Create ISO / DIN Standard Templates - Best Practices

Before you start building your own custom templates, check out our examples and best practices. There are many possible use cases for templates, for example:

For users that are working within regulated environments, are the owner for driving the internal quality management process or for those who are required to follow standardization processes.
For users that have the need to print out Confluence content for example a product documentation or user guide to send out to customers or contractors.
For users that only need minimal formatting but want to quickly modify an export for example, print something out for an internal training or just write a simple letter.

Create Custom Templates with Page Properties

The following sections describe how to build custom templates with page properties that will help you simplify some time consuming tasks like document structuring and management.

The template editor allows for fine-grained control over template settings alongside a real-time preview to show exactly how the formatting will look in the export. In addition, we offer a range of Scroll Macros that can be used directly on the Confluence page to further style and modify the export result.

Cloud user?

On Confluence Cloud, you'll need to additionally install the free Scroll Exporter Extensions app to use the macros required for this guide.

The Letter Template DIN 5008

You can built a letter template for exporting Confluence content, used for styling DIN 5008 compliant letters in a dynamic way by using page properties. A DIN norm is a set form that follows a rule collection for layout and writing. After its reform in 2020, DIN 5008 is more comprehensive than before and therefore the creation of an export template is still worthwhile.

If you haven't worked with page properties before, you can learn more about it in a short tutorial. Follow the instructions below or download the ready-made template and skip step 2 to simplify your workflow.

Step 1: Formatting the Confluence page - Use the Scroll Ignore macro that is already installed as a part of the Scroll PDF Exporter app for Server and Data Center. Place a Page Properties macro into the Scroll Ignore macro and create a table. These are the placeholder fields for non static data to include in a letter (like recipient name and address). This page should be saved as a Confluence template for all further letter communication. The rest of the page contains the letter content.

Step 2: Configuring the export template - The rest of the styling and formatting for the letter design is configured in a custom export template. In this example the title and TOC sections of the template are removed (learn more about customized document sections).

The static content, like the company logo and the letter header, are added to the header section of the template. Within the header section we have added multiple page properties placeholders referencing the page property values defined on the Confluence page, such as for the receiver name and sender details.
The middle, Confluence content section, marks the start of where the letter content will be included.
The footer also includes static content with the company's data like address and phone number. Don't forget to give the new template a suitable name and save the changes.

Step 3: Exporting - The template is now all set up and good to go. Make sure to select the export option with the PDF icon in Confluence, otherwise Confluence's in-built PDF Exporter will be used.

To do this, click on ••• > (Symbol) Export to PDF > select the custom template in the drop down menu and choose the export scope (Only this page) > Export

The ISO 9001 Standard Export Template - Acceptance Report Example

The ISO 9001 standard aims to provide companies with a framework and principles to maintain a certain standard of quality within organizational processes. In order to comply, a document must have – among other things – a document form number, as well as a consecutive number. For these necessary components, working with static content in an export template in addition with page properties in Confluence is a great option. Unlike as with the regular Confluence export functionality, you can use these export template for all the different ISO oriented documentation you have to create as part of quality management process in your company. For that you just have to change the content in Confluence from an acceptance report to a specification document. The static content following the ISO standard will be the same.

Follow the instructions below or download the ready-made template and skip step 2 to simplify your workflow.

Step 1: Configuring the export template - Static data, such as the document version or the date of the last form change, remain unchanged, as does information like the revision department or the company logo. Place this data in the header of the template in advance. The rest of the template header content in the document will be included through the use of the Page Property macro.

Step 2: Formatting the Confluence page - The remaining editable data of the document appears entirely in the Page Properties macro , which is hidden in a Scroll Ignore macro on each page. For building an acceptance report, add a table for the people that took part in the acceptance test and add check boxes for the process itself.

Step 3: Exporting - Be aware that each acceptance report needs it's own Confluence page, own Confluence page - setup a Confluence Page template to standardize this. If an auditor or customer outside the organization needs to receive this document, just click on the PDF Export button (via the page tools •••) and use the created template for exporting the Confluence content. Don't forget to have a summary page for these kinds of documents where each acceptance report is tracked. For this, you can use page labels for each document in combination with the Page Properties Report macro.

Download these Scroll PDF Exporter Templates:

Download the introduced templates below and try them out now:

Learn more about how to upload these templates.