Select and drag pages

Select pages

There are four ways to tick pages, and they combine:

• Click a row — ticks the page, or unticks it if it was ticked. Click anywhere except the grip or the title of a page or folder: the title opens the page to show its own child pages (see Open a list of pages).
• Drag across rows — press on a page that isn’t ticked and drag up or down, and every page you pass is ticked, the way you select cells in a spreadsheet. A new sweep replaces the ticks you had; hold ⌘ or Ctrl as you press to add to them instead. Near the top or bottom of the list, it scrolls for you.
• Shift-click a checkbox — hold Shift and click a page’s checkbox, and every page between the last one you clicked and this one takes the same tick. Shift-click a ticked checkbox to untick a range the same way.
• Select all — the checkbox at the left of the list’s header ticks every page in the list, or clears them all. It shows a dash while only some are ticked.

The header then counts what you have ticked, 5 selected in place of 12 pages, and the buttons beside it change:

• Sort all becomes Sort 5 selected, which sorts only those pages, in the places they already hold (see Sort pages). With just one page ticked, the button reads Sort all and is switched off.
• Move to… appears, to send the ticked pages under another parent, in this space or another (see Move to another parent or space).
• × clears the selection.

Ticks belong to the list on screen: open another parent and nothing is ticked there. Your unsaved changes, on the other hand, come with you.

Drag a group

Press on any ticked page and drag, and every ticked page comes with it. A press only turns into a drag once the pointer has moved a few pixels, so a plain click on a ticked page still unticks it.

Each row also has a six-dot grip at its left edge, which shows when you point at the row or reach the grip with Tab. The grip of a ticked page picks up every ticked page; the grip of a page that isn’t ticked picks up just that one, so you can drag a single page without ticking it.

While you drag:

• The list holds still. Rows don’t slide aside to make room, and the other ticked pages fold into the row you grabbed until you let go.
• A card follows the pointer with the title of the page you grabbed, plus +4 more when you are carrying others. Over the middle of a page it adds Move into “Benefits”.
• A line or a highlight shows where the pages will land; the rules are in the next section.

The pages land in the order they had in the list, whichever one you grabbed. After a reorder they stay ticked, so you can drag them again or sort just them. Press Esc before you let go to cancel the drag.

Between pages, or into one

As in Confluence’s own page tree, where the pointer sits on a row decides what happens:

• Only pages and folders can hold child pages. Over anything else in the list, such as a whiteboard or a database, there is no middle: the top half of the row gives the line above, the bottom half the line below.
• Letting go with no line and no highlight moves nothing — over the pages you are carrying, for example, or outside the list.

After a reorder

Each page whose place changed shows how far it moves: ▲3 for three places up, ▼2 for two down. Unsaved changes lists it as n pages change place under Policies. Confluence moves pages one at a time, so the app plans the fewest moves that reach your order; How moves are counted explains why the marks and the count rarely agree.

After a drop inside a page

The app first checks the pages for anything Confluence would refuse (the panel reads Checking the pages…; see What can’t go where). Then the pages leave this list, the move is listed in Unsaved changes, and the panel reminds you: Open Benefits to put them exactly where you want. Open that page and they are at the bottom of its list, marked Moving in, ready to drag into place before you save. Their child pages go with them.

Drop onto the page tree

The page tree beside the list is a second place to drop. Drag pages out of the list and let go on any page or folder in the tree, however deep it sits, to move them inside it — at the bottom of its child pages, as with a drop on the middle of a row.

• Reach deep pages without letting go. Hold the pages over a closed item and it opens after a moment.
• The item under the pointer reads Move here. The space’s name at the top of the tree stands for its top level: drop there to move the pages to the top level of the space.
• Dimmed items won’t take a drop: the parent on screen (the pages are already there), the pages you are carrying, and every item when all you carry is too big to move out.
• Empty space in the tree does nothing. Letting go there never reorders the list behind it.
• Waiting moves are counted. An item with pages staged to move into it shows +n.

The tree shows only this space; to send pages to another one, use Move to…. No tree? Show page tree, at the top right, brings it back.

Long lists

Both gestures scroll for you. While you sweep across rows to tick them, or drag pages, holding the pointer near the top or bottom edge of the list scrolls it; while you drag, the page tree scrolls the same way. Nothing else on the screen moves.

A sweep ends as soon as you let go, even outside the list, or when you scroll with the mouse wheel.

Drag with the keyboard

1. Press Tab to reach a page’s grip.
2. Press Space to pick the page up. If it is ticked along with other pages, every ticked page comes with it.
3. Use the arrow keys to move it up or down the list.
4. Press Space to drop it, or Esc to cancel.

A keyboard drag only reorders the list. To put pages inside another page from the keyboard, tick them (Space on a checkbox) and use Move to…. Screen readers hear each step: Picked up 5 pages., then Dropped. Save changes to apply. or Move cancelled.

What can’t go where

A page can’t go inside itself

The pages you are carrying are never drop targets, in the list or in the tree. Their own child pages can still be open further down the tree, though, so the app checks every move before listing it. Drop a group on a page that sits beneath one of them, and the rest still move while the move notes 1 left out (can’t go inside itself); open it to read “Page” wasn’t moved: “Destination” is one of its own child pages, and a page can’t go inside itself. If no page could go, nothing is listed and the panel says “Destination” is inside “Page”, and a page can’t go inside one of its own child pages.

Pages with more than 1,000 pages beneath them

Confluence can’t move a page with more than 1,000 pages beneath it — counting every level down, and whiteboards, databases and other content too — not even with its own Move, so the app can’t either. Shortly after a list opens, the app counts what sits beneath each page and marks any such page with a lock and Too big to move out. Point at the badge for the full explanation.

• You can still drag it up or down in its list. The page itself stays put; the app reaches your order by moving the pages around it.
• It can’t go inside another page, onto the page tree, or anywhere with Move to…. Drag only such pages and the card reads Too big to move inside a page: reorder only, with no middle to drop on. Carry one along with other pages and drop them inside a page, and the others go while the move notes 1 left out (too big to move).
• Two of them can’t swap places. If a reorder or a sort would need that, they keep their current order, everything else is arranged around them, and the panel says so: “Projects” and “Teams” can’t swap places: each has more than 1,000 pages beneath it, and Confluence can’t move a page like that, not even with its own Move. They keep their current order and everything else is arranged around them.

Every ceiling in one place: Limits.