Confluence Training Guide

Wiki and Confluence Overview

This is a short user guide for Confluence. Complete user guides are available at the links below.

What is a Wiki?

• A wiki is a website that makes it easy for anyone to contribute pages, and link them together.
• "Wikis in Plain English" video

What is Confluence?

• Confluence is an enterprise wiki. It incorporates functionality appropriate for multiple users and groups, with fine grain permission capabilities so you can choose who can view, create and comment on spaces and pages, and a WYSIWYG editor for content contribution.
• Overview of Confluence video

Complete Confluence User Guides

• Complete Confluence User Guide
• PDF version of the complete Confluence User Guide

Typical Use

There are a number of features available in Confluence. This is only an introductory guide and does not even come close to covering all of them. However, you can find more features on your own using the Complete Confluence User Guide. Browsing and reading content on the site works in the same way as any web page. This document outlines the basic features that most of you will want to know to post and share content.

Adding Pages: Pages are the main building blocks of the wiki. You will use pages to organize your content into lower-level groups. You should create a new page whenever you want to create a whole new category of content or discussion, if you want to add a set of related content that makes sense to group together in one place, or if you want the content to be accompanied by a longer description and it would take what feels like too much space on an existing page. Once a page exists, you must link to your page from at least one other page so that people can find it. Then you can link to it from as many other pages as you would like as well.

Adding links to pages: On any page, you can add as many links as you wish. The links may be:

• A link to another page on the wiki, e.g. related content that someone else posted
• A link to another web site / page (not on the Wiki) or URL address, e.g. articles, organizations, other reference information, reports posted on other web sites.
• A link to a downloadable attachment, e.g. a file you post to the Wiki to share with others. These work just like normal web links. You can add as much text around the link as you wish to describe it.

Adding attachments: On any page, you can add as many attachments as you wish. For example, PDF files of reports, or images. Note that you can also make images appear directly on the page. If the attachment you wish to share is already hosted on another Web site, sometimes it is best to simply link to the original Web page where you can download the document. This may be easier to do than uploading an attachment yourself.

Common Tasks in Confluence

• Accessing Confluence
  •  URL and login credentials
• Navigating through and around Confluence
  • hierarchies and searching
• Working with pages
  • creating/adding a new page
  • editing a page ->update comment and minor update check box
  • adding an attachment
  • page permissions (hiding a page)
  • commenting on a page
  • links
• Working with news/blogs
  • viewing news
  • adding news
• Tracking Updates
  • watching a page/space
    • digest or email on every update
    • notify on your own updates
• User Profile
  • editing profile

Accessing Confluence Wiki

1. Go to http://papyrus.baruch.local:8080/confluence/pages/editpage.action?pageId=622594
2. Enter your Network Username and Password (this is the same information you use to login to your computer)

Navigating through Confluence Wiki

• Spaces - In Confluence, content is organized into spaces. Each space has its own pages, news items, comments and access permissions. Spaces can based on any theme or topic. Confluence treats each space as an independently managed wiki. This means that each space functions autonomously within your site.
• Dashboard - The Dashboard is the front page of Confluence. It provides an overview of the site, access to all of the spaces you have view access, and a list of the most recent content updates. Read more about the Dashboard
• Search - A search box, located on every page in the wiki, allows you to search Confluence wherever you happen to be in the site. By default, Confluence will search all content in all spaces (global and personal), including attachments, that you have access to view. Read more about searching and filtering results
• Browse - Within a space, the 'Browse' menu, gives access to wiki content such as pages, news items, etc, and allows you to browse the People Directory. If you are an administrator, the space and site administration options appear here too.
• Read more about Using the Confluence screens and page options

Working with Pages

Adding a New Page

1. Go to a page in the space, open the 'Add' menu and select 'Page'. The 'Add Page' screen opens.
   
2. Enter a name (title) for your page. This is how it will be referred to from other pages.
3. By default, Confluence will add the page as a child of the page you are viewing. If you need to move the new page to a different space or a different parent, you can edit the 'Location'.
   
4. Enter content for your page using the Rich Text editor box below the title. You will see some buttons at the top of the box that look like buttons in Word or other office applications at the top of this area. Use the Bold, Italic and Underline buttons as you would with any document. Use the format drop down menu to create sections of the page. Use bullets and numbers for lists. You can even insert images, select text color, and add links (described below).
5. Click 'Preview' if you want to see a preview of what the page will look like before saving it.
   
6. Click 'Save'.

Editing a Page

1. Go to the page and click on the 'Edit' link. This will bring up the edit screen.
2. Make changes to the content or add new content as you would when you create a new page.
3. Click 'Preview' to view your changes, and click 'Save' to keep them. Confluence will auto save a draft periodically, but we suggest that you save often, especially when adding a lot of content.

   On the same line as the Bold, Underline, Link, etc. buttons, there is a "Toggle to Fullscreen Mode." When clicked, it changes the window so the the editing area fills up the whole computer monitor, which may be easier if you are working on a long page.

Deleting pages

1. Go to the page and click on the 'Edit' link.
2. Click on the 'Remove' link located at the top of the page.
   

Adding an attachment

An attachment is any file that is included with your page. Images, word documents, presentations, PDFs, multimedia and sound files are some examples of attachments. Attachments are useful when you want to share information that exists in another file format. in confluence you can attach files to any page.

1. Go to a page in the space, open the 'Tools' menu and select 'Attachments'. The 'Attachments' view will open.
2. Click the 'Browse button.
3. Browse through your files and select the file you'd like to attach.
4. Enter a description for the attachment in the 'Comment' text field (optional).
5. Click 'Attach more files' if required.
6. Click 'Attach File(s)'.

Once you attach a file, you can then provide a link to it from a Confluence page. (see linking below) When a user clicks on the link, the attachment will open, so long as the user has the software application needed to open the attachment. In the case of image attachments, Confluence allows you to display attached images on the page.

Adding an Attachment and Link to it at the Same Time

1. From the page and location you wish to link from, click on the 'Insert Link' button on the toolbar (the one that looks like a globe with chain link in front of it). A pop-up screen will appear.
2. In the pop-up screen, click on the tab labeled "Attachments." To add a new attachment, click on the "Browse" button to get to files on your computer, and select the appropriate file.
3. Next click on the "Attach" button, and the file will upload. When done, it will show up just above the "Browse" and "Attach" buttons in a list. This is a list of all the attachments to that particular page.
4. Select the attachment you just uploaded from the list and a reference to it will show up in the "Link" field at the top of the pop-up screen.
5. In the field called "Alias," enter the words you wish to appear to represent the link on the actual page. For instance, you might type "click here to see our latest report,". The link can appear in the middle of a paragraph, and may simply be part of a sentence.
6. Another way to enter the words that will form the link is to highlight the words in the edit window before clicking the 'Insert Link' button. These words will automatically appear in the "Alias" field and all you have to do is add the attachment info.
7. When ready, click the "OK" button at the bottom of the pop-up screen.

Page permissions and restricting access (hiding a page)

Page restrictions control who may view or edit a specific page, within the bounds of the space permissions. This gives the space administrator control over who can access their space, and within that the page editor can control access to the page.

• Viewing restrictions make the page invisible to everyone except the chosen users/groups.
• Editing restrictions prevent everyone except the chosen users/groups from editing the page.
  

To set 'viewing' restrictions on a page

1. Click the 'Edit' link at the top of the page.
2. The word 'Restrictions' will now appear at the bottom of the page (above 'Labels'). Click the 'Edit' link next to the word 'Restrictions'.
3. A form will appear below the word 'Restrictions', as shown in the screenshot below. The option 'Restrict viewing of this page' will be selected by default.
4. Choose the appropriate user(s) and/or group(s) who you want to allow to view the page:
   • To choose just yourself, click 'Choose me'.
   • To choose a particular user, you can either:
     • If you are unsure of the user's exact name, click the 'Choose users' link to display the 'User Search' popup window. Use the search options to find the required user. Select the appropriate user(s), then click the 'Select user(s)' button. (You can read more about searching for users.)
     • Type the user's name (or a list of names, separated by commas) into the 'Enter user/group name(s)' box, then click the 'Add' button.
   • To choose a particular group(s), you can either:
     • If you are unsure of the group's exact name, click the 'Choose groups' link to display the 'Group Search' popup. Type part of the name, then click the 'Search' button to display a list of matching groups, e.g. to search for groups whose names start with 'finance', type 'finance'. Select the appropriate group(s), then click the 'Select group(s)' button.
     • Type the group name (or a list of groups, separated by commas) into the 'Enter user/group name(s)' box, then click the 'Add' button.
5. Click the 'Save' link at the bottom of the page.

To set 'editing' restrictions on a page

1. Click the 'Edit' link at the top of the page.
2. The word 'Restrictions' will now appear at the bottom of the page (above 'Labels'). Click the 'Edit' link next to the word 'Restrictions'.
3. A form will appear below the word 'Restrictions', as shown in the screenshot above. Select 'Restrict editing of this page'.
4. Choose the appropriate user(s) and/or group(s) that you want to allow to edit the page, as described for 'viewing' restrictions above.
5. Click the 'Save' link at the bottom of the page.

Commenting on a Page

A comment is a remark, question, or any other additional information you wish to add to a page pertaining to the topic the page covers. Comments are a means by which a community of users can interact with each other on the site.You can leave a comment on any page or news item in Confluence.

