5 new features in Confluence to kick off the new year with

Nothing makes starting a new year as exciting as getting new, fun toys to play around with, and for Confluence we have five of them to talk about today! Not only will you get some nice new ways to present your pages and data withing, but we also get some features that might very well change the way you work. So let us dive in.

#1 Page Status - a game changer?

I don't think I have seen anyone using Confluence without having a status in the page properties to indicate the current status of a document. Now we get a built-in function for this that looks very useful indeed. I can think of a million uses for this, but the question is how this works with things like page properties reports and different listing macros.

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With so much work happening asynchronously and the pressure to move quickly, it’s important to know whether you’re making decisions based on information that’s incomplete, in review, or in its final stage. Page status makes this clear with easy-to-read statuses for your whole team. Choose from one of our preset statuses or customize them for your team’s unique workflow.

#2 Presenter Mode

The presenter mode looked a bit weird at first, but it has quite a few use cases where it works very well. One being training or education, and another is to present reports to stakeholders. I think it is a pretty nifty feature to be honest!
 

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Whether your team is in person or distributed across timezones, the interactive presentation enabled by Presenter Mode is magical. Not only can you write, design, gather feedback, and present pages all from one tool, you can do it simultaneously with your team.

When you activate Presenter Mode, you don’t waste the first or the last few minutes of every meeting sending out the link to everyone. A QR code automatically displays on the presentation screen, and a quick tap on the phone automatically saves the link in Confluence. If your team wants to provide feedback as you’re presenting, they can open the link to the document and add comments in real-time – these comments will not appear on the screen while you present.

Presenter Mode is also designed to reduce distractions. It automatically strips out all side panels, options menus, and in-line comments on a page so that your presentation looks clean and simple. And as you scroll, the section that you’re presenting is bolded while the rest of the page is grayed out so that you can direct your audience’s attention where you want it.

 

#3 Table visualization

The wet dream of so many managers is to visualize data with graphs. While this may be a very limited experience compared to other tools, it is very much a step in the right direction.

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Data is good. But rows and rows of it are distracting. As you design your page for presentation, bring your data to life with interactive and customizable charts. Whether you’re providing a leadership update on a project or building financial reports, in just a few clicks you can convert your data into a bar, line, or pie chart to create more meaningful stories with visual insights for your team.

#4 Multiple Excerpt Macros

For me who advocate the usage of one source of truth, this is a very good addition. I often use excerpts for design documentation and for non-functional requirements, and I have sometimes wished I could have two or more sections to embed in different ways. With his update, I can now manage these things more freely. I like it. A lot.

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It can be difficult to maintain accurate, up-to-date information across hundreds of pages. With Excerpt Macros, you can easily create a single source of truth by making part of your page’s content reusable on other pages without using any code. And now, Excerpt Macros are supercharged with the ability to add multiple excerpts on a page. This allows you to have one central page for updating all excerpts, and these changes automatically deploy across all pages where the excerpt is added.

#5 The new Confluence Home

This change looks really great and I can't wait to see it live. If you want to read more about this change, then check out this article: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-Cloud-articles/Say-hello-to-the-new-Confluence-Home/ba-p/1892543

These are just a few of the new changes coming to Confluence in 2022 and I will do my best to cover all of them here on the blog and on the YouTube channel.

Which is your favorite of these and why?