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 Global homepages are often little more than long link lists or outdated announcements; department spaces depend on individual authors’ design skills; HR, IT, and Finance each maintain their own islands of policy and how‑to pages.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 Without a central library, teams copy‑paste images into pages, leading to outdated branding and needless duplication.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.
#2.2. Cards
For grouping related topics or destinations into visually distinct blocks (e.g., “HR Policies,” “IT Support,” “Finance Tools”).
#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.
| Name | Color | Code |
|---|---|---|
| Deep Sea Blue | #003B5C |
|
| Coral Reef | #FF6F61 |
|
| Aqua Wave | #00B2A9 |
|
| Sandy Beach | #F4D03F |
|
| Sunset Glow | #FF8C42 |
|
| Seafoam Green | #A8E6CE |
|
| Ocean Mist | #B2E0E0 |
|
| Shell Pink | #FAD3D3 |
|
| Stormy Sky | #7D9EC0 |
#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.
Welcome aboard!
You can include formatting, tables and images, panels etc.
Here is a panel
Table | Table | Table |
|---|---|---|
Cell 1 | Cell 2 | Cell 3 |
Cell 4 | Cell 5 | Cell 6 |
Categorize content.
This is some cards - we are working to align the styling.
You can include macros like diagrams within tabs too!
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