Ingenieurwesen oder Finanzen, Gesundheitswesen oder IT — unabhängig von der Branche benötigen alle datengesteuerten Unternehmen ein leistungsfähiges Tool für Dokumentenmanagement und Zusammenarbeit. Atlassian Confluence ist ein fortschrittliches Wiki für Teams, die eine sichere und zuverlässige Methode für die Zusammenarbeit an geschäftskritischen Projekten benötigen.

Bei aller Projektvielfalt bleibt eines für alle Projekte gleich. Ein effektives Statusmanagement ist unerlässlich, um Ziele schneller zu erreichen und Engpässe in den laufenden Prozessen schneller zu finden.

Idealerweise kann sich jedes Teammitglied auf Anfrage über jeden Projekt- oder Dokumentenstatus informieren. Deshalb organisieren viele Unternehmen ihre Arbeitsabläufe mit Blick auf das Statusmanagement. Sie erstellen Dashboards, verfolgen den Status von Seiten und suchen nach besseren Möglichkeiten zur Aktualisierung von Informationen auf verschiedenen Seiten.

Hinzufügen von Stati zu Confluence-Seiten

In Confluence können Sie Stati mit dem nativen Status-Makro hervorheben. Geben Sie einfach /status ein, wenn Sie eine Seite bearbeiten, um ihr ein farbiges, abgerundetes Feld hinzuzufügen. Sie können eine von fünf Farben auswählen, um das Aussehen anzupassen. Sobald Sie die Seite gespeichert haben, wird das Statusmakro auf einer Confluence-Seite angezeigt, um den Status von Dokumenten, Aufgaben oder Projektanforderungen hervorzuheben.

Das Status-Makro eignet sich auch hervorragend für Tabellen zur Hervorhebung von Priorität, Risiko, Machbarkeit oder Fortschritt. Sie können den Statuswert bei Bedarf jederzeit im Bearbeitungsmodus ändern. Starten Sie die Bearbeitung der Seite, klicken Sie auf den Status, der aktualisiert werden muss, wählen Sie die neue Farbe und geben Sie den neuen Statustext ein.

Pro-Tipp: Versuchen Sie, Beschriftungen hinzuzufügen, die mit den Stati identisch sind.

Wenn sich das nach einer nutzlosen Tätigkeit anhört, denken Sie an die Zeit, die Sie gebraucht haben, um alle Seiten in Confluence zu finden, die sich im Status Kritisch (oder einem anderen, den Sie in Ihrem Unternehmen regelmäßig verwenden) befinden. Das ist in der Tat keine triviale Aufgabe. Bei Seitenbeschriftungen ist das plötzlich eine Sache von zwei Sekunden. Klicken Sie einfach auf das Label Kritisch, und schon haben Sie alle Seiten vor sich. Mit diesem Trick können Sie sich die Zeit für die Suche nach anderen effizienzrelevanten Aktivitäten auf Ihrer Aufgabenliste sparen.

Erstellen dynamischer Status-Dropdowns in Confluence

Wenn Sie Confluence-Stati häufig verwenden oder planen, diese Erweiterung in Ihre Unternehmensprozesse einzubringen, würden Sie gerne ein fortschrittliches Tool für die Statusverwaltung wie Handy-Macros für Confluence haben. Es umfasst eine Reihe von Makros für die Erstellung und Formatierung von Inhalten.

Werfen wir einen genaueren Blick auf die Makros Handy Status und Handy Datum. Die wichtigsten Funktionen für ein besseres Projektmanagement in Confluence sind:

• Umschalten von Status und Datum in der Seitenansicht
• Benutzerdefinierte Statisätze, die Ihren Bedürfnissen entsprechen
• Unbegrenzte Anzahl von Dropdown-Stati für jedes Set
• Erweiterte Funktionen für eine schnellere Statusverfolgung

Verwaltung von Statussätzen

Sobald Sie Handy Status verwenden, erhalten Sie einen Ort für die zentrale Verwaltung von Statuslisten. Hier können Sie Sets mit benutzerdefinierten Optionen erstellen. Später können Ihre Teammitglieder diese Sets in Confluence bei Bedarf wiederverwenden, anstatt die Stati jedes Mal von Grund auf neu zu erstellen.

Bei der Statusverwaltung können Sie Sets und Statuswerte hinzufügen oder ändern, aus einer breiten Palette von Hintergrund- und Textfarben für Ihre Stati auswählen und sie bei Bedarf löschen.

Arbeiten mit Handy Status und Handy Datum

Wenn Sie Ihre Statussätze eingerichtet haben, ist es an der Zeit, sie zu Ihren Confluence-Seiten hinzuzufügen. Sie können dies wie bei jedem anderen Makro in Confluence tun. Sie können also entweder aus dem Menü Einfügen wählen oder den Makronamen auf der Seite über /macro name eingeben. Verwenden Sie die Makronamen Handy Datum und Handy Status, um interaktive Daten und Stati entsprechend einzufügen.

Sie können Stati und Daten während der Anzeige einer Seite durch Anklicken ändern. Diese Funktionalität optimiert den Aktualisierungsprozess Ihrer Confluence-Daten. Sie und Ihr Team werden zeitaufwändige Bearbeitungen für kleine Seitenänderungen los.

Sie können trotzdem sicher sein, dass Ihre Daten geschützt sind, da nur Benutzer mit Bearbeitungsrechten für die aktuelle Seite Zugriff auf diese Funktionalität von Handy Status and Datum haben. Außerdem können Sie alle Änderungen über die Seitenversionen nachverfolgen.

Bonustipps und -tricks für die Verwendung von Stati in Confluence

Statusänderungen verfolgen

Mit Handy Status können Sie den Verlauf von Änderungen sofort verfolgen. Klicken Sie im Seitenansichtsmodus auf Handy Status, um zu sehen, wer, wann und wie den Status aktualisiert hat. Mit dieser Funktionalität können Sie die Prozessabläufe in Confluence einfach überwachen. Jetzt können Sie sich immer an die richtige Person wenden, um ein Update der Projektaufgabe zu erhalten oder zu sehen, ob die Aufgabe stecken geblieben ist.

Verfolgen Sie den Fortschritt von Teams

Sie können den Fortschritt Ihres Teams leicht verfolgen, indem Sie eine Tabelle für Projektaufgaben erstellen. Durch Hinzufügen von Handy Status und Handy Datum zu jeder Aufgabe wird die Aktualisierung der Aufgaben zum Kinderspiel. Um den Fortschritt noch besser zu visualisieren, können Sie den Handy Slider neben der Aufgabenliste verwenden.

Interaktive Dashboards erstellen

Sie können Informationen über viele Confluence-Seiten hinweg sammeln und organisieren, um einen Überblick über die Daten und Live-Updates zu erhalten. Wenn Sie mehrere Seiten zu einem Projekt haben und diese schnell verwalten müssen, probieren Sie die Kombination der Makros Seiteneigenschaften und Seiteneigenschaftenbericht mit Handy Macros für Confluence aus.

