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• Confluence main concepts
• How are things organized in
Confluence
• How to create engaging content
• Confluence collaboration
feature
• Tips to boost productivity
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Arrange your workplace		 10
First steps to Confluence 5
Create content				 18
“
Collaborate on work		 27 	
Useful insights for newbies 	 35	
Key takeaways	 42
6
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
ICONS USED IN THIS BOOK
There are several icons in the margins of
this book. Here’s what they stand for:
NB
Essential points to pay attention to
Some pieces of advice to remember
Bare bones of Atlassian Confluence
7
CHAPTER 1
First steps to Confluence
In This Chapter
>> What is Confluence?
>> Where can you use it?
>> Who uses Confluence?
oday, Confluence is known as a widely used,
trustworthy technical documentation platform.
This truly effective and flexible way of storing com-
pany data and sharing it with the team members
as well as customers brings clearness and effective-
ness to the usual workflows of organizations and
enhances the level of customer support.
8
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
SO WHAT IS ATLASSIAN CONFLUENCE?
Collaboration. Teamwork. Transparency. Openness.
Structure. Clarity. Documents. Workflows. Proce-
dures. Knowledge Base.
These are the terms which describe Confluence in
the best possible way as a powerful documentation
platform.
WHERE CAN CONFLUENCE BE OF GREAT USE?
1. Public documentation
It is truly a sound idea to place your Public Facing
Documentation on the Confluence site. The best
way to do it, is to create an extensive and detailed
Knowledge Base which will serve as a customer
portal. Your customers will find it extremely handy
and comfortably accessible. As for most modern
consumers, they want all solutions with the first
click. Confluence allows the solutions to be at the
customer’s fingertips. Today no customer is willing
to wait for somebody to pick up the phone and as-
sist them. It is no wonder, why it is believed that the
9
most effective support teams solve issues without
even seeing the ticket.
2. Team projects collaboration
Confluence is among one of the best approaches
for collaboration on mutual projects. The platform
in this case can be compared to a box full of various
files that are essential to the success of the project.
These include, emails (which can be automatically
imported to Confluence), proposals, meeting notes,
product requirement documents, roadmaps, pre-
sentations, as well as other documents.
3. Intranet - internal company portal
Corporate knowledge like various internal proce-
dures, workflows, processes and operations, em-
ployees’ information,aswellassensitivedatashould
reside in one place as they are vital for healthy func-
tioning of the organization. Confluence is a de-
cent solution if you need to gather all information
from the company. It is easy for both technical and
non-technical users to work in Confluence due to its
user-centered interface and wide variety of built-in
features and add-ons.
Chapter 1
10
PROMINENT CONFLUENCE CUSTOMERS
A considerable number of businesses introduced
Confluence as the major internal documentation
tool. These businesses refer to it on a daily basis due
to its rich functionality, truly simple user-centered
interface and impressive customer support system.
Among its loyal customers, there are significant or-
ganizations such as Nasa or branches of the Depart-
ment of Defense, the Defense Media Activity (DMA),
and more. Here is how they feel about this magical
corporate documentation enabler:
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
NASA:
“TheAtlassianecosystemisabigbenefitforateam
like ours that’s collaborating across geographical
locations.”
— Dave Mittman, lead software developer, JPL
Part of the Department of Defense, the De-
fense Media Activity (DMA):
“The difference is amazing, and our productivity
has skyrocketed. Now, everything can be visual-
ized, racked, and stacked, and I know what every-
one is working on at a glance.”
— Leslie Benito, CIO and director of technical
services, Defense Media Activity
11
Chapter 1
Hubspot:
“I can say that we’d be much less productive if we
didn’t have such an active collaboration structure
powered by [Atlassian].”
— Jim O’Neill, chief information officer,
HubSpot
12
CHAPTER 2
Arrange your workplace
In This Chapter
>> HowarethingsorganizedinConfluence?
>> Learn about spaces and pages.
>> Start your work by creating your first
space .
etting interrupted on different applications
and services is not just unproductive, as it de-
creases your focus, but also is quite irritating. Having
important project conversations like email, propos-
als, contracts on the Drive, feedback and discussion
on serious matters of the project while using some
team collaboration tool like Slack, would be quite
13
confusing and might cause considerable data loss
as well as inconveniences regarding access rights.
To avoid all these unnecessary challenges, start us-
ing Confluence gradually by filling it with all essen-
tial info.
HOW CONFLUENCE WORKS?
1. Confluence: is a web application aimed at mak-
ing it easier for the teams to organize, create, and
discuss their work.
2. Its structure encompasses: spaces and pages.
Chapter 2
+ +
Dashboard
MarketingI T Operations
“
Space Home Page
Child pages
Global
Spaces
Pages
I
14
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
So, hopefully we have made it clear that Confluence
gathers all your work in one place, now we are excit-
ed to show you how it can be done!
The first and very essential step is: To create a place
where your information will reside - get to know
Spaces.
>> Space - is an area for collaboration. This is where
you store your information. Everything in Con-
fluence is organized into spaces. Space consists
of related pages.
>> Page is the smallest element of the system. One
page is one document.
ThinkofaspaceinConfluence-asouterspace.
Thinkofapage-asaplanetintheouterspace.
“
“
15
Chapter 2
PERMISSIONS AND RESTRICTIONS IN
CONFLUENCE:
Despite the fact that Confluence is about trans-
parency and openness, there are cases when it is
essential to restrict some users’ access to particular
content.
There are three levels of permissions
in Confluence:
>> Global permissions - regulate the op-
erations which a user is able to carry out at the
level of the site. Can be set by either a System or
Confluence administrator.
>> Space permissions - define which groups or us-
ers can view, add, edit, and delete content with-
in a particular space. They are assigned by the
space admin(s).
>> Page restrictions - determine who can view and
edit a particular page. A page creator can either
grant or restrict access to it.
16
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
NB
Permissions that are valid for space are
also valid for all the pages of this space.
Space Admin can control what is accessi-
ble in the Space. However, a page creator
can set specific restrictions for their con-
tent.
Set restrictions according to the level of in-
volvement of a person into the project:
>> let everyone in your company view and
add information.
>> let your teammates view, add and de-
lete content.
ORGANIZE YOUR WORK
“
“
“ “ “
Space
17
Chapter 2
How to create a space?
Choose Spaces > Create space from the Conflu-
ence header.
Next steps are: name your space and customize the
home page that is automatically created by Con-
fluence according to your preferences and needs
(change the space key, add some additional infor-
mation etc.)
There are 2 types of spaces:
>> Site Spaces (sometimes called Global Spaces)
– a place for content creation and collaboration.
You can find them in the Space Directory.
>> Personal Spaces - personal area of a Confluence
user, which can be used for individual needs and
may be both private and public for other users
to view and make changes. They can be found
in the People Directory and also in your personal
profile.
