When accessing a Confluence page, you’ve got to give users some kind of direction to facilitate navigation, guarantee engagement, and make their experience smooth. Lucky for us, we have a host of macros (both built-in and from Atlassian Marketplace) to help us achieve just that. Layouts to structure pages, collapsible sections to add supplementary info, panels to highlight text, and more. And if you have the Confluence Enterprise or Premium plans, you can leverage some advanced features such as Cards which will be the topic of today’s article. What are cards, how to use and make the most of them? and what are the workarounds if I have Confluence free or standard?
What’s the Cards Macro in Confluence?
Before the Cards macro, most teams shared links (be it from Confluence, Jira or external ones) in the simplest way possible: raw blue URLs or long lists. While functional in some types of formal docs, this approach wasn’t visually appealing for onboarding pages or company hubs and often made Confluence pages feel cluttered and harder to scan.
The Cards macro solves that problem. As the name implies, the macro is a set of containers that groups interactive content. They’re primarily designed to highlight and present key or related information, embed useful links, and of course, make Confluence pages beautiful and easier to scan.
The feature was introduced simultaneously with the built-in Confluence company hub and for a good reason. One of the major use cases for the Cards macro is to share the latest internal news, user profiles,and link to key spaces.
How to Insert the Cards Macro
- From within your Confluence page, type /cards. By default you’ll have three displayed cards with no content. This was done on purpose to show you how the cards will appear.
- On the right, you can start filling and customizing your cards.
- Let’s start with the style of cards by specifying the size, display option and alignment.
- In terms of content, you can add it manually or opt for dynamic filling. If you opt for manual, then you’ll have to specify the title, link, description and of course image. For more information at a glance, you can choose to display page owner and the latest date the content has been updated.
- If you choose dynamic to fill in your cards, you can choose from a host of filters to display either Confluence pages, blogs, or Jira work items.
When (& When Not) to Use the Cards Macro in Confluence
As with any macro, the question isn’t just when to use it, but also when not to. Cards are powerful, but in some cases, they’re misused. And here, another macro or feature might simply be the better choice.
As a general rule of thumb, you’d want to use cards to guide users to information, not necessarily contain the information. Think of them as gateways to other resources. And in this section, we’d use this logic.
Use Cards When…
Highlighting & Linking Content: Cards work best when you want to visually highlight linked content (project hubs, team pages, or knowledge bases).
Driving Action: You can embed links natively in Confluence without cards. But do these links scream explore me? not necessarily. And this is what cards are designed for: Encouraging exploration and driving action.
Building your Internal or External Hub: If you need a landing page that connects to multiple resources, cards make navigation more engaging and intuitive.
Don’t Use Cards When…
You Want to Add Supplementary Information: If the goal is to embed content, not redirect to another page, don’t use cards. They look stylish, yes, but they signal navigation. Users expect a redirect when they click a card, not inline content. Instead, use collapsible sections (Expand macro) with a grid layout. As the name implies, they make better use of space, keep your page tidy, and let users reveal details without losing context.
Adding Context & Critical Information: Cards aren’t built to convey urgency or importance. If the message needs to stand out as a warning, tip, or essential instruction, use panels, or even formatting like bold headers. Cards are designed to invite exploration not convey critical information.
You want to Organize Content: Cards are built for navigation across pages, not for organizing content within a single one. If your goal is to let users navigate between distinct sections such as roles, or processes, then tabs (be it horizontal or vertical) are the right choice. Tabs are designed to break down content and facilitate overall navigation.
Workarounds If You Don’t Have Premium/Enterprise Plans
What if I don’t have the Premium or Enterprise plans, and want to insert cards within my pages? There are some workarounds, ones that are obvious, and ones a bit more creative:
- Layout + image + text & links: What does the card macro contain? An image, text and link. Assemble all three like IKEA furniture. You can add each macro individually within a three column layout. Although a workaround, nobody has time for this. Maybe for a couple of pages, but long term, you’re better off looking for a dedicated macro.
- Labels + Content by label: If you want to focus on the content itself not necessarily the aesthetics, you can lean on labels to organize your pages and blogs. By labeling content and then using the Content by Label macro, you can create a dynamic list of links that works a lot like cards in that it automatically surfaces the right content.
- Image + links: Another simple way is to create cards in Canva for example, and simply add links to them. That’s manual work but for dynamic content, that’s not going to cut it for you.
- Layout + panels: Layouts add structure while panels are perfect to highlight information. Think of layouts as the frame, and panels as the colorful boxes. The only thing to watch out for is that users might not distinguish between these makeshift panels and the ones meant to highlight critical content, like warnings or tips. Maybe the right approach here is to provide context just above the (layout & panels) combo or distinguish colors.
Best Practices to Work with Cards in Confluence
Now that you know when and when not to use cards, the next step is to learn how you can make the most out of them.
Tip #1: Be Clear & Action-Oriented
As mentioned throughout the article, cards are designed to drive action and lead somewhere. And what your users will see are three main elements: The title, description, and image. Make them count.
Make sure your card titles and descriptions reflect exactly what users will find when they click. Don’t go as far as click bait, but try to balance engaging actionable verbs with the truth basically. Same applies for images. Don’t simply go for the overly stylistic while neglecting the substance. Your images should obviously be both beautiful, inline with your page style, and give the reader a hint of what the content will be about.
Tip #2: Place your Cards Where They’re Likely to Be Seen
Cards will most likely link to important content, so place them where users can notice them and take action which is usually at the top of the page. Within a company hub for example, you want your cards to be the first macros as you’re linking to important resources such as knowledge bases, team spaces, or recent news.
If we’re talking about a blog post for example or a documentation, cards act as a “what’s next” feature. Placing them at the end signals any next steps or related content that users only find useful after reading the page they’re in.
What you want to avoid though is placing cards in the middle of a page. It’s not like users will not see them, but here cards can lose their visual impact. Users scanning a page often skip over mid-page visuals, and cards placed here risk being overlooked or breaking the flow of reading.
Tip #3: Confluence Cards are Great, Just Don’t Overuse Them
This applies to any macro in Confluence really! Cards work best when they highlight what truly matters. Placing them top, middle and bottom in the same page is not only stylistically wrong, but makes them lose their value and impact. If I have 15 cards, do you expect me to click them all? Which is more important out of the bunch? So simply be selective with your cards and only display the most important or recent content.
Tip #4: For Dynamic Cards, The Work is Within The Pages not At Macro Level
Dynamic cards are only as good as the content and structure behind them. If your Confluence pages, spaces, or labels aren’t properly organized, then your cards won’t display the right content. So, when working on pages that you want to link to, take time to clean up titles, apply consistent labels, and make sure you publish content in the right space. That way, your cards stay accurate and actually help navigation rather than confuse it. A good practice is to create labels specifically for card content such as “internal,” “priority,” or “resources”) so you control what shows up.
And there you have it! Cards are great if you’re looking to drive both action and engagement. I have the feeling that by time the macro will be available within all Confluence plans. In the meantime, you can opt for our creative workarounds and try some of our content formatting macros 😀. And of course, follow some of the best practices if you already have the macro.