Diese Lösung ermöglicht es Ihnen, Dropdowns zu Confluence-Tabellen hinzuzufügen und sie zu aktualisieren, ohne die Seite zu bearbeiten. Verwenden Sie Handy Status für Text-Dropdowns und Handy Datum für Datumsauswahlen mit dem Makro für Seiteneigenschaften. Sobald Sie neue Werte für diese Dropdowns auswählen, werden beide Seiten aktualisiert (mit den Makros Seiteneigenschaften und Seiteneigenschaftenbericht).

Automatische Aktualisierung von Seitenlabels

Hat Ihnen die Idee der Verbindung von Status und Seitenbeschriftung für die Suchoptimierung gefallen? Mit der Funktion Handy Status können Sie diesen Prozess automatisieren.

Verknüpfen Sie jeden Handy Status mit dem Seiten-Label. Dieses Label wird jedes Mal aktualisiert, wenn Sie den Status wechseln. Sie müssen diese Funktion aktivieren, wenn Sie einen Handy Status einfügen oder bearbeiten. Versuchen Sie, Präfixe für Beschriftungen zu verwenden, um die Rückverfolgbarkeit zu verbessern. Präfixe können Ihnen zum Beispiel helfen, Projekte mit identischem Status zu unterscheiden.

Die Beschriftung ändert sich nach jeder Statusaktualisierung automatisch. Mit dieser Funktion vermeiden Sie das Risiko veralteter Seitenbeschriftungen im Falle von Statusänderungen.

Sie können noch mehr von dieser Statusverbindung mit Beschriftungen profitieren, wenn Sie Handy Status synchronisiert mit der Seitenbeschriftung im Makro für Seiteneigenschaften verwenden. In diesem Fall können Sie mit Hilfe des Makros Page Property Report für jeden Status, den Sie in Ihrem Workflow verwenden, ein interaktives Confluence Dashboard erstellen.

Jetzt sind Sie bereit, Ihre Statusverwaltung in Confluence zu verbessern. Nutzen Sie die bereitgestellten bewährten Verfahren, entwickeln Sie gemeinsam mit Ihren Kollegen neue Ideen und experimentieren Sie, um bessere Ergebnisse zu erzielen. Sie können Handy-Macros für Confluence auf dem Atlassian Marketplace ausprobieren.

Confluence Tipps und Tricks: Interaktive Stati verwenden was originally published in Stiltsoft Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Participating in Codegeist every year is a tradition that we hold in high esteem at our team, and we deeply admire Atlassian for carrying on this tradition. This year was no different, and we were super excited to hear about this year’s theme and get to work.

Initially, we had planned to create a Jira or Confluence application, and we brainstormed half a dozen ideas, including a support bot and an AI assistant for Confluence tables, among others. It took us at least ten days and a hundred cups of coffee to decide and agree on what exactly we would do and how.

However, when the Bitbucket Cloud team announced support for Forge, we abandoned those ideas and immediately shifted our focus to it. With our extensive experience in developing Atlassian Connect applications for Bitbucket Cloud, we were eager to explore the possibilities that Forge for Bitbucket had to offer.

The Problem

As the developers of Awesome Graphs for Bitbucket, our team understands the importance of providing valuable insights to not just developers but also development managers and directors. These individuals often visit Bitbucket to gather information about their team’s activities over the past month. It is common for bosses to request this information via email, and development managers may use it for monthly synchronizations or planning.

The process of collecting this information, however, can be laborious and time-consuming. It requires opening a list of commits and pull requests, scrolling through a large amount of data, and aggregating it while ensuring that nothing important is missed. To address this challenge, we have developed a solution that leverages the power of Generative AI to automate the process.

The Solution

Team Pulse for Bitbucket is an AI-powered application that analyzes commits and pull requests and translates technical data into an accessible and comprehensive overview of the team’s monthly progress in human-readable form.

Our solution streamlines the information-gathering process, freeing up valuable time for development teams and their managers to focus on other important tasks. With our solution, you can be confident that you are receiving accurate and relevant data that can help you make informed decisions about your team’s activities.

In practical terms, the application adds a dedicated Activity page on the repository level, which displays an AI-generated executive summary. The summary provides a comprehensive breakdown of all the activities carried out in the last month, categorized according to the type of activity, such as feature implementation, code refactoring, bug fixing, and more. The categories will depend on the actual work done by your team.

The application also adds a widget to a repository page that provides repository activity metrics. This widget displays the number of open, merged, and declined pull requests, along with the total number of commits for the last 30 days. Additionally, it shows the percentage changes relative to the previous period, making it easy to track the progress.

This app is designed to promote transparency to the team work and ensure that development practices are optimized for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. With the help of the app, development managers can streamline their workflow, monitor progress, and proactively address areas for improvement. It is an essential tool for managers seeking to maintain a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving field of software development.

Challenges we’ve encountered

Although the solution turned out to be relatively straightforward, we encountered many obstacles along the way.

The first. Choosing the right LLM model provider for text and code generation was the first challenge. In our case, we evaluated two providers — Open AI and Anthropic — and took a closer look at their respective GPT-4 and Claude 2 models.

Both tools offer excellent support for generating text and code, which can be incredibly useful for completing a variety of daily tasks, such as creating emails, writing essays, and more. However, there were some key differences between the two models that we needed to consider before making a decision.

For instance, while the GPT-4 model has slightly better performance in areas such as math, reasoning, and coding skills, it can only generate output in a limited number of languages. In contrast, Claude 2 produces safer output and is more affordable, which is a significant factor to consider given the inability to sell Forge apps for Bitbucket at the moment.

Additionally, Claude 2 has larger context windows, which allowed us to input up to 100k tokens, making it an excellent choice for completing text and code-based tasks.

Overall, after careful consideration, we chose Open AI’s GPT-4 over Claude 2 model as, during the testing, it performed better at aggregating data from Bitbucket.

The second. We needed to determine the most effective basis to use for generating the content of the report. We considered several options, including using commit messages, pull request names, pull request contents, or changes in the code itself.

Although changes to the code would have been a great option, we decided against it due to concerns about IP protection. We understand that businesses are still concerned (and so are we) about their IP being compromised, and we did not want to put their code at risk.

We also considered aggregating the content of pull requests as an option, which would have provided a lot of context for the AI to understand the change. However, we encountered a significant limitation in that GPT-4 can accept only up to 8k tokens as input. Unfortunately, the description of pull requests is usually very voluminous and would have exceeded this input limit. Therefore, we declined this option, even though it was good from a quality point of view.

Ultimately, we settled on generating content based on pull request names. This option gave us similar results to the previous option but bypassed the input size limitation. Pull request names are typically short and to the point, making them easier to work with, and we were still able to extract valuable information from them.

