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Create clearer journeys with a Confluence progress bar
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Create clearer journeys with a Confluence progress bar

A headshot of Zoriana Bogutska
Zoriana Bogutska
23 February 2024
1 min read
A Confluence page with a progress bar showing 3/5 checked off steps
A headshot of Zoriana Bogutska
Zoriana Bogutska
23 February 2024
1 min read
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What is a progress bar?
How to add a progress bar in Confluence
Why use a progress bar in Confluence?

Ready to effortlessly track project progress? We'll show you how to get started with a Confluence progress bar.

Want to keep team members up-to-date with development on a project? Would you like to offer a way for users to see how they've come during employee or customer onboarding, and what they can expect next? Sounds like a Confluence progress bar is what you need.
Before you get to creating your progress bar, you'll first need to make some engaging pages. Check out our guide to create the best Confluence pages.

What is a progress bar?

A progress bar is a visual representation of a user’s progress through a set of steps in Confluence. A progress bar gives users the context to track completion and ensure nothing gets missed. In Confluence, each step relates to a different page.
A Progress Bar displaying steps in an onboarding process in Confluence

How to add a progress bar in Confluence Cloud

Unfortunately, Confluence doesn’t come with a built-in progress bar macro, so you’ll need the help of a third-party app like Content Formatting Macros for Confluence.
Try out the Progress Bar macro as part of Content Formatting Macros:
1. Unless you’re linking to external web pages, first create a page in Confluence for every step that you want to include in your progress bar.
Three Confluence pages in a space sidebar that represent steps in an onboarding process
2. Navigate to the page that will be the first step of your progress bar, then type e to enter edit mode.

3. Click where you’d like the progress to be. Then, type /progress bar and select the Progress Bar macro.
The Confluence Progress Bar macro showing in a dropdown menu above the macro shortcut
4. In the editor window:
  • Check the box to set it as the current step
  • Give your step a title
  • Link the progress bar to the current page
  • Set the step number as 1
Press Save.
The Confluence Progress Bar editor showing a user searching for a page to link to
5. Copy and paste the progress bar macro so you have one for every step in your progress bar.
Three Progress Bar macros on a Confluence page
6. Click to edit the following progress bar macros, then change the following:
  • Uncheck the macro as the current step
  • Set the destination for that step as the correct page
  • Change the step number
Then press Save.

The image below has been edited for step 2 of the process:
The Confluence Progress Bar editor showing step 2 of 3
6. Copy and paste all of the progress bar macros on each page included in the progress bar.

7. Edit the previous page's macro and uncheck Current step, then press Save. Then, edit the Progress bar macro linked to the current page and check the Current step.
(I.e., if your current page is Step 2, uncheck Step 1 and set Step 2 as the current step).
The checked 'Current step' option in the Confluence Progress Bar editor
Note: Due to limitations in Confluence, you can only add one set of progress bar macros to a page.

Why use a progress bar in Confluence?

  • Onboarding: help users to visualise their progress through employee onboarding documents and ensure they don’t miss anything important.
  • Training: A progress bar makes it easy for learners to track their completion of different training modules, helping to motivate them over the finish line.
  • User guides: Useful for customer-facing knowledge bases, helps users to walk through different steps (e.g. setup instructions) and keep track of their progress.

Ready to create clearer user journeys?

Showing and tracking progress effortlessly is just one thing you can achieve with Content Formatting Macros. Try progress bars and more with a 30-day free trial:
Written by
A headshot of Zoriana Bogutska
Zoriana Bogutska
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Zoriana has over 12 years of experience in marketing, with 6 of them in product marketing management. As a Senior Product Marketing Manager, Zoriana aims to ensure Kolekti's apps excel by understanding customer needs, solving their problems, and making Kolekti truly the best solution.

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