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You need to be a space administrator to create a space template.

To add a template for a space:

    1. From any page in the space, choose Browse > Advanced.
    2. Click Templates in the left-hand panel.
    3. Click Add New Space Template.
  2. The 'Create Template' screen will appear. Enter a name for your template in the Name text field and an optional description in the Description text field.
  3. Using regular Confluence wiki markup and form field markup (if you are using forms), enter content in the text box. See the screenshot below.
  4. Click Edit next to 'Labels' if you want to use labels to categorise information. Add your labels. These labels will be included in all pages created using this template.
  5. Preview and click Save. Your template will be added to the list of space templates.

To view the space templates, choose Browse > Advanced > Templates.

Screenshot: creating a Confluence page template

Related Topics

Creating a Page using a Template
Working with Templates
Editing a template
Removing a Template
Browsing a space
Working with Pages

Working with Labels

Take me back to Confluence User's Guide

47 Comments

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  1. Aug 08, 2006

    Stefan

    hi there,

    why is it not possible to create a template in a WYSIWYG editor?

    1. Aug 14, 2006

      David Soul [Atlassian]

      Hi Stefan.

      This would require creating extra WYSIWYG editor function specifically for template creation and inserting the editor into the template page. There hasn't been any requests for this feature yet, but you can log a new feature request for this at http://jira.atlassian.com

      David

      1. Dec 13, 2011

        Simon Tower [Atlassian]

        Comments/votes should be directed to this feature request.

  2. Aug 30, 2006

    David Aldrich

    Hi,

    Could you add some simple instructions for creating a global template (available to all spaces)?

  3. Feb 02, 2007

    문태준

    Hi.
    I am Korean. I am using confluence 2.3.1. My server characterset, and confluence is utf8. utf8 is not problem int using korean. But I don't use list in list. If korean word is in list, list is not working.

    @TYPE list(Organisation,Individual,'한글')@

    1. Mar 01, 2007

      François Nonnenmacher

      Actually it seems you cannot use any character outside ASCII in lists items, not even a space! Which begs the question: how do you create lists with spaces in items values?

  4. Dec 10, 2007

    Anonymous

    Hi we have our Confluence Wiki Hosted why can I not see the " 'Add New Space Template',option?

    1. Dec 11, 2007

      Sarah Maddox [Atlassian Technical Writer]

      Hi there,

      On Confluence Hosted, as on the installed version of Confluence, you need to be an administrator of the space in order to see the 'Add New Space Template' option. The space administrator is the person who created the space, plus any other users that he/she has granted space administration permissions.

      Cheers – Sarah

  5. Feb 14, 2008

    Anonymous

    Is there a way to put link in a template?  For example, my template contains:

    I was hoping that the part at the bottom would put a box into the template into which I could place a URL, and that URL would become a hyperlink when a new page is created using the template.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work.  Am I just messing up the syntax, or is there no way to do this?

    Thanks,

    Dave Gornstein

    1. Feb 14, 2008

      David Peterson [CustomWare]

      You can't really do with with the standard template mechanism, but you can with Scaffolding and Reporting. If you create your details section with {text-data} macros, you can create the link something like this:

      {hide-data}
{text-data:OPSVIEW_LINK|width=400px}{text-data}
{hide-data}
{report-link:data:OPSVIEW_LINK}{report-info:data:OPSVIEW_LINK}{report-link}

      {hide-data} will only display the value when editing the page, {text-data} will let you fill in a text box with the URL and {report-link}/{report-info} will create the link for the final page.

    2. Jan 26, 2009

      cyrille martin

      Hi what you could do is

      It is a little bit ugly because the address is present twice but the second one has an active link.

  6. Mar 19, 2008

    Vinh-Thach Nguyen

    I have a repeated value which I would like to enter once when creating a page from a template.
    Right now I have a same variable showing up everywhere!
    What do I need to do in order to have only one variable field shown up?

    1. Mar 24, 2008

      Ming Giet Chong

      Hi Nguyen,

      This feature is not supported in Confluence currently. However, you can always raise a feature request at our issue tracker:

      Regards,
      MG

  7. May 02, 2008

    m101169

    Is there a way to present a template with predefined fields, which do not appear in the rendered page, that are used to populate other areas of the template upon variable insertion?   My current experience is that the variable data appears in situ and again where I reuse the variable.  

    This functionality would be immensely useful to guide the input and segregate the data acquisition from the rendered page layout.

    Also, is there anyway to "comment" a template with guidance for the user that does not get rendered in the final page?  Comments would be great for both form templates as well as markup stubs.