The third. We were pleased to see that the time limits for executing requests had been increased from 25 to 55 seconds. This was a welcome development, as it made the execution of requests less challenging.

Our team had been working on optimizing the process for some time and fine-tuning requests to the Bitbucket REST API. We worked on minimizing the amount of time it took to execute requests while ensuring that we were still able to obtain the desired results. Our efforts paid off, as we were able to come up with a solution that fit within the 55-second limit.

Feedback on Forge

We appreciate the many capabilities that Forge for Bitbucket provides to developers and are eager to see its continued development.

Through our work with Forge for Bitbucket, we have identified several areas where the platform could potentially benefit from further growth and development. Here are a few examples:

• While we have the option to embed at the repository level, we are currently limited by the available modules (extension points) provided by Forge for Bitbucket. However, if we were able to integrate at the project and workspace levels, we could significantly enhance the application’s capabilities. This would enable us to provide a more comprehensive overview for larger pull request scenarios, which would be highly beneficial.
• Our application currently features a link in the lefthand sidebar which allows users to navigate to the main application page. The link text is generated using the following template: /{workspaceSlug}/{repositorySlug}/forge/{forgeAppId}/{forgeAppModuleKey}
  To retrieve the required {workspaceSlug} and {repositorySlug}, we need to make a request to the Bitbucket API on behalf of the user, specifically:
  /2.0/repositories/${workspaceId}/${repositoryId}?fields=full_name
  However, this request could have been avoided if the path to the repository had been initially present in the context. Furthermore, we have observed that generating a link using identifiers instead of slugs results in side menu items not being displayed by Bitbucket:

• The Repository overview card module currently lacks an icon property and instead uses a standard light bulb icon. This can be inconvenient if multiple Forge apps are installed in Bitbucket that use this module.
• The Repository main menu page module is displayed without any icon and also does not have a property to indicate the icon in the menu item. This creates the impression that something is not functioning correctly, especially when compared to other menu items that do have icons. You can observe this problem in the module documentation.
• When calling bridge.invoke from CustomUI to Forge, the function receives a context without the workspaceId property, although this identifier is used in many of Bitbucket APIs. To make requests to the API, we get the workspace identifier from the context.installContext property by removing part of the string ari:cloud:bitbucket::workspace/ from the value. It would be beneficial to have workspaceId in the context.
• Currently, it is not possible to obtain a link for installing the Forge application. The application can only be installed using the forge install command. However, if a link could be generated for Bitbucket in the developer console, it would greatly simplify the distribution of the application.

Instead of conclusion

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Atlassian for providing us with the chance to test our skills once again and demonstrate our capabilities.

And by the way, have you had a chance to watch our app’s promo video? Check it out and tell us what you think in the comments. We would also be grateful for your support and vote at the app’s page. Thank you!

Exploring AI and Forge for Bitbucket: a hands-on experience was originally published in Stiltsoft Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you asked me what feature I use in Confluence the most, I would go for inline comments. As a content marketing specialist, I usually use inline comments when working on a blog or page with other colleagues. Whether to provide feedback on content, ask a question, or make corrections.

Learning how to add inline comments on Confluence pages helps you speed up a feedback loop and drive teamwork on Confluence pages.
In this article, I’ll show you how to add inline comments in four different ways on Confluence pages and share my thoughts on each of them.

If you prefer to watch the video, I’ve recorded my review of all solutions from this blog post.

Native Inline Comments

First, let’s check the out-of-the-box inline comments functionality in Confluence.

When you highlight text on a page, a chat icon immediately comes up.

After leaving a comment, the author of a page can quickly find the content to pay attention to. A yellow text highlight indicates an inline comment.

When you press it, a related inline comment displays. Your colleagues can reply to it, like it, and mention others to bring into conversation. But the functionality is quite limited actually. You can only edit, delete a comment, or resolve it.

Some companies need more when it comes to inline discussions in Confluence. This is where a daunting procedure of searching and testing apps on the Atlassian Marketplace starts. But, don’t worry, we made it for you.

We will show three different apps that enhance the functionality of inline comments:

• Show Inline Comments in Editor by Actonic
• Inline Comments in the Editor by K15t
• Talk Advanced Inline Comments for Confluence

Let’s start off with Show Inline Comments in Editor by Actonic.

Show Inline Comments in Editor by Actonic

The Actonic inline comments allow working with them in edit mode, which is not the case for the native inline Confluence comments. Add a native inline comment and go to edit mode.

Besides replying to comments, you can add, delete, and resolve them while editing a page.

Also, you can hide a comment sidebar the same way as activating it to avoid distraction.

Talk Advanced Inline Comments for Confluence

The next solution for inline collaboration is Talk Advanced Inline Comments for Confluence . Talk is a different concept of adding inline comments. It’s a fully-fledged comment management tool.

To add a talk on a page, you also need to highlight relevant content on a page and select Talk discussion or Talk suggestion icons on the highlight actions panel.

Change the color of a thread to make it more noticeable.

Add a talk to your favorite comments and have it always at hand.

Set up priority for a comment to emphasize the urgency.

Create private chats with talk visibility restrictions.

Archive comment instead of removing it.

You can use all these features and add new talks in edit mode.

Moreover, Talk allows getting an overview of all inline comments on a page or in a space with Talk Report. Let’s try it out. Go to edit mode, add the keyboard shortcut “{“, and start typing Talk Report.

Then, let’s create the report with only open comments on the page. In the Talk Report settings, go to the Resolution field, select Open, and Insert the report.

The result helps to overview all pending comments on a page and promptly switch to them.

Also, Talk has a suggestion feature that helps you autocorrect text. Believe me, for a content manager it’s a must-have tool. To make use of this feature opt for the Talk Suggestion icon on the highlight actions panel and propose you changes.

Let a page owner decide whether to accept or reject these corrections.

Inline Comments in the Editor by K15t

Let’s move on to the Inline Comments in the Editor by K15t. Inline Comments in the Editor at first side work similar to the inline comments by Actonic. But it takes one action more to show them in edit mode. Find the button to show inline comments in the Confluence editor toolbar. Then, press a comment on the page you want to view.

In edit mode, Inline Comments by K15t allow you to navigate between discussions and resolve them. But you can’t add a new inline comment.

Collaborate in Confluence more effectively

Learning how to add inline comments in Confluence is an essential part of collaboration over a Confluence document. With inline comments you can edit and revise a page or blog post before publishing, ask teammates for clarification or feedback, request more information, and many more.

I hope that my quick overview saved you time and effort for discovering a proper inline commenting tool for more efficient collaboration in Confluence.

How often do you use inline comments in Confluence? What do you use them for? And what features you miss in terms of collaboration in Confluence?

4 Ways to Add Inline Comments in Confluence was originally published in Stiltsoft Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Extensive tables are an unavoidable part of working with data. But you might need to extract some more specific details at some point.

