How do I prevent my orphaned pages from displaying in the side bar when they are accessed?
Asked by Laura:

I have some pages that I do not want to show in the page tree in my side bar. I am linking to these pages from one single page that has about 8 icons on it. Each icon will open one of the pages that I am trying to hide.

I first tried to hide them in my **_InclusionsLibrary**. That hid them until I clicked on a link and it opened the page. When the page opened (as it should) the sidebar displayed the _InclusionsLibrary. I do not want the _InclusionsLibrary to show.

I researched and found the **orphan pages** option. I thought this might fix my issue because now I could hide the pages at the root level and they did not have to be hidden inside my _InclusionLibrary - so surely when the pages are accessed the _InclusionLibary won't display in the side bar. So I created orphan pages and that worked well until I clicked on a link, and once again the sidebar still displayed the _InclusionLibrary and now it also displays the orphaned page that I am on. So now I'm right back where I started.

It seems that if you hide pages at the root level through orphans or inclusions, when one of those pages is accessed the left nav wants to show all root level pages...any idea how I can control this? I'd like to keep my page tree on display, but not show any root level pages. I don't want my users to ever see the hidden section of documentation.

Thanks.

Laura


Answers:
author: Sandy Johnson
body: Laura

I'm just curious as to why you want to hide the pages from the users in the side bar. If they can only get there via a link in another page, then once they've clicked on that link they know where the hidden page is and can access it directly (i.e. without your link).

If we know your intent/reasons, maybe sone one knows of another way to accomplish your goal.

Sandy

comments: author: Laura
body: Hi Sandy,

I was trying to keep the left nav. from shifting to the view of ***all*** of the hidden pages, like the InclusionsLibrary, because some users reported feeling lost because the page tree they saw before was no longer there and a bunch of pages they didn't recognize were displayed but weren't useful to them. They didn't know they could click on the space name to get back to the home page. I thought that if the page tree did not change to the hidden pages view it might help avoid a little confusion.

I ended up not making them hidden and just letting them be in the regular page tree to avoid them ever getting in what some called "neverland". It works fine. It is less confusing even though it feels cluttered to me. It's not about me though, it's about the users! LOL!


author: AnnWorley
body: I understand you have a set of pages you would like to hide from your users but once you access a page it shows all the orphan pages in the sidebar.

My findings with orphan pages is that they don't show on the sidebar if I am on the landing page or space home page, but after I go to the root of the space by opening an orphan (which shows in the page index macro I have on another page) then I can see the orphans in the sidebar. If I go back to the space home I once again do not see the orphan pages in the sidebar.

My recommendation is to hide the pages by adding view restrictions. Hiding them from navigation won't be as effective as actually restricting the pages. Restricting them will keep them from showing in Recently Updated, Page Index or other macros and will keep people from accessing them with a direct URL, too. Here are more details on page restrictions: [Page Restrictions](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/page-restrictions-139414.html)

comments: author: Laura
body: Hi Ann! Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I actually do want the users to see the content on my pages when they click a link from another page, I just do not want the left navigation to change to the view of the Inclusion Library, Home page, and the selected orphan.

I am thinking what I'm trying to accomplish is just not an option. That's okay. I will go a different direction.

<br />

Thank you!  
Laura