Tips & Best Practices

Non-obvious tips that save time and prevent common mistakes.

Use the Parent Mapper for living hubs. Tabs generated from child pages reflect the current child page list - add or rename a child page and the tab changes without editing the hub page. Custom Tabs require manual updates every time.
Tab Navigation cannot be nested. If you need collapsible subsections inside a tab, use Advanced Expand - it's designed for secondary grouping within a tab body.
Reorder tabs by reordering child pages in the Confluence page tree (drag and drop). The tab order follows the page tree by default.

Conditional Visibility

Group names are case-sensitive. Copy the group name directly from Confluence Admin → Groups. A single character difference causes the condition to silently fail - content becomes visible to everyone (Conditional Show fails open, not closed).
Test with two browser sessions. Open an incognito window logged in as a non-group member. Don't rely on memory of who can see what - verify every condition.
Conditional macros enforce visibility, not access. They hide content from the rendered view. The underlying page is still accessible to anyone with page view permission. For true access control, use Confluence page restrictions.

Alert types map to meaning, not just colour. Use Info (blue) for context, Warning (yellow) for caution, Error (red) for blockers, Success (green) for completed steps. Consistent usage helps readers scan quickly.
Background + Alert creates a highlighted section. Wrap an Alert inside a Background macro to create a visually distinct callout area - useful for critical procedures or step-by-step guides.
Use Buttons for all external links in runbooks. Plain hyperlinks are easy to miss in dense documentation. Buttons with clear labels (e.g., "Open Jira Board", "View Monitoring Dashboard") reduce navigation friction.

Run the Attachment Center audit before space migrations. Orphaned attachments that aren't referenced in any page content are the most common source of unexpected storage bloat during migration.
Bulk delete only after reviewing the orphan list. Orphan detection flags attachments not referenced in page body content - but some may be linked from external systems or emails. Review before bulk-deleting.

Macro settings save when you click outside the panel, but only Publish makes them live. Draft changes are visible in your edit session but not to other users until you Publish.
Use the Page Templates feature to enforce consistency. Create a template for each content type (runbook, decision record, meeting notes) with your standard macro layout pre-built - space members apply the template instead of recreating the structure.