom domain.

If your readers of the documentation are users in Confluence a theming app for Confluence might be the better alternative.

I hope this helps. If you let me know your exact requirements I might can help with further recommendations.

Cheers,
Steffen

[Rodrigo]

Hello @Petr A, 

There are some really good insights here, and as mentioned, it depends on your team's scale, goals, and workflow.

One idea to consider would be to check the apps categorized as "Staff Pick", which have been selected by Atlassian under certain criteria, so they could be a place to start :)

To suggest some apps that I really like and use, and which generally fit on most workflows:

• Comala Document Management (Review process for documents)
• MultiExcerpt (Advanced "excerpt" macro)
• Scroll PDF Exporter (If you export a lot of content or work with Pdfs, this one is great)
• WordArt (It's free, and beautiful. Just to add an extra touch of fun)
• Viewtracker - Analytics for Confluence (To see detailed information on how your users use Confluence)
• Navitabs - Tabs for Confluence (To generate a Tab Navigation with any content you desire and in multiple ways)

The last two apps are developed by our team, and all of them are helpful and offer great support as well.

Hope this helps!

Best regards
Rodrigo

[Katerina Rudkovskaya _Stiltsoft_]

Hi @Petr,

Our company develops the Table Filter and Charts for Confluence app that enhances user experience with tabular data, statistics, and analytics within Confluence.

So, we often publish articles and videos regarding best practices for project management, planning, analysis, etc. using native Confluence features and our advanced macros.

Please check the following:

Tables in Confluence Cloud Tutorial (blog post)

Manage Tables in Confluence with Ease (blog post)

Running Project Planning in Atlassian Confluence (blog post)

How to Work with Tables in Confluence Cloud (blog post)

Must Have Best Practices for Project Management (video, 18 min)

Confluence Cloud Tables: from Basics to Pro Tips Webinar (video, 23 min)

Hope it helps your future cases.

[Petr A]

Hi @Katerina Rudkovskaya _Stiltsoft_ 

Thanks for your reply! 

I will test it!

[Rilwan Ahmed]

Hi @Petr A ,

All are best in one or the other way. It all depends on what actually you need in your confluence. 

Based on your requirement, you can search for related plugins in https://marketplace.atlassian.com/search?hosting=cloud&product=confluence 

Also you can get list of available macros in native confluence cloud here

[Petr A]

Hi @Rilwan Ahmed 

Sure, thanks!

[Adrian Hülsmann - B1NARY]

Hi @Petr A

Suppose you intend to keep Confluence clean and organized from the ground up and prevent it from information overload due to many outdated pages.

In that case, I'd like to point to Breeze, available via the Atlassian Marketplace.

It automatically identifies outdated pages and implements review and archiving workflows to keep your pages up-to-date and remove Confluence clutter.

It's a feature-packed content lifecycle management solution that provides:

• automated content analyses,
• page review and archiving workflows,
• page and space ownership,
• reports (both global and space-level,
• notifications,
• bulk archiving and deletion,
• analytics,
• data export for all your content, ownership, and status information via CSV
• and more to update outdated pages quickly and enhance collaboration.

👉 Feel free to give it a try or schedule an appointment with me for a personal demo.

Cheers, Adrian from B1NARY (we are the developers of Breeze)