All Confluence UI text is contained in a single Java properties file. This file can be modified to change the default text, and also to translate Confluence into other languages than English.

The UI text file is ConfluenceActionSupport.properties. From your Confluence install directory:

\confluence\WEB-INF\lib\confluence-x.x.x.jar

Replace "x.x.x" with your Confluence version, for example for 4.3.2, it will be named "confluence-4.3.2.jar".
Within this File, the relevant file to edit is :\com\atlassian\confluence\core\ConfluenceActionSupport.properties.

Refer to Editing jar files for reference.

 

The file contains parameters with name=value pairs, in the format:

parameter.name=Parameter value

Parameter names are any text before the '=' character and should never be modified. Any text after the '=' character is the parameter value, which can be modified freely and can also contain variables. An example involving variables is:

popular.labels=The three most popular labels are {0}, {1} and {2}.

For more information on replacing values, check out Translating ConfluenceActionSupport Content. Note that plugins store their text internally, so you must modify plugin text individually.

Steps For Modification

  1. Stop Confluence
  2. Under your install directory, open \confluence\WEB-INF\lib\confluence-x.x.x.jar\com\atlassian\confluence\core\ConfluenceActionSupport.properties

  3. Search for the text you wish to modify, replace it and save the file in <Confluence-Install>\confluence\WEB-INF\classes\com\atlassian\confluence\core. Please create this folder structure, if it does not exist already.

    If you re-bundle the JAR file, rather than re-deploy the class in the WEB-INF\classes directory, make sure to move the backup JAR file out of the /lib directory, or the backup may be deployed by mistake.

  4. Restart Confluence

Common Modifications

Common Modifications

Task

Search For

Notes

Rename 'Dashboard'

Dashboard

The dashboard.name parameter has the name. To change 'Dashboard' to 'My Portal', change dashboard.name=Dashboard to dashboard.name=My Portal and update any other occurrences of the word 'Dashboard' in the instance

Modify login page text

login.

The login.instructions parameter has the "Enter your account details below to login to Confluence" text

Modify Keyboard Shortcuts

Confluence provides a set of keyboard shortcuts. You could customise the shortcuts by making modifications inside the ConfluenceActionSupport.properties file.