Those, who have worked with MS Excel before, are already familiar with pivot tables. They are a real life-saver in many cases. Let’s learn more about pivot tables and how to use them in Confluence.

What is a pivot table?

Essentially, a pivot table is similar to a report. It is a table that groups data depending on the parameters of your choice. It allows you to see a brief and clear overview of a bigger table, suggests deeper insights into collected data, and shows it from various perspectives.

Pivot tables also allow counting values, for example, seeing the averages, deriving minimal and maximal values, or counting the exact number of certain items.

How to build a pivot table

Now that you know more about pivot tables, you might wonder how to aggregate data tables in Confluence. Unfortunately, native Confluence features do not include any data aggregation tools.

The good news is that you can use various apps to process tabular data. We’ll show you how to create a pivot table with the help of the Table Filter and Charts for Confluence app.

Go to the page with your table. Click the funnel icon in the top right corner.

Select the pivot table macro. If you have a few tables on the page, pick the one you want to aggregate.

After you add the macro, you’ll see a basic pivot table. Now you can tailor it to your needs.

For example, let’s find out the average budget we spent last year on different types of marketing activities. The Type column will become a pivot table’s row label, the calculated column will be Budget, and we choose Average as the type of calculation. And here is the result!

To make it more particular, we wanted to see who of the colleagues worked on each campaign and how much they spent. We choose the Assignee column as the column label, and now we can see the detailed breakdown.

You can also aggregate pivot tables by date or number range. For that, go to the edit mode and select the pivot table macro settings. Here, choose the date period or set the number range. Select the columns for aggregation.

What’s next?

Table Filter and Charts for Confluence gives you even more opportunities to make working with tables easier.

You can apply filters if you don’t need to include all the data into your pivot table or want to navigate through the table. Automatically, the macro adds the most relevant filter to each column, so you only need to choose the settings.

Moreover, you can turn your table into an engaging graph and include it in any report. If you want to learn more about building tables in Confluence, check out our article How to Make Charts and Graphs in Confluence.

If you want to combine multiple macros, use Table Toolbox. It allows you to nest the macros in the correct order and choose the settings. Use Table Toolbox in the edit mode.

Try Table Filter and Charts for free, and contact us with any questions and requirements.

How to Use Pivot Tables in Confluence was originally published in Stiltsoft Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It’s time to get more creative with your Gantt chart. It can be handy and versatile in many different cases — imagination is your only limit. Have a look at a few unusual ways to use a Gantt Chart that we built with the help of Table Filter and Charts for Confluence for some inspiration.

If you want to learn how to build a regular Gantt chart, check out our article 5 Tips to Become a Gantt Chart Expert Using Atlassian Confluence.

Plan the timeline

You might think: but the regular Gantt chart is already a timeline! It’s hard to argue with that. But you can plan so much more than just a project timeline.

For example, you can visualize your monthly schedule or plan a whole year with a Gantt chart. Apart from the timeline, you can add a calendar to your Gantt chart.

Start by creating a regular table you would use to build a Gantt chart. Specify tasks you need to complete and corresponding dates. Match tasks with stages or projects. Next, add a calendar section to your table. If you are planning a year ahead, you need a line per month. In the Task column, add the names of the months. Set up the dates.

After you save the page, you’ll see a Gantt chart with a calendar at the bottom.

If you have some planned activities and appointments, create a two-column chart with the data related to these events. Place it inside the macro in the edit mode.

The events will appear on your chart as vertical lines that cross the chart on a particular day.

Visualize dependencies

You can have tasks in a project that can’t start before the other tasks are completed. You don’t have to keep it all in mind. It is much more convenient to have a visualization of all the connections.

Create a table with tasks and their start and end dates. Build a Gantt chart. Go to the edit mode and hover over the chart. Click the cogwheel icon that appears on the right and select the Set Dependencies option. Now you can pull the arrows from one task to the other to mark connections. Save the changes when you are finished.

Track the daily work

Not everyone is working 9–5 nowadays, especially with remote work becoming so popular. Still, sometimes you want to track the time your employees spend working daily. This way you’ll understand how the workload is distributed among the employees. When you know this, you might assign tasks more efficiently.

If you use any tracking tools, you can use a Gantt chart to analyze the data about daily working time. You can see more inconsistencies if you track the time for at least 1–2 months.

Don’t forget to choose the correct date format in the settings to use both date and time.

After you have gathered enough data and chose the settings, build a Gantt chart.

Plan the logistics

A Gantt chart can help you plan the logistics as well. Imagine that you work for a marine shipping company. You have to prepare the schedule for your ships for the upcoming month.

Create a table with start and end dates, but instead of tasks, mark the ship’s location: in a certain dock or at sea. Complete the schedule. To make the visualization even more engaging, pick specific colors for each location. Add the colors in a separate table column. Use color names or HEX codes.

Build a Gantt chart and save the page. To set your own colors, hover over the chart and click the cogwheel icon on the right. Choose the Select colors option. Here, pick the Colors in table columns color scheme and choose the necessary column with data for the task settings. Save the settings, and the chart will change correspondingly.

What else?

We showed you how to use the Table Filter and Charts app to build various Gantt charts in Confluence. If you want to learn how to build a Gantt chart from scratch, check out our video:

Table Filter and Charts has even more features to offer:

• easy table filtration
• data aggregation and calculations
• dynamic charts and graphs of various kinds

Try all of these tools for free, and contact us if you have any questions or ideas. And don’t forget to tell us how you use a Gantt chart in the comments.

4 cases to use a Gantt chart was originally published in Stiltsoft Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Confluence allows users to create engaging content and effortlessly share it with the team. You can choose among a wide selection of tools for that purpose.

Many people working with information in tables are looking for a way to do that more efficiently and personalize them in line with the current needs. So let’s see how you can effectively work with tables in Confluence and use them for your benefit.

New Confluence Cloud editor and tables

The updated Confluence Cloud editor allows you to customize your tables in many ways to make them look just how you want.

How to format your tables in Confluence Cloud

Add a new table in one click. Just press the button on the top control panel or use the Shift+Alt+T shortcut. The standard table consists of three rows and columns, but you can add as many cells as you need.

If you want to add more rows and columns, hover over the table. You’ll see a plus button. Click it to add a column or a row into the corresponding place. To remove a column, click on the outline above it (the outline on the side for removing the rows). Click a cross that appears after that.

To add a header (it can be a row, a column, or both), click the Table options button below the table. Choose what suits you most. You can also add a numbered column on the left to navigate through the table more easily.

You can find more settings by placing the cursor into a cell and then clicking the down arrow. Here you can remove and insert rows and columns, choose the cell background color, or clear the cell completely. It is also possible to merge cells. To activate this option, you need to select several cells. Splitting becomes available for the cells that were previously merged.

How to customize your tables

Add statuses to make your table interactive. You can do this two ways:

• Type /status into the chosen cell. Insert the macro, add the inscription and choose the color.
• Select the macro through the Plus button on the control panel at the top.

Set a specific color for a separate cell or the whole row or column. Select the cells, click the down arrow and choose the suitable cell background.

After you save the page, you can sort the table right in the view mode. For that, hover over the column headings and click the arrow. It will sort the table from A to Z.

If you need to delete the table, select it fully in the edit mode by clicking on the outlines of the table. After that, you’ll see a bucket near the Table options below. Press it, and the table will be deleted. After you select the whole table, you can also copy it. Use the right mouse button and choose Copy or use the Ctrl+C shortcut. Then you can paste the table into the same or any other page in Confluence.

Another handy tool to use while working with tables is emoticons. You can find them by clicking the smiley face button at the top control panel. There you’ll see the standard collection of emojis separated into themes. Make your table more captivating with faces, numbers, or simple check and cross marks.

Table Filter and Charts for Confluence Cloud

If you want to go even further and make appealing and informative dashboards out of your tables, the Table Filter and Charts for Confluence app will help you do this. These are just a few things you can do with the assistance of this tool:

• filter the table with various parameters
• perform simple calculations and aggregate data with the help of Pivot Tables
• create charts and graphs based on your table.

To use Table Filter and Charts for Confluence in the Cloud version, you need to press the button on the top control panel.

Here you can choose the macro to apply.

After you select the Table Filter macro, you can add filters in the column headings. Depending on the content of the column, the most relevant type of filter is suggested. Click the funnel icon on the right to save and reset filters or export the table.

The Pivot table macro helps you aggregate table data. Pick row and column labels, and apply the required operation to create a pivot table.

The Chart from Table macro will turn your table into a graph based on a regular or pivot table. You can choose multiple chart types, pick different columns for visualization and adjust the size of the chart.

If you want to combine several macros in a specific order or apply more precise settings, go to the edit mode and edit the Table Toolbox macro. Here you can nest macros one over the other, define how the data will be depicted in the view mode, and customize the macros to your preference. Before you save the page, you can see a preview to make sure it looks just right.

This is how you can customize tables in Confluence Cloud, make them unique and convenient. For any questions concerning Table Filter and Charts, contact us.

See more customized tables in use in our video:

How to Customize Tables in Confluence Cloud was originally published in Stiltsoft Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Management of product teams is not an easy task. You need to continuously track dozens of metrics, monitor competitors and their solutions, innovate, and, of course, develop a profitable product that delivers value to your customers.

This is almost impossible without having an effective strategy and comprehensive planning. What tools or mechanics can help you effectively set goals and achieve them?

Well, the first thing that comes to our mind is OKR (Objectives and Key Results).

Quick introduction to OKR

Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is an objective-defining framework and goal-setting methodology that helps companies align the company goals and further decompose them into objectives for individual teams. This way, teams are working on their scope of tasks which contributes to the overall success of their company.

The simplicity of this methodology is its key advantage as companies and teams can quickly integrate it into their processes with minimal effort. The company defines an objective and further creates 3–5 measurable results according to the following pattern:

1. Increase _____ from X to Y.
2. Reduce ______ by X%.
3. Improve ______ up to X%.

Teams further identify how they can contribute to this and create their objectives and key results.

You can measure key results on a 0–100% scale or by using any numerical units (for example, dollar amount, %, items, etc.). Once a team progresses on a key result, they track their progress on a scale and see how much is left to accomplish the key result.

Teams create plans, actions, and initiatives that they believe will help them achieve the objectives and key results. OKRs are set and reviewed every quarter.

Some requirements are imposed on objectives and key results. Objectives should be aspirational, qualitative, and time-bound. Key results should be measurable, quantitative, and value-based. It is also recommended to elaborate on such key results that are quite difficult to achieve at 100%, so they should be challenging enough for your teams. If your teams manage to achieve the key results at 100%, this means that they were not ambitious enough, so you need to review them next time.

How to manage OKRs in Confluence Cloud

Implementation of OKRs in Confluence Cloud can be a very simple task with the Handy Macros app. This app provides macros that allow you to make Confluence pages more interactive in the page view mode.

Ideally, we want to create an OKR dashboard that will show the current progress from all teams in one place — challenging enough? Fine, let’s start.

First of all, let’s create the status set showing our confidence in reaching the objectives.

Once this is done, let’s create our Confluence pages with the list of OKRs. This is pretty simple.

Create a three-column table:

• Key results — here we will track our key results.
• Progress — here we will place the Handy Slider macro to track the current progress on key results.
• Achievable — here we will add the Handy Status macro to indicate the likelihood of achieving a specific key result.

At the bottom of the page, let’s add the Handy Date macro, which we will use to track the latest update of our OKRs.

When we save the page we can adjust the progress on each key result, set the likelihood of achieving, and pick the date of the latest updates.

Creating OKR dashboard for multiple teams

Once we have a separate OKR board for each team, we can create a single dashboard where we can track progress on all key results. How to do this? Well, pretty easy.

All you need to do is to add the Excerpt macro and paste the table with OKRs within it.

Having added our tables with OKRs into the Excerpt macro, we can output them on our dashboard page with the Excerpt Include macro.

You can edit key results in this dashboard in the page view mode without opening a specific Confluence page for doing this.

This was a quick way to create the OKR dashboard for your product teams in Confluence Cloud. The dashboard is fully interactive and allows you to track progress on key results without going to source pages for editing them.

What are you waiting for? Start a free trial of the Handy Macros app and don’t wait for your competitors to implement OKRs in their Confluence.

Your claps (the more the better) will be greatly appreciated 😉

Managing OKRs for Multiple Teams in Confluence Cloud was originally published in Stiltsoft Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Several days ago, we published our post 25 things I wish I knew before I got started with Confluence Cloud.

Today we want to reveal some tips and tricks for more effective use of Jira Cloud.

When you first start Jira Cloud, you may not be aware of some things that can greatly simplify your experience and improve your performance. Today we will try to explain some techniques that may not be obvious to you, but those that can help you save a bit of your time.

1. Creation of issues

Yes, how simple it may seem, but most of us still click Create issue and fill out fields in the form. In some situations, you may speed up this process and create tasks while planning a new sprint or while working within an epic.

This is very useful when you just need to quickly add items to the backlog, so time later, you can add the missing details. Moreover, in next-gen projects, you can create multiple issues at once. Just copy multiple lines with issue summaries and paste them into the Backlog section. Jira Cloud will prompt you to choose between the creation of a single issue or multiple issues.

2. Distribution of tasks by epics and versions

Most teams are using the Agile methodologies for managing their projects, and, of course, firstly, you create epics and further decompose them into user stories and tasks. If you are not following these steps, some time later, you may find it necessary to create mappings between epics and related user stories and tasks.