18
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
Do you need a separate space or not?
It is recommended to create a separate
space for every team or project which has
its own area of work and specific tasks.
This applies as well for individual users
to be able to organize and manage their
personal information and tasks:
>> team (Marketing, Development, Cus-
tomer Support...)
>> project
>> personal work of individuals
You may think of a space as a box con-
taining all the info which is essential for
team members as well as the success of
the project. Try to avoid mixing different
files into the same space.
So the answer to the question: “Do you
need a separate space or not?” is “Yes!”
Create a space when you feel there is a
need for this.
NB
19
Chapter 2
Copy a newly created space.
A great suggestion for avoiding unneces-
sary work, is by copying a newly created
space. So when you are adding a new space
in the future, you will have all the customi-
zations and settings done. For this you will
need a Copy Space add-on (Check Atlassian
Marketplace) which will create a space tem-
plate for your further projects.
20
CHAPTER 3
Create content
In This Chapter
>> How content is being created in Conflu-
ence?
>> Start creating your content: create your
first page
>> Learn about macros
>> What are drafts used for?
o, in Confluence you build content with pag-
es and blog posts. We can associate them with
bricks, which are extremely important for every
construction project.
21
Whatever the content you create and share, you do
it with pages and blog posts. Whether it’s meeting
notes, troubleshooting articles, a how-to guide
or maybe an announcement about the upcoming
conference - every space will allow you to capture
this kind of data with the help of pages or posts
from the space blog.
Page - is a place where you store infor-
mation which is meant to live for a long
period of time in the Confluence site.
Blogpost-isusedforsomeupdateswhichwillsoon
become irrelevant or be for one-time discussions.
Chapter 3
Just to make it easier for you to under-
stand, make associations:
>> if a Confluence space is a branch of a
tree, then the page is a leaf
>> if a Confluence space is outer space -
then the page will be a planet
>> if a Confluence page is a wall, then the
page will be a brick
22
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
What can be placed on the page?
You can place your rich content to your Confluence
page, such as:
1.	 Images – the easiest way to paste them is
to drag and drop them to a page.
2.	 Videos - a convenient format for quick in-
formation digestion.
3.	 Files – can be embedded to a Confluence
page in a form of MS Office documents.
4.	 Links - fill in your pages with other web
contents.
Auto-convert feature, easily transforms
links to Confluence pages, Jira issues,
Skitch images, Flickr photo streams, Vi-
meo videos, as well as Google maps into
rich content.
NB
USE PAGE TEMPLATES
It might be quite confusing to work with a blank
page. You will need to learn some of the best prac-
tices and gain certain experiences beforehand. It is
easier, especially for newcomers, to start their work
in Confluence with page templates created for the
most widespread cases. Such as “Meeting Notes”
– agendas and main topics of meetings, “How To’s”
– step-by-step instructions to common processes of
the organization, and “Product Requirements”.
23
Chapter 3
Page templates will show you how the pages in
Confluence work and also present all the specific
tools which exist for this or that task.
1. Click on the three dots next to the Create but-
ton on the Confluence page header:
2. Choose the template according to the type of
document you want to create
Once you have gotten yourself acquainted with
the templates, you are all set for creating your own
page.
Create ...
Create ...
24
There are two kinds of page templates
in Confluence:
>> Space templates: available only in a
certain space. Space admin can choose them
with the help of the space administration screen.
>> Global templates: available everywhere on the
Confluence site. Confluence admin can choose
them with the help of the Confluence Adminis-
tration Console.
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
Usepagelayoutstobeabletodivideitinto
sections and fill with the various elements
you need.
Page layouts help you organize your
page into horizontal sections and vertical
columns.
Create ...
25
Chapter 3
WHAT ARE DRAFTS USED FOR?
The Drafting feature is one of the must-have fea-
tures for every good editor. It enables continuous
editing of the page without making it public. This
is a great functionality that the Confluence creators
are proud of.
Draft – a Confluence page which is not
published yet. Content editing is not
completed and is in process.
As soon as a page has been created, Confluence
makes a draft out of it.
If a page owner wants to close it, there are two op-
tions to consider: “Save draft”or “Publish”.
If you close this page, it will get saved as a draft and
you can return to your task at any time to proceed
with the editing.
In order to get help from other team
members, a content creator should share
with them a page link. There is no oth-
er way they can access an unpublished
page.
NB
26
WHAT ARE MACROS AND WHY TO USE THEM?
Confluence has a large variety of tools to compli-
ment your page called macros. They are built to
make your pages more functional and full of dy-
namic content. It is appropriate to follow some
rules and remember that visuals are essential for
any kind of writing. There are around 70 macros in
Confluence, so everyone can choose what best suits
their needs.
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
There is a Shortcut for macros: just press
“{”,starttypingthenameofthemacroand
then choose the one you need from the list.
Let’s illustrate how they work on the example of
TABLE OF CONTENTS macro:
The magic of this macro is in the following:
after adding this macro to a page, it automatically
detects all headings of the page and forms a ta-
ble of contents by adding the links to the head-
ings used on the page.
Reuse your content with macros
Obviously, typing the same content multi-
ple times is unproductive and a pure waste
27
Chapter 3
of your valuable time. Create content once,
and include it on other pages later on if you
need it.
It is vital because...
>> it is time-saving;
>> the more you repeat the information -
the easier it is for your colleagues to find
it;
>> it will ease the process of updating in
the future - you will just have to update
the original page while all others will
update automatically.
There are 3 macros that allow you to reuse con-
tent in Confluence:
>> The Excerpt macro - choose re-usable content
on a page and add it inside this macro. Now you
can reuse it an endless amount of times.
>> The Excerpt Include macro - allows you to in-
clude the re-usable content of an excerpt onto
another page.
>> The Include Page macro include - allows you
to include the content of the whole page onto
another page.
28
To ensure your pages are efficient and
engaging:
>> make your page as full as possible us-
ing all features of Confluence editor
>> don’t make your pages too long: the
likelihood that people will get till the
end of the page is very low. As a result,
they might miss some important infor-
mation and won’t leave feedback un-
der the document.
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
29
CHAPTER 4
Collaborate on work
In This Chapter
>> Collaboration on content in Confluence
>> Assign tasks to your teammates
>> Ways to leave feedback
>> Manage page restrictions
he most revolutionary advantage of Atlassian
Confluence is its collaboration feature and the
unlimited ability to share opinions on different mat-
ters. Indeed, work discussions and feedback play an
essential role in any kind of work. With the help of
bright ideas and the hidden skills of your colleagues,
you will be able to get your concepts and projects
to a new, more profound level much quicker.
30
Work discussions are so easy in Confluence. It is truly
built for this. You can do so many things on Conflu-
ence page like making changes, leaving comments
and reminders, adding and discussing ideas, as well
as asking for advice and sharing your experience
with others.
