Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome to the Confluence Basic Training page, designed to help you quickly get up to speed with Confluence Data Center Environment.
Confluence is a collaboration wiki tool used to help teams to collaborate and share knowledge efficiently.  Dynamic pages gives a team a place to create, capture, and collaborate on any project or idea.

This page will serve as your starting point for:

• Navigating spaces and content hierarchies efficiently

• Learning the basics of page creation, formatting, and structuring

• Applying permissions and restrictions appropriately

• Leveraging collaboration features such as comments, mentions, and inline discussions

Whether you’re a new contributor, a space administrator, or part of a team, this training reference will help you work productively and maintain the quality and consistency of our knowledge base.

Confluence access, permissions and restrictions

Access to Confluence spaces, pages, and administrative features is controlled through a combination of Global Permissions, Space permissions , and Page restrictions.

These settings ensure that only authorized users and groups can view, edit, or manage content, safeguarding sensitive information and maintaining compliance with organizational security policies.

To promote consistency and simplify management, permissions and restrictions should be assigned through user groups rather than at the individual user level.

• Global Permissions  are managed by an Atlassian Administrator.

• Space Permissions / Page Restrictions  are managed by an Atlassian Administrator and/or Space Administrator.

If you or a colleague require access to a YME Confluence space or page, please submit an Application Access request form. 

Confluence user profile

Your user profile contains basic information about you, which other Confluence users can see. It's also displayed to other users when they click your name in the People Directory, if you haven't set up your personal space.

In your own profile, you can access account management features and update information about yourself, like your name, email address. You can also view other users' profiles.

Choose your profile picture at top right of the screen , then select Profile, or select the Profile link in the sidebar of your personal space.

From your user profile, you can access the following:

• Personal details name e-mail address optionally a photograph and other personal information.
• Settings: General Settings (homepage, language and timezone), Subscribe to email notifications, and view and revoke your OAuth access tokens.
• Tasks list of tasks assigned on Confluence pages to the user
• Saved for later list of pages
• Watches list of pages and spaces you currently watching
• Drafts pages you were in the process of editing. See Drafts.
• Network: recent activity of users that you are following via the Network view 
  

Edit your user profile

1. Select your profile picture at top right of the screen, then select Profile
   Or, select the Profile link in the sidebar of your personal space.
2. Select Edit Profile.
3. Enter details about yourself in the form displayed.
4. Select Save.

Confluence Site navigation

Use the site navigation menu to find people, pages, and apps no matter where you are in your Confluence site:  

• Tap Home or the Confluence logo (  ) to return to your Confluence  dashboard. Tap Recent to see a list of pages and blog posts you’ve visited or worked on, plus drafts and starred content.
• Tap Spaces to move between your starred or recently visited spaces, or to access the space directory.
• Tap People to visit the people directory, where you can find information about the people you work with and create teams.
• Tap Apps to see a list of the apps that are installed on your site or visit an app’s dashboard.
• Tap Create to create a new page from anywhere on your site.

In addition, you can:

• Search for content in the search bar
• Tap the 9-dot icon (  ) to switch to another Atlassian app
• Tap the bell icon (  ) to see notifications for your Atlassian apps
• Tap (  ) to get help, see what’s new, view keyboard shortcuts, and more
• Tap your avatar to provide feedback, edit your profile, and change your settings
  
  

Navigating within a space

Use the space sidebar to navigate within a space. The space sidebar appears to the left of the page you’re viewing. It has three parts, each specific to the space you’re in.

The name of the space appears at the top of the space sidebar, followed by links to the space overview, blog, and space settings, plus dashboards for any apps you have installed.

Below these items, you’ll find your space shortcuts. These are links to important pages or websites that people who use the space need to be able to find easily. You can add shortcuts to pages in the space, in other spaces, or even on external websites.

Finally, there’s the content in the space. 
Pages are organized and displayed hierarchically in the page tree. To see the children of any page in the space, tap > next to the page name. Confluence automatically displays the children of the page you’re viewing.