All you need to do is open the Backlog section and drag user stories and tasks over the corresponding epics. This is the fastest way to create the parent-child mappings between issues. If you try to do this by editing issues one by one, you will spend much more time on this.

3. Roadmap

Work on any project usually starts from high-level planning, and the roadmap is the best tool for doing this. Even if you are not on the premium subscription, the simple roadmap with epics can help you better understand how soon you can deliver the MVP solution and when the whole project may be completed.

You can create connections between epics to visualize dependencies between them and see how delays with one epic may affect the whole project.

4. List view

The list view is a new feature of Jira Work Management (formerly known as Jira Core). It shows the list of issues within the project, and you can edit these issues inline.

Now business teams can quickly add new tasks and add the necessary updates in them on the fly. If you need to have these capabilities in all project types, please try Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor.

5. Labels and components

Are you labeling issues? No? Why not? The labeling of issues can greatly simplify the process of finding them after some time. Instead of labels, you can use components for mapping your tasks to specific parts of your project functionality.

With the help of labels or components, you can get a better picture of what components you are developing more and ensure that other components are not affected by this approach.

6. Linking issues and pages

In most cases, we create issues and tasks in Jira Cloud, while the rest of project details are managed in Confluence Cloud. This is a good practice to link issues to the corresponding Confluence pages so that your teammates can quickly go and look through additional documentation for a task, take a look at the architecture diagram, or get a better idea of the anticipated solution.

Links to Confluence pages are listed within the issue itself, so you can quickly transition to the Confluence page. In the same way, you can quickly see the linked issues while looking through a Confluence page. This is very convenient, as you needn’t waste your time looking for a specific page or issue.

7. Importing project data

Are you starting a new project or want to move your list of tasks from an Excel spreadsheet into a Jira project? If it contains hundreds of tasks, it can become a time-consuming and tiresome process. But you can always simplify it, just create an Excel file and create a column with the list of tasks, their descriptions, and additional details. Now you can import all of them into the required project, don’t forget to create the correct mappings between columns and issue fields.

You can also use the import functionality to perform bulk updates within your Jira issues. The easiest way to do this is to export the list of issues to a CSV file, then make edits within them and import the list back into Jira. Alternatively, you can use the Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor app for quick inline editing of Jira issues.

8. Project templates

If you have launched Jira Cloud recently and you are a young company without established processes, the project templates are the first thing for you to try. They can help you get started with the elaboration of your company-specific processes. It is always easier to start with something than to design it from scratch.

Jira Cloud offers a variety of project templates for different use cases and scenarios. Once you start with some project template, you can quickly identify whether it fits your actual needs or no, and then you can adjust it to the requirements of your team by customizing the workflow, screens, and other constituents of the project.

9. JQL queries

Your work in Jira Cloud will not be very effective without using JQL queries. If you do not know so far, JQL stands for Jira Query Language. To get the most of Jira Cloud, you need to understand the philosophy of JQL and use it for querying issues against specific criteria or attributes. To quickly get started with JQL, start from these steps:

1. Open the Advanced issue search.
2. Switch to the basic view.
3. Use the filters to find the required issues.
4. Switch to JQL and try to figure out the syntax of the JQL query.

Try different combinations of queries and evaluate their structure and syntax. Next time try to write a JQL query on your own (without switching to basic). Once you get the basics of JQL, then you can check this guide from Atlassian.

10. Filters and subscription

Well, once you have mastered JQL, now it is high time to create filters for the frequently used queries. Or you want to enter them every time? Let’s assume that no. Filter the issues and click Save as filter, that’s all. If needed, you can save the filter as public or restrict its visibility to specific users or groups.

The best thing about filters is that you can use them for receiving regular email updates on the status of your projects or activities of specific users. All you need to do is just create a subscription and select the filter that you want to receive to your mailbox. That’s all, now you can monitor the project progress without opening Jira all the time.

11. Coloring epics

You may be a bit skeptical about this idea, but the coloring of epics can significantly improve the perception of issues and their attribution to specific epics. Now while looking through the list of issues, you can quickly see the corresponding colored epic labels. You can choose the epic color from the palette, including 14 colors.

12. Pinning fields

Having too many fields within your issues can become a real problem. To make some updates within them, you need to scroll down through the list of fields, make edits and proceed to the next issue. While doing this on a regular basis, this can drive you crazy. To simplify this procedure, you can pin the frequently edited fields to the top of the issue so that you can quickly update them without scrolling to the depths of your issues.

Want a list view of your issues in Jira Cloud? Take a look at Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor and make the necessary edits in your issues inline.

13. Voting for issues

What’s the easiest way to figure out the priority of features in internal projects? Let your teammates vote on them. This way, you can quickly figure out the most demanded features and include them into the nearest releases. You can use the same way if you deal with customers, but they should have user access to your Jira instance.

14. Project pages

Using the ecosystem of Atlassian products is very convenient, as they are interconnected and you can seamlessly transition between them. In Jira Cloud, you can connect a specific space to the project and quickly create pages while being in Jira. This is very handy when you are planning a new version and document requirements, run a retrospective after the sprint completion, or track decisions and meeting notes.

You can also navigate through the space within Jira and open the required page at once.

15. Automations

Jira Cloud bundles a variety of automations that can considerably simplify routine operations on project issues. You can add automations from the existing library or create your own recipes.

The automation is comprised of triggers, conditions, and actions, if needed, you can create branches for your automations. You can automate multiple scenarios for your projects and even send web requests to external applications and services.

16. Issue types

For different tasks and activities, you can create different issue types. Don’t try to create one uber-issue-type which will address your project needs, you will fail for sure. Decompose your activities in Jira into meaningful issue types and design their layouts without dozens of unnecessary fields for all cases.

In the future, this will let you track performance per each issue type and better see the difference at once.

17. Issue layouts

Issue layouts are an important part of user experience in Jira. You can manage the set of fields shown in issue views. Try to decrease the number of custom fields and keep only fields that are needed. If some fields are required, don’t forget to make them such in the field configuration. Reorder fields or group them on tabs for better request handling. To simplify the entry of information, you can set the default values for specific fields.

18. Transition forms

Transition forms are an easy way to capture information while transitioning issues from one status to another. Here you can add only the fields that are important at this specific transition and let users directly update them.

Transition forms are very handy but do not overuse them much when unnecessary. Add them to collect some important information within issues, if you show them that at each transition, this will distract users from what they are doing.

19. Project shortcuts

Like in Confluence, project shortcuts let you keep links to the frequently used services or resources related to this or that project. Here you can add links to the repository, project requirements, links to the security scanning tools, or deployment platform. Your teammates will be happy to use these shortcuts to open the remote resources without wandering through lists of bookmarks in their browsers.

20. Printing cards

Do you have a physical Scrum board? If yes, you can print the current items from the backlog and post them there.

You can further move them between columns like on a Jira board. This can stimulate the performance of your team and make the development process more tangible and engaging.