Collaborative editing in Confluence
enables you to work together with your
colleagues on a shared draft and see
which changes they make in real time.
All modifications are being saved automatically, so
you can stay focused on your task without worrying
that some data will be lost. This is probably one of
the most efficient ways of direct live communica-
tion with colleagues.
LEAVING FEEDBACK IN CONFLUENCE
Comments:
The main way to leave feedback in Confluence is to
write a Comment. A set of comments shapes a Dis-
cussion which is located right in the document, so is
quite easy to find and react to.
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
31
Three types of comments:
>> Page comments - can be found under
the document, at the bottom. They are
used for general discussions of documents. Ev-
eryone who has access can leave feedback.
>> Inline comments - best suitable when there is a
need to give a remark on some specific moment
in the document. Inline comments are added in
a form of highlights within text.To add it: High-
light the text, press the “Add comment” button
which appears above the highlighted text and
choose“Add inline comment”
>> File comments - comments on the embedded
files. To add such a comment press “Drag this
pin to add a comment”on the embedded file.
Likes:
The quickest and most effortless method to demon-
strate that you agree on the content is to put “like”.
Likes do matter: the more likes a page
gets, the higher chance it has to get to the
“Popular” section on the Confluence land-
ing page - dashboard.
Chapter 4
32
MENTION PEOPLE
Mentions are used to inform people
about specific things they should know,
e.g.futureplansorevenspecifictasks,etc.
To mention a colleague, start with“@”and continue
typing the name of a person.
If you mention a person in a document, he/she gets
an email notification.
4 Reasons to use mentions:
>> A great way to tell attendees of a meeting what
the main topics will be and what to expect from
the gathering – in other words, you can present
meeting agendas for each of them in one click.
>> In case you are not competent in a specific area,
you can always involve somebody who will help
with that particular issue – possibility to connect
co-workers with Subject Matter Experts.
>> Give credit to those who deserve it – mention-
ing a promising worker’s name and their accom-
plishments in the mutual documents will help
motivate them and other employees at the same
time.
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
33
Yes, it will be completely right of you to note that
this all can be done with the help of email service.
BUT:
>> using mentions is significantly quicker and much
more comfortable.
>> the main benefit of informing employees in this
way is that all the information is stored in one
place.
SHOULD I LOCK UP CONTENT IN CONFLUENCE?
It was mentioned in previous chapters that pag-
es inherit space permissions, so all the pages are
open to the members of this space. However, if
needed, a page owner can also restrict the access
to a specific page. or example, this situation would
occur when needing to restrict access to company
sensitive information or when the info is not ready
for public viewing.
Some users believe that by granting permissions
only to a limited group of users they will make sure
that their content is being accessed by the right
people. While it is a sound idea to allow only your
teammates to edit the content, there is no need to
restrict viewing permissions and the opportunity to
leave feedback for all others.
Chapter 4
34
There is no need to overload your spaces with
excessive restrictions.
There are a couple of examples of situations when
your teammates can bring value to your work in
Confluence. What if somebody had already faced
this problem before and already knows the solution
from personal experience? It is unlikely you would
ask this person for advice on your own. However,
due to openness and accessibility of documents
in Confluence, you can get help without even ask-
ing for it. Due to various notifications and pop-ups
within Confluence, the topics attract the attention
of devoted workers who always have something to
add. This is actually how fruitful and productive
conversations are being triggered in Confluence.
NB
Space admin is empowered to manage
page restrictions in the space. If a page
owner sets some limitations to a page
and a space admin has no access to it, he
can still see which pages in the space are
private and revoke restrictions to them.
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
35
4 Reasons why giving wiki members the chance
to contribute is beneficial (including opportuni-
ty to edit, give suggestions, comment, put likes
to pages etc.)
1.	 Unique ideas and fresh look: Employees might
have unusual opinions to various concepts and
can give a new fresh look to the things. This may
be crucial for better performance and the overall
success of the company.
2.	 Less confusion: if users are not allowed to give
suggestions directly in the document, they will
proceed with creating copies to docs that in-
clude the changes they want to make. Later on
it will be hard to comprehend which one of the
documents is relevant and which can be deleted.
3.	 Remote teams’ only solution: the only way
they can collaborate on their work is through en-
abling access for all team members to the docu-
ments being edited.
4.	 Perfect way to recognize attention worthy
matters: if the post appears to be a true subject
of attention among users, it can only attribute
to the success and significance of the topic. This
can be seen from the numerous comments and
likes under the page.
Chapter 4
36
Why not let them speak up and make an impact?
What can you do?
Just ensure they have access and the ability to con-
tribute insights and suggestions to the company’s
digital workplace.
Let all employees make use of the Cor-
porate Knowledge:
Even if some groups of workers don’t have
a Confluence license, they can still view
a company Knowledge Base and ben-
efit from it in the process of their work.
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
37
In This Chapter
>> Add-ons as an advanced level of func-
tionality
>> Integration with Jira Service desk
>> The problem of content maintaining
and updating
his section has been added for those who have
gotten so excited with the basic concepts, and
want to learn even more. We came up with some
important pieces of advice which every Confluence
newbie should consider while starting their work in
this document productivity boosting portal.
CHAPTER 5
Useful insights for
newbies
38
USE ADD-ONS:
Seems like Confluence doesn’t offer the functional-
ity you desperately need for your running project?
No worries. There is an add-on for this.
Plug-ins (so called add-ons) can per-
fectly complement the functional-
ity of your Confluence Workplace.
Indeed, Atlassian Marketplace offers a rich variety
of add-ons with different kinds of purposes which
can become handy while performing numerous
tasks. Some of them can even change the way you
do your work.
Check the Atlassian Marketplace by visiting https://
marketplace.atlassian.com and choose the right one
that is going to do all of the work for you.
CONNECT YOUR CONFLUENCE KNOWLEDGE
BASE TO JIRA SERVICE DESK :
Incident management, change management,
problem management - these are the cases which
require the skillful hand of an IT support team
agent. To be able to perform their magic better,
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
39
IT experts are recommended to use a pair of Atlas-
sian products - Confluence and Jira Service Desk.
The first product serves as the knowledge base
function where software processes are usually de-
scribed, whereas the latter one helps to manage
customer requests and solved issues.
JiraServiceDeskis a truly handy service
platform. Indeed, due to its intuitiveness,
the process of technical support is clear,
transparent and truly quick. The notable
benefit is that it is so easy to link the content creat-
ed in Confluence to the current ongoing issues.
Twitter, Skyscanner, Telegraph Media Group and
many others actively use Jira Service Desk as the pri-
mary company task management system. If you still
haven’t, it’s a prime time for you to integrate with
your Confluence Knowledge Base and start solving
your customers’issues significantly faster.
