Company intranet

Many organizations use Confluence as their primary intranet, but out of the box it tends to evolve into a collection of disjointed spaces with weak navigation and inconsistent visual identity. Global homepages are often little more than long link lists or outdated announcements; department spaces depend on individual authors’ design skills; HR, IT, and Finance each maintain their own islands of policy and how‑to pages. Employees, especially new hires, experience this as “knowing the information is somewhere in Confluence, but never where you expect it.”

These issues are exacerbated by asset fragmentation. Logos, hero images, brand colors, and campaign visuals often live in a mix of Google Drive, Slack threads, and random Confluence attachments. Without a central library, teams copy‑paste images into pages, leading to outdated branding and needless duplication. Marketing and brand teams in particular struggle to make the intranet reflect the company’s visual identity, even when that identity is well‑defined elsewhere.

Finally, intranet owners often lack the tools to create a “portal‑like” experience without introducing separate hosting, theming or intranet apps. Those tools can be powerful, but they also add cost and fragmentation. Capable Formatting offers a middle path: build portal‑style pages using enhanced macros directly in Confluence, backed by Capable Images for asset reuse and, if desired, Capable Sites for external‑facing versions.

#1. How Capable Formatting helps

Capable Formatting enables intranet managers to transform flat Confluence pages into structured, branded entry points. A typical global homepage might use a Banner macro as a hero section with a background image from the central image library, overlaying a title, tagline, and key CTAs as Buttons. Beneath this, Cards can group core journeys such as “New starter,” “IT help,” “HR & benefits,” and “Company strategy,” each with icons and short descriptions. This immediately upgrades the UX from “list of links” to a recognisable homepage layout.

Beyond visual polish, Capable’s macros help organize navigation for different audiences. For example, Tabs or segmented Cards can distinguish between “Employees,” “Managers,” and “External partners”; tooltips can explain internal jargon; and a Gallery can showcase highlight content such as recent town halls or major initiatives. Because these components are still just Confluence macros, they remain compatible with permissions and audit trails.

Crucially, Capable Images offers a single source of truth for visual assets. Brand teams can store logos, icons, and photography in organized folders, tag them, and then reference them from intranet pages. When an image is updated in the library, all pages that reference it automatically update as well. This allows intranet hubs to remain visually consistent even as brand assets evolve, and it reduces maintenance overhead for communications teams.

#2. Key features

The intranet hub use case should specifically spotlight a carefully chosen subset of macros as a “starter kit” designed to help users quickly create and customise portal‑like pages. This starter kit would include essential macros that serve as foundational building blocks, enabling users to efficiently build engaging and functional intranet portals with ease.

These macros can be combined with core Confluence features such as space sidebar navigation and page trees, but the emphasis should be on reducing reliance on raw text links. For example, instead of a long “Quick Links” list, the pattern might recommend a 3×2 grid of Cards with icons, each linking to a key space or page. Where more detailed link lists are unavoidable, Panels or subtle Banners can be used to group them and maintain visual hierarchy.

A useful framing in the use case page is to present “macro recipes” - small, repeatable combinations that intranet authors can copy: e.g., “Hero: Banner + Buttons + Background image,” “Department section: Heading + Cards + small Gallery,” “Announcements strip: compact Banner with neutral background.” Giving these recipes names makes it easier for non‑designers to talk about them with intranet managers and request templated variants.

#2.1. Banner

For hero sections with background images or colors, large headings, and primary CTAs.

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#2.2. Cards

For grouping related topics or destinations into visually distinct blocks (e.g., “HR Policies,” “IT Support,” “Finance Tools”).

Approval

Request approval and feedback on your pages.

Calendars

Manage important schedules spread across pages.

Diagrams

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#2.3. Buttons

For consistent, on‑brand call‑to‑action links (e.g., “Submit IT ticket,” “View benefits portal”).

#2.4. Color Palette

For documenting and applying official brand colors so authors can build consistent layouts.

#2.5. Gallery

For featured news, events, or campaign visuals.

#2.6. Tabs

For segmenting content by audience or category where light navigation is needed.

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Welcome aboard!

You can include formatting, tables and images, panels etc.

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Here is a panel

Table	Table	Table

This is some cards - we are working to align the styling.

Banana

Bananas are soft, yellow and sweet - great with porridge oats.

Mango

Mangoes are a tropical fruit which are very sweet. Try it with pineapple.

Orange

Oranges are a round citrus fruit - great for breakfast, ideally juiced!

You can include macros like diagrams within tabs too!

We’re a small, cross‑functional team focused on making complex tasks simple. Our aim is to deliver clear, reliable solutions that help people get work done with confidence.

#3. Example intranet structures

To make this concrete, the intranet hub use case should propose a three‑layer structure:

1. Global home page – the top‑level landing page for all employees.

2. Department/functional landing pages – HR, IT, Finance, Marketing, etc.

3. Resource libraries and hubs – deep collections like “HR policies,” “IT knowledge base,” and “Brand assets.”

Each layer can have its own recommended layout, reusing common macro patterns.

By showing simple wireframe‑style diagrams or annotated screenshots alongside this table (in the eventual Confluence pages), intranet managers can quickly see how to re‑shape their existing spaces. The use case doc should also stress that Capable Sites can publish these same intranet structures externally - e.g., as a branded policy or support portal - while still using the same macros.

#4. Implementation tips

From implementation experience reflected in internal docs and case studies, a few practices stand out as crucial for sustainable intranet patterns. First, create and enforce templates. Use Confluence’s space templates, combined with Capable macros, to provide a “Global Homepage,” “Department Landing,” and “Resource Library” template that teams must start from. This not only speeds up creation but also ensures that updates to recommended macro usage (e.g., switching from Tabs to Cards where limitations are discovered) propagate consistently.

Second, centralize images and styling. Store all intranet visuals in Capable Images libraries and reference them by link, rather than uploading directly to individual pages. Define and document brand colors using the Color Palette macro and link to this “Brand basics” page from the intranet use case page so authors can easily copy values. This aligns with marketing/brand governance and prevents one‑off color choices.

Third, consider macro migration and consolidation early. Many existing intranets already use Aura or Mosaic macros; Capable’s Migration Assistant can convert most cards, banners, and LaTeX elements into Capable equivalents. The use case page should recommend running a migration report before redesigning pages, then using the intranet templates as a target layout for any pages that need manual cleanup.