Export Content to Word, PDF, HTML and XML

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You can export all or part of a Confluence space to various formats, including Microsoft Word, HTML, PDF and XML.

To use the space export functionality, you need the 'Export Space' permission. See the guide to space permissions.

Export single pages to PDF

If you need to send content to people who don't have access to Confluence, you can export a single page or blog post as a PDF. 

If you've got permission to view the page in Confluence, you'll be able to export it in this way; go to the page and choose  (Tools) > Export to PDF.

Only published content is exported. This means you can create PDF exports even while people are still working on the page. 

When you export a single page to PDF, the PDF stylesheet customizations are applied, but any PDF layout customizations are not. To make your PDF layout customizations apply to a single page exported to PDF, you'll need to use the 'multiple page' method described below to export the single page. See Customize Exports to PDF.

Export single pages to Word

You can also choose to export single pages to a .doc file that can be opened in Microsoft Word.

If you've got permission to view the page in Confluence, you'll be able to export it in this way; go to the page and choose Tools > Export to Word.

Only published content is exported. This means you can create Word exports even while people are still working on the page.  Also, only the first 50 attached images will be included in the export. See the notes below for more information. 

Note that due to the format of this file, it can only be opened in Microsoft Word and is not compatible with other applications such as Open Office, Libre Office or Google Docs.

Export multiple pages to HTML or PDF

If you want to export a space – or selected pages in a space – to HTML or PDF, Confluence can create a zipped archive of the HTML, or a single, downloadable PDF file.

PDF export is useful you're producing a printable user manual from your documentation space for example. The HTML export can be used to convert your site content to a static website.

To export pages to HTML or PDF:

  1. Go to the space and select Space tools > Content Tools from the bottom of the sidebar
  2. Select Export
  3. Select one of the following formats:
    1. HTML – export an HTML file containing only the pages you have permission to view. With this format, you have two options:
      • Normal Export – generate an HTML file for each page in the space, except for blogs, comments, and attachments.
      • Custom Export – generate an HTML file of only the pages you've selected.
    2. PDF – export a PDF file containing only the pages you have permission to view. With this format, you have two options:
      • Normal export – generate a PDF file for each page in the space, except for blogs, comments, and non-image attachments.
      • Custom export – generate a PDF file of selected pages excluding any comments.

For normal export and custom export, you can also choose to Include Pages Numbers at the bottom of every page in your PDF.

4. Review your selection, and select Export.

You can download the zipped archive or PDF when the export process has finished.

Export (back up) multiple pages to XML

If you want to export a space as an XML, Confluence can create a zipped archive of the XML.

XML space exports can be used to import your space content into another Confluence space running the same or newer version of Confluence.

To export pages to XML:

  1. Go to the space and select Space tools > Content Tools from the bottom of the sidebar
  2. Select Back up – an XML export contains every page, blog posts, comment, and attachment in the space, but excludes blog posts.
  3. Under Save to restore directory, you can:
    1. Give your XML export a file name (optional)
    2. Select Save permanently if you want to keep your file on the server, otherwise, all space backups are only temporarily saved to your <home-directory>/restore/space, where <home-directory> is shared-home-directory for Confluence Data Center. You'll need access to the server to retrieve the file this way.
  4. Select Back up

You can download the exported XML backup by selecting the file name when the export process has finished.

What's included in the export?

The following content is included in space exports.


PDF exportHTML exportXML export (backup)
PagesYesYesYes
BlogsNoNoYes
CommentsNoOptionalYes
AttachmentsImages onlyYesYes
Unpublished changesNoNoYes
Page numbersOptionalN/AN/A
Restricted pages
and blog posts
Only those
you can view
Only those
you can view
Yes, they remain
restricted

Customizing the appearance of PDF exports

You can add a title page, table of contents, and customized headers and footers to the PDF output. For more advanced customizations, you can apply Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) modifications. These customizations are specific to each space, and you need the 'Space Administrator' permission to apply these customizations. For more information, see Customize Exports to PDF.

Notes on PDF exporting

  • To export a PDF containing international text, see Create a PDF in Another Language
  • Confluence's PDF export feature is designed to handle a wide variety of content, but on rare occasions the PDF Export process may fail due to an unrecognized customization. If that happens, the PDF export screen will indicate the title of the page in which the problem occurred, to help you diagnose the cause of the failure.
  • Tables that exceed the width of a page, particularly those with images in them, might be cut off in the PDF. See Wide tables are cut off in PDF exports for some suggested workarounds. 

  • In Confluence Data Center, PDF exports are handled by the external process pool

Notes on Word exporting

  • Only the first 50 images attached to the page are exported to your Word document. This is to prevent out of memory errors affecting your whole Confluence site. See  CONFSERVER-34211 - Getting issue details... STATUS  for more information, and to find out how you can temporarily increase this limit using a system property

Notes on HTML exporting

  • In the zip file, page attachments are placed in individual folders with names in the following format:
    ...\download\attachments\xxxxxx
    where 'xxxxxx' is the page ID of the page containing the attachments.
  • To customize the HTML output, you'll need to modify the file confluence-x.y.z-jar/com/atlassian/confluence/pages/Page.htmlexport.vm. To learn how to repackage this file, see How to Edit Files in Confluence JAR Files

Notes on XML exporting (backup)

  • When you create a space backup, it does't mean it will start immediately. If someone has created another backup task on your Confluence site, your job will be added to a "queue". This will be reflected in your task status. Only one backup is processed at a time; we do this to provide a stable, fast, and reliable backup experience.
  • If your task was "queued" and someone restarts Confluence, your task won't lose its place in the queue.
  • If your task was "in progress" and someone restarts Confluence, it will fail and you will need to run the backup again.
  • The Space backup recent activity table lists XML exports of that space only over a two-week period.
  • You can only import a space into the same or later Confluence version. You can't import a space into an earlier version.
  • Team Calendars aren't included in XML exports. 
  • If you're doing the export for backup purposes, consider another means of backup. See Production Backup Strategy.

Migrating content to Confluence Cloud

If you're migrating from Confluence Server to Confluence Cloud, you can use the Confluence Cloud Migration Assistant to migrate your content and spaces. 

Last modified on Aug 23, 2023

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