Adding an Excerpt to a page with sections (page layout)?
Asked by Shawn in Van:

This seems like an impossibility but I will ask...

I have a Confluence (Cloud) page that is neatly designed with sections (page layout) but now I need to reuse this page using the Excerpt macro. The problem is that I cannot add in the Excerpt macro in order to encapsulate the entire page.

It seems that Excerpts can only be placed inside a section and just as limiting, there is no way to remove sections without deleting the content! It seems that I wasted a LOT of time, sectioning my pages. Now, I need to start over because I will want to reuse a number of pages. :( Oh, sometimes I really, really dislike the ridiculous limitations imposed by Confluence.   

Can anyone tell me how I can make three columns without using sections? I can't use the table function b/c it too has it's own ridiculously primitive limitations.

I'm hoping that someone can prove me wrong and enlighten me. :)

<br />

Thanks,

Shawn


Answers:
author: Davin Studer
body: You can use the section and column macros to get a three column layout without using the layout feature in the editor. See the below screenshot.

![Capture.PNG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/16625i45BA569A01A04BEF/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Capture.PNG")

comments: author: Shawn in Van
body: Thanks for your answer but sorry for the confusion.   

To be clear, I specifically meant the Page Layout function, which allows one to divide up a page into sections.   

When Page Layout is activated, there doesn't seem to be a way to excerpt the entire page and worse, once content is added within the page with page layout on, there is no way to remove the page layouts without deleting the content.

<br />

I use the Excerpt function quite often so I have since abandoned using Page Layout. The Section with Column macros achieve the same results.

Thanks


author: Davin Studer
body: I realize that. I'm just saying you can get the same layout possibilities using the section and column macros instead of layouts and still be able to use the excerpt macro to wrap a section. It's messier looking in edit mode but gives you the same look in view mode and lets you use excerpts.


author: Shawn Connelly
body: Thanks Davin. \[very slow response\]  

I understand that, but your answer will likely help others.  

My question was to determine whether or not it is true that page excerpts cannot be used on an entire page that uses the Page Layout feature.   

The other problem is that there is no way to remove the page layouts. I inherited a lot of pages which utilize page layouts. It seems that the only way that I'll be able to add the Excerpt macro is by creating a new page and manually copying the content from the Page Layout page to the new page. :(


author: Davin Studer
body: You can remove page layouts. You should see a button in the toolbar that looks like this ...

![Capture.PNG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/32993i1B40EBE81D55517C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Capture.PNG")

Within a layout section click it and you will get a menu below the main toolbar that looks like this ...

![Capture.PNG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/32994iAE0D6A0C1332574C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Capture.PNG")

Position your cursor within one of the sections and hit the delete button. To delete that section. However, before you do that make sure that you remove the content from the section and move it into another one. When you have all the content in once section make sure it is a full page section ... (that's the icon just to the right of the move down button). Then save you page. If you only have one section and it is one column Confluence will convert to to just a normal page with no sections.


author: Anna Romanovich
body: Davin, your reply about inserting sections and columns was a great help!


author: Joe Jankowiak
body: Doesn't appear that columns exist anymore. Is there a new way to get multiple column layouts inside an excerpt?


author: Christian Lopez Barron
body: Same here, columns does not exist anymore. Are there any other alternatives? OP expressed exactly how I feel at the moment. Can't re-use existing content from other pages due to this limitation, and I can't seem to find a way to get around that.


author: Christian Lopez Barron
body: Looks like this feature was "closed" on <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-68396>:

\> as a result of inactivity (no votes or comments for an extended period of time), this suggestion didn't make it to the roadmap and we are closing it.