Real benefits:
>> Less requests over time: with time, Knowledge
base will inevitably grow and will gradually ease
the lives of Service Desk agents. This is because
users will be able to find their answers on cus-
tomer portal without having to send a request.
Chapter 5
40
>> Faster issue solving: your service agents will be
able to use relevant Knowledge Base articles
while solving the issues. So, not spending time
on looking for solutions at the moment of receiv-
ing an issue.
>> Provide your customers with a Knowl-
edge Base - a place where they will find
answers to their questions.
>> Name the articles in your Knowledge
Base in a way that is understandable for
your audience – make sure you know
how your clients are inclined to call this
or that issue.
KEEP YOUR DATA ON TRACK
Don’t let your data get stale!
Even after creating and reviewing content, you must
not forget about it. Sooner or later you will have to
come back to it again. Nothing in Confluence can
be left without attention. You need to take care of
all your content as UPDATES ARE INEVITABLE.
If the data is irrelevant, it has zero value for its read-
ers. Keeping your Confluence Knowledge
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
41
Base out of date is definitely not the best strategy.
Firstly, nobody wants outdated information. Sec-
ondly, it may bring confusion, and in some cases,
may even affect the wellbeing of the whole project.
Relevant knowledge base means organized and al-
ways up to date information.
Don’t forget that all kinds of changes are unavoid-
able, so make sure the documentation is updated
in a timely manner. Choose time for regular updates
and people who will be responsible for this.
A person, who is responsible for keeping
a knowledge base clean and relevant, is
called Wiki Gardener.
Who is a WIKI Gardener?
In short, it is a person, or so called moderator, who is
primarily responsible for the process of updating, as
well as other tasks related to the content’s accuracy
and availability.
It includes regular cleaning or deleting of unneces-
sary comments, copies, or irrelevant data. Followed
Chapter 5
42
by replacing it with the relevant file, organizing it
into categories, moving it to the right space, keep-
ing it neat, making sure it’s easy to find, and not be-
ing overloaded with restrictions. This way users will
always have access to relevant information and will
stay active. Also among other duties of a Wiki Gar-
dener, is making sure the content added by others
fits the main guidelines and requirements of the
platform.
Give all users the ability to flag data which
is outdated. By “flagging” we mean mark-
ingitastheinfowhichneedstobereviewed
and updated. The moderator, in turn, will
have to give this data exceptional attention
by revision and making changes.
THE PROBLEM OF INFORMATION UPDATING
A problem of content updating serves as a continu-
ation of the previous point. But we will contemplate
it separately to be able to understand its roots in
more detail to find a more favourable solution.
So, in order to update existing content, you will have
to replace it with newly created text and paste it to
the Public Facing Documentation Space.
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
43
Usually, new content is created in another space as
it has to be edited and proofread by numerous peo-
ple in order to be ready to go live. Also it is impos-
sible to work on creating new content on the same
page as the outdated information because it can’t
be deleted.
While in this process, you may face a problem of
copying and pasting the content from the draft
space to the published Knowledge Base space.
The problems of this approach:
>> Data losing;
>> Inevitable errors;
>> Time-consuming process.
A great time and effort saving solution is to use an
add-on which will automatize this complex proce-
dure. We have tried Comala Publishing add on.
Using this Confluence plugin with just the touch of
a button, you can sync the article with the public
page, which updates the content instantly.
Chapter 5
44
KEY TAKEAWAYS
o sum up, we were more than pleased to pro-
vide you with these handy tips which we took
from both Confluence customers’ and creators’
perspectives. This information was based on our
own experience as well as on rich Atlassian Con-
fluence Knowledge base. We believe this list of
practical insights will help you on every stage of
your Confluence journey, and will significantly in-
fluence your future success and productivity.
We have done this work to show you that it’s really
easy to use Confluence as well as the multitude of
possibilities which can make your work less painful
and more productive.
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
45
The primary points you should digest from this
book are:
>> Confluence is a great platform which is a suc-
cessful combination of two features - it enables
creating rich qualitative content and gives all the
employees the chance to contribute to this pro-
cess.
>> Confluence is a web application aimed at mak-
ing it easier for the teams to organize, create, and
discuss their work.
>> Three main cases where Confluence can be
useful:
1.	 Public documentation - place your Pub-
lic Facing Documentation on a Confluence
site by creating an extensive and detailed
Knowledge Base which will serve as a cus-
tomer portal.
2.	 Team projects collaboration - use Conflu-
ence as a place to store all the important
data for your projects as well as a tool for
discussing your work with colleagues.
3.	 Intranet - use Confluence as an internal
company portal and gather all company’s
information together.
Key takeaways
46
>> Its structure encompasses spaces and pages.
>> In Confluence you build content with pages and
blog posts.
>> One of the best things about Confluence is its
discoverability. You don’t have to share the link
with the colleagues of what you have just creat-
ed as it instantly appears in your space. There-
fore, everyone interested can get acknowledged
with the info and add a fresh look as well as new
directions to the problem with ease.
Be sure, if Confluence users are aware of all hidden
features and benefits of what this portal can bring
to their projects, they will be motivated to work
there more often and more actively. With time, Con-
fluence documentation platforms will become an
integral part of company’s major workflow.
So, good luck on your journey from Atlassian Con-
fluence Newbie to Atlassian Confluence PRO!
The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
47
NOTES
48
49
50
51
StepShot is a user-friendly software for creating step-by-
step guides and manuals with the minimum efforts required.
Since Atlassian Confluence is aimed to store company’s
knowledge, StepShot just helps teams capture that knowl-
edge in the easiest way possible.
Last year StepShot for Confluence was mentioned in the
Atlassian Summit keynote talk. Moreover, StepShot was
nominated as the Popular Choice Add-on for Confluence in
the Atlassian Codegeist Hackathon 2016.
HOW STEPSHOT WORKS:
2. Edit screenshots with a built-
in editor - add arrows, highlights,
blur and more!
3. Publish the guide to a Conflu-
ence page with one click!
1. Grab screenshots and text de-
scriptions on every mouse click;
52
Automate
documentation
StepShot is watching a
subject matter expert while
he/she is going through a
software workflow. This is
how SME’s knowledge can
be automatically captured
in a distraction-less way.
Schedule less
knowledge-transfer
sessions
StepShot allows spending
less time sharing knowl-
edge on performing
day-to-day tasks.
Create more useful
content
Have always up-to-date
routine processes infor-
mation within your Con-
fluence space in a form of
user-guides, instructional
documents and runbooks.
WHY STEPSHOT FOR CONFLUENCE?
53
54
If you are just starting your Confluence journey, THE GO-TO
MANUAL FOR CONFLUENCE NEWBIES is the best source to
start with. It introduces Confluence as a powerful technical
documentation platform in modern teams. Confluence is the
combination of two great features – it enables creation of
rich, qualitative content as well as giving all the employees
the chance to contribute to the process. This book will guide
you through these important stages and assist with any chal-
lenges you might face during the process. You will learn how
content is created in Confluence and the main ways to collab-
orate on work there.
