Labels

[Matthew]

Hello,

Can someone please tell me if I am correct on this?  Following my email to our staff is our Deputy CIO's response to my email.

My email to staff:

Hello,

We currently have over 1,200 Pages in Confluence.  I am checking each Page for accuracy.  I need everyone to get in the habit of creating Labels when creating a Page. 

Labels are how Users find information, just like when you search in Google for information.  If there’s an error code, add it. 

When determining which Labels to add, think of what you would type in a Google search. Labels are the defining keywords in your Confluence Page.  If there’s an Error Code (e.g., KB-846534), please add it as a Label.  When someone searches for that error, it will pop to the top of their search.

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Reply to me:

I don’t think we can manage Confluence pages.  They are going to continue to grow.  We can’t make sure everyone labels them or uses them correctly.  From what I’ve seen the labels are more for organizing pages.  You can create a filter to show a label.  As far as finding or searching for pages the label doesn’t seem to do much.  I agree people should use them, but I know I rarely use them on pages I create because I don’t need to group them together.  This sounds like a never ending battle.

[Nicholas Wade · Accepted solution]

The macro 'Content by Label' does not do what it says it does. By default, it displays all pages containing the word entered in the search box - useless in my opinion.

You should be able to enter a label in the search field and have all the pages that contain that label be displayed. 

The only way to get the macro to work to find pages with a particular label, is to ignore the search box and click on the search icon (magnifying glass). This brings up a search page with additional filters, one of which is 'Labels'. You can now type the required label into this filter and the filter will display all similar labels. Select one of the listed labels, and all the pages using that label are displayed.

This is a very poor implementation, which has not been thought out. Pretty typical of Confluence.

The whole purpose of labels as metadata is to be able to search on them, which you cannot do directly unless you follow this convoluted method. 

Another also very 'hammy' method, is to create a page of all the labels - 'Labels List' and select a label - but who wants that? 

[Matthew]

Interesting...

[Liam Green · Accepted solution]

Hi

I think you're both correct really.  Labels are used to index pages mostly and search does work effectively without them, but it is a good habit to label pages properly if you're using it to find related pages.

Hope that helps

Regards, Liam

[Matthew]

Thanks Liam.  So, labels aren't the critical piece for locating the best Page? 

[Liam Green]

Hi Matthew

No, they're not.

My current team doesn't use them, and searching for pages is still quite simple. 

[Petr Sýkora]

Hi Matthew,

If you are using Confluence Cloud, maybe the app Smart Labels for Confluence could help you. It creates the labels automatically using open AI. You can find it on the Marketplace: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/1230955.

Cheers,

Petr