What is the best way to create one source of content that needs to be shared in multiple spaces?
Asked by Tara @ Epik:

I need to create one source of content (A how to Guide with multiple pages) that will be used across a large company in multiple spaces. In order to maintain the accuracy of the information it needs to have one source to maintain- but appear across multiple spaces for reference.

At first try I thought the page include macro was my solution- but I've come across many bugs with this solution that it can't be what others are using to do this type of work. So it got me thinking- what's the best way to have one set of material that serves as a guide book- but then have a space for each individual team to have their own pages, work streams, roadmaps etc.

What does Atlassian use to build their own guide books?

PS- I'm only a few month in using Atlassian software (and didn't come from a software background) so I've been learning as I go and would welcome any suggestions. :)

Thanks.


Answers:
author: Robert Reiner _smartics_
body: According to your use case the page needs to be part of the space. I do not know any Confluence macro or third party app that allows you to have a page appear in multiple spaces. Therefore I suppose that your solution needs to create a new page in each space and add macros to that page that reuse content from other pages on your wiki.

To reuse content from another page Confluence knows the [Excerpt Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/excerpt-macro-148062.html) and the [Excerpt Include Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/excerpt-include-macro-148067.html) (the link Jack provided in his answer does already mentions this, but it may be easily missed). This content reuse is quite powerful, but limited since you can only [transclude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transclusion) one piece of information from a particular page. On the Atlassian Marketplace there are a couple of add-ons that support [multi-excerpt](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/search?query=multi-excerpt). The only one that works on cloud (AFAIK) is the [MultiExcerpt App](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/169/multiexcerpt?hosting=cloud&tab=overview).

The second limitation of excerpts is that users need to have access privileges to the page that contains the transcluded information. At least this is how most excerpt tools handle this use case. So there is no way to actually hide the pages that are reused. Having the reused pages in a separate space is probably a good practice.

You may also need to check whether or not the pages containing transcluded content can be found by users by their searches.

In case you would transclude the content into only one page (i.e. the tutorial on one page with all steps included) you could remove the first limitation (having to create a separate page for each step / reused content). But in this case the individual steps cannot be easily referenced (assuming that links to anchors are prone to breaking).

Hope this helps.


author: Aron Gombas _Midori_
body: Although I'm not deeply familiar with it, the [Scaffolding app](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/190/scaffolding-forms-templates?hosting=server&tab=overview) addresses this problem.

It's popular and it's definitely worth a try!

comments: author: Tara @ Epik
body: Thanks for the suggestion [@Aron Gombas _Midori_](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/502447). At first look it seems the scaffolding app appears to be more about collecting input using forms, similar to confiforms. I'm looking for the reverse- I need to populate a master set of pages to multiple spaces with one source of truth.

Does anyone have familiarity with the Scaffolding App- can it help with what I need? Or any other suggestions?


author: Jack Nolddor [Sweet Bananas]
body: Hi [Tara @ Epik](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3533314)  
Why not just linking the page that comes from the source of truth?  

Something like.... For further information please refer to the *following document*   

<br />

if this not fill your needs, there is some macros that will help you to include other page content or data.

See [Collect data from different page](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Collect-data-from-different-page/qaq-p/1190183) thread.

<br />

<br />

Regards

comments: author: Tara @ Epik
body: Hi [@Jack Nolddor \[Sweet Bananas\]](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1504038) - thank you for the suggestions. In each instance it would be best for the clients to stay within their own Confluence Space- since their using Confluence will be a new experience for them- and it seems easiest (less confusing) to keep them in one Space.

Ideally I want it to be:

Page 1- Step by Step instructions with illustrations (same across multiple spaces)  
Page 1B - Documents/ templates specific to that initiative filled out

Page 2- Next Step by Step Instructions (same across multiple spaces)  
Page 2B- Documents/ templates specific to that initiative filled out

and so on...

Again I realize I might need to accept that I can't do it the way I'm imagining... and some of these suggestions are definitely worth trying. Thanks again.


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud