Use this template
Confluence is one of the most-used knowledge bases in the world - and great Confluence templates are what make it scalable. With Trupeer, you can save hours on Confluence template design by starting with our free guide and template library, customizing them with your brand guidelines, and turning Confluence pages into video walkthroughs that bring documentation to life.
Most teams who set up Confluence templates end up in the same place: forty templates in the space, three that get used, and everyone else still copying last quarter's page and deleting the contents.
Creating the template is the easy part and Atlassian documents it well. What determines whether it works is what you put in it, where you put it, and whether anyone can find it at the moment they need it.
What Confluence templates are
A reusable page structure that becomes the starting point for a new page. When someone creates a page from a template, they get the headings, layout, macros and instructional text already in place, so they are filling in rather than designing.
Four kinds exist, and knowing which you are dealing with saves confusion.
Type | Created by | Available in | Editable by you |
|---|---|---|---|
System templates | Atlassian, built in | Everywhere | No |
Blueprints | Atlassian or apps | Everywhere | Not directly |
Global templates | Your admins | All spaces | Yes, with admin rights |
Space templates | Space admins | One space | Yes |
Most of what a team builds will be space templates. Global templates are for things every space needs, such as a meeting note format or a decision record.
Confluence blueprints vs templates
A common point of confusion, and worth understanding before you try to build something a template cannot do.
A template is a page structure. You create a page from it and you get that structure.
A blueprint is a template plus behaviour. Blueprints can prompt you with a dialogue before the page is created, generate more than one page, create an index page that lists all pages of that type, and apply logic a plain template cannot. Atlassian's meeting notes and decision blueprints are the familiar examples, and the index page they maintain is the part a template cannot replicate.
The practical implications: you can create and edit templates yourself, but you cannot build a blueprint without developing an app. If you want blueprint-like behaviour without development, the usual approaches are a template combined with a Create from Template macro on a parent page, plus a page properties report to build the index.
If someone asks for "a blueprint" they usually mean they want the index page.
Global or space template?
Decide before you build, because moving one later means recreating it.
Global when every space needs it, when consistency across the organisation matters, or when it supports a company-wide process. Meeting notes, decision records, incident reports, project charters.
Space when it is specific to one team's way of working, when it will change often, or when you are still testing whether it is useful. Most templates start here and some graduate.
The trap is putting everything global because it feels tidier. A global library of sixty templates is unnavigable, and space admins cannot fix a global template that is wrong for them.
How to customize this template in Trupeer
Step 1: Open the Templates Section
Go to the Templates section from the main navigation.
Step 2: Select and Open a Template
Click on any template you want to work with to open it.
Step 3: Expand the Template View
If needed, expand the template view to see the full layout and details clearly.
Step 4: Edit the Template
Click on Edit to start modifying the selected template.
Within the editor, you can:
Add new sections
Define or update formatting rules
Add a logo and adjust its position and related settings
Step 5: Save Your Customized Template
After making all necessary changes, click Save to store the updated template as your own.
Step 6: Preview and Fine-Tune the Template
When you want to see how your customized template looks, open the Preview.
From the preview screen, you can continue to make adjustments directly if needed, ensuring the template appears exactly as you want.
With this Confluence templates guide you can:
Save hours on documentation: Use proven Confluence template patterns instead of starting from scratch.
Drive consistency: Every team uses the same structure for similar docs.
Stay on-brand: Apply your logo, fonts and colors using Trupeer's brand kit.
Cover every use case: Templates for meetings, projects, decisions, retros and more.
Add video walkthroughs: Embed video tutorials directly inside Confluence pages.
Reach global teams: Translate Confluence content into 65+ languages with one click.
When to create your own
Not as often as people think. Atlassian ships a large number of templates and there are more in the Marketplace.
Create your own when the existing template is close but has the wrong sections, when you need company-specific fields such as a cost centre or an approval line, when you want a consistent structure for something you produce weekly, or when the same page is being copied and edited repeatedly.
Do not create one for something produced twice a year, or when the real problem is that people do not know how to write the document rather than how to structure it. A template solves a formatting problem. It does not solve a thinking problem.
How to create a Confluence template
The mechanics differ slightly between Confluence Cloud and Data Center, and Atlassian moves things periodically, so check their current documentation for exact click paths. The shape of the process is stable.
Go to space settings for a space template, or the global administration area for a global one. Templates live in an administration area rather than being created from a page.
Create a new template and give it a clear name.
Build the structure in the template editor: headings, layouts, tables, macros.
Add variables for anything the user should be prompted to fill.
Add placeholder text to explain what belongs in each section.
Add labels so pages created from it are automatically categorised.
Write a description. This is what people see when choosing a template, and it is almost always left blank.
Save, then create a test page from it and see what a user actually experiences.
Step eight catches most problems. The template editor and the resulting page look different, and things that seemed clear in the editor are often not.
