Avoiding tasks to get duplicated when copying a page with a task list
Asked by Mikko P:

Precondition:

\* A Confluence page that contains some Tasks is created (e.g. a meeting notes page)

Steps:

\* You want to copy the page as a template e.g. for a new meeting (to continue meeting series)

Expected results:

\* You will have same tasks.

Actual result:

\* Tasks get duplicated too.

=\> What is the best way to copy a page with a Task List so that tasks are still visible on the last stored meeting notes page and would get to the next page without tasks getting duplicated..?


Answers:
author: Diego
body: Hello there!

I think we have a solution for that. It is not automatic, I give you that. We can use the *Excerpt* and the *Excerpt Include*macros:

**[Excerpt Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/excerpt-macro-724765191.html)**

[**Excerpt Include Macro**](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/excerpt-include-macro-724765190.html)

We can proceed like this:
> 1. Create the first page with the tasks
> 2. Include the tasks inside an Excerpt Macro
> 3. Publish the page
> 4. Copy the page content to the new one
> 5. Exclude the tasks part from the copy
> 6. Insert an Excerpt Include Macro in the new page
> 7. Add the Excerpt from the original page
> 8. Publish the new page

Doing this should display all the past tasks without creating new ones.

The Excerpt and Excerpt Include work in tandem so we can display content from other pages inside another. Meaning that any change applied to the original one will also be reflected in the Excerpt Include macro inside other pages.

Let us hear from you Mikko, looking forward to your reply.

comments: author: Johannes Stallkamp
body: How would I then add new tasks during the new meeting?

As far as I understand I would need to edit the original page with the excerpt in parallel, correct?

And unfortunatley, this solution only works if the tasks are a separate block/part of the meeting minutes. We usually assign tasks within the actual minutes/items for context.


author: Mikko P
body: Thanks [@Diego](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1188952) for the suggestion. I tried it. There is the problem that [@Johannes Stallkamp](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3192850) mentioned. All tasks must be modified on original page and also new ones added there, or that you would all the time as more and more Excerpt sections which is not very handy.

Unless there are any other suggestions, only workaround at the moment is probably then to remember to close all tasks on original page when copying those to the new page. But if someone goes to check the original minutes page to see the status of the tasks/actions, the status is not valid.

I hope Atlassian implements some better solution for this. One would be simply to have a possibility to give a #ID to to task which Confluence would then use to map old and new task together to avoid duplicates.


author: Diego
body: Hi there Mikko!

I can see the potential behind your suggestion of adding IDs to tasks. With this in mind, I went ahead and created a Feature Suggestion that aims at this. Here it is:

**[CONFSERVER-58300 \| Create Global Tasks (Tasks with ID) in Confluence](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-58300)**

Right now, what we can do is *Vote and Watch*this newly created suggestion. Voting will increase the report visibility and watching it will keep you up to date with everything posted there.

Further, as a possible workaround, you could use our *Task Report*macro. This macro allows you to show complete or incomplete tasks, without recreating them. However, we are not able to edit them through it. Here is our documentation about it:

**[Task Report Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/task-report-macro-590260009.html)**

Hope this helps. Let me know about your thoughts Mikko!


Tags: confluence-server

server