    1. May 14, 2008

      Mei Yan Chan

      Hi,

      I'm not particularly clear on your requirement. Do you wish to hide your fields within the predefined template? Can you please elaborate more and provide some samples for us to fully understand your need? It would be good if you can create this in our support request at:

      The channel above is the proper medium to direct such queries.

      Regards,
      Mei

      1. Mar 10, 2011

        Anonymous

        I believe what he is saying is that sometimes you want the same piece of information used in multiple places in a template. For example, if your field is regarding a customer then you might want to see that customers name in more than one place. I have just started using Confluence and have the need for the same feature. I find that I am having to use the same data in multiple fields. What would be useful would be to assign a name to a variable and then every time that variable name is used it is replaced with the entered value. What you should be able to do is provide the input once and it is set in all related places in the template.

  8. Oct 07, 2008

    Marc Lepage

    Hi. Is it possible to template the creation of, not a page, but a page's comments? That is, I would like to specify a template that is used to create each comment on a page. So when the user goes to add a comment, they get a template to create a more structured comment, instead of just free form text. It doesn't have to be a template, it could be scaffolding or some other feature. I just want to know if more structure can be applied to comments, and if there's a mechanism for tapping into the comment creation process. Thanks!

    1. Jun 03, 2011

      Ming Giet Chong

      Hi Marc,

      For customisation/development query, I would advise you to direct your questions to Atlassian Answers as there might be other user/developers who have already implemented it and should be able to share their ideas with you.

      Besides, you can always raise a feature request at http://jira.atlassian.com.

      Regards,
      MG

  9. Nov 05, 2008

    Anonymous

    Hi,

    I would like to know is there a way whereby you create a template for the structure of the space. Basically we have 5 different subdivisions within our It so we have created a space for IT Apps and now we want all the other subdivisions e.g BI, Control etc to use the same structure when creating their runbooks in IT Apps. 

    Regards,

    Zanele

    1. Nov 05, 2008

      Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian]

      Hi Zenele,

      The templating functionality is limited to pages only. However, you can try the following:

      1. Create a 'template' space that contains the 'standard' structure
      2. Whenever a new space needs to be created, copy the 'template' space. That way, you can always start off with a new space that is already following the 'standard' structure.

      Hope that helps you out,
      Azwandi

  10. Jun 11, 2009

    Thomas Mallié

    Hi there,

    My company recently installed Confluence (3.0 I beleive) and I'm the one in charge of developping templates.

    I don't have control on which plugin is installed.

    I'm looking for two three things in my space:

    - How can I made one of my custom template the default when someone clicks on "Add Page" ?

    - Is it possible to have an, incremental value in the template? Basically, we're going to use a space as a knowledge base mgmt tool. We'd like every page to have a unique numerical identifier so we could easily refer to it.

    - In my template I'll create a form. I'd like to create a drop down with all the top level pages (eg.g myu main sections) so the new page would be added under the selected top page.

    Thanks in advance

    Thomas

    1. Jun 12, 2009

      cyrille martin

      Hi Thomas,

      First I don't think you have the 3.0 except if you are testing the solution (The version used is written at the end the page)

      1. You cannot automatically set a page template when a user click on the action "Add Page" but you can add a link in a page that will force the creation of a new page with a specific template. (I wish my explanation is clear)
        You can do that with the  Linking plugin (customware) or Create Page (adaptavist)
      2. Incremental value for name page is not possible automatically. If you wish Unique numerical identifier you can use the PageId. It is the unique identifier of the page in addition of its name. You can display it in the page with Page Information Tools Plugin (adaptavist)
      3. You can create drop down menu but not for your feature. When you create a page you can directly put it under the page you wish. By default the parent page is the page where the user clicked on "Add Page"

      Good luck

      Cyrille

      1. Jun 12, 2009

        Thomas Mallié

        Hi Cyrille,

        Thanks for your prompt reply

        I've checked and we're using v2.10.2.

        The problem I have is that I do not control which plugins can be installed. I can request a plugin to be installed, but it's each time a cumbersome process with business justification and approvals required in all direction :-(

        1. So anyway, thanks for the anwser, we'll go down the "user education" route instead of creating a custom link with the Linking plugin
        2. For the unique identifier, I had another idea, I could use a combination of the DATE and TIME of creation in order to create a unique ID for my pages. That would give me a unique numerical ID without having to install the Page Information Tools plugin
        3. OK, the approver will have to be extra careful when approving a new page then.

