Protocols and Editing Tips

Using Headings




Placing Pages

Think about where your page should go within the established hierarchy. In this ECOS Help wiki, each application has a parent page, and everything else is either content on the parent page or a child page of it.

When to Add a Table of Contents

Required if your page has at least three headings and requires much scrolling, like this one! (So almost always.)

  1. In Edit mode, place cursor at top of page ABOVE the first heading in the body.
  2. Click Insert > Table of Contents
    1. If it makes sense as shown in the macro previewer, set any parameters and click "Insert."
    2. If it doesn't quite work, click "Cancel," rework your heading formatting, and try again.
  3. The TOC macro tag will show in the editor. 
  4. Click "Save" when done.

When to Add a Change History


  2. Click Insert > Other Macros > Confluence Content
  3. Choose "Change History"
  6. Click "Save." 

Use Callout Boxes for Important Notes

These pull out and frame text that is especially important to make it stand out rather than be lost in a sea of characters. Find them under Insert > Other Macros > Formatting, then scroll to the appropriate option (the four that follow have icons, but there are other options for setting off text). For example:


By the way, use the "Optional title" field in the previewer to type in the text you want to show, like "NEED MORE INFO?" or "GETTING HELP" or "IMPORTANT NOTE" or whatever. I use caps because they stand out more, but whatever you do be consistent. On the one hand, consistency in the many "IMPORTANT NOTE"s in TAILS are easy to eyeball as something to look for; while in other places, you might want to vary the title text to draw the eye to unique sorts of notes and hint at the nature or importance of certain callout content, like "NEED MORE INFO?" vs. the generic "NOTE."

This can be, for example, a helpful tip.

In the editor, delete any spaces such that the callout box immediately follows the text describing it. Once you save, a little more space will be added. Otherwise you get large gaps on the page. You can use "Preview" button at the lower right of the editor to check out the final appearance before deciding and saving. (And sometimes, the spacing gets weird with Notes and tables, and won't stay saved once you open the editor again; haven't figured out how to make it behave.)HabITS Accomplishment Type Definitions


I've used this macro to frame an exampole document on a help page or otherwise contain something unique, like a set of a couple examples. You can also add a title, select background color and font color for the title bar, select a border color, and a background color for the text box. See examples at Creating a Custom Letter for your IPaC Species Lists (letter content is within a panel) and  HabITS Accomplishment Type Definitions (this uses tables to line out the Examples, and the advantage here is table width conforms to text length; but you could do this): 

Baseline inventories

Watershed assessments

Evaluations of management actions

Monitoring of changes over time

Common Actions


Adding Images

Images can be plucked from Word (copy/paste) or captured and then copied/pasted from those made with SnagIt or similar. There are a couple things you can do once it's in Confluence (add a black border, resize), but if you are using added-on circles and arrows on figures, do those in the capture software and then grab the whole image and place it in Confluence. (For any screenshots I added, I applied a medium blue border (and any circles, boxes, or arrows around particular parts of the image) in SnagIt to all newly captured images—stands out better and looks nicer—before pasting it onto the Confluence page.)

To resize, add a border, link to other content, or apply an interesting "effect," click on the image and then, in the tool bar that appears above or below it (depending on where your view is):

  1. Click on the pixel box and change the number to more or fewer, depending on whether you are enlarging or shrinking the graphic. 700-900 pixels is a commonly good range, depending on the original and its contents–you want the text (if any) on the image to be about the same size as the Confluence page text.

    1. Smaller original images might still be very readable but will be naturally smaller in size, which is fine. Use good judgment; look at examples in existing help manuals on this site.
    2. The little presized blue squares and "original" button be used too, if they work for your purposes.
  2. Click "Border" to add a thin black border around the image margins.
  3. Click on "Link" to link the image to another page or item.
  4. Click "Effects" to add an image effect ("curl shadow" is shown below, with a border).

Adding Attachments

Multiple attachments


  4. Click "Save" when done. 


 PDF File FWS_map_template_specs.pdf192 kBJuliette WilsonJan 25, 2013   
 Microsoft Word Document Confluence_UsingTheEditor.docx86 kBJuliette WilsonJan 25, 2013   


Embedded attachments


  2. Click Insert > Attachment
  3. Choose a file to upload.
  5. Click "Insert" 

Adding Links

Links work much like individual attachments:

  4. Follow instructions to find and upload the link.
  6. Click "Insert" 

Line Spacing