Part 2 - Creating a how-to article template

Let's create a How-to article template.

We want to build a form like this one:

To build the drop-down menu for system, we will use the list-data macro and some list-option blocks.

Additionally, a tutorial on list-data and list-option can be found in our technical documentation.

Next, we will use the text-data macro for the objective and step-by-step guide fields.

Note that there is a type=line parameter in objective, which means the required input is a single line, whereas the step-by-step guide will have a longer text area as input.

Finally, learn how you can a create a new article with this template in this tutorial.

Click here for the source code...

How to article template

XML

<h2>System: </h2>
<p> <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="43a9faaf-591e-4cde-9058-c186a4e564e9" ac:name="list-data" ac:schema-version="1">
    <ac:parameter ac:name="blank">false</ac:parameter>
    <ac:parameter ac:name="name">System</ac:parameter>
    <ac:parameter ac:name="separator">newline</ac:parameter>
    <ac:parameter ac:name="atlassian-macro-output-type">INLINE</ac:parameter>
    <ac:rich-text-body>
      <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="b9a4259d-8c70-4247-9a23-329789e56a62" ac:name="list-option" ac:schema-version="1">
        <ac:parameter ac:name="label">Confluence</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="value">Confluence</ac:parameter>
        <ac:rich-text-body>
          <p>Confluence</p>
        </ac:rich-text-body>
      </ac:structured-macro>
      <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="a0c8f803-20fd-4e2f-a41a-11df6f417c09" ac:name="list-option" ac:schema-version="1">
        <ac:parameter ac:name="label">Gmail</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="value">Gmail</ac:parameter>
        <ac:rich-text-body>
          <p>Gmail</p>
        </ac:rich-text-body>
      </ac:structured-macro>
      <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="8a5a5429-5ed6-4d23-a676-1f85b77386e0" ac:name="list-option" ac:schema-version="1">
        <ac:parameter ac:name="label">HipChat</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="value">HipChat</ac:parameter>
        <ac:rich-text-body>
          <p>HipChat</p>
        </ac:rich-text-body>
      </ac:structured-macro>
      <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="f8846c20-c0fc-40bd-8b93-9d81dd908671" ac:name="list-option" ac:schema-version="1">
        <ac:parameter ac:name="label">JIRA</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="value">JIRA</ac:parameter>
        <ac:rich-text-body>
          <p>JIRA</p>
        </ac:rich-text-body>
      </ac:structured-macro>
      <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="38695d17-a425-4317-8c90-5e8be4e1e4ec" ac:name="list-option" ac:schema-version="1">
        <ac:parameter ac:name="label">Not applicable</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="value">Not applicable</ac:parameter>
        <ac:rich-text-body>
          <p>Not applicable</p>
        </ac:rich-text-body>
      </ac:structured-macro>
    </ac:rich-text-body>
  </ac:structured-macro> </p>
<h2>Objective: </h2>
<p> <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="5543e227-181e-4bb7-85ee-38edb100ffed" ac:name="text-data" ac:schema-version="1">
    <ac:parameter ac:name="name">Objective</ac:parameter>
    <ac:parameter ac:name="type">line</ac:parameter>
    <ac:parameter ac:name="content">text</ac:parameter>
    <ac:parameter ac:name="required">true</ac:parameter>
    <ac:parameter ac:name="atlassian-macro-output-type">INLINE</ac:parameter>
    <ac:rich-text-body>
      <p> </p>
    </ac:rich-text-body>
  </ac:structured-macro> </p>
<h2>Step-by-step Guide: </h2>
<p>
  <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="6e1a4d21-fb53-4d4e-8411-5db68b23beae" ac:name="text-data" ac:schema-version="1">
    <ac:parameter ac:name="name">Guide</ac:parameter>
    <ac:parameter ac:name="atlassian-macro-output-type">INLINE</ac:parameter>
    <ac:rich-text-body>
      <p> </p>
    </ac:rich-text-body>
  </ac:structured-macro>
</p>

Pro tip

When creating a field with predefined options, choose select for drop-down menus, check for checklist, or autocomplete for input field with live search.