        Have a nice week-end

        Thomas

  11. Oct 22, 2009

    Anonymous

    Any chances the templating engine will be updated some time soon? We'd like to use it for responding to customer information requests. As a previous poster mentioned, this would mean having to enter  (CUSTOMER) once and having the customer name pop up in various places in the document, for example. Also, we'd like to use the same images on every page which doesn't seem to be possible at the moment either :-/

    1. Oct 29, 2009

      Sashidaran Jayaraman [Atlassian]

      Hi,

      If I understand you correctly, the feature you require is already available through the use of Template as shown in this documentation as well as this. In order to use the same image on every page, you can attach the image to any page of any space and reference it in your template like this:

      Hope this helps. If I have misunderstood your requirements, feel free to clarify more on your needs.

      Cheers
      JSashi

      1. Aug 04, 2011

        Anonymous

        Hi, I can not seem to get this to work, was this option available in Confluence version 3.0.2?

        Just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly..

        I have a template which I want to use the same image every time, how ever the image does not show up if it is not already added as an Attachment for the page that I am using the template for.. So I want to have that template pick up the image from the page that it has already been attached to, and use it, rather then have attach this image to every page it is needed for..

        It tried as suggested above but I can not seem to get it to work, any way you can explain it better?

        1. Aug 04, 2011

          Anonymous

          Hi, I am the above Anonymous user, I found out how to do it..

          I did not require the spacekey: piece, and I was typing my page name wrong,

          Dashboard showed > (name1) > (name2)

          I was using name1, but this was the very top of my section, the image was actually attached to name2..

  12. Oct 27, 2009

    Anonymous

    Hi;

    Is there any way to set a default page name when creating from template ? (By default it is "New Page")

    1. Oct 29, 2009

      Sashidaran Jayaraman [Atlassian]

      Hi,

      The "New Page" is the default title in Confluence for the Add Page function. However, if you would like to change this, you can refer to the following documentation for further instructions:

      Modify Confluence Interface Text

      The parameter.name for the "New Page" is untitled.page.title. Hope this helps.

      Cheers
      JSashi

      1. Nov 02, 2009

        Anonymous

        Hi, I do not want to change global title. I asked it for template scope. Lets say I have two different templates A and B. And when some created a new page from template A, can the new page have title e.g "New Page From Template A"  or  new page from template B "New Page From Template B".

        thanks

        Mustafa

        1. Nov 02, 2009

          Sashidaran Jayaraman [Atlassian]

          Hi Mustafa,

          I am afraid that this is not currently possible. However, I have found a similar improvement request and a feature request . Please add yourself as a watcher, vote for these requests and add your own comments to these requests. For further details on how we include new features and improvements, you might want to read this page

          Hope that helps.

          Cheers
          JSashi

  13. Jan 04, 2010

    Chris Trimper

    Does it make sense to allow a non-space admin to modify a template?  It seems risky to allow someone to have full space admin just to allow them to add/edit a specific set of page templates.

    1. Jan 20, 2010

      Zed Yap [Atlassian]

      Hi Chris

      Does it make sense to allow a non-space admin to modify a template? It seems risky to allow someone to have full space admin just to allow them to add/edit a specific set of page templates.

      I believe that the in the template can be edited and created if the user is a space administrator as stated in this documentation:

      Hope that helps.
      Best rgds,
      Zed

  14. May 12, 2010

    Ron Yeshulas

    Anyone have this happen to them? When adding links to anchors in the template the links show highlighted in red. If you create a page with the template and look at the wiki markup the links and anchors show extra characters that the template does not show. For example I have in my template

    [#here]

    I get in the page created from the template

    [#here|]

    1. Sep 30, 2010

      Anonymous

      Interesting.  I had the following

      [Top of Page|#top]

      and it was turned into

      [Top of Page|#top]

      which actually displays the '\' character on the output page

      1. Sep 30, 2010

        Anonymous

        Well that didn't display well...

        It ends up putting a '\' character before the '|' character in the output page - and then that character displays.

  15. Sep 09, 2011

    Anonymous

    Is it possible to add metadata to a template?  I would like to take the data users enter at prompts and access if from another page.

  16. Oct 06, 2011

    Pablo da Silva

    Hi,

           is there a way to create a template based on an actual Space Page? I´m running Confluence 4 and it´s editor is very friendly, you can create a nice looking page in a few minutes. Many of my end users already created content rich pages, and now want to use some of them as Templates to create new pages using the same format. is there a way to convert this pages to Wiki Markup? 

     

    Thanks!

     

    Pablo da Silva

    1. Nov 09, 2011

      Tom Winter

      Yes, I want this to. Have you found anything?