Creating a template from an existing page
There is no single-click "convert this page to a template" in Confluence, which surprises people. What works in practice:
Open the existing page, copy its content, create a new template in the space or global template area, and paste the content in. Then strip out everything specific to that instance: names, dates, real data, completed content. Replace the stripped content with placeholder text explaining what belongs there, and add variables for the fields that should be prompted.
The stripping step is where this usually goes wrong. A template made from a real page with the specifics half-removed produces pages containing someone else's data, and it will be copied forward indefinitely before anyone notices.
Some Marketplace apps add a direct page-to-template conversion, which is worth considering if you do this often.
Variables
Fields the user is prompted to complete when they create a page from the template. They appear as a form before the page opens.
Use them for the handful of values that define the page: project name, client, date, sprint number, owner. When someone creates the page, they fill those in once and the values populate wherever the variable appears.
Two limitations worth knowing. Variables are filled at creation time and are not editable as variables afterwards, they simply become text on the page. And they are best kept to a small number, because a template that opens with a twelve-field form gets abandoned in favour of copying an old page.
Three to five variables is a reasonable maximum.
Placeholder text
Instructional text that appears greyed out in the template and disappears as soon as the user types over it. The most underused feature in Confluence templates and the one that most improves adoption.
Good placeholder text tells the person what belongs in the section and, ideally, what good looks like. "Describe the decision, the options considered, and why this one was chosen. Two or three sentences." That is far more useful than an empty heading.
The key property is that it does not persist. Ordinary text left in a template gets published inside real pages, and you will find instruction text living permanently in half your documentation. Placeholder text disappears when replaced, and disappears when the page is published untouched.
Use it for every section where someone might reasonably wonder what goes there, which is most of them.
Labels
Templates can apply labels automatically to every page created from them.
This matters more than it looks, because labels are what make Confluence content findable and reportable. A meeting notes template that applies a meeting-notes label means you can build an index of every meeting note across a space, filter by label in search, and use page properties reports.
Set the labels in the template and users never have to remember. Rely on users to add labels manually and roughly nobody will.
The Create from Template macro
The closest thing to blueprint behaviour without building an app, and the feature most people do not know exists.
Place the macro on a page, point it at a template, and it renders a button. Anyone clicking it creates a new page from that template, optionally as a child of a specified parent page.
This solves the findability problem, which is the main reason templates go unused. Instead of expecting people to navigate to the template picker and search a list, you put the button where the work happens: a button on the team's home page saying "New meeting note", a button on a project space saying "Raise a decision record".
Combine it with a page properties report on the same page and you have something close to a blueprint: a button to create, and an automatically maintained index of everything created.
If you build one thing from this guide, build that.
Designing a template people will actually use
Fewer sections. A twelve-section template gets half-completed and abandoned. Six is usually plenty.
Order by when people know things. Put what they can fill in immediately at the top, and what requires investigation lower down.
Placeholder text everywhere, explaining what belongs in each section.
Tables for anything structured, because free text under a heading produces inconsistent content.
Do not name specific people. They change roles and the template does not.
Watch the page width. Templates designed on a large monitor can look cramped elsewhere, and full-width layouts do not suit every content type.
Be conservative with macros. Not every macro behaves identically inside a template, and complex nesting is where templates break in ways that are hard to debug.
Write the description. It is what people read when choosing, and it is nearly always empty.
Making templates findable
The actual reason templates fail, and almost nothing in Atlassian's documentation addresses it.
The default path requires someone to remember templates exist, find the template picker, and identify the right one from a list of names. At every one of those steps, copying last quarter's page is easier.
What works:
Create from Template macro buttons on the pages where people start work.
A template index page in each space, listing what exists and when to use each.
Descriptive names. "Weekly team meeting notes" not "Template 3" or "TMPL_MTG".
Descriptions completed, since the picker shows them.
Fewer templates. Six findable templates beat forty unfindable ones.
Templates mentioned in the process, not just available. If your onboarding checklist says "create a project brief", link the button.
Driving adoption
Ask the people who will use it what sections they need, before building. Templates designed by an admin for a team they are not part of get ignored.
Pilot with one team before rolling out globally.
Show it once, live. Thirty seconds in a team meeting beats an announcement nobody reads.
Replace the alternative. If people copy an old page, archive the old page or make the button more convenient than finding it.
Watch what gets edited out. If every user deletes the same section, remove it.
Watch what gets added. If people consistently add a section, add it to the template.
The last two are the most useful signals available and almost nobody looks at them.
Maintaining the library
Assign an owner per template, a named role rather than the space admin generally.
Review quarterly, removing anything unused. Confluence does not report template usage directly, so a proxy is counting pages carrying the template's label.
Version the changes in the template description, so people know it moved.
Prune aggressively. A library where a third of templates are stale teaches people that none of them are trustworthy.
Check after Confluence updates, since editor changes occasionally affect how templates render.
Known limitations
Worth knowing before you design around something that does not work.
Not every macro behaves the same way in a template as on a page, and some do not carry over cleanly. Attachments generally cannot be included in a template. Variables are creation-time only, not live fields. There is no built-in page-to-template conversion. Templates cannot enforce completion, so nothing stops a user publishing a page with every section empty. And you cannot build true blueprint behaviour, including multi-page creation and automatic index maintenance, without app development.