Exploring your Home dashboard

Home makes it easy to explore your recent spaces and pages and stay updated on what’s happening in your organization. 
To the right of your dashboard, you’ll find site-wide announcements, calendars, and your site’s activity feed.

The activity feed is a treasure trove of recent and popular content across your site. These are pages and blog posts that other people in your company have liked or commented on. These updates can help you keep tabs on what’s going on across your company and gauge how your company culture is doing.

Search

Wherever your travels take you in Confluence , you should be able to find what you need. 
Use the search bar in the upper right  to look for pages, blog posts, spaces, and even people. Results will begin to show up as soon as you start typing.
If you get to many results you can filter them by space, contributors, content type, and more.

1. Search filters – refine your results by space, contributor, type, date, label, or space category.
2. Advanced search – go the the advanced search page.
3. Search tips – get search help, and tips for refining your search.

Search for exact matches

To find a page that contains an exact phrase, use double quotes around your search phase. 

For example, searching for "product manager" in double quotes will show search results with that exact match. Results will not contain pages that have only 'product' or only 'manager.'

Search with operators

If you don't know the exact phrase you're looking for, enter keywords and operators in the search field. The available operators are OR, AND, NOT, and Group.

• OR search: searching for 'marketing' OR 'digital' will show results that contain one of these terms.
• AND search: searching for 'marketing' AND 'digital' will show results that contain both of these terms.
• NOT search: searching for 'marketing' NOT 'digital' will show results that only contain 'marketing' and do not contain 'digital.'
• Group search: searching for (marketing OR digital) AND content will show results that can contain either 'marketing' or 'digital,' but must contain 'content.'

Search with wildcards

A wildcard is a character like ? or * that can be used to replace characters in your search. To replace a single character, use ?. To replace multiple characters, use *.

• For example, a search of b?g will show pages that have any of the following words: big, bug, bag, beg, or bog.
• A search of manag* will show pages that have words such as: manage, manager, management, managing, managerial, etc.
  
  

More detailed information regarding the search option can be found on the following Atlassian page: Search

Pages and blogs

Create a page

You can create a page from anywhere in Confluence; just select Create in the header and you're ready to go.
Pages are the place to capture all your important (and unimportant) information; start with a blank page and add rich text, tasks, images, macros and links, or use one of the useful blueprints to capture meeting notes, decisions, and more.

If you want to quickly create a blank page, hit the Create button in the header; if you want to create a page from a template, hit the Create from template button.

1. Create blank page
2. Create from template

1. Select space: choose the space where you'll create the content.
2. Page templates: create a page from a template or create other types of content.
3. Parent page: your page will be a child of this page.

Once you decide on a blank page or blueprint, you'll be taken straight into the Confluence editor. The editor is where you'll name or rename your page, add the content, and format it to look great.

Move and Reorder Pages

You can also organize pages in a hierarchy, with child and/or parent pages for closely related content.
When you navigate to a Confluence page and select the Create button in the header, the page you're creating will by default be a child of the page you're viewing.
Have as many child pages and levels in the hierarchy as you need to, and move pages or reorder if you want to change their location.

Confluence Editor

The Confluence editor is what you'll use to create and edit Confluence pages, blog posts, and comments. You can enter content as you would in a Word document, apply formatting, and embed other content and files on the page.

Below some editing functionalities are highlighted, for more instructions visit Atlassian site: The Editor

Edit a page

After you save you'll see the page in a “view” mode. You can re-enter the editor any time by selecting Edit or pressing E on your keyboard.

To keep track of your changes over time, you can publish the page with a version comment. When you are done editing, enter your comment in the What did you change? field in the lower-left corner of the screen, and then select Save.

Edit a page together

Need input from your team members? Multiple people can edit your page at the same time.

Hit the Invite button in the editor and either grab the link, or enter some people or groups to invite by email  (they need the appropriate Confluence and space permissions of course).

See Collaborative editing for all the ins and outs. 