Comments on pages will appear by default in threaded form, below the page content. If the comment author is a Confluence user, a link appears to their profile page. The time of the comment's last edit is also displayed - you can mouse-over the time to see the date and time it was posted.

To add a new comment

1. Click the 'Add Comment' link near the bottom of the page.
2. The comments box opens up. Type in your text.
3. Click the 'Preview' tab to see a preview of your comment.
4. You can tick the box next to 'Watch this page' to receive email alerts whenever the page is commented or edited.
5. Click the 'Post' button to save your comment and display it on the page.
   

To respond to a comment

1. Click the 'Reply' link located below the text of a comment.
2. This will open up a new comment box. Type in your text.
3. You can tick the box next to 'Watch this page' to receive email alerts whenever the page is commented or edited.
4. Click 'Post'.
   links

Linking

You can create links to anywhere within Confluence (pages, news items, comments, attachments) or an external web site.

Linking to another page in Confluence

1. From the page and location you wish to link from, click on the 'Insert Link' button on the toolbar (the one that looks like a globe with chain link in front of it). This will open up the 'Link Properties' window.
2. Click on one of these tabs: 'History' or 'Recently Modified' to select the page you want to link to.
   or
   Do a 'Search' for the page using the search facility and select a page from the search results.
   
3. In the field called "Alias," enter the words you wish to appear to represent the link on the actual page. For instance, you might type "here is the latest report," or simply the document's title. The link can appear on its own or in the middle of a paragraph, and may simply be part of a sentence.
4. Another way to enter the words that will form the link is to highlight the words in the edit window before clicking the 'Insert Link' button. These words will automatically appear in the "Alias" field and all you have to do is enter the Wiki page name.
5. Click 'OK'.

 Linking to an external web site

1. From the page and location you wish to link from, click on the 'Insert Link' button on the toolbar (the one that looks like a globe with chain link in front of it). This will open up the 'Link Properties' window.  
2. Click on 'External Links' tab.
3. Enter the URL of the webpage in the text-entry field and click 'OK'.

Working with news/blogs

Each space in Confluence can publish its own news. News items may be announcements, journal entries, status reports or any other timely information you would categorise as 'news' pertaining to a space. News items are also known as 'blog posts'.

Viewing news

1. Click on the 'Browse Space' link for the space. This is located at the top of every page and beside the space link on the dashboard.
   
2. Go to the 'News' tab. This will display the latest news items in the space along with the date of each item and the name of its author.

Adding news

1. Click the 'Add News' link located at the top of every page in the space. This will bring up the 'Add News' screen.
   
2. Enter a title for your news item in the 'Title' text field at the top.
   
3. Enter your content in the text-entry box using Confluence markup or Rich Text as you would for any other page in Confluence.
   
4. If you want to backdate your news item, click 'edit' next to 'Posting Day'.
   You can set the date to earlier than today, but you cannot set it to a future date. And you can only change the date when creating the news item, not when editing a news item.
   
5. Preview and click 'Save'.

Tracking Updates

You can keep track of changes to a single page, an entire space, or to all spaces on your site.

Watching a Page

When you watch a page, you are notified by email whenever the page is modified.

1. Go to the page.
   
2. Click the Tools menu at the top of the page.
   
3. Select the 'Watch Page' icon from the list. This will be replaced with the 'Stop Watching Page' icon .

Watching a space

When you watch a space, you are notified by email whenever content is added to it or updated.

1. Go to a page in the space, open the 'Browse' menu and select 'Advanced'. The 'Advanced' view will open.
2. In the left-hand panel, click 'Start watching this space'. This link will be replaced with a new link to 'Stop watching this space'.

Subscribe to Daily Email Reports

When you subscribe to the daily report, you will be sent an email with a summary report of changes in all spaces visible to you.

1. Go to your name at the top of the page. (This is the 'User' menu. A dropdown list will appear when your cursor hovers over the 'User' menu.) Select 'Preferences' from the dropdown list. The 'Preferences' view will open.
2. Click the 'Edit Profile' tab.
3. Click the 'Email' link in the left-hand panel.
4. Check the box beside 'Subscribe to daily updates'.
5. If you want to receive a notification each time you add or edit content on Confluence yourself, check the box beside 'Notify on my actions'. If you leave this box unchecked, you will receive notification of other people's actions but not of your own.
6. From the 'Email Format' dropdown menu, select whether you want to receive your notifications as HTML or plain text. This will apply to all your email notifications, including your watches.
7. Click 'Save'.
   

User Profile

Each user in Confluence has a user profile. Your profile contains your personal details, photograph (optional), group membership, site preferences, email notification preferences and user statistics. To find your profile:

1. Go to your name at the top of the page. (This is the 'User' menu. A dropdown list will appear when your cursor hovers over the 'User' menu.) Select 'Preferences' from the dropdown list. The 'Preferences' view will open.