TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Oh, I can do nested lists (and for that matter, I can do it in raw HTML in the source editor if the WYSIWYG editor is stubborn), but if a list item has more than one paragraph or a supporting image, and other complexities creep in, it can get ugly quickly. The spacing between items, the correct numbering and hierarchy, aligning the sublists and maybe images with the bullet indentationâ
Otherwise, itâs great ;-)
Sharon
From: vwritert -at- gmail -dot- com [mailto:vwritert -at- gmail -dot- com] On Behalf Of John G
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2015 3:12 PM
To: Robert Lauriston
Cc: Sharon Metzger; TECHWR-L Writing
Subject: Re: Confluence Usage
As Robert explains, there are ways to format just about everything in Confluence... but they're not always evident or easy to figure out. I have numbered lists with two levels of embedded bulleted lists as well as embedded a, b, c lists that containing bulleted lists.
Once you figure it out, it's pretty easy to use.
My 2Â,
JG
On Tue, Jul 14, 2015 at 2:58 PM, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com <mailto:robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> > wrote:
I spent a LONG time trying to get native PDF output that looks as good as
Atlassian's. They won't share their secrets.
If someone has a publicly accessible Confluence instance, I could post my
macros and workarounds. I've posted most if not all on the confluence_tw
Yahoo group.
Nesting a bullet list within a numbered list:
- press enter at the end of the numbered paragraph after which you want
the bullet list to appear
- type something as a placeholder
- go back to the end of the previous paragraph and press enter again
- click Indent > Bullet List
On Tue, Jul 14, 2015 at 10:56 AM, Sharon Metzger <sharon -dot- metzger -at- gmail -dot- com <mailto:sharon -dot- metzger -at- gmail -dot- com> >
wrote:
> I've been using Confluence since November. We currently deliver PDFs only.
> It was here when I got here, and has had a series of (now moved-on) tech
> writers working on various versions and various templates.
>
> Our software shop uses lots of Atlassian tools (Jira, Stash, HipChat, etc),
> so the fact that all the tools play well together is attractive.
>
> Built-in PDF export is challenging. Your CSS savvy will be stretched, and
> there's still some black magic under the covers. I'm currently working on
> templates for the Scroll PDF Exporter (eval version), but that seems to
> have
> different quirks than the built-in PDF, so the jury's still out.
>
> Our engineers and sales/product folks use it extensively for an internal
> wiki. (design docs, release plans, roadmaps, customer wish lists, general
> how-tos, and the like). They've gotten much better at posting things since
> I've jumped in as an active curator -- customizing the dashboard, archiving
> obsolete pages, generally making it easier to find what's current, etc.
>
> They also like collaborating and commenting on the doc sources. I was
> nervous about the collaboration (that engineers would go in mucking up all
> my carefully crafted professional-writer work), but for the most part, they
> use the page and inline comment features and don't edit "my" sources. They
> also like the Comala Workflows plugin I've implemented for review cycles
> and
> signoffs.
>
> So, with caveats, it's working for us. I still miss Frame (which I lived in
> for 15-20 years) and would love to get a chance to learn Flare. There are
> enough quirks in Confluence's WYSISometimes/SortaWYG (agree on the
> necessity
> of the source editor) and PDF production to make me hold back on a
> wholehearted recommendation. Lists and nested lists are my nemesis. As are
> pagebreaks. But then, there's a whole community of folks out there who
> love
> it and think it's the best thing since spell-check. I haven't found the
> Kool-Aid yet, but it's hard to say where to draw the line between my still
> less than expert knowledge and Confluence's real limitations.
>
> FWIW,
> Sharon
>
> PS -- Robert -- I suspect I'd be interested in your pagebreak
> macros/pointers. And thanks for your comments about Scroll HTML exporter vs
> Confluence web delivery.
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Learn more about Adobe Technical Communication Suite (2015 Release) | http://bit.ly/1FR7zNW
