Bulk changes and export
Once a search has found the pages you care about, you can act on them straight from the table. Bulk Change deletes, relabels, moves, rewords or sets the status of the pages you tick. Export downloads the results as a spreadsheet.
Both live in the footer under the results table in Capable Search. Open Capable Search: Capable Search in the space sidebar or the Apps menu, or Capable, then Search, in the Suite.
#Where you find them
Place | Bulk Change | Export |
|---|---|---|
A new search or a saved search in Capable Search | Yes | Yes |
Search table or Search cards macro on a page | No | No |
Narrow windows, such as a phone | No, the button is hidden | Yes |
People viewing anonymously never see Bulk Change.
#Bulk Change
Select Bulk Change in the footer. A tick box appears on every row. Tick the pages you want, then open the Change N pages menu and pick an action. Select Exit to leave bulk mode; your ticks are cleared.
Action | What it does | You confirm with |
|---|---|---|
Delete pages | Moves the selected pages to the trash. Pages you are not allowed to delete are checked first and left out, and the button tells you how many will go. | Delete, in Delete selected pages? |
Find & replace text | Replaces exact text in paragraphs, including paragraphs inside tables, panels and lists. Headings, page titles and macro settings are not changed. Leave Replace with empty to remove the text. Tick Match case for a case-sensitive match. Select Check first to see how many matches each page has. | Replace text |
Add labels | Adds one or more labels to every selected page. Type them in Labels (comma or newline separated). Existing labels stay. | Add labels |
Move pages | Makes the selected pages children of the page you pick under Destination page. Their own child pages move with them. | Move pages |
Change page status | Sets one content status on every selected page. Each status is marked Space state or Custom state. | Apply status |
Each dialog shows progress page by page and lists any page that failed with the reason, for example a restricted page. When the change has finished, bulk mode closes and the results table refreshes.
Bulk changes act at once and cannot be undone from Capable Search. Deleted pages can be restored from the space trash, and find and replace saves a new version of each page it changes, so you can restore an earlier version from the page history. Run a search with a narrow filter and select Check before you replace text across many pages.
#Export to CSV
Select Export in the footer. Capable Search fetches every result, up to 5,000 rows, with the columns you are showing, and downloads a file named confluence-search-export- followed by the date and time. The Export Search Results dialog shows progress, including looking up people's names, and lets you cancel.
Add or remove columns before you export: the file has exactly the columns the table shows, in the same order.
#A few things that catch people out
Bulk Change acts on the rows you tick, not on every result of the search.
Change page status offers the statuses of the first page you ticked. If your pages are in different spaces, change one space at a time.
Find and replace matches text within one run of formatting. A phrase that is partly bold or partly a link will not match.
Some columns, such as State and Intel, export as empty cells.
Every change uses your own Confluence permissions. Pages you cannot edit, move or delete fail and are listed, and the rest go ahead.
#Related
Find them once. Change them all.
