Edit a page or archive and replace?
Asked by Jenny Gallagher:

Hi community, I'm a new hire tech writer and am updating documentation/pages---lots of formatting. Which one is best practices:

<br />

? Create new docs, archive outdated docs, then upload/replace?  
? Do a live edit on outdated docs?

Note: I'd like to create a draft of the newly updated doc for approval before publishing. Is this possible? I am waiting for an upper editing level status so I can play around (i.e., I'm currently restricted).

Thanks in advance.


Answers:
author: Levente Szabo _Midori_
body: My understanding is that documentation experts don't recommend removing/deleting documentation, as it is still valid information, just for an older version of the software that could still be relevant for some users.

If I can recommend some reading on the topic, look into K15t's guides and expert articles on how to use Confluence as a fully-fledged documentation solution, like[this webinar](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Berlin-Brandenburg-discussions/Matt-Reiner-K15t-Video-and-Slides-online/td-p/1431783) with [Matt Reiner _K15t_](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2246048) or this [article](https://www.k15t.com/blog/2022/05/video-transform-confluence-into-a-fully-featured-documentation-solution).

They also offer tools for publishing your documentation and managing the different versions of it.


author: Adrian H?lsmann - B1NARY
body: Hi [@Jenny Gallagher](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5247603)

The actual steps when updating your knowledge base probably are

1. defining criteria or **workflow rules** for when a page is considered outdated
2. automatically **identifying your outdated pages** based on these criteria
3. establishing a **review process** that also considers **ownership** of pages and spaces
4. **bulk archive/delete** all obsolete pages

All of this can easily be done with [Breeze](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1227647/breeze-content-archiving-made-simple-for-confluence-cloud?tab=overview&hosting=cloud).

![3.gif](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/258217i0E2C3B7B6DEDB722/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "3.gif")

Breeze is made for maintaining your knowledge base and ensuring that pages are continuously reviewed to keep Confluence clean and organized.

? [**G** **ive it a try**](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1227647/breeze-content-archiving-made-simple-for-confluence-cloud?tab=overview&hosting=cloud), or feel free to schedule an appointment with me for a [personal demo](https://calendly.com/adrianhuelsmann/breeze-demo).

Cheers and all the best, Adrian from B1NARY (we are the developers of Breeze)


author: marc -Collabello--Phase Locked-
body: Hi [@Jenny Gallagher](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5247603) ,

If you have documentation with an approval flow, I'd recommend to have all "ready" documentation in a separate space. When you need to update the documents, you make a copy into an "edit" space. Then you can edit the copy and approve it. Move/archive the previous version in the "ready" space, and move the new version from the "edit" into the "ready" space.


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud