I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear the word “glossary”, I can’t help but flashback to endless Google Sheets. Don’t get me wrong, they can do the job to an extent at least. But are they scalable? Not really. Are they easy to maintain? Definitely not. Should I use Confluence to manage my glossary instead? Absolutely yes.
In this article, we will check the importance of glossaries, how to create a glossary in Confluence, and of course, check a couple of tips to ensure you start on the right foot.
Why a Glossary is Important in Confluence
We often have the tendency to think of glossaries as simple lists of terms and definitions. In a way they are, but they are more than just that. A Confluence glossary enables you to address a wide variety of use cases. It is a powerful tool that enhances clarity, communication, and efficiency across your teams. Here is why having a glossary is crucial, especially in these specific scenarios:
Streamline Employee Onboarding
Here is the scenario: You are the new hire. If your first day is overwhelming enough as is, try dealing with Industry-specific jargon, internal acronyms, and company-specific terms. This can make your onboarding process longer and more tedious. A well-structured glossary helps both the new hire and the team. On the one hand, you will have a comprehensive glossary field with all the terms you need to familiarize yourself with the new job. On the other hand, your team and the HR people won’t have to answer all the questions you might have about specific terms, definitions, acronyms, and more. It’s basically a win-win for all parties involved in the onboarding process.
Facilitate Cross-Departmental Collaboration
Imagine this: You are the product marketing manager for example, or any other position that requires constant collaboration with other teams. In this case, the different teams you will be dealing with might have developed their own terminology and shorthand. This can create communication barriers and make both parties lose valuable time understanding each other’s vocabulary.
A centralized glossary in Confluence ensures that everyone is on the same page, reducing misunderstandings and improving efficiency. Whether it is between marketing and product teams or HR and finance, a shared glossary fosters smoother communication and more effective teamwork.
Enhancing Customer Support and Client Communication
Now you are a support agent. Your job? Solve problems and answer customers’ questions. The biggest challenge here is consistency. Having to use consistent language, and definitions to communicate with clients. And in this case, glossaries can be a valuable resource. It reduces the risk of miscommunication. If you have a client-facing Confluence space, including a glossary can help clients better understand your products, services, and processes, leading to improved customer experience and satisfaction.
The Native Confluence Glossary Template: Is It Enough?
As you might have already known, Confluence comes with a host of templates for a host of use cases. And of course, they have thought about glossaries. The “Content Design Glossary” template is a good starting point, but sometimes it just doesn’t cut it. If you are dealing with a small team or a small number of terms t, it might do the job. But for more complex use cases, you might have to think about more advanced solutions.
Pros:
- Quick Setup: The template is pretty much straightforward and easy to get started with. It is basically a Confluence page with tables where you can include the term, definition, guidelines, and more.
- Easy to Navigate: This might be considered as an advantage only if your glossary isn’t that large. You will basically be scrolling through a list of terms. (Not quite ideal if the glossary grows)
- Easy to customize: : Table of contents, headers, and tables. These are the components you will be working with within your template. This means it is easy to edit and customize.
Cons:
- Limited Scalability: As your glossary grows, managing it with the default template becomes a challenge. Keeping your list organized can quickly become overwhelming since there will be too many pages, and too many tables. When it comes to searching for terms it would be far from ideal. Since the latter will be showing the page where the term resides. or keeping the list organized can become overwhelming.
- Lack of Advanced Search and Filtering: If your glossary becomes too large, finding specific terms quickly can be a hassle even if you leverage Confluence Advanced search. The default template doesn’t offer robust filtering or categorization options.
Best Practices for Creating and Managing a Glossary in Confluence
Now that we have covered why glossaries are essential and when you might need more than just the basic Confluence template, let’s get into the nitty-gritty: how to actually create a glossary in Confluence.
Tip #1: Understand your Target Audience
There are two questions to answer here: Who will be reading my glossary? And what do they expect? Answering this will determine the structure and complexity of your glossary, and of course which terms to include within it. If you are targeting a specific group of users, say developers, you might go in depth while defining terms, since they are more or less familiar with the topic. They just come to the glossary for more advanced definitions or confirmation of what they already know. On the other hand, if your target is much broader, say customers, you might opt for a simpler glossary, with clear definitions.
Tip #2: Establish a Governance Process
Who will be responsible for managing the glossaries? This is a crucial point as you don’t want your glossaries to be created, maintained, and updated by everyone, which is, of course, a recipe for disaster. Establish a clear governance process within which you will identify: Who is responsible for managing the glossary, proposing updates, validating changes, and more.