Brought to you by
http://stepshot.net

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The Go-To Manual for Confluence Newbies

  • 1. 1 Brought to you by Learn: • Confluence main concepts • How are things organized in Confluence • How to create engaging content • Confluence collaboration feature • Tips to boost productivity Limited edition
  • 2. 2
  • 3. 3 LIMITED EDITION Brought to you by StepShotDOCUMENT YOUR STEPS EASILY
  • 4. 4 Copyright 2017 by StepShot All Rights Reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Book text by Solomiia Khavshch Text editing by Martha Hlova Book design by Liza Aleksandrovych Book cover image, Chapter opening illustrations RaStudio/bigstock.com Illustration Credits: 5: Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com 6, 13, 14, 16, 23, 24: Liza Aleksandrovych 14: BSGStudio/all-free-download.com For more information visit http://stepshot.net StepShot Estonia, Tallin +1 650 425 7355 c c
  • 5. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Arrange your workplace 10 First steps to Confluence 5 Create content 18 “ Collaborate on work 27 Useful insights for newbies 35 Key takeaways 42
  • 6. 6 The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies ICONS USED IN THIS BOOK There are several icons in the margins of this book. Here’s what they stand for: NB Essential points to pay attention to Some pieces of advice to remember Bare bones of Atlassian Confluence
  • 7. 7 CHAPTER 1 First steps to Confluence In This Chapter >> What is Confluence? >> Where can you use it? >> Who uses Confluence? oday, Confluence is known as a widely used, trustworthy technical documentation platform. This truly effective and flexible way of storing com- pany data and sharing it with the team members as well as customers brings clearness and effective- ness to the usual workflows of organizations and enhances the level of customer support.
  • 8. 8 The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies SO WHAT IS ATLASSIAN CONFLUENCE? Collaboration. Teamwork. Transparency. Openness. Structure. Clarity. Documents. Workflows. Proce- dures. Knowledge Base. These are the terms which describe Confluence in the best possible way as a powerful documentation platform. WHERE CAN CONFLUENCE BE OF GREAT USE? 1. Public documentation It is truly a sound idea to place your Public Facing Documentation on the Confluence site. The best way to do it, is to create an extensive and detailed Knowledge Base which will serve as a customer portal. Your customers will find it extremely handy and comfortably accessible. As for most modern consumers, they want all solutions with the first click. Confluence allows the solutions to be at the customer’s fingertips. Today no customer is willing to wait for somebody to pick up the phone and as- sist them. It is no wonder, why it is believed that the
  • 9. 9 most effective support teams solve issues without even seeing the ticket. 2. Team projects collaboration Confluence is among one of the best approaches for collaboration on mutual projects. The platform in this case can be compared to a box full of various files that are essential to the success of the project. These include, emails (which can be automatically imported to Confluence), proposals, meeting notes, product requirement documents, roadmaps, pre- sentations, as well as other documents. 3. Intranet - internal company portal Corporate knowledge like various internal proce- dures, workflows, processes and operations, em- ployees’ information,aswellassensitivedatashould reside in one place as they are vital for healthy func- tioning of the organization. Confluence is a de- cent solution if you need to gather all information from the company. It is easy for both technical and non-technical users to work in Confluence due to its user-centered interface and wide variety of built-in features and add-ons. Chapter 1
  • 10. 10 PROMINENT CONFLUENCE CUSTOMERS A considerable number of businesses introduced Confluence as the major internal documentation tool. These businesses refer to it on a daily basis due to its rich functionality, truly simple user-centered interface and impressive customer support system. Among its loyal customers, there are significant or- ganizations such as Nasa or branches of the Depart- ment of Defense, the Defense Media Activity (DMA), and more. Here is how they feel about this magical corporate documentation enabler: The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies NASA: “TheAtlassianecosystemisabigbenefitforateam like ours that’s collaborating across geographical locations.” — Dave Mittman, lead software developer, JPL Part of the Department of Defense, the De- fense Media Activity (DMA): “The difference is amazing, and our productivity has skyrocketed. Now, everything can be visual- ized, racked, and stacked, and I know what every- one is working on at a glance.” — Leslie Benito, CIO and director of technical services, Defense Media Activity
  • 11. 11 Chapter 1 Hubspot: “I can say that we’d be much less productive if we didn’t have such an active collaboration structure powered by [Atlassian].” — Jim O’Neill, chief information officer, HubSpot
  • 12. 12 CHAPTER 2 Arrange your workplace In This Chapter >> HowarethingsorganizedinConfluence? >> Learn about spaces and pages. >> Start your work by creating your first space . etting interrupted on different applications and services is not just unproductive, as it de- creases your focus, but also is quite irritating. Having important project conversations like email, propos- als, contracts on the Drive, feedback and discussion on serious matters of the project while using some team collaboration tool like Slack, would be quite
  • 13. 13 confusing and might cause considerable data loss as well as inconveniences regarding access rights. To avoid all these unnecessary challenges, start us- ing Confluence gradually by filling it with all essen- tial info. HOW CONFLUENCE WORKS? 1. Confluence: is a web application aimed at mak- ing it easier for the teams to organize, create, and discuss their work. 2. Its structure encompasses: spaces and pages. Chapter 2 + + Dashboard MarketingI T Operations “ Space Home Page Child pages Global Spaces Pages I
  • 14. 14 The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies So, hopefully we have made it clear that Confluence gathers all your work in one place, now we are excit- ed to show you how it can be done! The first and very essential step is: To create a place where your information will reside - get to know Spaces. >> Space - is an area for collaboration. This is where you store your information. Everything in Con- fluence is organized into spaces. Space consists of related pages. >> Page is the smallest element of the system. One page is one document. ThinkofaspaceinConfluence-asouterspace. Thinkofapage-asaplanetintheouterspace. “ “
  • 15. 15 Chapter 2 PERMISSIONS AND RESTRICTIONS IN CONFLUENCE: Despite the fact that Confluence is about trans- parency and openness, there are cases when it is essential to restrict some users’ access to particular content. There are three levels of permissions in Confluence: >> Global permissions - regulate the op- erations which a user is able to carry out at the level of the site. Can be set by either a System or Confluence administrator. >> Space permissions - define which groups or us- ers can view, add, edit, and delete content with- in a particular space. They are assigned by the space admin(s). >> Page restrictions - determine who can view and edit a particular page. A page creator can either grant or restrict access to it.