Import a Word Document into Confluence

The Office Connector allows you to import Word documents and create one or more Confluence pages from the content. 

You can create a single page, or divide the contents up into multiple pages, based on the headings in your document. 

This is useful if you have a lot of content stored in existing documents, or if you are migrating from another system or platform that allows you to export to Word format.

Also read information about The View File macro, this allows you to embed an Office or PDF document on a page in view only mode.

To import a Word document in Confluence:

1. Create a page in Confluence or go to an existing page (you want to view the page, not edit it).
2. Choose    > Import Word Document
3. Choose Browse and locate the Word document you want to import, then choose Next.
   The import document options appear.  
4. Enter a title for the new page (useful if you don't want to use the file name as your page title).
5. Choose where you want to import the file (as a brand new page, or overwriting an existing page with the same title).
6. Choose how to handle title conflicts (rename the new pages or replace existing pages).
7. Choose whether to create a single page or multiple pages based on the heading styles in the file (this option is only available if the file contains heading styles).
8. Click Import.

When the upload has finished, pages will be created with the content of the Word documents. You can then view and edit this page as normal. There's no connection between the original Word document and this page.

More more information about Word document import read the following Atlassian page: Import a Word Document into Confluence

Video instructions (Video is in German, but the screenshots are clear).: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUB9lB9EtA 

Page comments and inline comments

Add page comments

One way to use comments is to add a comment to an entire page. Here's how:

1. Go to the Confluence page you want to comment.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page
3. Type a comment in the comment field
4. Select Save

When you comment on a page, you will automatically start 'watching' that page. That means you'll receive email notifications when others add comments or changes to the page are made. Your teammates can reply to or 'like' your page comments. If they do, you'll be notified.

Add inline comments

You can also add comments within the page, inline on any text. Inline comments can be added when you are either editing or viewing a page. Here's how to add an inline comment:

1. Highlight the text you'd like to comment on
2. Click the comment icon that appears above the highlighted text
3. Type your comment and select Save

After you save your comment, the text on the page will be highlighted in yellow. To view comments, click any yellow highlighted text on the page. Just like page comments, your teammates can reply to or 'like' your inline comments.

Links

You can create links to pages, blog posts, anchors, attachments, external websites, Jira issues and more.  Links can be text or images, and can be added in many different ways.

Links to pages within your Confluence site are relative, which means that you can move pages and rename pages without breaking links. 

Below paragraph explains the most common ways to create links. 

Insert a Jira issue/filter link

To create an association between a Jira issue and a Confluence page use the Jira issue/filter option, read Jira Issues Macro for instructions.

Insert a text link

To insert a link on a page:

1. In the editor, select some text or position your cursor where you want to insert the link.
2. Select Link on the toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+K.
3. Select a page, blog post or attachment, or enter an external URL (see below for how to link to particular types of content).
4. Enter or modify the link text (this is the text that will appear on the page. If this field is left blank, the page name or URL will be used as the link text.)
5. Select Insert.

Insert an image link

1. Select an image on your page.
2. Select Link on the Image Properties toolbar.
3. Select a page, blog post or attachment, or enter an external URL (see below for how to link to particular types of content).
4. Select Insert.

Modify a link

1. Select the link text or image.
2. Select Edit from the link properties toolbar.
3. Modify the link and select Save.

Remove a link

1. Select the link text or image.
2. Select Unlink from the properties toolbar.

Link to specific types of content

Confluence supports many methods like below for creating links, for more detailed documentations read the following Atlassian page: Links

• Link to a page
• Link a page in another space
• Link to a blog post
• Link to an attachment or image on this page
• Link to an attachment on another page
• Link to an external website
• Link to an anchor on a page
• Link to a heading on a page
• Link to a comment on a page
• Link to an undefined page (a page that does not exist yet)
• Link to a personal space or user profile

Tables

With Confluence tables  you can use  the familiar table formatting options like resizing columns, coloring cells, rows and columns, aligning content, and table sorting by clicking the column headers to view the information the way you like it.

