Configure space functionality across Confluence
10 min
By the end of this lesson you'll be able to:
- Define the role of the Confluence admin in managing space functionality
- Configure general Confluence site settings to align with organizational needs
- Configure site-wide notifications and announcements
- Manage security settings across Confluence
- Manage global templates and blueprints
Manage global space functionality
Confluence admins configure site-wide functionality, such as how spaces look when they’re first created or how they function on a global level. These configurations affect what people see when they first land on Confluence--like if you want users to land on a specific page--and whether or not some functionality is enabled across spaces.
👇Click the tabs below to learn more about how Confluence admins manage site and space functionality.
Confluence has a default homepage that shows activity, recent work, and more. However, Confluence admins can change the homepage to an overview page of a Confluence space.
👉 For example: Jeral is a Confluence admin for a site that houses HR policy documents. Since most of the users are there to review the policies instead of to create pages, Jeral decides to change the homepage to the overview page of the HR space.
Confluence admins can also customize the welcome message on their site. This is helpful for welcoming new folks, announcing company-wide updates, or letting people know about scheduled maintenance.
General site settings
Configure the general Confluence setup for your site.
The general configuration page allows Confluence admins to change the title and icon that displays in the browser navigation (called a favicon), set the default landing page, and change formatting and international settings.
To navigate to general configuration:
- Select the Confluence administration icon to access Confluence administration.
- Navigate to Settings, then expand Configuration.
- Select General configuration.
👇Here’s how to access general configuration.
Let’s explore some of the general configuration settings.
👇Click the boxes below to learn more about general configuration settings.
Notifications and announcements
Customize your site’s email address.
By default, site emails are sent from a Confluence email address. Confluence admins can select a custom email address (like a company domain) so notification emails are sent from that address instead. However, an org admin has to add an email domain through admin.atlassian.com before a Confluence admin can select it for the site.
To customize the email address:
- Select the Confluence administration icon to access Confluence administration.
- Navigate to Settings, then select Configuration.
- Select Notifications.
- Under Email address, select your desired email address from the dropdown.
- Select Save changes.
If you don’t see your desired email address from the dropdown, reach out to your org admin and ask them to add it.
Enable site-wide notifications for every user on Confluence.
Confluence can send all users a weekly recommendation email or Slack message that contains a list of recommended and popular content. If enabled, these site-wide notification settings apply for every user on the site. However, if site-wide notification settings are disabled, individual users will not be able to turn them back on.
To configure the recommendation email or Slack message:
- Navigate to the Notifications screen in Confluence administration.
- Select the Recommendation email checkbox below Email settings. This will enable site-wide notifications.
- Select Save email setting changes.
- Select the Recommendation Slack message checkbox below Slack settings. This will enable site-wide notifications.
- Select Save Slack setting changes.
Users will only be recommend content they have permission to view.
Communicate important messages to your users.
Announcements are a helpful way to communicate a message to users on your Confluence site, such as planned maintenance or company-wide announcements. The message will display as a banner at the top of the Confluence site, and you can even change the color and set a schedule.
To create a site-wide announcement:
- Select the Confluence administration icon to access Confluence administration.
- Navigate to Admin tools on the sidebar and select Announcements.
- Select Create Announcement.
- Enter an announcement title and message.
- Choose a color for the announcement banner.
- Select either Public or Private from the Target Audience.
- Set a schedule for your announcement, if desired.
- Select Publish.
👉 For example: Fidelis is the Confluence admin for his company’s site. They’re having an important town hall, and the CEO wants to remind everyone about the upcoming meeting. Fidelis creates an announcement with a quick note and details about the date and time of the meeting, as well as a link to the agenda page. Fidelis also configures the announcement to archive the day after the meeting.
👇 Here’s how Fidelis configured his announcement.
Security settings
Configure security settings for site security and user privacy.
Secure your site by hiding external links. When you hide external links, you’re telling the search engines not to follow URLs that are posted in pages and comments. This helps cut down on wiki-spamming and discourages spammers from posting links on your site.
To hide external links from search engines:
- Select the Confluence administration icon to access Confluence administration.
- Navigate to Settings, then select Security.
- Select Security configuration.
- Check the box that says “Hide external links from search engines.”
- Select Save at the bottom of the page.
👇 Hide external links from search engines in the security configuration page.
Global templates and blueprints
Manage templates and blueprints used across your Confluence site.
Global templates are pre-defined pages that can be used as prototypes for things like meeting notes or documentation pages across your site. They help maintain consistency and efficiency across your organization's spaces. As a Confluence admin, you can decide which templates are available globally. You can also create and edit templates, or install new ones from the Atlassian Marketplace.
👉 For example: Acme Inc. has a specific company-wide process for kicking off projects. They want every project to have a Confluence page that outlines the overview, problem statement, and solution for a project. They also want the page to include key stakeholders, a list of deliverables, and a rough timeline. Anna, the Confluence admin, creates a global template called “Project kick-off” that includes all of these items on a Confluence page. All users on the site now have access to this template.
To manage global templates:
- Select the Confluence administration icon to access Confluence administration.
- Navigate to Settings, then select Configuration.
- Select Global templates and blueprints.
- Select Add global template to create a new template.
- Edit an existing template by selecting the edit icon next to it.
👇 Here’s where you can manage global templates in Confluence.
Global blueprints are templates created by Atlassian or third-party developers. To users, templates and blueprints are essentially the same. The difference is how they are administered by Confluence admins and Confluence space admins.
- Confluence admins can install global blueprints from Atlassian Marketplace. They can also edit, enable, disable, promote, and unpromote global blueprints.
- Confluence space admins can edit, enable, disable, promote, and unpromote blueprints within their space. However, they cannot install global blueprints.
To manage global blueprints:
- Select the Confluence administration icon to access Confluence administration.
- Navigate to Settings, then select Configuration.
- Select Global templates and blueprints.
- Navigate to the Global blueprints section.
- Select the toggle next to the blueprint to enable or disable it across your site.
- Select the edit icon to edit a blueprint.
👇 Here’s where you can manage global blueprints in Confluence.
Global templates are created by Confluence admins. Global blueprints are created by Atlassian or third-party developers.