Status for Documents

[saket rustagi]

Hi All,

We are looking to store our documents in Confluence.

However we need to manage the various statuses i.e. "Phase 1 Draft", "Sent for Phase 1 Approval", "Phase 1 Approved", "Phase 2 Draft", "Sent for Phase 2 Approval", "Phase 2 Approved".

Currently we are using "Status" macro, however everyone needs to type in the "Text" which is not suitable. Is there any mechanism where we can build a drop down list and then Author/Reviewers can select the status from pre-defined list.

PS:- We are aware of paid plug-ins like "Comala Document Management", however we are looking for native Confluence solution.

Thanks for your help and suggestions

[Thomas Bowskill · Accepted solution]

Hi @saket rustagi 

If I understand correctly, the main issue with writing the text will be that it's pretty tricky for people to remember the right text (& status colour?).

What you described is quite similar to what I have for some version controlled status. The way I overcome this is to list out the document flow in a into macro, which allows people to copy and paste the status macro that is appropriate. The documents status itself is within a table, within Page Properties macro, which in turn I use in other pages with the Page Properties Report macro.

Other ways I could think of this would be to have a table on your page, with each column header as the status -- let people either shade in the cell below or use the Task checkboxes to register. (Or you could use "//" to put the date at which the document moved to that status and @ for who put it there...)

While not the dropdown-style solution you were looking for, hopefully this gives you something to try :)

And creating Templates isn't a bad shout to ensure there is consistency.

[saket rustagi]

@Thomas Bowskill Thanks for the very quick answer. Yes we are using Templates, Page Properties Macro and Page Properties report.

I have attached the image of how it looks like.

Can you please elaborate this further: "The way I overcome this is to list out the document flow in a into macro, which allows people to copy and paste the status macro that is appropriate"

In the meantime, we will explore the other alternative you suggested: "Other ways I could think of this would be to have a table on your page...........

[Thomas Bowskill]

@saket rustagi I cannot seem to see an attachment. but let me show you a mock-up of what came to mind:

For the "into macro" bit -- I meant "info" macro and that I outline the statuses for people to use in these. E.g.

Does that help explain a bit better?

[Thomas Bowskill]

@saket rustagi the image has loaded for me now -- I see what you have there. In which case, I think the best native option you have is to list out the labels that people should be using and let them copy them over. I'll watch the thread to see if someone else has something creative to solve this, but nothing else comes to my mind without plugins

[saket rustagi]

Thanks a lot @Thomas Bowskill 

[Elena Ovdienko _Stiltsoft_]

Hello @saket rustagi ,

Statuses can be changed in the view mode using Handy Status from our Handy Macros for Confluence. You can create custom status sets and statuses to suit many of your use cases. Additionally, you may love the feature of connecting statuses with page labels and status history to level up your status management and search for statuses quickly.

[Stephan Sutter]

Hi @saket rustagi 

Our Easy Dropdown Menu could be a solution for your requirement. You can add the macro on the page and also use the status as a filter in your Page Properties Report (CQL).

You can find the Easy Dropdown Menu on the Marketplace.

Regards,
Stephan (PM at EPS Software Engineering AG, the vendor of the Easy Dropdown Menu)

[Andrey Khaneev _StiltSoft_]

Hi @saket rustagi,

There is no way to define a set of statuses in Confluence out of the box. But there is the Handy Macros app with the Handy Status macro which does exactly what you need. 

See it in action here.