Confluence Cheat Sheet

Overview

Confluence is Atlassian’s team workspace and wiki platform used by organizations to create, organize, and collaborate on documentation, meeting notes, project plans, and knowledge bases. It integrates deeply with Jira, Trello, and Bitbucket, making it a central hub for team knowledge.

Confluence is available as a cloud-hosted service or self-hosted (Data Center) deployment. It features a rich WYSIWYG editor, page templates, macros for dynamic content, spaces for organization, granular permissions, and a powerful search engine.

Getting Started

Content Hierarchy

Confluence Instance
├── Spaces
│   ├── Engineering Wiki
│   │   ├── Pages
│   │   │   ├── Architecture Overview
│   │   │   │   ├── Frontend Architecture
│   │   │   │   └── Backend Services
│   │   │   └── Onboarding Guide
│   │   └── Blog Posts
│   ├── Product Documentation
│   └── HR and People
└── Personal Spaces

Keyboard Shortcuts

Editor

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+S`	Save / Publish page
`Ctrl+B`	Bold
`Ctrl+I`	Italic
`Ctrl+Shift+M`	Insert code snippet
`Ctrl+Shift+D`	Insert macro
`Ctrl+Shift+7`	Numbered list
`Ctrl+Shift+8`	Bullet list
`Ctrl+Shift+9`	Task list
`Ctrl+K`	Insert link
`Ctrl+M`	Insert files/images
`//`	Date picker
`/`	Slash commands (Cloud)
`@`	Mention a user
`[]`	Insert action item

Shortcut	Action
`G` then `G`	Go to dashboard
`G` then `S`	Browse current space
`/`	Quick search
`C`	Create new page
`E`	Edit current page
`?`	Show keyboard shortcuts

Page Editor

Content Blocks

Block	Description
Heading	H1 through H6
Table	Data table
Code block	Syntax highlighted code
Panel	Colored info panels
Expand	Collapsible section
Status	Color-coded status lozenge
Decision	Decision record
Task	Action item with assignee
Layout	Multi-column layouts

Panel Types

Panel	Color	Use Case
Info	Blue	General information
Note	Yellow	Important notes
Success	Green	Positive outcomes
Warning	Orange	Caution messages
Error	Red	Errors or dangers

Macros

Macro	Description
`{toc}`	Table of contents
`{children}`	List of child pages
`{excerpt}`	Define a page excerpt
`{include}`	Include another page
`{jira}`	Display Jira issues
`{status}`	Colored status lozenge
`{chart}`	Create charts from table data
`{page-tree}`	Hierarchical page tree
`{recently-updated}`	Recently changed pages
`{expand}`	Collapsible content
`{code}`	Code block
`{anchor}`	Named anchor for deep linking

Templates

Built-in Templates

Template	Use Case
Meeting Notes	Agendas, notes, action items
Decision	Record and track decisions
Retrospective	Sprint retrospectives
How-To Article	Step-by-step guides
Product Requirements	PRD documentation
Troubleshooting	Issue resolution guides
OKR	Objectives and key results

Spaces

Space Permissions

Permission	Description
View	Read pages in the space
Add	Create new pages
Edit	Modify existing pages
Delete	Remove pages
Admin	Manage space settings and permissions
Export	Export space content

Search

Search Operators

Operator	Example	Description
`"exact phrase"`	`"deployment guide"`	Exact phrase match
`AND`	`docker AND kubernetes`	Both terms required
`OR`	`guide OR tutorial`	Either term
`NOT`	`api NOT deprecated`	Exclude term
`type:page`	`type:page docker`	Filter by content type
`space:ENG`	`space:ENG setup`	Filter by space key
`creator:username`	`creator:jdoe`	Filter by author
`label:important`	`label:important`	Filter by label

REST API

# Get page content
curl -u user@example.com:API_TOKEN \
  "https://domain.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/content/PAGE_ID?expand=body.storage"

# Create a page
curl -X POST \
  -u user@example.com:API_TOKEN \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "https://domain.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/content" \
  -d '{
    "type": "page",
    "title": "New Page Title",
    "space": {"key": "SPACE_KEY"},
    "body": {
      "storage": {
        "value": "<p>Page content</p>",
        "representation": "storage"
      }
    }
  }'

# Search content
curl -u user@example.com:API_TOKEN \
  "https://domain.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/search?cql=type=page+AND+text~docker"

Advanced Usage

Page Properties Macro

Create structured data tables that can be queried across pages with the Page Properties Report macro for dashboards.

Automation Rules

Trigger	Action
Page created	Add labels, send notification
Page updated	Notify watchers, post to Slack
Blog published	Share on team channels
Label added	Move to specific space

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Page loading slowly	Reduce macro count; optimize embedded content
Search not finding pages	Check space permissions; wait for re-indexing
Formatting lost on paste	Use Ctrl+Shift+V for plain text paste
Jira macro showing errors	Verify Jira application link
Version conflicts	Use page history to compare and merge
Export missing content	Ensure macros are supported in export format
Template not appearing	Verify template is in correct space
Space permissions not applying	Check group memberships