building a research repository
Asked by Heather Ashley:

I'm on the Research Ops team at my company, and one of my goals for the beginning of 2023 is to build a research repository/library in Confluence. At a high-level, I want it to contain current and previous research studies that can be easily accessible across our organization through an easy-to-use search function. I'm experienced with creating/editing pages and creating keywords tags, but building an entire library with drop-downs and such is a whole new area for me. For anyone who's done this before, what has worked for you and what would you recommend for someone who is still on the beginner end of using Confluence? Any suggestions or guidance are greatly appreciated!

(I don't have any screenshots yet, sorry)


Answers:
author: Brant Schroeder
body: [@Heather Ashley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5071228) Welcome to the Atlassian community

I would suggest taking the free training [Confluence Fundamentals](https://university.atlassian.com/student/path/861302-confluence-fundamentals?sid=2c92812a-fed4-4ee3-9fb9-942c364bdb59&sid_i=1). Atlassian also has the getting started with Confluence guide here <https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/guides/get-started/best-practices> After reading and taking the course you should construct a framework to organize your information. Having consistent page titles, summaries and labels will help you organize your content so others can find it. I wrote an article about how to use [Confluence as a knowledge base](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-articles/How-to-Use-Confluence-as-a-Knowledge-Base/ba-p/2129974). Many of the principles carry over. Best of luck. Have set standards when you begin will help you organize the information in a way that it will be easy to find in Confluence using delivered functionality and macros.


author: Robby Holtmann_IntraFind Software AG_
body: [@Heather Ashley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5071228)

In this environment, there is often a high demand on the search in Confluence, which "[iFinder Confluence Search](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1220508/ifinder-confluence-search?hosting=server&tab=overview)" can fulfill.

This enterprise search solution delivers top results based on linguistic analysis and offers many additional features. Especially if you have a lot of content in Confluence, searching via the navigation structure becomes very cumbersome. With iFinder Confluence Search all content can be found quickly and easily. In addition, over 600 file formats can be searched and found.

With this technology it is possible to connect also other data sources and applications (Websites, Jira, Sharepoint, file shares, and many more). With one search query in Confluence, all connected sources can be searched.

Additional to the search UI, you can place also a result list and searchbar on a Confluence site - with the iFinder Search Macro (part of iFinder Confluence Search).

These articles may help you:

* [iFinder Confluence Search](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Marketplace-Apps-Integrations/Enterprise-Search-for-Confluence/ba-p/1584172) (Confluence cloud support coming soon. [Stay tuned](https://intrafind.com/en/ifinder-confluence-search/confluence-cloud))
* [iFinder Search Macro](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Marketplace-Apps-Integrations/iFinder-Search-Macro-for-Confluence/ba-p/1717979)

Let me know, if you need further information or like to get a demo first.

Regards,

Robby


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud

new-to-confluence

repository