Do you like this post? Please let us know with your claps, you can leave up to 50 claps per post. The more claps we get, the faster we will prepare new posts for you.

20 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Got Started With Jira Cloud was originally published in Stiltsoft Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor is an alternative to the list view in Jira Work Management that provides you with extensive capabilities for inline editing of Jira Cloud issues and collaborating on them with your team. Take advantage of spreadsheet issue editing for Jira issues and incredibly increase your project management effectiveness.

This is no longer a secret that Atlassian decided to simplify the issue editing experience in Jira Work Management (this is positioned as a replacement for Jira Core). This way Atlassian tries to simplify the process of managing issues for business teams, so they can get started with Jira much more quickly.

One of the most anticipating features in Jira Work Management is the list view. Accidentally, we have it on our host and we would like to compare it to our Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor app.

List view in details

The list view is available for business projects that are using new project templates. If you are using the Project Management, Task tracking, or Process control templates, the list view is not available in them (for now).

Jira loads the list of unresolved issues that are available within the current project. You can edit the following fields inline like in an Excel spreadsheet:

• Summary — you can update summaries of issues.
• Status — you can transition the issue to the next stage.
• Assignee — you can assign issues to your colleagues and teammates.
• Due date — you can pick the due dates for your issues.
• Priority — you can prioritize tasks according to their importance.
• Labels — you can label issues if needed.

You can also regulate the set of visible columns and filter tasks assigned to you or view only those that were already completed. Additionally, you can create new issues inline within the current project.

The list view is really helpful to view all tasks within the project as a single table. The inline editing capabilities can speed up the process of editing values and updating issues. Let’s see whether the Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor can compete with it.

Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor in details

The Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor app lets you edit Jira issues inline like in the native list view. The app supports many more editable fields than the list view itself in Jira Cloud.

The app supports a variety of fields, as follows:

• Issue type
• Priority
• Description
• Labels
• Components
• Single and multiple user pickers
• Single and multiple group pickers
• Date field
• Status
• Single-line and multi-line text fields.
• Sprint
• Fix version
• Linked issues
• Time tracking

You can freely add them to the layout, change their order and view only the fields that you need at the moment.

With the Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor app, you can create different representations of your project. For example, you can switch between the list of requirements, plan new versions or sprints, prioritize your backlog, assign tasks to teammates, or manage traceability between requirements and tasks.

You can also perform bulk updates of distinct issues and their specific fields through the app. Just select the fields you want to modify and pick the required values per column.

If you start a new project, you can quickly create new tasks within it without opening the Create Issue form.

The Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor app allows you to effectively perform different tasks in Jira:

• backlog prioritization
• task distribution and assignment
• sprint or version planning
• backlog grooming
• project scope review
• requirement management

List view vs. Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor

Which solution is more flexible for issue management? Well, this mainly depends on the complexity of your tasks and fields that you want to edit. Below in the table, you can find the comparison of the list view and the Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor app.

Want to try the Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor? Please check the app in the Atlassian Marketplace and start your free trial.

List view vs. Spreadsheet Issue Field Editor was originally published in Stiltsoft Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A lot of people who first start Confluence Cloud do not even suspect how many features and capabilities they may not reveal at once.

In this post, we will share our long-term expertise and experience with Confluence Cloud, so you can quickly get started with it and master its capabilities in the shortest time possible.

1. Labels

Labeling of pages is a must-have in Confluence Cloud. Labels can greatly simplify categorization and lookup for specific pages. If you are actively using macros, labels can help you narrow down the found results and limit them for specific purposes. With labels, you can indicate the status of the page, content type, team to which this page attributes, etc.

Besides pages, you can also label blog posts and attachments and further use the Content by Label macro to see content items having the required label.

2. Teams

This is a common approach when a company is divided into multiple teams. Every team includes several people, and some individuals can be a part of multiple teams. In the same way, you can re-create a similar team structure in Confluence too.

Just add your teammates into the team, and you can further mention all its members within comments, on pages, or invite them at once for real-time collaboration.

Additionally, within the team you can better track pages that your teammates have edited recently and see their contributions at once.

3. Templates

In most cases, your first attempts at creating pages in Confluence will result in randomly structured pages. Anyway, sometime later, you will realize that your pages share a similar structure, and it is not very convenient to re-create this structure every time you create a new page.
Confluence Cloud bundles dozens of templates for all possible use cases. Templates can be global and space-specific, so every team can design their templates and use them within their own spaces.

By using templates, you can standardize the approach to creating structured pages and unifying your content. Even if you have not selected the page template during the page creation, you can choose the required one while editing the page.

4. Page Properties Report macro

The Page Properties Report macro is the king of macros in Confluence Cloud. This macro lets you collect attributes from Confluence pages and show them within the reporting table. On the source pages, you just need to add the Page Properties macro and insert the two-column table within it. In one column, add names of attributes and in the other their actual values. Now you can collect these attributes with the Page Properties Report macro.

Don’t forget to tag pages with specific labels, so the macro can look up for them. With its help, you can create reports on your product pages, customer interviews, experiments, blog posts, and other articles you keep in Confluence.

5. Dates

Are you still entering the date in plain text? If yes, stop doing it. It is challenging to notice dates within the large text blocks for your colleagues, so they may miss some important updates or notices from you. Use the Date macro. Start entering two slashes ‘//’, and pick the date from the prompted calendar.

Your dates will be more noticeable when surrounded by text, and your teammates can quickly scan your announcements for their due dates.

6. Statuses

When you are working on some tasks or initiatives, it’s essential to indicate their current status. And plain text is not the best option in this case. We get used so much to generic text snippets. So we scan lines and may accidentally miss important information. With the Status macro, you can show the actual progress on some task or activity.

You just need to enter the status name and pick the color. That’s it. Now you and your team can instantly see the status of the document, task, experiment, or initiative.

7. Layouts

Making all pages look like one column mixing text, macros, and tables is a bad practice. Use the page layout to design appealing pages and attract your readers’ attention to its specific parts.

Confluence Cloud provides five types of layouts that you can use. When using the layouts, apply the full-page width to let your content fit bigger areas.

8. Emojis

Emojis have become a part of our everyday communication in different messengers and social networks. We use them regularly to show our feelings when we like or dislike some content. The variety of emojis helps us simplify the expression of our emotions. But we strongly believe that using emojis on Confluence pages is a bad idea. Well, this is actually not so. Of course, using emojis in some compliance-related documentation is not good, and the auditor will not appreciate your efforts, so use them wisely.

Are you making announcements or planning some initiative? Emojis will help you to capture the attention of your readers on important parts. Besides using on your Confluence pages, you can use emojis in page names, so in the page tree, you will see a more beautiful picture.

9. User mentions

User mentions are a primary way to notify your teammates about important changes on Confluence pages. You can mention users in various scenarios, like assigning a task, showing attribution of a decision to a specific person, requesting someone’s input, or asking for comments about some points.