Tip #3: Use Clear Definitions & Plain Language
The simplee, the better (depending on your target audience, of course). It might sound obvious, but make sure each term is defined in simple, plain language. Avoid jargon within the definitions themselves, and if you must use specialized terms, link them to other glossary entries, or specific Confluence pages. The goal is to make your glossary as user-friendly as possible.
Tip #4: Organize Terms with Labels
No one likes scrolling through an endless list of terms to find what they are looking for. That is why it is essential to break your glossary down into categories and labels. It is up to you to decide how to label your terms or group of terms, but you can start labeling them by teams, job functions, or specific projects.
The Confluence glossary template comes with a default table of content, and labels, but it is not enough. The reason? First, the table of content only groups headers, which is not ideal in pinpointing specific terms. As for labels, you can only label a Confluence page not specific terms, which is also not ideal when it comes to search.
To properly label your terms, you might need to check out a third party glossary add-in in Confluence such our very own Glossary for Confluence. The app comes with advanced labeling options available to you upon creating each term. There is also a specific view that allows you to see terms associated with each label. But are there any other metadata that I might need to consider? Yes…
Tip #5: Include Synonyms, Acronyms, and more
You might know the term but not its acronym, and vice versa. People love shortcuts. Whether it’s an acronym like “CRM” or a commonly used abbreviation, you need to include all the variations in your glossary. Some people will search for “Customer Relationship Management,” while others will go straight to “CRM”—and you want everyone to land on the same page.
Tip #6: Update Regularly
A glossary is not “set it and forget it” tool.Terms, definitions and metadata evolve, and your glossaries should reflect that. Make sure to periodically review and update your glossary to minimize confusion and ensure it stays relevant and up to date.
Check out this dedicated Atlassian Community post to learn what makes a good glossary in Confluence.
Advanced Glossary Management (with Glossary for Confluence):
As mentioned earlier, Confluence native Glossary template is good for starting out, but what if you have more advanced use cases? This is when you will need a dedicated glossary app. In this section we will see why you should opt for a third part app, and how to get started:
Easy Navigation with Multiple Views
Glossary for Confluence comes with a centralized dashboard and multiple views designed to facilitate navigation and better structure your glossaries. Whether you prefer an alphabetical list, language-based sections,label-based organization, or even a tag cloud, we’ve got you covered. It’s all about making your glossary as user-friendly as possible, so your team spends less time searching and more time doing.
Create Glossary Terms Directly Within Confluence Pages
Time is precious, and switching back and forth between pages to add new glossary terms is a hassle. You can create new terms directly within your Confluence pages. Just highlight the word or phrase, click “Create Term” and fill in the details. This seamless integration keeps your workflow smooth and uninterrupted.
Highlight Terms on the Go
Ever been in the middle of reading a Confluence page and stumble upon a term that makes you go, “What does that even mean?” . With the highlight feature, Glossary terms are automatically highlighted within your pages. On the top right corner of your page, hit the glossary icon. All the terms that exist within glossaries will be highlighted. Hover over each term to check the definition and metadata.
Advanced Search & Filtering Options
As your glossary grows, finding specific terms can become a challenge. That’s why we have included advanced search and filtering options. Search by keyword, filter by label, and sort results by various criteria such as date and creator to find exactly what you are looking for.
Import & Export Glossaries: Get Started Easily and Stay Flexible
When you are building a glossary, the last thing you want to do is manually input hundreds if not thousands of terms, and metadata. With Glossary for Confluence, you don’t have to. The app makes it easy to import terms from various file formats, so you can hit the ground running. Whether your glossary already exists in a CSV, JSON, or another file type, you can quickly upload it and have your terms ready to go in no time.
On the flip side, exporting your glossary is equally convenient—especially if you’re migrating between Confluence Data Center and Cloud. If you are scaling up or transitioning to a different hosting option, you don’t have to worry about losing your glossary data. With a simple export, you can transfer all your terms, definitions, and labels between platforms, ensuring continuity and consistency no matter where your team is working.
Embed Glossary Sections Within Your Confluence Pages
Sometimes, you need certain terms front and center. Think of a knowledge base homepage, customer facing hub, etc. With Glossary for Confluence, you can embed specific glossary sections directly into your Confluence pages. Writing a technical document? Embed the relevant terms right there. Creating onboarding material? Place the key terms where new hires can easily find them.
And there you have it! Creating a glossary in Confluence doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With the right approach and tools, you can build a glossary that not only clarifies terms but also enhances communication and collaboration across your teams. Whether you are onboarding new employees, collaborating across departments, or communicating with clients, a well-maintained glossary can make all the difference.