Several Marketplace apps address these gaps, which is worth investigating if the constraints are blocking something important.
Best practices
Space templates by default, global only when everything needs it.
Six sections or fewer.
Placeholder text in every section.
Three to five variables maximum.
Labels applied by the template, not by the user.
Descriptions written.
Create from Template macro buttons where work starts.
Piloted with one team before rolling out.
An owner and a quarterly review per template.
Prune anything unused.
Common mistakes
Building the template without asking the people who will use it.
Twelve sections, so pages get half-completed.
No placeholder text, so nobody knows what belongs where.
Instruction text typed as ordinary text, which then appears in every published page.
Real data left in a template made from an existing page.
Names of specific people baked in.
Blank descriptions, so the picker is useless.
Everything created as a global template.
Templates that exist but are not linked from anywhere people work.
Forty templates, three in use.
No owner, so nothing gets updated.
Expecting a template to solve a problem that is actually about people not knowing what to write.
The template gives structure, not content
Confluence templates solve a structural problem well. They cannot solve the more common one, which is that people know what sections the document needs and still cannot fill them in, because the process being documented lives in someone's head.
That gap shows up as templates completed with one line per section. The structure is right and the content is thin, and no amount of placeholder text fixes it.
Record the process once and Trupeer AI produces the written documentation and a narrated video walkthrough from the same pass, which you can embed in the Confluence page rather than describing a system in prose. Apply your brand kit so everything matches, translate it into 65+ languages for distributed teams, and keep the set in your knowledge base alongside whatever lives in Confluence.
Record it. Brand it. Translate it. Trupeer it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you create a template in Confluence?
Templates are created from space settings for a space template, or from global administration for a global one, rather than from a page. Build the structure in the template editor, add variables for prompted fields, add placeholder text explaining each section, apply labels, and write a description. Atlassian's documentation has the current click-by-click steps, which change periodically.
How do you create a Confluence template from an existing page?
There is no built-in one-click conversion. Copy the page content, create a new template, paste it in, then strip out everything specific to that instance: names, dates, real data and completed content. Replace what you removed with placeholder text. The stripping step is where this usually goes wrong, and leftover real data gets copied forward indefinitely.
Are Confluence templates free?
Confluence includes a large set of built-in templates and blueprints on all plans, and you can create your own at no additional cost. Some Marketplace apps that add template functionality, such as page-to-template conversion or bulk management, are paid.
What is the difference between a Confluence blueprint and a template?
A template is a page structure you create a page from. A blueprint is a template plus behaviour: it can prompt with a dialogue, create multiple pages, and maintain an index page listing everything created from it. You can build templates yourself, but blueprints require app development. If someone asks for a blueprint, they usually want the index page, which you can approximate with a Create from Template macro and a page properties report.
How do you use templates in Confluence?
When creating a page, choose from a template rather than starting blank. If the template has variables you will be prompted to fill them before the page opens. Alternatively, click a Create from Template macro button placed on a page, which is the more reliable route because it puts the template where people are already working.
What is the Create from Template macro?
A macro you place on a page that renders a button. Clicking it creates a new page from a specified template, optionally under a specified parent. It is the single most effective fix for low template adoption, because it removes the need for anyone to find the template picker. Pair it with a page properties report on the same page and you get something close to blueprint behaviour.
What is Confluence template placeholder text?
Greyed-out instructional text in a template that disappears as soon as the user types over it, and does not appear in the published page if left untouched. Use it to explain what belongs in each section. It is different from ordinary text typed into a template, which persists and ends up published inside real pages.
How do you make beautiful Confluence page templates?
Restraint helps more than decoration. Use layouts sparingly, since heavy multi-column designs render badly on smaller screens. Use tables for structured content rather than free text. Add info and note macros to highlight the two or three things that matter rather than everything. Keep sections few. And check how it looks at a normal browser width rather than on the large monitor you designed it on.
How many Confluence templates should a team have?
Fewer than most teams end up with. Six findable, maintained templates are worth more than forty in a picker nobody scrolls. If a third of your library is unused after a quarter, prune it, because a stale library teaches people not to trust any of it.
Why does nobody use our Confluence templates?
Usually findability rather than quality. The default path requires remembering templates exist, opening the picker and identifying the right one, and at each step copying an old page is easier. Put Create from Template buttons where work starts, write the descriptions, and make sure the template is mentioned in the process rather than merely available.
Can you edit a Confluence template after pages have been created from it?
Yes, and editing it does not change pages already created. Templates are a starting point rather than a live link, so existing pages keep the structure they were created with. That means a template fix improves future pages only, and anything already wrong stays wrong.
What are Confluence template variables?
Fields the user is prompted to complete when creating a page from the template, such as project name or date. The values populate wherever the variable appears. They are filled at creation time and become ordinary text afterwards rather than remaining editable fields. Keep them to three to five, since a long form at page creation drives people back to copying old pages.
