How to customize MS Word exports
The information in this page relates to customizations or development changes in Confluence. Consequently, Atlassian Support cannot guarantee to provide any support for the steps described on this page. Please be aware that this material is provided for your information only and that you use it at your own risk.
Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.
Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Purpose
Confluence exports a Confluence page as a Microsoft Word document by:
- Generating the HTML rendering of a page from Confluence wiki markup
- Overriding some Confluence page styles with MS Word styles using a CSS wrapper
The wrapper is generated using a Velocity macro to provide CSS style information specific to MS Word exports.
Solution
Modifying Content
Please do not attempt to modify the output without some experience in CSS and HTML markup. You may also need to review Velocity template language.
Before modifying any styles, you should always take a backup of both any files you are modifying and your entire Confluence install directory. If you require assistance with your customisation attempt, you should post your modified files along with a technical description to Atlassian Answers.
Important Files
The formatting is defined using the CSS styles in main Confluence stylesheet and overridden by any styles in the Word export wrapper.
Main Stylesheet
This file formats the default appearance of all Confluence content. Changes to this document will be shown when viewing a page from within Confluence, as well as in HTML or MS Word exports. You should avoid changing this document unless you wish a style to be changed throughout Confluence. The file is located under the Confluence install directory:
...\confluence\WEB-INF\classes\styles\site-css.vm
Export Wrapper
This file overrides the main Confluence stylesheet, so styles outlined in this file will be specific to MS Word exports. It set the font and style for body text, some macro and grids, and a default background colour. The file is located under the Confluence install directory:
...\confluence\pages\exportword.vm
How To Modify Styles
If the CSS tag already exists in the Word export wrapper, you can modify it directly. If the CSS tag is defined by the main stylesheet, copy it into the export wrapper as a new entry in the <style> element and update it there:
- Identify its CSS tag in the main stylesheet. You may need to use trial and error to identify which cascading property is relevant
- Transfer the tag into the Word export wrapper so that it overrides the main stylesheet
- Modify the tag style in the wrapper
Common Modifications
You can easily set the body font or background colour in the export wrapper.
Modify Body Font
The wrapper sets the body font:
body, p, td, table, tr, .bodytext, .stepfield {
font-family: Verdana, arial, sans-serif;
}
Modify Background Colour
The wrapper sets the background colour:
<body style="background-color: white; padding: 10px;">
<h1>$page.title</h1>
$renderedPageContent
</body>