  • 16. 16 The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies NB Permissions that are valid for space are also valid for all the pages of this space. Space Admin can control what is accessi- ble in the Space. However, a page creator can set specific restrictions for their con- tent. Set restrictions according to the level of in- volvement of a person into the project: >> let everyone in your company view and add information. >> let your teammates view, add and de- lete content. ORGANIZE YOUR WORK “ “ “ “ “ Space
  • 17. 17 Chapter 2 How to create a space? Choose Spaces > Create space from the Conflu- ence header. Next steps are: name your space and customize the home page that is automatically created by Con- fluence according to your preferences and needs (change the space key, add some additional infor- mation etc.) There are 2 types of spaces: >> Site Spaces (sometimes called Global Spaces) – a place for content creation and collaboration. You can find them in the Space Directory. >> Personal Spaces - personal area of a Confluence user, which can be used for individual needs and may be both private and public for other users to view and make changes. They can be found in the People Directory and also in your personal profile.
  • 18. 18 The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies Do you need a separate space or not? It is recommended to create a separate space for every team or project which has its own area of work and specific tasks. This applies as well for individual users to be able to organize and manage their personal information and tasks: >> team (Marketing, Development, Cus- tomer Support...) >> project >> personal work of individuals You may think of a space as a box con- taining all the info which is essential for team members as well as the success of the project. Try to avoid mixing different files into the same space. So the answer to the question: “Do you need a separate space or not?” is “Yes!” Create a space when you feel there is a need for this. NB
  • 19. 19 Chapter 2 Copy a newly created space. A great suggestion for avoiding unneces- sary work, is by copying a newly created space. So when you are adding a new space in the future, you will have all the customi- zations and settings done. For this you will need a Copy Space add-on (Check Atlassian Marketplace) which will create a space tem- plate for your further projects.
  • 20. 20 CHAPTER 3 Create content In This Chapter >> How content is being created in Conflu- ence? >> Start creating your content: create your first page >> Learn about macros >> What are drafts used for? o, in Confluence you build content with pag- es and blog posts. We can associate them with bricks, which are extremely important for every construction project.
  • 21. 21 Whatever the content you create and share, you do it with pages and blog posts. Whether it’s meeting notes, troubleshooting articles, a how-to guide or maybe an announcement about the upcoming conference - every space will allow you to capture this kind of data with the help of pages or posts from the space blog. Page - is a place where you store infor- mation which is meant to live for a long period of time in the Confluence site. Blogpost-isusedforsomeupdateswhichwillsoon become irrelevant or be for one-time discussions. Chapter 3 Just to make it easier for you to under- stand, make associations: >> if a Confluence space is a branch of a tree, then the page is a leaf >> if a Confluence space is outer space - then the page will be a planet >> if a Confluence page is a wall, then the page will be a brick
  • 22. 22 The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies What can be placed on the page? You can place your rich content to your Confluence page, such as: 1. Images – the easiest way to paste them is to drag and drop them to a page. 2. Videos - a convenient format for quick in- formation digestion. 3. Files – can be embedded to a Confluence page in a form of MS Office documents. 4. Links - fill in your pages with other web contents. Auto-convert feature, easily transforms links to Confluence pages, Jira issues, Skitch images, Flickr photo streams, Vi- meo videos, as well as Google maps into rich content. NB USE PAGE TEMPLATES It might be quite confusing to work with a blank page. You will need to learn some of the best prac- tices and gain certain experiences beforehand. It is easier, especially for newcomers, to start their work in Confluence with page templates created for the most widespread cases. Such as “Meeting Notes” – agendas and main topics of meetings, “How To’s” – step-by-step instructions to common processes of the organization, and “Product Requirements”.
  • 23. 23 Chapter 3 Page templates will show you how the pages in Confluence work and also present all the specific tools which exist for this or that task. 1. Click on the three dots next to the Create but- ton on the Confluence page header: 2. Choose the template according to the type of document you want to create Once you have gotten yourself acquainted with the templates, you are all set for creating your own page. Create ... Create ...
  • 24. 24 There are two kinds of page templates in Confluence: >> Space templates: available only in a certain space. Space admin can choose them with the help of the space administration screen. >> Global templates: available everywhere on the Confluence site. Confluence admin can choose them with the help of the Confluence Adminis- tration Console. The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies Usepagelayoutstobeabletodivideitinto sections and fill with the various elements you need. Page layouts help you organize your page into horizontal sections and vertical columns. Create ...
  • 25. 25 Chapter 3 WHAT ARE DRAFTS USED FOR? The Drafting feature is one of the must-have fea- tures for every good editor. It enables continuous editing of the page without making it public. This is a great functionality that the Confluence creators are proud of. Draft – a Confluence page which is not published yet. Content editing is not completed and is in process. As soon as a page has been created, Confluence makes a draft out of it. If a page owner wants to close it, there are two op- tions to consider: “Save draft”or “Publish”. If you close this page, it will get saved as a draft and you can return to your task at any time to proceed with the editing. In order to get help from other team members, a content creator should share with them a page link. There is no oth- er way they can access an unpublished page. NB
  • 26. 26 WHAT ARE MACROS AND WHY TO USE THEM? Confluence has a large variety of tools to compli- ment your page called macros. They are built to make your pages more functional and full of dy- namic content. It is appropriate to follow some rules and remember that visuals are essential for any kind of writing. There are around 70 macros in Confluence, so everyone can choose what best suits their needs. The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies There is a Shortcut for macros: just press “{”,starttypingthenameofthemacroand then choose the one you need from the list. Let’s illustrate how they work on the example of TABLE OF CONTENTS macro: The magic of this macro is in the following: after adding this macro to a page, it automatically detects all headings of the page and forms a ta- ble of contents by adding the links to the head- ings used on the page. Reuse your content with macros Obviously, typing the same content multi- ple times is unproductive and a pure waste
  • 27. 27 Chapter 3 of your valuable time. Create content once, and include it on other pages later on if you need it. It is vital because... >> it is time-saving; >> the more you repeat the information - the easier it is for your colleagues to find it; >> it will ease the process of updating in the future - you will just have to update the original page while all others will update automatically. There are 3 macros that allow you to reuse con- tent in Confluence: >> The Excerpt macro - choose re-usable content on a page and add it inside this macro. Now you can reuse it an endless amount of times. >> The Excerpt Include macro - allows you to in- clude the re-usable content of an excerpt onto another page. >> The Include Page macro include - allows you to include the content of the whole page onto another page.
  • 28. 28 To ensure your pages are efficient and engaging: >> make your page as full as possible us- ing all features of Confluence editor >> don’t make your pages too long: the likelihood that people will get till the end of the page is very low. As a result, they might miss some important infor- mation and won’t leave feedback un- der the document. The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
  • 29. 29 CHAPTER 4 Collaborate on work In This Chapter >> Collaboration on content in Confluence >> Assign tasks to your teammates >> Ways to leave feedback >> Manage page restrictions he most revolutionary advantage of Atlassian Confluence is its collaboration feature and the unlimited ability to share opinions on different mat- ters. Indeed, work discussions and feedback play an essential role in any kind of work. With the help of bright ideas and the hidden skills of your colleagues, you will be able to get your concepts and projects to a new, more profound level much quicker.
