Getting Started

Welcome to Workflows for Confluence 👋

Whether this is your first time using Workflows for Confluence or you just want a quick refresher, this guide will cover everything you need to know.

Please follow the guide below step by step, or jump to the sections that are most relevant to you.

Prefer to watch a video? Check out our Getting Started video below 👇

Introduction to Workflows for Confluence

Workflows for Confluence is the all-in-one document management tool that enables you to customize how pages are created, approved, published, and shared in Confluence Cloud. With Workflows, you can manage documents throughout their entire lifecycle and ensure they are managed the right way for your organization.

Installing Workflows

The first step is to ensure Workflows for Confluence is installed. We’ve created this useful guide that will walk you through the installation process from start to finish.

Explore the key features in Workflows

Workflows for Confluence is a powerful document management solution that has been designed to give you the flexibility and customization needed to better align Confluence with the way you work.

As a result, Workflows is packed with powerful features and you can learn more about the most popular ones in our Features user guide.

Build your first workflow

Before you begin building your first workflow, you have two options:

1. Use a ready-made workflow from our selection of templates

2. Create your own workflow from scratch

Let’s dive into both of these options below.

Option 1: Use a pre-made workflow template

Workflows contains a bunch of ready-made workflow templates available for you to use in Confluence. These include:

• Basic: a simple two-step workflow with no approval process

• Simple Approval: a workflow with a single-stage review and approval cycle

• Two-stage Approval: a workflow with a multi-stage review and approval cycle

• Content Restrictions: a workflow that includes a simple review and approval process that will restrict content from view until it has been approved

• Content Expiration: a workflow with a single-stage approval step. Once approved, the page will expire after one month and return to the start of the workflow

You can also use these templates as a starting point and easily customize them to better align with how your organization works.

Option #2: Create your own custom workflow

You may prefer to create your own custom workflows, and this is easy to do in Workflows for Confluence. The drag-and-drop workflow builder enables you to quickly create simple or complex document workflows with custom page statuses, workflow actions, and publishing controls and then configure these to align with how your team or organization works.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of how to use the workflow builder, check out the video tutorial below. Alternatively, our user guides will walk you through all the key features in our workflow builder.

Setup a review and approvals process

The review and approval process is an essential part of the document lifecycle and Workflows for Confluence makes it quick and easy to build robust, fully customized approval processes in your workflows.

For more information about setting up a review and approval cycle, we recommend checking out our dedicated user guides. Workflows for Confluence also enables you to use e-signatures approvals if required by your organization’s policies and procedures.

Apply workflows to Confluence pages

Once you have built your workflows, there are three ways to apply a workflow to a page in Confluence:

1. Individual pages (manual): apply a workflow to an individual page through the byline (most popular)

2. Newly created pages (automated): use Confluence Query Language (CQL) to automatically apply a chosen workflow to newly created pages that match the query. This is a super cool feature for Confluence templates!

3. Existing pages (automated): use Confluence Query Language (CQL) to automatically apply workflows to any page that matches the query.

Top tip: if you are installing Workflows to an existing Confluence Cloud instance with a large number of pages and spaces, we recommend using option 3 above (Bulk Assign) to save you valuable time.

Search for Confluence pages with workflows applied

You can easily search for pages that have workflows applied and get an overview of the status of all documents in your Confluence. The Workflows Search allows you to apply filters that narrow down your search and help you find exactly what you are looking for.

Need support? We’re here to help 🧡

Just remember we’re here to make sure you have the best experience when using Workflows for Confluence. If you get stuck, have any questions, or want to chat with our support team, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.