How is it possible to auto number pages in Confluence?

[Jim Lopez]

Due to an audit, we have to number our SOPs with a specific type of numbering sequence system.   Is it possible to change the pages from a default of a "bullet" to a numbered (i.e. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.1.1, 1.1.2......) format?

Thank you

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Do you mean page numbering, or page content numbering (like applying the 1.1.1 format in a table of content, based on the various headings appearing in the page)?

@Bastian Stehmann has answered for page content already, but I would be a bad Adaptavist, being told off by our product manager, if I didn't mention that our Content Formatting Macros can do it too.  There are a couple of others that include it too.

However, the page numbering is what I wanted to explain.  There is no way you can do page numbering because Confluence is not a linear read, it's a tree.  Whilst you could group things by branch, you can't have a meaningful number distinction within each branch.

Imagine a few pages structured as:

• Page 1
• Page 2
• Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6

You could number them by layer, but that comes out as

• 1
• 1
• 1
• 1.1
• 1.1
• 1.1

But on each layer, the numbers are not unique, so they're not a lot of use.  So maybe uniqueness within a layer:

• 1
• 2
• 3
  • 3.1
  • 3.2
  • 3.3

This will not work either - the numbers will change every time someone adds a new page in a layer, and the whole point of page numbers is that they do not change.  And there is a big question about how you select a unique number for the next page in a layer, or what you change when the first sub-page in a new layer is created.

TLDR: page numbering in a tree structure does not work.

(The numbering pages essay is a copy and paste of an answer I had to explain and then write up at my second ACE, so it's 18 years old.  I'm quite proud that it worked then)

[Jim Lopez]

Without going to an external app, Confluence doesn't have the ability to handle the auto page numbering itself?

[Bastian Stehmann]

At least I don't know a way to do that.

[Bastian Stehmann]

Hi @Jim Lopez ,

Welcome to the community. 

Maybe an app like this might do what you need

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/16063/numbered-headings?tab=overview&hosting=cloud