Insert a table

To create a table:

1. Hit the Table button in the toolbar
2. Click a cell in the drop-down to set the number of columns and rows in your table

Edit your table

To resize table columns, just click and drag the column's border. To make other changes to your table, click inside it to reveal the table toolbar.

Here's a summary of the table tools:

Sort the table

You can sort the contents of your table by selecting the sort icon in the table header row.

To preserve the order of a sorted table:

1. Edit a page

2. Go to the table, and select the sort icon for the column you want to sort

3. Select Publish to save the changes

Screenshot: A colorful, sortable table

You can use the Cut row and Paste row icons to move rows around in the editor. 

For more information about Tables read Atlassian page: Tables

Tasks

Keep track of the things that need to get done with tasks. With the ability to give each task an assignee and due date, and plenty of ways to see your tasks, you can make sure nothing slips through the cracks. 

Add a task

You can add tasks on any page in Confluence. For example, you might add tasks under action items on a meeting notes page, or in a requirements page – anywhere you need a lightweight task management solution.

To create a task:

1. In the editor, choose the Task list  button or use the keyboard shortcut [  ] 
2. Start typing your task – @mention someone to assign the task to them, and type // and choose a due date

The first person you mention in a task is the assignee; you can even assign tasks to yourself.

View tasks

There are a number of ways to keep track of tasks assigned to you, or tasks you've created for others. 
Basics for tasks are explained below for more information read the following Atlassian page: Add, Assign and View Tasks.

View tasks on a page

View tasks in your profile 

Go to Profile > Tasks.

Use the filters to show tasks that were assigned to you or created by you in the last 6 months, and toggle between complete or incomplete tasks.

View in a task report

 Create a task report:

1. 1. Choose Create > Task Report
   2. Select the type of report:
      • Assigned to my team – for tasks assigned to particular people.
      • In my project – for tasks that appear in a specific space or parent page.
      • Custom – for a wide range of filtering options, including by date or page label.
   3. Follow the prompts to create the report.

This blueprint uses the Task Report Macro. You can also choose to use this macro on an existing page, for example, on a project or team space homepage.

Labels

Labels are key words or tags that you can add to pages, blog posts and attachments. You can define your own labels and use them to categorize, identify or bookmark content in Confluence.

For example, you could assign the label 'accounting' to all accounts-related pages on your site. You can then browse all pages with that label in a single space or across the site, display a list of pages with that label, or search based on the label.

Because labels are user-defined, you can add any word that helps you identify the content in your site.

Below the basics for label usage is explained,  if you want to know more read the following Atlassian page: Add, Remove and Search for Labels and Display Pages with Label Macros.

Label a page or blog post

Any user with permission to edit a page can add labels to it. Any existing labels appear at the bottom-right of the page, below the page content.

To add a label to a page or blog post:

1. At the bottom of the page, choose Edit labels  or hit L on your keyboard
2. Type in a new label (existing labels are suggested as you type)
3. Choose Add

If you're editing or creating a page, and you want to add labels, choose the Edit label icon  at the top of the page.

Search by label

You can use the ' labelText: ' prefix to search specifically for content that has a specific label. For example, if you're looking for pages with the label 'chocolate', type labelText:chocolate into the search field in the Confluence header.

For more examples of searching by label, see Confluence Search Syntax.

Macro's 

Macros are how you supercharge your Confluence pages. 

You can use macros to:

• change the format and layout of your page
• display media like video, audio, and social media content
• collate and organize Confluence pages, blogs, and files
• perform actions from a page, such as creating a page from a template. 

Take your Confluence space to the next level using macros. 

Basics information and some highlighted Macros are explained below.
Head to the documentation for specific macros information of Atlassian to view full details of the parameters available in each macro.

Macro basics

Add a macro to your page

To add a macro to your page:

1. From the editor toolbar, select Insert , then Other Macros.

2. Select a macro from the list.
3. Enter any required parameters.
4. Choose Insert.

In the editor you'll see a placeholder that represents the macro. Once you publish your page, you'll see the macro in its full glory. 