You can use user mentions on Confluence pages, within tasks, and in page or inline comments. The user you mentioned will receive an email notification, so it will decrease the probability of missing important updates by this person.

10. Inline comments

Inline comments can significantly accelerate and improve the review processes. You just need to select a specific text snippet you want to comment on and enter a comment. This text piece will be highlighted, and the person who will be updating the page content can easily understand what part of the page should be revised and corrected.

Inline comments are visible in the page view and edit modes, so at any point, you can view them and make updates on your pages accordingly.

11. Tasks

Do you love checklists? If no, it’s time to start using them. This is no secret that it’s quite difficult to keep track of all tasks in Confluence. People are constantly creating new and new pages, change their order and structure. As the result, some tasks can be lost, but this does not mean that these tasks can be ignored.
In Confluence Cloud, you can easily manage tasks and keep an eye on all of them. How can you do this? Create a new task list and follow this pattern: [@user-mention] complete task by [//due-date].

Then you can use the Task Report macro or view these tasks in your task list. You can quickly close the completed tasks and be sure that no tasks will be missed.

12. Decisions

We are taking dozens of decisions every day, and after a couple of days, we may forget why this or that decision was taken. In Confluence Cloud, you can use the Decision macro for doing this. It lets you track decisions during meetings and online workshops with your teammates.

Like tasks, you can collect decisions with the Decision Report and see them within a single table. This way, you can instantly trace all decisions you made for a specific project or product.

13. Sharing pages

You have created a cool page with very useful content for your teammates. You are waiting for feedback from them; one day passes, two, three, a week … Still no feedback. Is it a familiar scenario? If yes, please consider that Confluence Cloud provides a convenient way of content sharing.

Once the page is ready, click Share and enter the names of people or your team you want to share this page with. Alternatively, you can copy the shareable link and post it somewhere in Slack or Microsoft Teams for your colleagues.

In the same way, you can invite your teammates for real-time collaboration on a specific Confluence page. Everyone will be able to see the actual updates and modifications on a page and contribute their ideas and thoughts on the fly.

14. Archiving pages

We create pages in Confluence regularly; after some time, our spaces become the storage of information where 70 percent of information is not actual or is totally deprecated. It is vital to preserve healthy spaces and clean the unnecessary pages from them.

It is always a pain to decide to delete some page, as we still remember all our efforts and time we spent on its creation. We have illusions that in a couple of months, we will need this page. No, you will not need it. Don’t be afraid and clean your Confluence from old and unused pages. For those of you who do not want to permanently delete pages, just try to archive them.

The page will disappear from the page tree and will reside in the page archive. So if sometime later you need this page, you will be able to restore it.

15. Trello integration

For those of you who manage projects in Trello, there is no need to switch between Confluence and Trello all the time. You can embed your Trello board into a Confluence page and manage tasks without leaving your Confluence. This greatly simplifies your experience and lets your team focus on tasks rather than on a necessity to constantly switch between two applications.

16. Issue creation in Jira

Confluence Cloud allows you to create Jira tasks from a specific text snippet inline on your Confluence pages. Just select some text, hover over it, click Create an issue, select the project and issue type, add its description, and save it. That’s all.

In the same way, you can create multiple tasks from a two-column table. In the first column, specify summaries of tasks; in the other column, their descriptions. Take care that in the Description column you have no images, as in this case, tasks in Jira will not be created; only plain-text is supported.

17. Jira issues macro

Being a project manager is not an easy task. You need to continuously track the progress of your projects, identify potential risks, and eliminate obstacles. So you need a quick way to see potential problems before their occurrence and help your team cope with them in advance.

If you waste your time on continuous transitions from Jira to Confluence and vice versa, you will miss many things. For such cases, you can use the Jira issues macro. It allows you to view the table listing tasks from the ongoing sprint or version. In addition, you can build basic reports to see the essential information about your projects and their activities.

18. Create from Template macro

You have created cool templates, but your teammates are not using them? They are constantly experimenting with page structure, and the resulting variants look like Frankenstein’s offsprings. No problem. Add the Create from Template macro on a parent page and give this button a meaningful title. Now your teammates will use the pre-defined template instead of highly-customizable pages they design on their own.

19. Publish without notifications

We are receiving hundreds of emails every day. Some of them are important, some of them are of no importance at all. By default, Confluence sends email notifications about all modifications on Confluence pages which can drive your colleagues crazy. Use the Publish without notifications option for minor updates on Confluence pages and lower the number of senseless emails 🙂

20. Adding watchers

Confluence Cloud adds a user as a watcher when one edits a page. In some situations, this can become a problem as your teammates may not follow all your updates. For these situations, you can add watchers for specific Confluence pages, so all the notifications will be sent to the page watchers. Unfortunately, you cannot add your team as watchers all at once. You will have to enter the names of your teammates one by one. For the team-specific spaces, you can add your teammates as space watchers.

21. Replacing values

This feature was missing in the new editor for some time, and it was a real problem to replace some values. You needed to use the built-in browser search functions, change the value and proceed to the next one. This was a time-consuming process. Now you can cope with this in a couple of clicks, for the exact case matching enable the corresponding option.

22. Space shortcuts

We keep a lot of information within Confluence, but sometimes we may need to add some quick links to the frequently used external resources. You can quickly do this with space shortcuts which allows you to add links to the Jira project or backlog, Bitbucket repository, a page with analytics, or anything else.

23. Re-ordering and sorting pages

Re-ordering of pages was a real pain-point in Confluence Server. You needed all the time to go to the space settings, drag pages, you accidentally clicked the page name, transitioned to this page, then returned to the space settings. In Confluence Cloud, you can do this right on the sidebar. Drag the page across the page tree to the correct position.

In some situations, you may need to sort your pages in alphabetical order. You can do this in the space settings. Just open the required page branch and click the Sort alphabetically icon.

You can also check all the essential steps and action items you can take to build a dream space for your coolest product team.

24. Comparing changes

Our Confluence pages are changing over time. So if you visit some Confluence page after a while, you may notice that its content has changed greatly. So here you can compare changes between two revisions to see their difference.

This is very convenient, and in several seconds you can instantly see what was added and what was deleted.

25. Starring pages

People have some pages that they regularly visit in Confluence. This may not be very convenient to go to the space, find the page in the page tree, and only then open it. As an alternative, you can try to star such pages and access them from the Confluence dashboard. Just click the Star this page icon, and it’s on your list of starred pages.

What’s next?

Well, now it’s your turn to go through the list and check these Confluence capabilities. If you have a light experience with Confluence macros, please check our Anatomy of Confluence Cloud macros and master the essential macros in a couple of hours.

Feel free to comment on this post and ask your questions … and don’t forget to put likes 😉

25 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Got Started With Confluence Cloud was originally published in Stiltsoft Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.