Common tasks

Rather than a tour, this is the list of things people do, with the route to each.


#What you can do

Task

Where

Notes

Turn on publishing for a space and choose where content goes

Space settings → Publishing → Setup tab (or

You must be an administrator of the source space. Choose the Target space first. The Enable switch cannot be saved without one, and the target can never be the current space. Publishing to a

Decide whether people can publish by hand, and whether they must

Space settings → Publishing → Setup tab

"Allow manual publishing" controls the byline Publish button. "Require comment on publish" forces a comment of up to 500 characters, which becomes the version comment on the published page.

Choose where published pages land and whether the tree is preser

Space settings → Publishing → Structure tab

Set Parent content (or leave it at Space root), pick Preserve hierarchy or Flatten to parent, and include or exclude the space homepage. A live Preview shows the result. With Preserve hierar

Reuse pages that already exist in the target space instead of cr

Space settings → Publishing → Structure tab

Turn on "Update existing pages by title". Only safe when titles are unique and stable. It will overwrite and re-link a same-titled page and clear any previous publish link on it. It also let

Limit who may publish

Space settings → Publishing → Permissions ta

Turn on "Restrict publish permissions" and add up to 50 Allowed publishers. Space administrators always keep access. Leaving the list empty means the restriction does nothing. This does not

Publish or update a single page on demand

Page → Capable Publishing byline

Click Publish (first time), Republish (already published) or Update (Outdated or Moved). You need edit permission on the page. If hierarchy is preserved and the parents are not published, yo

See the published copy of a page (or jump back to the source)

Page → Capable Publishing byline → "View pub

The byline works on both sides of the link: opened on a published copy it offers a link back to the source page.

Publish automatically when a page is approved

Space settings → Approval → Overrides tab ("

Requires publishing to be enabled for the space, and an app that ships both Approval and Publishing. The approvers are recorded and shown as "Approved by" in the Publishing byline. Publish t

Do an initial load or a full re-sync of a whole space

Space settings → Publishing → Maintenance ta

Confirm the "Full Sync" dialog. Requires space administrator on both the source and target space, and is blocked while another maintenance task runs. Blog posts are excluded, the homepage is

Publish only the approved (controlled) documents

Space settings → Publishing → Maintenance ta

Only shown in an app that also ships Approval. Pages with no approval, or a pending or rejected one, are skipped, and folders are never included.

Publish a chosen set of pages by their current state

Capable Publishing space page → Pages → Publ

Select rows and start a bulk publish; selection is capped at 1000 items. These lists come from the Confluence search index, so very recent changes can lag behind. They also only list pages.

Watch or cancel a running publish job and read the history

Capable Publishing space page → Dashboard (p

The progress panel shows pending, in progress, published, failed and skipped counts and offers Cancel. The Audit Log holds the per-item logs of past bulk runs. The Audit Log is only availabl

Move already-published pages after changing the parent or hierar

Space settings → Publishing → Structure tab,

Choose "Save and rebuild". Be aware that a rebuild is started for any change to the parent, hierarchy mode, homepage setting or target space regardless of which button you press.

Point a space at a different target space

Space settings → Publishing → Setup tab → Ta

Confirm "Save and disconnect". A background cleanup clears the publish properties on both sides. The pages already published stay where they are in the old target space and are no longer tra

Stop tracking one page

Page → Capable Publishing byline → bin icon

Removes the link between the source page and its published copy. It does NOT delete the published copy. Remove that by hand in the target space if you need it gone. Requires edit permission

Exclude a page from publishing permanently

On the page itself

Add the label capable_never_publish. Any publish attempt is then recorded as Failed with the reason "Publishing disabled by label".

Start over for a whole space

Space settings → Publishing → Maintenance ta

Resets settings to disabled and runs a background cleanup that strips publish properties from all source and destination pages. Published pages are not deleted. Note the reset leaves manual

Find pages by publishing state across the whole site

Capable → Search → Publishing panel

Columns: Overview, Status, Approvers, Method, Publisher, Published at. Filters: Published (date), Status, Publisher, Approvers, Method, Direction (source page vs published copy). Sort by Pub

Recover publishing when its background jobs stop working

Confluence settings → Capable → Publishing t

Confluence administrators only. This permanently deletes process history, logs and any queued or running background publishing tasks, but not published pages or settings.

Hide Publishing from the whole site or from one space

Confluence settings → Capable → Capabilities

Site-level needs a Confluence administrator; space-level needs a space administrator.


#A few things worth knowing

  • Some tasks need an administrator. The Where column says so.

  • Anything relying on search needs the page to have been indexed first.

  • Macro names differ slightly between the standalone app and the suite.



What people actually do.