Edit a macro

Macro parameters are used to change the behavior of a macro.

To change the macro parameters:

1. In the editor, click the macro placeholder and select Edit.
   
2. Update the parameters as required then select Insert.

Macro's highlighted

Jira Issues Macro

Issue linking also allows you to:

• create an association between a Jira issue and a Confluence page
• link a Jira issue to any other web page

When you link Jira issues together, you create a bi-directional connection between them

1. From the editor toolbar, select Insert , then Other Macros.

2. Choose Jira Issue/Filter from the category.
   
3. Enter a filter or search for a Jira issue.
4. Choose Insert. 
   
   

For more information read the following Atlassian page: Jira Issues Macro

Table of Contents and Content Zone Macro

The Table of Contents macro scans the headings on the current Confluence page to create a table of contents based on those headings or selected zone.
This helps readers find their way around lengthy pages, by summarizing the content structure and providing links to headings. 
Headings can be found at left side in the upper bar.

Step-by-step guide Add Table of Contents:

1. From the editor toolbar, choose Insert  > Other Macros.
2. Choose Table of Contents from the Confluence content category.
3. Use the parameters below to specify which pages to display.
4. Choose Insert.

You can then publish your page to see the macro in action. 

More detailed information regarding Table of content macro's can be found on the following links:

• Table of Contents Macro
• Table of Content Zone Macro

Children Display Macro

Add the Children Display macro to a page to display a list of pages from a specific part of the page hierarchy.  You can choose to display pages that are a child of the current page, or a child of any other page in a space. 

This macro is great for providing quick access to:

• pages related to a project 
• procedures and how-to pages.

Because it relies on the page hierarchy, the list of pages is automatically updated when pages are added, deleted, or moved.  You can even show an excerpt from the page for extra context. 

Step-by-step guide: Add the Children Display macro to your page

To add the Children Display macro to a page:

1. From the editor toolbar, choose Insert  > Other Macros.

2. Choose Children Display from the Confluence content or Navigation category.
3. Use the parameters below to specify which pages to display, and how you want them to look. 
4. Choose Insert. 

You can then publish your page to see the macro in action. 

More detailed information regarding Table of Children's Display can be found on the following link:  Children Display Macro

Code Block Macro

The Code Block macro is an essential tool for presenting technical content clearly and consistently.
It allows you to display code, configuration snippets, or command-line examples in a way that preserves formatting, improves readability, and prevents accidental formatting changes by Confluence’s rich-text editor.

It will also prevent you from not being able to save a page if a code block is not used for saving code on a page or a page breakage.

Add a Code Block macro to your page to display code examples with syntax highlighting. 

This is great for sharing code snippets such as:

• sample code
• terminal commands
• excerpts from application logs.

Add the Code Block macro to your page

To add the Code Block macro to a page:

1. From the editor toolbar, choose Insert  > Other Macros.

2. Choose Code Block from the Formatting category.
3. Choose a language for syntax highlighting.
4. Use the parameters below to customise how the code block should appear on your page. 
5. Choose Insert. 
6. Type or paste your code into the macro placeholder. 

You can then publish your page to see the macro in action. 

More information can be found on the following Atlassian page; Code Block Macro

View File Macro (Embed an Office or PDF document)

The View File macros allow you to embed an Office or PDF document on a page.
First attach the document to a page and then use one of the View File macros to display the document's content.

1. Create a page in Confluence or go to an existing page (you want to view the page, not edit it)
2. Go to Insert > Files and images and upload a file or drag the file directly onto the page
   You can attach multiple files at a time.
3. Save the page by selecting the Publish button
4. Open the page again and select Edit mode
5. Remove the file
6. From the editor toolbar, choose Insert  > Other Macros
7. Select the format of the file (Office Word, Office Excel, Office Powerpoint, PDF etc)
   The recently uploaded file will be selected automatically.
8. Select Insert
9. Save the page by using the Update button
   
   

When opening the page in viewing mode you can now see the content of the page. For editing the file must be downloaded and can be saved to upload the latest version.

