Confluence Draw Box Around Text
Then, it'due south no secret that I deal with more a few systems whose master purpose boils downward to "Display text." The obvious instance that should come to mind is this very thing you're reading right now. WordPress.com powers this site, and learning to use its text editor has been…interesting. Before that, I ran MediaWiki and PhpBB (versions 2 and 3…was in that game for a LOOONG time). All that being said, one of my favorite editors to piece of work in has to be Jira's sister product, Confluence.
While not equally flexible as something like a word processor, information technology still gives me plenty flexibility to create some really outstanding Documents and Blog posts. Honestly, when I initially set up The Jira Guy, I debated running it on Confluence. However, I decided against that – mainly because I run websites for a living. At that time, I didn't wait this side project to become annihilation, and I didn't want to spend too much effort on keeping it running. Funny, right?
Merely I digress. Having worked in Confluence for many years, I have picked upwards a few tricks to help my documents stand up out. So I figured it'due south most time I spread my wings a bit and bear witness you that this Jira Guy can as well work Confluence!
Page Layouts
Page Layouts lets y'all set up how different elements are spaced amongst each other and is i of the most underutilized formatting options. To brandish this sub-toolbar, you need to click the "Page Layout" push button on your Confluence Toolbar – as shown below. This will open up some tools for y'all to use.
The first department is for adding and removing a section. Clicking "Add section" will add another row beneath whatever department you are currently working in. Comparatively, the "Remove section" push button will remove your currently selected department. Be careful, though; it will also remove any contents in that section. If you accidentally hit this, you can undo it with a ctrl-z or command-z (depending on the operating organisation).
Side by side, we take the Move buttons that move the department you are currently in relative to the others. After that, we have my favorite buttons. These command how many columns your currently selected section has and their size relationship with ane another. This is where I get into my tips and tricks.
One of my favorite things to exercise is to have a little information panel at the head of the certificate. This section can accept information about who wrote the document, a table of contents, or details about who this page is for and why they need it. Combine this with some formatting and editing, and yous get this nice "indent section" wait for your certificate.
But wait, there'south more! Using dissimilar layouts as you go down the document can let y'all include sections for a film and vary where that picture is. This arrangement can add a more than dynamic await to your document, i I enjoy.
Another use for sections is to marshal different elements vertically. Accept this document, for instance. Here, I wanted a ii-column approach for the whole document. However, I wanted to ensure that the 2d department in each column, "Skills" and "Blog" were aligned.
And so to practise this, I put in a second section with the content I desire to exist aligned starting on that new department. By doing this, you can marshal items among columns where the content length above might be dynamic. Nevertheless, this does run the risk of having white-space gaps on the sections higher up – especially if the content in the two columns is vastly different in length. However, this is where conscientious editing and formatting tin can help – in this case, I've advisedly curated the paragraph and macros in the 2d cavalcade to match the beginning, hence the warning at the peak. In speaking of warning, that brings me to my 2nd tip…
Info, Note, Tip, and Warning.
My next tip is for drawing attention to detail. For case, let's say you are writing a certificate. At that place is a disquisitional step that is as well very tricky or otherwise easily missed. How practice you draw attention to this tidbit that could otherwise save the reader hours of headaches?
That'southward where this series of Macros come in. Using the Info, Note, Tip, or Warning macro generates a pocket-size text box of that color, allowing yous to describe attention to diverse details that y'all want to ensure readers don't miss.
I should note that these macros have *slightly different* names in Confluence Cloud only otherwise serve the same office.
| Color | Confluence Server/DC | Confluence Cloud |
| Blue | Info Macro | Info Panel |
| Dark-green | Tip Macro | Success Panel |
| Xanthous | Notation Macro | Warning Console(!?) |
| Cherry-red | Warning Macro(!?) | Error Panel |
These macros, when accordingly used, can take a document from good to fantastic considering it shows the readers where the dangers are and where they need to pay special attending to something. Even if it is only "This person is a piece of work in progress, and should not be taken seriously until otherwise said."
Jira to Confluence Integrations
Did you lot really recollect we were going to go ii weeks without taking something Jira? Nope! This functionality is one I've seen used a lot of, but I wanted to draw special attention to it – every bit there are some all-time practices hither that you should be aware of.
First, though, Background information needs to be given. The Jira Macro in Confluence allows yous to display either a single outcome or a group of bug returned from a JQL Cord. Furthermore, each time the page is loaded, it gives you the latest condition of the issues searched. This allows y'all to have pages that reflect the current land of affairs in Jira, thus bringing your pages to life.
Hither's the alarm, though – y'all can go overboard. Allow me share a story. At ane point, I got a ticket in proverb Confluence was slow. I had been chasing intermittent lag spikes in Confluence for a few weeks and was no closer to solving it, and so this felt authentic. Withal, I asked for the specific page they were experiencing slowness, hoping for a clue to the overall puzzle. Male child, did I go that inkling!
The PM who filed the ticket gave me a page that acquired my auto to lag hard trying to load information technology. Once information technology did, I saw why. This PM was preparing notes for the new release, including every result that was included in information technology. Each one queried every bit a unmarried outcome. Some problems were referenced multiple times.
All told, I counted some 500 single outcome queries going from Confluence to Jira. No wonder it took so long; my browser had a lot of communications to practise with Jira to load and display all the data. As you lot can guess, this document was by itself the source of those lag spikes. Every time someone in the system loaded up the page, Jira and Confluence would show a spike.
Okay, then the certificate was needed, so how practise we get around this? Well, we demand to consider overhead. For example, is information technology more efficient to accept a single query that returns xx issues or 20 queries that return 1 result each? The respond is the single query that returns 20 bug. The total number of problems returned is the same in both cases, only each query has an overhead associated with it. The event is that the 20 single-issue queries take more than overhead fourth dimension than the unmarried query.
Of course, this example took that to the extreme case. But it's still something you should be aware of as you lot guide your users through all-time practices.
Then, what do you call up?
I'm trying to vary my writing and include content that is not strictly "Jira" related. Exercise you similar this? Are there any other topics you lot'd like me to cover? Let me know in the comments! I will say this, though – I intend to get back to Jira next week.
Don't forget you lot can find me on social media through my Linktree link. Then stop past and share your thoughts and comments; I love hearing from you! You can also find links to support me directly; whatsoever assist you give is immensely appreciated!
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Also, don't forget I'll exist live on Youtube this afternoon at five:00 PM Eastern, 2:00 PM Pacific, where I'll be going over these tips live on Confluence, besides as a couple of tips I didn't include here! Hope I encounter you there!
But until next time, my proper name is Rodney, request, "Have yous updated your Jira bug today?"
Source: https://thejiraguy.com/2022/02/09/confluence-formatting-tips/