  • 30. 30 Work discussions are so easy in Confluence. It is truly built for this. You can do so many things on Conflu- ence page like making changes, leaving comments and reminders, adding and discussing ideas, as well as asking for advice and sharing your experience with others. Collaborative editing in Confluence enables you to work together with your colleagues on a shared draft and see which changes they make in real time. All modifications are being saved automatically, so you can stay focused on your task without worrying that some data will be lost. This is probably one of the most efficient ways of direct live communica- tion with colleagues. LEAVING FEEDBACK IN CONFLUENCE Comments: The main way to leave feedback in Confluence is to write a Comment. A set of comments shapes a Dis- cussion which is located right in the document, so is quite easy to find and react to. The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
  • 31. 31 Three types of comments: >> Page comments - can be found under the document, at the bottom. They are used for general discussions of documents. Ev- eryone who has access can leave feedback. >> Inline comments - best suitable when there is a need to give a remark on some specific moment in the document. Inline comments are added in a form of highlights within text.To add it: High- light the text, press the “Add comment” button which appears above the highlighted text and choose“Add inline comment” >> File comments - comments on the embedded files. To add such a comment press “Drag this pin to add a comment”on the embedded file. Likes: The quickest and most effortless method to demon- strate that you agree on the content is to put “like”. Likes do matter: the more likes a page gets, the higher chance it has to get to the “Popular” section on the Confluence land- ing page - dashboard. Chapter 4
  • 32. 32 MENTION PEOPLE Mentions are used to inform people about specific things they should know, e.g.futureplansorevenspecifictasks,etc. To mention a colleague, start with“@”and continue typing the name of a person. If you mention a person in a document, he/she gets an email notification. 4 Reasons to use mentions: >> A great way to tell attendees of a meeting what the main topics will be and what to expect from the gathering – in other words, you can present meeting agendas for each of them in one click. >> In case you are not competent in a specific area, you can always involve somebody who will help with that particular issue – possibility to connect co-workers with Subject Matter Experts. >> Give credit to those who deserve it – mention- ing a promising worker’s name and their accom- plishments in the mutual documents will help motivate them and other employees at the same time. The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
  • 33. 33 Yes, it will be completely right of you to note that this all can be done with the help of email service. BUT: >> using mentions is significantly quicker and much more comfortable. >> the main benefit of informing employees in this way is that all the information is stored in one place. SHOULD I LOCK UP CONTENT IN CONFLUENCE? It was mentioned in previous chapters that pag- es inherit space permissions, so all the pages are open to the members of this space. However, if needed, a page owner can also restrict the access to a specific page. or example, this situation would occur when needing to restrict access to company sensitive information or when the info is not ready for public viewing. Some users believe that by granting permissions only to a limited group of users they will make sure that their content is being accessed by the right people. While it is a sound idea to allow only your teammates to edit the content, there is no need to restrict viewing permissions and the opportunity to leave feedback for all others. Chapter 4
  • 34. 34 There is no need to overload your spaces with excessive restrictions. There are a couple of examples of situations when your teammates can bring value to your work in Confluence. What if somebody had already faced this problem before and already knows the solution from personal experience? It is unlikely you would ask this person for advice on your own. However, due to openness and accessibility of documents in Confluence, you can get help without even ask- ing for it. Due to various notifications and pop-ups within Confluence, the topics attract the attention of devoted workers who always have something to add. This is actually how fruitful and productive conversations are being triggered in Confluence. NB Space admin is empowered to manage page restrictions in the space. If a page owner sets some limitations to a page and a space admin has no access to it, he can still see which pages in the space are private and revoke restrictions to them. The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
  • 35. 35 4 Reasons why giving wiki members the chance to contribute is beneficial (including opportuni- ty to edit, give suggestions, comment, put likes to pages etc.) 1. Unique ideas and fresh look: Employees might have unusual opinions to various concepts and can give a new fresh look to the things. This may be crucial for better performance and the overall success of the company. 2. Less confusion: if users are not allowed to give suggestions directly in the document, they will proceed with creating copies to docs that in- clude the changes they want to make. Later on it will be hard to comprehend which one of the documents is relevant and which can be deleted. 3. Remote teams’ only solution: the only way they can collaborate on their work is through en- abling access for all team members to the docu- ments being edited. 4. Perfect way to recognize attention worthy matters: if the post appears to be a true subject of attention among users, it can only attribute to the success and significance of the topic. This can be seen from the numerous comments and likes under the page. Chapter 4
  • 36. 36 Why not let them speak up and make an impact? What can you do? Just ensure they have access and the ability to con- tribute insights and suggestions to the company’s digital workplace. Let all employees make use of the Cor- porate Knowledge: Even if some groups of workers don’t have a Confluence license, they can still view a company Knowledge Base and ben- efit from it in the process of their work. The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
  • 37. 37 In This Chapter >> Add-ons as an advanced level of func- tionality >> Integration with Jira Service desk >> The problem of content maintaining and updating his section has been added for those who have gotten so excited with the basic concepts, and want to learn even more. We came up with some important pieces of advice which every Confluence newbie should consider while starting their work in this document productivity boosting portal. CHAPTER 5 Useful insights for newbies
  • 38. 38 USE ADD-ONS: Seems like Confluence doesn’t offer the functional- ity you desperately need for your running project? No worries. There is an add-on for this. Plug-ins (so called add-ons) can per- fectly complement the functional- ity of your Confluence Workplace. Indeed, Atlassian Marketplace offers a rich variety of add-ons with different kinds of purposes which can become handy while performing numerous tasks. Some of them can even change the way you do your work. Check the Atlassian Marketplace by visiting https:// marketplace.atlassian.com and choose the right one that is going to do all of the work for you. CONNECT YOUR CONFLUENCE KNOWLEDGE BASE TO JIRA SERVICE DESK : Incident management, change management, problem management - these are the cases which require the skillful hand of an IT support team agent. To be able to perform their magic better, The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
  • 39. 39 IT experts are recommended to use a pair of Atlas- sian products - Confluence and Jira Service Desk. The first product serves as the knowledge base function where software processes are usually de- scribed, whereas the latter one helps to manage customer requests and solved issues. JiraServiceDeskis a truly handy service platform. Indeed, due to its intuitiveness, the process of technical support is clear, transparent and truly quick. The notable benefit is that it is so easy to link the content creat- ed in Confluence to the current ongoing issues. Twitter, Skyscanner, Telegraph Media Group and many others actively use Jira Service Desk as the pri- mary company task management system. If you still haven’t, it’s a prime time for you to integrate with your Confluence Knowledge Base and start solving your customers’issues significantly faster. Real benefits: >> Less requests over time: with time, Knowledge base will inevitably grow and will gradually ease the lives of Service Desk agents. This is because users will be able to find their answers on cus- tomer portal without having to send a request. Chapter 5
