What's the best way to prevent errors and standardize information in a collaborative table?

[Isa Janssen]

I am working with my teammates on a simple table that includes different rows for various information, such as Roles and Departments. While currently, any teammate can enter the relevant information in these cells, I want to standardize our work and prevent any potential errors.

Therefore, I am looking for a way to make these fields non-writable. One possible solution would be to add a dropdown list or label to each cell, which would allow us to easily select the correct information.

Since we may add other subjects to the table in the future that are not related to roles or departments, it's important to find a solution that can be applied to any cell in the table. However, we have a limited budget and cannot afford to purchase an app for this purpose, so we are searching for free alternatives or solutions.

[Stefan Kleineikenscheidt _K15t_]

Hi @Isa Janssen

it sounds like you should really look at Orderly Databases: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1227131/orderly-databases-for-confluence?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

(Disclaimer: I'm the co-founder and CEO of the K15t, the creators of Orderly)

Cheers,
-Stefan

[Oday Rafeh]

Hi @Isa Janssen , 

To standardize information in a collaborative table, use Google Sheets :

Create a new Google Sheets document.

Click on the cell where you want a dropdown list.

Click "Data" in the menu, then "Data validation. "

Choose "List of items" in the "Criteria" dropdown.

Type your list of items, separated by commas.

Check "Show dropdown list in cell" and click "Save. "

Now, the cell has a dropdown list, and users can only select from predefined items. Share the document with your team for collaboration.

[Isa Janssen]

Thank you for the suggestion. While Google Sheets seems like a great solution, I was hoping to find a way to standardize information within Confluence itself without relying on another app.

[Oday Rafeh]

Hi @Isa Janssen , 

You can use the "Page Properties" macro along with the "Page Properties Report" macro. This method allows you to create a standardized template for data input and generate a table with the information.

• Create a new Confluence page or edit an existing one.
• Click on the "Insert more content" button (the plus "+" sign) and choose "Page Properties" from the list.
• Click "Edit" on the Page Properties macro to configure it.
• Add labels for each piece of information you want to standardize (Role, Department) and create the corresponding input fields.
• Save the macro and the page.

Next, create a separate Confluence page to display the standardized table:

• Click on the "Insert more content" button (the plus "+" sign) and choose "Page Properties Report" from the list.
• Click "Edit" on the Page Properties Report macro to configure it.
• Set the "Label(s)" field to match the label(s) used in the Page Properties macro.
• Configure other options as needed, such as sorting and column display.
• Save the macro and the page.

Now you should have a standardized table in Confluence with controlled input fields. To add more rows to the table, create new Confluence pages using the same Page Properties macro with the same label(s).

I hope this will solve the issue , 

Regards 

Oday