Is there a way to turn a page into a template?
Asked by Robert Schneider:

I just cleaned up a little bit... And along with my sections, I removed the templates that were defined in them.  
I still have pages that I could easily use to retrieve my templates, but I don't know how I can do that.

I tried to copy the content from one of those pages into a fresh template. But that didn't work well.

So, my question: can I turn a page into a template?

A little bit like saving Word documents (docx) to Word templates (dotx)...


Answers:
author: Norman Cates
body: I found a way to do this that works well.

1. Create a blank template, name it and save it. (You have to save it first.)
2. The reopen it for editing.
3. At the top right, click on the Source icon \<\>. The source view will open
4. In another Tab / Window open the page for editing you want to make into a template.
5. At the top right of the page you want to make a template, click on the Source icon \<\>. The source view will open.
6. Copy and paste the source code from your page to the source code of the template.
7. Click apply, and you will see the copied page layout in your template. Adjust as needed and save.

Not quite as elegant as a built in process, but is quick and easy.

comments: author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Yep, that's the detail of exactly what I do when I use the "copy and paste" I referred to earlier, when I want to "convert" a page to a template.

Thanks for writing it up!


author: WG-
body: Tried this, but it doesn't copy the layout. It copies content, but not the layout (columns, rows) you created. It also doesn't copy anchors I noticted.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Are you in edit mode when you select and copy the content?

If you're only viewing a page when you copy, only the content will come across, you'll lose a lot of the structure, like, as you mention, layout and anchors.


author: WG-
body: Yes I am in edit mode. E.g., <https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/the-editor-251006017.html>


author: Norman Cates
body: Note that while in Edit mode, you need to click the source icon "\<\>" top right. It sounds like you haven't taken that step?

It will open the Source window, which will have quite a different look.

Ignore the complexity of it. So long as you copy and paste EVERYTHING in the Source Editor window to the Source Editor in your new template, you should be fine....


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Ok, I'm a bit lost now. When I edit a page, select all, copy it, then create new template and paste, I get everything (albeit not when I do it from server to cloud or vice-versa, it only works server to server or cloud to cloud)


author: Norman Cates
body: Oh, if that works for you, then all good. :-)

But if you have sections added to the page, then you can only copy from one section at a time.

If you don't use sections, then using the Source window is (I expect) un-neccessary.

But the Source window will let you copy all the source of one page to the source of another page, and let you keep everything on the page, including the sections.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Mmm, not what I get. Just tested it, I can copy a whole page (with sections) to a template and it works fine. (Server obviously, as Cloud has no sections)


author: Norman Cates
body: Huh. Well, my experience is that I can only select the contents of one section at a time. CTRL+A doesn't work.

Drag and select doesn't work.

Now, I am in a Linux environment, on Chrome.

I just tried a drag to select in Firefox, and that DID seem to work. At least to select everything. I didn't try a copy and paste....

So there we go... For whatever reason, Chrome on Linux doesn't seem to allow selecting across sections, but Firefox does.  

:-)


author: Laura Adiletta
body: I'd really like to try this, but I don't have a source icon, nor is my view page source window editable. If I do select View Page Source, I am unable to paste any new code from the original page I want to turn into a template. What am I missing? Thanks!

![Screenshot 2023-05-22 at 5.29.42 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/258803iFBCCC738AF578DBD/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2023-05-22 at 5.29.42 PM.png")


author: Norman Cates
body: As I've gone on learning Confluence, I am given to understand that the new Cloud version has significantly fewer features than the Server or Datacenter versions. You can take it as read that I think this is unacceptable and Confluence are out of their mind.

With that said...

I am using Confluence Server, not Cloud.

SO here's some screen shots of what I am seeing.

With a page or template in edit mode this is what the top bar looks like:

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/258808i11CFA390CFDF5E03/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")

The red arrow points at the "Open in Source Editor" button.

That opens up the Source Editor in an overlay window. The top of it looks like this.

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/258810i9B66AF4DC76B7546/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")

Copying and pasting this from one page to another will get you everything.

If you are using Cloud and don't have these options, then feel free to put Confluence on blast. By the time we are required to move to Cloud, it had BETTER have feature parity with server and data center.


author: Andrew Pascarella
body: I'm on data center and no longer have these options. I remember source code used to exist.   

These seemed like a great way to turn a page into a template... if you've got the options.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: I'm afraid not, you've already identified the closest thing we have to "create template from this page" - copy and paste.

comments: author: Doolaeghe Julien
body: Isn't this a request for a standard feature? this would be so easy to do then? because the Copy/Paste ins't that great... especially when you have setup some layout

#featurerequest


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Copying templates is not a "standard feature" in wikis - some don't even have templates!

I know there's some feature requests open in Atlassian's product development/support Jira over at <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse>

This site is a place to talk about Atlassian stuff, it's not about product management. Atlassian are active here though, and it's not unusual to find issues raised by Atlassians in their Jira that say "raised because of conversation X over in the community"

If you can't find an appropriate feature logged there to vote on, then go ahead and raise one.

I don't have one bookmarked (my list of things I would like is way too long, and this one, while I'd like it, is well below the top 64, so I'm not paying much attention), but I am sure there are open ones for it.


author: Kevin Fong
body: I am also looking to create a Template from a Page. Maybe this will bump up the priority of the feature request.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: It won't, Atlassian don't use Community for gathering requests - see my previous comment.


author: Alexis Marticorena
body: If it's helpful to folks - here is the issue where you can vote to express your interest in the feature: <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-22749>


author: Antonio Correia Goncalves
body: Please, refer to this link <https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/create-a-template/> in order to create a new template. And then when you create a new page, you will be able to select your own template on the template list.


author: Charles Paul
body: This should be a feature.

comments: author: Maria Murphy
body: Agree. I ran into the necessity of this today.


author: Loren Marie Hughes
body: Same


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: See the answered thread above.


author: Kevin Fong
body: I have read the thread.

I also would like the ability to create a template from a page


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Please see the answered thread above, which explains how Atlassian gather interest.


author: Francois Cossette
body: I don't use an official "template" setting. However, my method is very quick and efficient.

I start by copying an existing well document project of mine and clear the data while keeping the table, generic section and page title.

I simply use the Copy from the ... menu on the right side of Share. Since my "template" has multiple pages, I check the box to copy all the children. It offers me to rename all page title (meaning all the child page under the current page). I can do a replacement on one or more words, thus I simply named my "template" set of page to have their title ending by "for this project". When I use the copy, I ask to change "this project" with the name of the actual project I am starting.

It is very easy to maintain, meaning that as I work in other projects, I sometime come up with a new section / child, thus I simply go back to my "template" and update it so that the next project gets a better structure from the get-go.

Sometimes, a section is of no use, I can simply delete/ignore it.


author: Sara Kolb
body: The way I work around not being able to save a page as a template is to - Copy and rename the page.   
You can create the 'template page' and name it Template X (or whatever you want). Then every time you need it, copy it into the needed space, then Edit the Title.  
Note: when you first make the copy the page will be listed as "Copy of Template X" but again, just edit the title and it will save just fine.

comments: author: Francois Cossette
body: [@Sara Kolb](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4743956) after adding my comment, yours appears and it seems like we are doing about the same thing. Sorry if it looks like I copied your idea.


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