.png)
Sort pages
Five orders, for the whole list, only the pages you select, or every level below.
.webp)
Sort puts a whole list in order in one step. Pick an order and the list rearranges at once, with a mark on every page that changes place, but nothing changes in Confluence yet: the new order waits in Unsaved changes until you press Save changes. Sort again, or drag a few pages by hand afterwards, as often as you like before you save.
Sort all, or only the pages you select
The Sort button sits at the right of the list’s header, and what it sorts depends on what you have ticked:
- Nothing ticked — the button reads Sort all and its menu Sort all pages. Every page in the list is sorted, including any you are moving in from elsewhere.
- Two or more ticked — it reads Sort n selected and its menu Sort only the n selected. Only those pages are sorted, within the places they already hold: tick the 2nd, 5th and 9th pages, and those three places get the same three pages in the new order. Every unticked page stays exactly where it is.
- One ticked — the button still reads Sort all but is switched off, because one page has nothing to be sorted against. Tick another, or clear the selection with the × to sort the whole list.
It is also off when a list has fewer than two pages, while the app is busy, saving or waiting for you to answer a question, and when you can view the space but not move its pages. Select and drag pages covers the ways to tick pages.
The five orders
| A to Z | By title. |
| Z to A | By title, reversed. |
| Newest first | By the date each page was created, the most recent at the top. |
| Oldest first | By the date each page was created, the earliest at the top. |
| Recently updated first | By each page’s last update, the most recent at the top. |
Titles are compared without regard to capital letters or accents, and spaces at either end are ignored. Pages that come out equal keep the order they are in now, so sorting a list that is already sorted moves nothing.
Dates are read the first time you choose a date order for a list (the panel shows Reading dates… while that happens) and reused until you save. Pages and folders have dates; whiteboards, databases and smart links don’t, so in a date order they always go to the bottom, in the order they are in now.
If the list is already in the order you pick, the app says so — These pages are already A to Z., or The n selected pages are already A to Z. — rather than appearing to do nothing.
Sort numbers by value
Below the orders sits Sort numbers by value, with the reminder 2, 9, 10 rather than 10, 2, 9. It is ticked every time you open the app, so numbers in titles sort as numbers: “Item 2” comes before “Item 10”, and “Release 2.9” before “Release 2.10”.
Untick it and titles are compared one character at a time, which puts “10” before “2”; the note in the panel then names the order with letters only (Sorted A to Z, letters only.). The option changes only the two title orders; the date orders ignore it. Ticking or unticking it keeps the menu open, so set it first, then choose the order.
Sort every level below
When nothing is ticked, the menu has a second option: Include every level below. It starts unticked each time you open the app, and it isn’t offered when you sort a selection.
Tick it and choose an order, and the list on screen is sorted as usual. A line is also added to Unsaved changes — Every level below Policies is sorted A to Z — and when you save, the app works down through every page and folder beneath this parent, at every depth, and sorts each one’s child pages the same way, with the same Sort numbers by value setting.
- It isn’t previewed. The lower levels are read and sorted during the save, from what Confluence has at that moment, so instead of a list of pages the panel says How many pages that moves is worked out while saving.
- It runs last, after every other change in the save.
- Each one covers up to 500 parents — pages and folders that have child pages. Past that, the result says Stopped after 500 parents; open a page further down and sort from there for the rest.
- It works even when this list is already in order. With nothing else waiting, the summary then reads Sorting every level below. Saving can’t be undone.
- It has no × of its own. To drop it before saving, use Discard, which clears every unsaved change.
▲ and ▼: how far each page moves
As soon as you sort, every page whose place changes gets a mark at the end of its row and a coloured bar down its left edge:
- ▲3 — the page ends up three places higher.
- ▼2 — the page ends up two places lower.
- Moving in — shown instead on a page you are bringing in from another parent; see Move to another parent or space.
The marks compare against the order this list had in Confluence when you opened it, less any pages you are moving out and plus any you are moving in. They stay while you open other parents and come back, and they clear when you discard, or when you save and the list is read again from Confluence.
How moves are counted
Confluence has no way to set a whole order at once: it moves pages one at a time, one page per move. So the app plans the fewest page moves that reach your order. It finds the longest run of pages that are already in the right order relative to each other, leaves them where they are, and moves only the rest into place.
That is why the marks and the count often differ. A mark appears on every page whose position changes, while the count is how many pages are actually picked up and moved. Move the last page to the top and every other page shifts down one, so each shows ▼1, but it is one page move. In the screenshot above, twelve pages are put A to Z with 8 page moves.
In Unsaved changes a sort shows as n pages change place under Policies, with The other pages keep their places beneath. Open it to see each page that moves, in its new order, with its old and new position (3 → 1). The summary at the top adds up the whole save: 8 page moves. Saving can’t be undone.
One save makes up to 1,000 page moves. A sort that needs more doesn’t block the save: the panel says This save makes the first 1,000; sort again afterwards to finish, and after the save, That was the first 1,000 moves: about n more are still to do. Sort again and save to finish. Sorting again plans only what is still out of place. Limits has the rest.
Pages you can’t move
A sort asks Confluence to move pages, and Confluence refuses some. The app plans around them rather than giving up on the list.
Too big to move out
Confluence can’t move a page with more than 1,000 pages beneath it, not even with its own Move. Shortly after a list opens, once the app has counted what is beneath each page, any page over that limit carries a Too big to move out badge beside its title.
Such a page can still be sorted. It isn’t moved itself; the app moves the pages around it instead, which reaches the same order. The one thing that can’t happen is two of them swapping places. If an order would need that, they keep the order they are in now, everything else is arranged around them, and the panel says so: “A” and “B” 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.
Restricted pages
A page you aren’t allowed to move — restricted, or outside your permissions — only shows up during the save, when Confluence refuses it. It stays in its place, the app reads the list again and arranges the other pages around it, and the result names it: n pages couldn’t be moved: “…”. They may be restricted, or you may not have permission. Everything else in the save still goes through.
If you can’t move pages in the space at all, Sort is switched off from the start; see If you can only look. Review and save covers the save itself.