Simplify Project Documentation with Dropdowns 🔽

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Hello there, I’m Elena from Communardo Products.

In my role as a product marketing manager, I often hear stories from teams about how their Confluence spaces evolve over time. With every new project, more pages are created, and soon navigation becomes a daily challenge.

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If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many teams face a similar situation: the information is readily available, but finding it quickly is not always easy.

That’s why, in the latest Navitabs – Navigation Macros for Confluence Cloud release, we introduce a new navigation element: the Dropdown. 

The Dropdown element allows users to group multiple tabs under a single button.  Instead of showing all tabs in one line across the top of a page, you can hide them behind a dropdown. This makes it easier to access related content without overwhelming the page with too many tabs. This keeps the page uncluttered while still making every tab accessible in just one click.

Benefits of Using Dropdown Tabs in Confluence

• Quickly find the right content without scrolling.
• Reduce visual clutter and create clean, organized pages.
• Group related content logically to improve workflow and comprehension.

A Common Challenge in Project Management

Project managers and team members often rely on numerous Confluence pages to manage their work, including sprint overviews, roadmaps, technical specifications, retrospectives, and more. Each page is valuable, but when they are scattered across the space, navigation becomes a hurdle.

Now picture this: it’s sprint planning day. The team gathers to review progress and decide on priorities. Someone asks about the roadmap. After a short pause, the project manager starts clicking through the space, scrolling and searching for the correct page. A few minutes pass, and the flow of discussion is interrupted, causing the focus to slip.

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It’s not a big issue at first, but these small interruptions accumulate. Every extra click or search diverts focus and can lead to growing frustration.

How Navitabs Dropdowns Improve Project Management Workflows

Now, imagine the same meeting with a different setup. The project manager opens a single Confluence page titled "Project Resources."On this page, they’ve added a Navitabs dropdown that groups all related subpages — sprint overviews, roadmaps, specs, and retrospectives.

During the sprint planning session, the team lead can quickly open the Sprint Overviews tab to review progress. Later, a developer can select the Technical Specs tab to reference technical documentation, all without leaving the page or searching through multiple Confluence pages.

This optimized navigation eliminates unnecessary clicks and scrolling, allowing the team to focus on the work that matters.

Everyone knows where to find the correct information, which reduces delays, increases productivity, and improves overall project transparency🏆

Dropdown tabs allow project managers to create a structured navigation menu directly within a Confluence page. Each dropdown can contain multiple tabs representing different aspects of the project. This approach brings immediate benefits:

• Quick access to information: Team members can find the right content with a single click.
• Reduced visual clutter: Pages remain clean and easy to navigate.
• Better meeting efficiency: During project reviews or planning sessions, everyone can access relevant documentation quickly.
• Logical grouping of content: Related pages are organized together, making it easier for teams to follow the project’s workflow.

Want to know more about how Navitabs can make a difference to your project management? See how Novomatic overcame its challenge of managing over 1,500 projects with the help of Navitabs.

Customizing Your Navitabs Dropdowns

The Dropdown element, like Cards, is available only in the Tab Wizard. You can customize the design by choosing between preset designs or modifying colors, fonts, and corner radius to fit your Confluence page style. Learn more about it and how to customize the design here.

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I’d love to hear your feedback and experiences.

How do you currently organize multiple related Confluence pages? Do you see value in grouping them in dropdowns on one overview page?