How to change the "spaces" text in the header (confluence)

[Matt Lundstrom]

Hi, thanks for reading.

In the header, near the logo, there is a dropdown menu that says "Spaces" I can't for the life of me figure out how to edit that text. I've gone through ConfluenceActionSupport.properties and replaced every "Space" word with "my word" and apparently this dropdown menu is not part of the main language file. 

I found a URL from reading that allows me see the variable name which is sidebar.header.spaces.link

I've grepped everything that was extracted from the confluence-5.7.1.jar and no results were returned for that name.

Also, there is another one that does not appear to be in the default language file which is title.Dashboard which I also cannot easily find.

I wonder if I would be better off trying to find an English language pack and then hoping that it has the values/variables that I cannot find. I found this one, but it is older and apparently not supported:

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.atlassian.translations.confluence.inproduct

Any suggestions?

TIA

[Stephen Deutsch · Accepted solution]

If you really want to change it, you could just do something with Javascript that would change it before it is shown, i.e. stick something like this in the custom HTML:

<script>
AJS.toInit(function() { 
  var finished = false;
  jQuery('#space-menu-link').attr('title', 'Areas').children('span').first().html('Areas'); 
  jQuery('#space-menu-link').click(function() {
    var intvl = setInterval(function() {
      if (jQuery('#view-all-spaces-link').length && !finished) {
        console.log("run");
        jQuery('#recent-spaces-section > strong').html('Recent areas');
        jQuery('#view-all-spaces-link').attr('title', 'Area directory').html('Area directory');
        jQuery('#create-space-header').html('Create Area');
        finished = true;
        clearInterval(intvl);
      }
    }, 50);
  });
});
</script>

[Matt Lundstrom]

Thank you Stephen!

I certainly considered a JS rewrite before posting this (I should have mentioned that) and checked every single "How Do I" thread on this site.

I'm pretty surprised this is not a 'more requested' feature. I am a technical person, and so is everyone who works with me, and the term "Spaces" (among other unconventional naming schemes) required all of us to at least look up the term and read about it.

From an end-user standpoint, the end-users will have no clue what a "Space" is, and they have little time to research it,  and that is why we'd like to make it more (end)user-friendly. Else, they make tickets, emails, and calls because they don't understand what could otherwise be very simple navigation.

"Categories" seems like a suitable winner. "Topics" might also work. "Spaces?" - I commend the idea of being original!

But! Web is moving so fast these days, that the less docs, and the more intuitive the interface, the better the solution. It's always been that way, but on the old days you really had to study.... Today the technology and researching tools are practically flawless in how fast changes can be found and deployed.

I can't fathom why something so simple (and such a major part of the UI) like this, would not be in a language file by now, or, it is already, and I've totally missed the train!

(Could be, it's 11 Am here and I am going on 23 hours shift now.)

I hope this thread contributes to the project, and that others googling for terms like:

"change space dropdown confluence" or "rename space confluence" or "confluence header space" or similar. I tried all of these and 20 more and found nothing about this topic. 

Thanks!