What's the best way to create Confluence "templates"?

[Mariano]

I know that you cannot convert a confluence page to a template (which is extremely odd, I must say), but have you come around any workarounds for this?

Basically I need to have several different Change Request documents with different formatting.

I am thinking of creating the page that will be the "template", and then just copying it. I am not sure if this is will be really convenient though.

If you have any workarounds that you find efficient and you don't mind sharing them with me, I will super appreciate it! 

I hope you all have a nice weekend also.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

>I am thinking of creating the page that will be the "template", and then just copying it. I am not sure if this is will be really convenient though.

This is exactly what I do.  Copying and pasting a normal page is a bit clunky and needs more clearing up than a "convert page to template" (or, better "create template from existing page") process would be, but it's not complex.

Also I you "I am thinking of creating the page that will be the template" - why not just do that directly into the template?  Templates are pages really, and are created and edited in the same way, there's no need to go through an intermediate if you're just creating a new one.

[Mariano]

Hey @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- ,  I totally agree with you! However, the issue is that templates are not really enough for the change requests that I need, thus me needing to expand and customise the capabilities of the software.

For example: Change Request template. I need to add prechecks with informational images for changes in Server A and then completely different informational images for changes in Server B.

The default CR template is a good base, but not enough, that is why I want to be able to create my own. 

The odd part is that I see some templates created by the company from previous years. Maybe this was a posibility before?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm a little confused now.  You can create your own templates, that's what I thought you were talking about.

Running through your example, where you say:

2For example: Change Request template. I need to add prechecks with informational images for changes in Server A and then completely different informational images for changes in Server B.

The default CR template is a good base, but not enough, that is why I want to be able to create my own."

Yep, it is.  So use it to create a new page, select all of the body and copy it. Then create a new template, and paste in what you've just copied.  You now have your own template, and you can add in all the stuff you want for server A.  Then repeat the process for B

So I'm not sure where you are stuck now.  As I said, not quite as neat a process as "create new template based on ..." but it does what you need, gets you a new template your people can use for starting points for docs.

[Mariano]

Ah, I see where the confusion lays @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- . You are referring to copy as in copy + paste, I am referring copy as in the document sense of copying, like this:

So basically I have a document that I use as "Template" and then select copy and start doing all stuff from there.

I would like to avoid copy + paste if possible.

[Mariano]

I mean, the convenience of having templates being that you can just set yourself to create a new document, and then select the corresponding template from a list and that's it.

(Image below) Imagine if in the list on the right side I could have my templates for server A, server B, server C, etc etc. I wouldn't have to pull up the document for one CR, then copy it and start working from it. I would just click on the template and go from there.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Oh, hang on, I see, you weren't talking about the way you have to create templates, you thought you couldn't create your own!

You can add templates to the list in your last screenshot.  

Space administrators can go to Space Settings -> Content tools and see the list of templates for the current space, and add your own templates

Confluence admins can go to settings -> global templates and blueprints and add templates there (that are then available in all spaces)

I was talking about the difficulty in creating those templates - you can't copy an existing template or convert a page into one, you have to create a new template and then copy and paste content into it from the source page or template.

[Mariano]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- you are a genius thank you!!! 

I've read so much around that templates were impossible, that I was under the impression this was actually the case!

I did the exact way you recommended, just copied my CR page and then created the template based on this.

Thanks!

[Vero Rivas]

Hi @Mariano 

    Maybe you can create a template with all the changes and when you generate the one that interests you, it would be enough to delete the section that does not apply to the definition of the document, because if you have many different models, even creating one for each one, can be exhausting and finally, maybe people would end up not knowing exactly which one to use.

    Also if you create a single template for all the changes, this template can be separated by sections, colors, etc., and thus each person will fill in what applies, always giving the possibility that the section that does not apply to delete it so that there is a document concrete with information and standard.

   I hope my proposal can help you

Cheers

[Mariano]

Hello @Vero Rivas ! Thanks a lot for the proposal. It's actually quite a convenient way to attack the problem!

Sadly, I do not think it will work in this case, mostly because many new and unexperienced people need to be able to follow the procedures, and having extra steps or info to be shown (and subsequently be deleted) might confused the non-experimented ones. 

But thank you so much for the tip! I am sure it can apply to other cases.

[Vero Rivas]

Hi @Mariano 

   So in the case that you propose, I am afraid that the best thing will be to create a template for each document that you want to standardize.

   Then when people acquire knowledge, you can improve the number of templates to maintain, you can also iterate to analyze points of improvement, maybe if you are making different templates you will discover that you can unify some or place dynamic fields (obviously this requires more work for your part), which could be adapted to the needs.

   Thanks for answering

Cheers