  17. Oct 07, 2011

    Besjon Alivandi

    As someone new to Confluence that is starting with Confluence 4, how am I supposed to know what the correct Wiki Markup is for a newly installed plugin macro when I'm adding a template if I can't see the Wiki Markup in a regular page for that new plugin macro?

    It is very frustrating to be able to make a regular page using the various macros I want, but I am unable to create a template that replicates that page. Since you removed the Wiki Markup view (which I fully support) you should have also upgraded the add new template page to use the new editor. If Wiki Markup is really dead as far as storage goes and simply serves as a form of keyboard shortcuts/auto-complete, other parts of the product shouldn't require knowing Wiki Markup.

    Please update the add new template page to use the new editor or provide some workaround - for example, Pablo da Silva suggested converting an existing page to a template.

  18. Oct 26, 2011

    Rik Millington

    I completely agree with the 2 posts above - there really needs to be a simpler way to create templates.

    I don't know wiki markup, but am prepared to learn.  However, if it's no longer used for editing pages in Confluence 4, why should we need to use it to generate templates?  

    Either enable the new editor for creating templates, or allow us to copy the wiki markup from another page please.

    We've just licensed Confluence for 500 users academic and think the product is fantastic; but this is really hampering our roll out plans.

  19. Nov 14, 2011

    Darragh O'Brien

    I also have the same frustrations as the above 3 posters. It is time consuming to try and create a page template (where a normal page just took a few minutes) that replicates a normal page created with the v4.0 editor where there are many macros - I have to go and research the macro documentation for each macro and try to ensure that its format matches the rendered editor version.

    Either of 2 options would suit me:

    1. allow a wiki markup view of v 4.0 editor content to allow for copy/paste to global template editor
    2. add new v4.0 editor to global template editor page (also same for other simple editor sections in the confluence admin area - e.g. site welcome message)

    Regards,

    Darragh

  20. Dec 12, 2011

    Andrew Smolak

    Just to echo the sentiments of the previous posters: Why the heck did you "completely remove wiki-markup as a storage format" while retaining it as a REQUIREMENT for using an essential feature of your product?

    OK, I understand why you guys are selling the removal of wiki-markup as a "feature". But seriously, you can't get all of your users to buy into that philosophy then pull a switcheroo on them as soon as they try to create a template!

    So far, from reading all of the posts on this page, I along with numerous others (not including those that haven't voiced their opinion here) are suffering a severe workflow disruption. Come on guys, copy/paste is UNIVERSAL. Wiki Page -> Template is not some obscure and unpredictable use-case!

    The two most obvious solutions Darragh suggested above hit the nail on the head.

     

  21. Dec 13, 2011

    Andreas Gounaris

    I wish to add my voice as well to the above cry outs, there is no explanation as far as I can think of about the reason of such omission. Honestly, I'd like to know the theory behind this decision, not been able to create a page template with the same tools you use for a page.

    There are so many approaches to tackle this problem, just adding to the above list from Darragh

    1. ..
    2. ...
    3. In the tools menu, put a new view: "View Wiki Markup" just like "View Source" and "View Storage Format"
    4. A new command in the tools menu, "Export As Template"
    5. Allow the wiki markup editor to accept the "page storage format", then copy/paste

    Meanwhile, any workaround? How can I tell what is the right wiki markup format for macros I'm using? I don't even know if all macros can be written in wiki markup format.

    Regards and keep up the good work, your products are great.

    1. Dec 13, 2011

      Darragh O'Brien

      Thanks for the input Andreas & Andrew,

      One of the problems with the current work around of having to look up the wiki markup syntax for macros is that the v4.0 macro documentation does not include the markup syntax any more - you actually have to go and look up the v3.x macro documentation! which takes another few steps as a google or confluence search will take you to the v4.0 docs then you have to modify the URL to get directly to the v3.x or else end up navigating through menus to find it.

      Darragh

  22. Jan 27, 2012

    Anonymous

    is it possible to watch a template to know when it is used to create pages?

  23. Feb 09, 2012

    Andria Houghton

    Add my voice to the throng clamoring for a WYSIWYG editor for Confluence 4.x.

    In addition, I am frustrated due to the lack of the scaffolding plug in in Confluence 4.x; any word on that (and this may not be the right forum)?

    One work around I did find was to use the Word to Confluence converter (the page states it is a legacy, and I am sure it is, but the Microsoft Add In link goes nowhere, and further investigation leads to a Microsoft Word to MediaWiki Add-In that would be swell if the MediaWiki markup was identical to Confluence, but it isn't).

    I tested the Macro on a simple page with multiple headings; I have not tried it with more complicated Word elements.

    Andria