Supported file types

To display an Office or PDF document in a page, use one of the following View File macros in the macro browser:

• Office Excel (.xls and .xlsx)
• Office PowerPoint (.ppt and .pptx)
• Office Word (.doc and .docx)
• PDF  (.pdf)

Tips & tricks

Keyboard shortcuts

Within Confluence, you can access the complete list of keyboard shortcuts. There are three ways to access this list:

• Use the keyboard command: When viewing a page, press shift and ? together?
  

• Use the main navigation bar: At the top right of your screen, select the ? icon, then Keyboard shortcuts

• Scroll to the bottom of any page: In edit mode, scroll to the bottom and select the ? icon 

Confluence Apps

Confluence supports a wide range of apps (also called add-ons or plugins) that extend its core functionality, enabling enhanced collaboration, automation, reporting, design customization, and integration with other tools.
In YME Confluence environment, apps are installed and maintained centrally by Atlassian Administrators to ensure compatibility, performance, and security.

At Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. we have the following apps installed:

Draw IO

Draw.io app for Confluence is used to create powerful, easy to use and secure diagrams and whiteboards.

You can use draw.io to visualize everything:

• Process Modeling and Relationships (BPMN 2.0, ERD, Flowcharts, Swimlane diagrams…)
• Software Development and Networks (UML, UML 2.5, AWS, Azure, Cisco, GCP, IBM…)
• Administration (Org charts, Mindmaps, Floorplans, Infographics)
• AI-driven Smart Templates for all of the use cases mentioned above
• Meetings and Brainstormings (with our simplified whiteboard editor)
• And many more

Documentation can be found on the Vendor website: Getting Started with draw.io for Confluence 
Tutorials can be found on the following site: Draw.io Tutorial

Embed Google maps Pro

Embed Google Maps Pro helps your organization and customers convey location, navigation instructions or directions on a Confluence page as per your business requirements.
This is the only macro that allows embedding from publicly accessible Google Maps without enabling HTML or IFRAME macros which can be a security risk in various environments.

Documentation can be found on the Vendor website: Welcome to Embed Google Maps Pro for Confluence

Table Filter, Charts and Spreadsheets for Confluence

This app offers a bundle of macros for managing Confluence tables, building charts, repurposing existing data of any format, and using excel-like spreadsheets. 

Documentation can be found on the Vendor website: Welcome to Table Filter, Charts & Spreadsheets for Confluence!

Open API (Swagger) Editor for Confluence

Open API (Swagger) Viewer for Confluence is a macro which helps to display Open API JSON/YAML definition in Confluence page.

Documentation can be found on the Vendor website: https://elitesoftware.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OA/overview

Confluence Glossary

Page
A page is an editable document that communicates information.

Space
A space is a collection of related pages.

 Main navigation bar
The main navigation bar is the menu at the top of your screen that stays with you wherever you go in Confluence.

The options within your navigation bars may look different than the screenshot. Navigation options can be customized based on your space settings, permissions, and team preferences.

Space overview
A space overview is the first page visitors see when they arrive at a space.

Space sidebar
On the left of your screen, the space sidebar is a collapsible menu that shows you options specific to the space you are viewing.

Page tree
Found in the space sidebar, the page tree is a way to organize pages into a hierarchical structure.

Starred pages

You can add 'stars' to your favorite (or most important) pages to make them easier to find later.

Watched pages

You can 'watch' pages to get email notifications when changes or comments are added to the page.

Share pages with teammates

You'll often need to send pages to teams or individuals. The 'Share' button at the top right gives you two easy ways to share a page:

1. Share by name, group, team, or email: Enter a teammate's name or email. Type a quick message. Select 'Send.'
2. Copy the link: Select 'Copy link' to copy the URL. Paste the URL in an email or messaging app to share with teammates.