  • 40. 40 >> Faster issue solving: your service agents will be able to use relevant Knowledge Base articles while solving the issues. So, not spending time on looking for solutions at the moment of receiv- ing an issue. >> Provide your customers with a Knowl- edge Base - a place where they will find answers to their questions. >> Name the articles in your Knowledge Base in a way that is understandable for your audience – make sure you know how your clients are inclined to call this or that issue. KEEP YOUR DATA ON TRACK Don’t let your data get stale! Even after creating and reviewing content, you must not forget about it. Sooner or later you will have to come back to it again. Nothing in Confluence can be left without attention. You need to take care of all your content as UPDATES ARE INEVITABLE. If the data is irrelevant, it has zero value for its read- ers. Keeping your Confluence Knowledge The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
  • 41. 41 Base out of date is definitely not the best strategy. Firstly, nobody wants outdated information. Sec- ondly, it may bring confusion, and in some cases, may even affect the wellbeing of the whole project. Relevant knowledge base means organized and al- ways up to date information. Don’t forget that all kinds of changes are unavoid- able, so make sure the documentation is updated in a timely manner. Choose time for regular updates and people who will be responsible for this. A person, who is responsible for keeping a knowledge base clean and relevant, is called Wiki Gardener. Who is a WIKI Gardener? In short, it is a person, or so called moderator, who is primarily responsible for the process of updating, as well as other tasks related to the content’s accuracy and availability. It includes regular cleaning or deleting of unneces- sary comments, copies, or irrelevant data. Followed Chapter 5
  • 42. 42 by replacing it with the relevant file, organizing it into categories, moving it to the right space, keep- ing it neat, making sure it’s easy to find, and not be- ing overloaded with restrictions. This way users will always have access to relevant information and will stay active. Also among other duties of a Wiki Gar- dener, is making sure the content added by others fits the main guidelines and requirements of the platform. Give all users the ability to flag data which is outdated. By “flagging” we mean mark- ingitastheinfowhichneedstobereviewed and updated. The moderator, in turn, will have to give this data exceptional attention by revision and making changes. THE PROBLEM OF INFORMATION UPDATING A problem of content updating serves as a continu- ation of the previous point. But we will contemplate it separately to be able to understand its roots in more detail to find a more favourable solution. So, in order to update existing content, you will have to replace it with newly created text and paste it to the Public Facing Documentation Space. The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
  • 43. 43 Usually, new content is created in another space as it has to be edited and proofread by numerous peo- ple in order to be ready to go live. Also it is impos- sible to work on creating new content on the same page as the outdated information because it can’t be deleted. While in this process, you may face a problem of copying and pasting the content from the draft space to the published Knowledge Base space. The problems of this approach: >> Data losing; >> Inevitable errors; >> Time-consuming process. A great time and effort saving solution is to use an add-on which will automatize this complex proce- dure. We have tried Comala Publishing add on. Using this Confluence plugin with just the touch of a button, you can sync the article with the public page, which updates the content instantly. Chapter 5
  • 44. 44 KEY TAKEAWAYS o sum up, we were more than pleased to pro- vide you with these handy tips which we took from both Confluence customers’ and creators’ perspectives. This information was based on our own experience as well as on rich Atlassian Con- fluence Knowledge base. We believe this list of practical insights will help you on every stage of your Confluence journey, and will significantly in- fluence your future success and productivity. We have done this work to show you that it’s really easy to use Confluence as well as the multitude of possibilities which can make your work less painful and more productive. The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
  • 45. 45 The primary points you should digest from this book are: >> Confluence is a great platform which is a suc- cessful combination of two features - it enables creating rich qualitative content and gives all the employees the chance to contribute to this pro- cess. >> Confluence is a web application aimed at mak- ing it easier for the teams to organize, create, and discuss their work. >> Three main cases where Confluence can be useful: 1. Public documentation - place your Pub- lic Facing Documentation on a Confluence site by creating an extensive and detailed Knowledge Base which will serve as a cus- tomer portal. 2. Team projects collaboration - use Conflu- ence as a place to store all the important data for your projects as well as a tool for discussing your work with colleagues. 3. Intranet - use Confluence as an internal company portal and gather all company’s information together. Key takeaways
  • 46. 46 >> Its structure encompasses spaces and pages. >> In Confluence you build content with pages and blog posts. >> One of the best things about Confluence is its discoverability. You don’t have to share the link with the colleagues of what you have just creat- ed as it instantly appears in your space. There- fore, everyone interested can get acknowledged with the info and add a fresh look as well as new directions to the problem with ease. Be sure, if Confluence users are aware of all hidden features and benefits of what this portal can bring to their projects, they will be motivated to work there more often and more actively. With time, Con- fluence documentation platforms will become an integral part of company’s major workflow. So, good luck on your journey from Atlassian Con- fluence Newbie to Atlassian Confluence PRO! The Go-ToManual for Confluence Newbies
  • 48. 48
  • 49. 49
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  • 51. 51 StepShot is a user-friendly software for creating step-by- step guides and manuals with the minimum efforts required. Since Atlassian Confluence is aimed to store company’s knowledge, StepShot just helps teams capture that knowl- edge in the easiest way possible. Last year StepShot for Confluence was mentioned in the Atlassian Summit keynote talk. Moreover, StepShot was nominated as the Popular Choice Add-on for Confluence in the Atlassian Codegeist Hackathon 2016. HOW STEPSHOT WORKS: 2. Edit screenshots with a built- in editor - add arrows, highlights, blur and more! 3. Publish the guide to a Conflu- ence page with one click! 1. Grab screenshots and text de- scriptions on every mouse click;
  • 52. 52 Automate documentation StepShot is watching a subject matter expert while he/she is going through a software workflow. This is how SME’s knowledge can be automatically captured in a distraction-less way. Schedule less knowledge-transfer sessions StepShot allows spending less time sharing knowl- edge on performing day-to-day tasks. Create more useful content Have always up-to-date routine processes infor- mation within your Con- fluence space in a form of user-guides, instructional documents and runbooks. WHY STEPSHOT FOR CONFLUENCE?
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  • 54. 54 If you are just starting your Confluence journey, THE GO-TO MANUAL FOR CONFLUENCE NEWBIES is the best source to start with. It introduces Confluence as a powerful technical documentation platform in modern teams. Confluence is the combination of two great features – it enables creation of rich, qualitative content as well as giving all the employees the chance to contribute to the process. This book will guide you through these important stages and assist with any chal- lenges you might face during the process. You will learn how content is created in Confluence and the main ways to collab- orate on work there. Brought to you by http://stepshot.net