Working with Page Layouts and Columns and Sections

Screenshot: Editor view of a page showing three sections with different column configurations. 

Start by adding a horizontal section to your page. 

To add a section:

1. Choose the Page Layout button on the editor toolbar.
2. The Page Layout toolbar appears. Choose Add Section.

The new section appears below your current content. The boundaries of the section are indicated by dotted lines. These are not visible when you view the page. 

To change the column layout in a section:

1. Place your cursor in the section you wish to change.
2. Choose a layout from the Page Layout toolbar (for example two column, three column).

Any text, images or macros in your section are not lost when you change the column layout. When you decrease the number of columns, Confluence will move your content to the left. When you increase the number of columns, Confluence will add blank columns to the right of your existing content. 

To move a section to another part of the page:

1. Place your cursor in the section you wish to move.
2. Choose the Move up or Move down buttons.

The section and all of its content will be moved above or below other sections on the page. 

To delete a section:

1. Place your cursor in the section you wish to remove.
2. Choose Remove section.

The section and all of its content will be removed. 

Notes about Page Layouts

• Column width - The width of the columns are fixed. If you need more than three columns, or columns of a specific width, you should use the Section and Column macros described below. 
• Very wide tables. The width of each column is set to a percentage of the page width. The icons in the drop down menu indicate the relative widths for each layout. In most cases, Confluence will adapt the width of the columns to fit the width of the page. If a column includes a large table, the content may not fit into the width of the page. You will see a horizontal scroll bar when viewing the page.

Using the Section and Column macros

You can use the Section and Column macros to add a set of columns to the page. The Section macro defines an area that will contain the columns. You can have as many sections as you like. Within each section, you can have as many columns as you like.

The Section and Column macros are useful if you want to define a specific percentage or pixel width for each column. 

To add a section and some columns to a page:

1. In the Confluence editor, choose Insert > Other Macros.
2. Find the Section macro, select it and insert it onto the page.
3. Choose Insert > Other Macros again.
4. Find and insert the Column macro.
5. Add your content to the column.
6. Insert as many columns as you like within the section.

Screenshot: A section and two columns in the editor

When you see the page in view mode, the above layout is displayed like this:

Macro parameters

 Parameters are options that you can set to control the content or format of the macro output. Where the parameter name used in Confluence storage format or wikimarkup is different to the label used in the macro browser, it will be listed below in brackets (example).

Parameters of the Section macro

Parameters of the Column macro

Notes about sections and columns

• All content within your section must be enclosed within a Column macro, otherwise the section layout will not work as expected.
• You can put tables inside columns.