Struggling with Excerpt Include Macro
Asked by Amy Blakemore:

Hi! I'm trying to use the Except Include Macro to mirror a section of content from one Confluence page onto another, and having some issues. I know I first have to set up an Excerpt Include (see below), but I saw in the online instructions to copy and paste my content into the Excerpt Include. This means that when the content on the page itself is updated, the updated not flow into the new page where I want to insert the Excerpt Include Macro. There is probably something obvious that I am doing wrong, but I am stuck! How can I set up an Except Include so any updates to the section flow automatically to where I embed the macro?

![Screenshot 2022-11-30 115520.png](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/228380i0102FB8DCE9D6BD0/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2022-11-30 115520.png")


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

No, that's not quite how to use it.

The way to use this is to do things like the "server summary" I used in my last place a lot:

Page 1:
>
> ```
> Server XYZ-42-9b
> Some content about hardware 
> {excerpt}. a bit about what it is running {excerpt}
> Some content about location and support
> ```

Page 2:

```
Server ABC-123
Some content about hardware 
{excerpt}. a bit about what it is running {excerpt}
Some content about location and support
```

Page 3:

```
Server XYZ-1
Some content about hardware 
{excerpt}. a bit about what it is running {excerpt}
Some content about location and support
```

Page 4:

```
some services and server info
{excerpt-include: Server XYZ-42-9b}
{excerpt-include: Server ABC-123}
{excerpt-include: Server XYZ-1}
```

Whenever I change the text inside any of the {excerpt}{excerpt} blocks, the next time page 4 is rendered or refreshed, the text in the three include blocks will be refreshed with the data in the source pages.


author: Leila Paul
body: Hi,

I am having problems with the table of contents AFTER adding the **new page with the excerpt include macro.** The content from the other page won't appear. The headers will be hidden from the table of contents. May you please help me out here?

Thank you!!

comments: author: Trudy Claspill
body: Hello [@Leila Paul](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5267781)

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Please start a new Question for your request and provide all the relevant information about your environment. It will also be helpful if you can provide screen images of both pages.


author: Trudy Claspill
body: [@Amy Blakemore](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5091325)

Welcome to the community.

Just curious, can you provide a link to the online instructions from which you were getting that info?

comments: author: Amy Blakemore
body: I was looking here! <https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/insert-the-excerpt-macro/>

It just says "Add your content inside the Excerpt macro placeholder in the page. Most of the formatting options can be used, and elements in the toolbar can be inserted into the macro." It doesn't really specify HOW to add the content, so I am clearly doing something wrong. I guess I need to put {excerpt} around the content I need on the page itself? I wish there was a quick video...


author: Trudy Claspill
body: Lots of people, and Atlassian team members, create videos for how to do things and post them on YouTube. I found this one about Excerpt/Excerpt Include macros, though it looks like it may be for Confluence Server, or an older version of Confluence Cloud.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUWkxXQKO9o>

Hopefully these steps below will help you.

On the page that has the content you want to mirror, while editing the page, you insert the Excerpt macro.

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.02.32 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229949i27684FAD21DF4000/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.02.32 PM.png")

After selecting the macro it looks like this:

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.06.34 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229952i52B901C5AE91B758/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.06.34 PM.png")

Then you put your content within the boundaries of the Excerpt macro.

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.03.01 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229951i1D1AB787CF3098EE/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.03.01 PM.png")

If you already have the content in your page, you can select that content, cut it, and paste it within the boundaries of the macro.

Then you give the Excerpt macro a name. This is in a pane displaying on the right side of the page.

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.03.21 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229950i59A06B93FAB03BC1/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.03.21 PM.png")

Save the page. The Excerpt does show anything special when viewing the page.

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.16.50 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229960iD295AF41DFE88235/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.16.50 PM.png")

Next, in the page where you want to mirror that content, edit the page and add the Excerpt Include macro.

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.09.46 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229953i3CC0C8F9E3FBC585/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.09.46 PM.png")![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.09.57 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229955i894D038DAF85037F/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.09.57 PM.png")

Fill in the page where you put the Excerpt macro.

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.10.15 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229958i07AF3145ACDC8912/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.10.15 PM.png")

Fill in the name you gave the Excerpt macro

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.10.58 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229956i042B8BB6832F8EA4/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.10.58 PM.png")

Click the preview button to make sure you got the Excerpt Name right. If you did it will show you the Excerpt macro.

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.11.11 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229957i809ED514939051DC/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.11.11 PM.png")

Save the Excerpt Include macro configuration. It will display like this when you are still Editing the page.

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.11.21 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229954i1233D325BBFDB244/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.11.21 PM.png")

Then save the page and it displays like this:

![Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.15.39 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229959i7966367C27474A7B/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2022-12-09 at 6.15.39 PM.png")


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud