How to use "include" properly

[Arseniy Sidorov]

Hello everyone.
I have a question related to "Include" Option. My task is to create a space with Education Materials for my team. We have already a lot of educational pages but they are spread across other spaces. Can I use "include" option but also edit it in my document? Or once I use the include option, the only way to make changes in my document is to change the initial document?

Basically, I want to automate updates coming from another space to this new Educational space, but also I want to keep the ability to edit it the way I need. 

Thank you in advance. 

[Bill Bailey · Accepted solution]

The include macro will always reflect the source. If you edit the source, then it will be reflected on the page including the content. It sounds like you want to copy and past to bring in that content and edit it.

BUT you can have local content on the page between your includes.

The other approach is to use the excerpt macro. That would allow you to share common content between pages, and local custom content.

[Arseniy Sidorov]

Thank you for your reply. I tried also to use excerpt macro but it seems like it is not working. 
I am adding a screenshot. Sorry for Russian, but the main issue is that once I select this Macro, I am not able to select the area which I need to be included. Basically, it just includes only "Educational Materials" text and that's all 

Thank you in advance

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The excerpt macro is a little tricky the first time you try it, but it does work.  The include part needs a pointer to a page, upon which you have flagged an excerpt.

Imagine Page 1's editable content is:

Alice went down a rabbit hole
{excerpt} Kate is short for Bob {}
R.I.P Charlie

Then Page 2's editable content is:

Alice's second name is Lidell
{excerpt-include} Page 1 {}
We miss Charlie

Then Page 2 will render

Alice's second name is Lidell

Kate is short for Bob

We miss Charlie

[Arseniy Sidorov]

I still do not get it fully. So I should put {excerpt} at the initial page and put some text in it and only after this I will be able to include this text into another page, right?
So it should look like this?

Sorry, I am not a technical guy at all. :)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Nothing to apologise for!  It's unfamiliar, so you're asking!

But you are exactly right.  On the page you want a part of, you surround the part you want in the {excerpt} macro.  Then on the page you want to see it on, you use {excerpt-include} and tell it what page you want it to look at for the excerpt.

If it helps, I suspect the answer to the next question a lot of people ask might explain a bit more too.  Most people will ask something about having multiple excerpts on a page - you can't do this.  The native function only works for a single excerpt.  If you want to take many from one page, you need an app to provide another macro!

But you can make pages that pull excerpts from others.  I've been known to write pages that are as simple as:

Include: Server overview

Excerpt-include:  Server 1 details

Excerpt-include:  Server 2 details

Excerpt-include:  Server 3 details

With the three server pages being a load of stuff about each different server, but having a brief summary of the important bits of it in the excerpt

[Bill Bailey]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist-  with the assist!

[Arseniy Sidorov]

Now I got it. Thank you!

[Candice]

Hi Atlassian Community. 

My company currently uses Confluence 7.13.2.

We have a page "Project Updates" where a 10+ people add information to it. Our manager wants to see this information but make her own updates on a separate page "Manager Updates".

I've tried using the Include Macro but it only shows the include in edit mode and she is unable to add a column for her updates. Is there a solution to this?

Example:
I have made my project updates today on "Project Updates". My manager wants to see all of the information but add another column on her page for "Remarks" when she is in edit mode.

Is this possible?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The include macro simply brings in the content of another page at the point of use.  If you want to add columns to the included table, you will need to add them to the page that is being included, not the page which is rendering it.

[Candice]

Thanks, I can look at doing that. But do you know why I cannot edit the table in the "Manager Updates" page because it only shows the Include Page macro but not the content of the page

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's because the content you are trying to edit is in a different page.  You need to go to the source page to edit that.

[Candice]

Thank you for clarifying, Nic.