Welcome
We provide this resource is to help new and beginner Confluence wiki users to be proficient in navigating the Confluence wiki environment as well as accessing and editting content in the wiki. In the spirit of shared content development, you are encouraged (possibly even expected) to modify this page with improvements. Also feel free to use the Add Comments to provide feedback.
- Welcome
- Wiki, What's a Wiki?
- What Is Confluence?
- What's So Great About Wikis?
- Who Do I contact with Confluence Questions?
- How do I Log In?
- What Is the Dashboard?
- What Is the Confluence Structure and How Do I Browse?
- Can I Search?
- How About Editing Pages?
- Can I Create New Pages?
- How Can I Watch a Space?
- How Do I Get Notification of Changes to Pages that I Am Watching?
Wiki, What's a Wiki?
According to Wikipedia(on April 30 at 8:30 a.m.), "a wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring."
What Is Confluence?
Confluenceis an enterprise wiki that makes it easy for people to collaborate and share knowledge. It is developed and maintained by an Australian company Atlassian and is used by more than 2,500 organizations around the world. The folks at Atlassian have put together and are willing to share their Set of Confluence's Features and their top 10 Reasons To Use Confluence.
We, in the Information and Education Technology (IET) Office of the University of Maryland's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources have selected, installed, and support Confluence for our wiki needs.
What's So Great About Wikis?
Stolen straight off of Atlassian's (the company that developed and sells Confluence) website:
"Wikis are simple, efficient tools for managing knowledge and collaborating. They're particularly convenient in today's busy and international workplace.
- They're easy to learn and use. Wikis aren't as complicated as other types of content management systems.
- With wikis, knowledge doesn't get buried in emails, locked into file systems, hard drives or servers, intranets or extranets, or closed in more specialised data management systems and knowledge management systems.
- Wikis are online so users can access, collaborate on, and share content, knowledge and files anytime, anywhere.
- Wikis are also exceptionally flexible. You can customise them and also connect a wiki to other applications, databases, and file systems.
- And, most wikis are a fraction of the cost of most enterprise software."
Who Do I contact with Confluence Questions?
Feel free to contact me, Brad Paleg with any questions (or even problems) you may have. You can:
- e-mail me at bpaleg@umd.edu
- or call me at (301) 405-2917
How do I Log In?
Our wiki requires all users to Log In to view and edit content.
| 1 | You will need an account on the wiki. Please contact Brad (see above) if you need an account. | |
| 2 | From your Internet browser go to AGNR's Confluence Wiki at: http://wiki.moo.umd.edu/ | |
| 3 | In the upper right corner, look for:  |
|
| 4 | Log in using your login and password. | |
What Is the Dashboard?
The Dashboard is the default home page (space) for Confluence. It is the jumping off point for accessing all public and private spaces. Depending on the the rights that you have, you can also mark spaces as favorites, see a list of recently updated pages, search the whole Confluence site, make changes to your user Profile, and create new spaces. If you are logged in you should see and be able to click the Risk Analysis-based Food Defense Program link on the left side. This will navigate you to the program's wiki space.
What Is the Confluence Structure and How Do I Browse?
As previously mentioned, Confluence defines a section of the wiki as a "Space". Each Space is organized hierarchically and is made up Parent and Child Pages. Here is a snapshot of the Risk Analysis-Based Food Defense Program as of April 30, 2007: 
In this example:
- the Space is called: "Risk Analysis-Based Food Defense Program"
- the homepage is called Home and it is the Parent Page to four Child Pages
Notice the Breadcrumbs on top of the screen. In our example the breadcrumbs are: Dashboard > Risk Analysis-Based Food Defense Program > Home. Breadcrumbs help you determine where in the wiki you are and will also help you quickly navigate to other places in the wiki.
When you're viewing the list of child pages, the icons that appear to have a tiny sun peeking from behind them indicate those pages that have recently been changed (in our example, the Wiki Support page).
From this area, you have many options, including
- clicking on a specific page
- selecting View in Hierarchy, which will provide a more graphical representation of the pages in your space. You can then expand pages, which will show those pages' children, by clicking on the Plus icon in front of the page title.
Can I Search?
Certainly. There's a search box in the upper right hand corner of the screen. I'm pretty sure this does a full text search across all of the wiki spaces. Try it out.
How About Editing Pages?
If you select the Edit tab on any page, you will be brought into the WYSIWYG (What You See Is what You Get) editor. You can then make changes to the page. Once you complete your edits, remember to select one of the two Save buttons on the top and bottom right hand side of the screen.
Can I Create New Pages?
You can add child pages to any existing page, by clicking on Add Page in the upper right hand side of the screen.
How Can I Watch a Space?
When you watch a space, you are notified by email whenever content is added to it or updated. To start watching a space,
- Click on the Browse Space link for the space.
- Go to the Advanced tab. In the left panel, click on Start Watching This Space. This link will be replaced with a new link to Stop Watching This Space.
How Do I Get Notification of Changes to Pages that I Am Watching?
Confluence provides the daily notification of changes to pages that you are watching. This is an awesome feature which immediately highlights wiki activity.
- Click on the Preferences link located below the breadcrumbs at the top of the page.
- Go to the Edit Profile tab, then click the Email link.
- Check the Notify on my Actions box if you want Confluence to include your own actions in your notifications for your watches. Deselect this if you do not want to be notified of your own actions. Note that this option only applies to your watches and not to the Daily Report .
- Check the Subscribe to Daily Updates box if you want Confluence to notify you of any changes made to the spaces that you can see.
- Use the Email Format drop-down menu to choose whether you want to receive your notifications as HTML or plain text. Note that this will apply to the Daily Report as well as to your notifications for watches.