I need better navigation in my Confluence space(s)! How can projectdoc help me?

Question

I need better navigation in my Confluence space(s)! How can projectdoc help me?

Answer

To enhance the navigability of your space, use labels, add automatic lists or tours.

Labels

Your space is easier to navigate, if users know where to click to find the information they are looking for. So it all starts with labels. With labels we mean any form of text which especially includes the link text. If users cannot decide by the link text whether or not a click will take them nearer to their destination, add additional text that describes the content the link points to. This is done by short descriptions you are forced to add to all projectdoc documents.

Example for a Wizard that requests a name and a short description

So to enhance navigability add meaningful names and short descriptions to your documents.

Automatic Lists

Automatic list build upon labels. The help authors to define queries by page properties.

List all documents with the same parent as this one!
List all documents tagged with "free" and ("beaver" or "squirrel")!
List all views on component "X"!

Whenever there is a new document that matches one of these queries, a link will be added automatically to this list. This makes it easier for users to find information to a defined topic. It also makes the work of document authors easier, since the list are always up to date.

The team should revisit the lists from time to time to check that the listed documents are still relevant. There is the danger of links creeping in by false labelling. If you want to remove this threat to the consistency of your navigation, try tours.

The following macros automatically create lists of references:

The query matched no documents.

Tours

A tour is a handcrafted list of references to documents. The reason why you prefer the Tour Macro over a simple HTML list is that you can include information from the referenced document very easily.

The following example shows a small table that renders books with short descriptions and also adds an additional comment column.

Since version 2.4 the macro renders an error box if the body does not contain a table.

The result will add the short descriptions of the referenced books to the second column.

You may also use a number of display document property macros to reference document properties and render a link to the document.

The following macros help to reference documents by adding document information to the link:

Display Document Properties Macro: Renders a template with property references.
Display Document Property As Image Macro: Renders the value of a document property as an image. The property value is required to an URL that points to an image.
Display Document Property As Link Macro: Renders the value of a document property as a link with an alternative label.
Display Document Property As List Macro: Renders the list value of a document property.
Display Document Property Macro: Renders the value of a property of a document.
Display Document Property Ref Concat Macro: Displays a single property of a document that is referred by a property of another document and concatenates it with the value of a local property.
Display Document Property Ref Macro: Displays a document property from a referenced document.
Display Space Attribute Macro: Renders a space attribute value.
Display Space Property Macro: Renders a space property value.
Document Properties Marker Macro: A table containing document properties. Three columns: name, value and meta data (aka controls) to a property.
Document Properties Supplier Attachment Macro: A table supplying additional document properties from an attached file.
Document Properties Supplier From Documents Macro: Import properties from another projectdoc document.
Document Properties Supplier Macro: A table containing additional document properties. Three columns: name, value and meta data (aka controls) to a property.
Tour-by-Property Macro: Renders a predefined list of documents in a table . Documents are selected by a document property. Allows to select document properties for columns. Also non-list representations are provided.
Tour Macro: Renders a predefined list of documents in a table.

Further Practical Advices

Organization: I need more support to organize my documents in my Confluence space(s)! How can projectdoc help me?
Findability: I need better way of finding information in my Confluence space(s)! How can projectdoc help me?
Accuracy: We have problems keeping the information in our Confluence space(s) up-to-date! How can projectdoc help me?
Collaboration: I need more support to organize team work in our Confluence space(s)! How can projectdoc help me?