Numbered Headings

1 Opening the Editor

1. Open the Confluence page you want to number.

2. Below the page title, in the byline row, click the Numbered Headings action (the pink macro-pack icon next to See views / Add a reaction).

The editor opens as a full-page dialog. See 2 The Configuration Form, 4 Preview Panel, and 5 Applying the Changes.

The Numbered Headings trigger appears in the page byline, immediately below the page title.

2 The Configuration Form

The configuration form controls how the headings of the current page are numbered. It has five groups of controls - General format, Start numbers, Skip headings, the six Level 1–6 format fields, and the Import / Export buttons - each described in the subsections below. Every change updates the Preview Panel immediately; nothing is written to the page until you click Update.

The editor with General format set to custom. The preview on the right shows the page's prior ISO 2145 numbering replaced with the default custom template.

2.1 General Format

A dropdown that picks one of the predefined numbering schemes - or custom, which unlocks the per-level format fields below. Picking any predefined scheme overwrites the level format fields with that scheme's templates (read-only).

The full list of predefined schemes. Each example shows the prefix applied to the first H1, H2, H3, H4 on a page, followed by a return to the next H2 (so you can see how the prefix shortens and how the H2 counter advances):

Compound styles render the counter from every ancestor level alongside the current one (e.g. an H3 heading gets 1.2.3.); local styles render only the counter for the current heading's level (e.g. the same H3 gets 3.).

2.2 Start Numbers

Six integers separated by commas - one for each numbering level. The default is 1,1,1,1,1,1. Use this to continue numbering from a previous page, or to start at zero for an appendix.

• Exactly six values are required.

• Each value must be between 0 and 501 inclusive.

• Invalid input is highlighted as an error and the page will not update until it is fixed.

2.3 Skip Headings

A multi-select that lets you exclude one or more heading levels from being numbered. Skipped headings keep their text but receive no prefix; the remaining heading levels are then mapped sequentially to the numbering levels.

• You can skip up to five heading levels (at least one must remain numbered).

• Skipped headings do not consume a counter - the next numbered heading uses the counter that would otherwise have applied to the level above it.

2.4 Level 1–6 Format

The six text fields define exactly what prefix is prepended at each numbering level. They are read-only for every predefined scheme and become editable only when General format = custom. Each field is limited to 250 characters.

See Custom Format Syntax for the template syntax.

2.5 Import / Export

The two buttons at the bottom of the form let you save and restore configurations as JSON:

• Export - downloads the current configuration as numbered-headings-config.json.

• Import - loads a previously exported JSON file. Invalid input is rejected with an inline error message.

Use this to share a house-style numbering convention across pages and teammates.

3 Custom Format Syntax

When General format = custom, each level format field accepts plain text mixed with two kinds of placeholder tags:

Supported format values:

The ranges are deliberately bounded to limit false-positive prefix stripping when the editor re-numbers a page. Re-applying numbering strips prefixes that match the previously saved scheme, so the wider a counter range is, the more often an ordinary heading word can be mistaken for a stale counter and lopped off the front. For example, a heading literally titled “no exceptions” matches a two-character lower-latin counter (no = 379) and would lose its leading word on the next re-number; allowing three-character Latin counters would push the same trap into much more common territory (and, the, act, …). The current caps keep the matchable counter strings short enough that such collisions stay rare.

3.1 Worked Examples

4 Preview Panel

The right column renders every heading in the page exactly as it will appear after the numbering is applied, including line breaks introduced by {br}. It updates live whenever you change the form. If the page contains no headings a warning banner is shown and there is nothing to apply.

5 Applying the Changes

Clicking Update:

1. Re-fetches the current page content (in case it changed since the editor opened).

2. Strips the previously applied numbering using the configuration that was last saved for this page.

3. Prepends the new prefixes according to the current configuration.

4. Saves the page as a new version. The version comment names the format that was applied (e.g. Applying ISO 2145 "1.2.3.4 " numbering to headings, or Removing headings numbering).

5. Stores the configuration so the next run can strip it cleanly.

6. Reloads the page so you see the result immediately.

6 Removing Numbering

Set General format to none and click Update. The previously applied prefixes will be stripped and no new ones will be added. The page version comment will read Removing headings numbering.

7 Limits at a Glance