How to Export a Confluence Table to Excel

Choosing how to export a Confluence table to Excel usually comes down to why you’re doing it.

If you just need a one-off export of your data, Confluence doesn’t support this feature natively, so you can either copy-paste the table manually or use a Marketplace app for a cleaner, more reliable export.

But if you’re exporting because you want to work with the data further (for example, to filter it, run calculations, or create pivot tables), you don’t necessarily need to. You can use one of the third-party apps to work with your table like you would in Excel, without leaving Confluence.

Below, we’ll show you how to do both, step by step.

Key takeaways

• Atlassian doesn’t support exporting tables from Confluence to Excel (or Google Sheets, if that’s your tool of choice) out of the box, so you’ll need to copy-paste manually or use a third-party app.

• For a one-time shareable export, manual copy-paste is the quickest option, but you’ll likely experience formatting issues.

• To export a cleaner dataset, use the Table Filter, Charts & Spreadsheets for Confluence app from the Atlassian Marketplace (and choose the Table Filter, Pivot Table, or Table Transformer macro depending on what you need to do with the table data before exporting).

• If you’re exporting the table to do data work (not just share with someone else), you can often skip the export and work with the table directly in Confluence using Excel-like workflows. You’ll need the Table Spreadsheet or Spreadsheet from Table macros for that.

How do I export a Confluence table to Excel?

For a one-off Confluence table export to Excel, you can copy-paste it manually or export using a third-party macro.

Option 1: Manual copy-paste

Follow these easy steps:

1. Go to the Confluence page that contains the table.

2. Highlight the full table by clicking the first cell and dragging to the last cell to select everything in it.

3. Right-click and choose Copy or use Ctrl + C (Windows) or Cmd + C (Mac) to copy the selection.

4. Open Excel and create a new document.

5. Click the starting cell and paste.

Quick troubleshooting tips:

• If the formatting comes through messy, choose Match Destination Formatting from the paste options to remove Confluence styling.

• Alternatively, try Paste Special and paste as plain text (for example, Text or Unicode Text) so you get clean data you can format in Excel.

• If the layout keeps breaking, use More actions (⋯) → Export to Word to export your Confluence page (not the table) to a Word file, then copy-paste it further into Excel.

• If Excel puts everything into one column, go to Data → Text to Columns → choose Delimited → try Tab first, then Comma, if needed.

• Unmerge any merged cells in the Confluence table before you copy it, since they can throw off alignment and make sorting or filtering in Excel unreliable.

Option 2: Confluence table export to Excel using third-party macros

In Confluence, there’s no built-in macro for exporting tables to Excel. For a smoother, more accurate alternative to manual copy-pasting, you’ll want to use the Table Filter, Charts & Spreadsheets for Confluence app from the Atlassian Marketplace. Its Table Filter macro lets you filter data, calculate totals, and visualize results, as well as shape what’s visible in the table, including sorting and freezing rows and columns.

1. Wrap your table in the Table Filter macro:

   1. Edit the page and insert /Table Filter, then place your existing table inside the macro body (cut-paste or drag the table into it).

   2. Alternatively, in view mode, use More actions (⋯) → Apps → Use Table Filter App Macros to add it.

2. Apply filters (optional): Set filters/sorting or hide columns so you export only what you actually need.

3. Export to a CSV: In view mode, click the filter icon in the top right corner of the table and choose Export to CSV.

4. Choose export settings and download: Pick Default settings or Custom settings (for example, delimiter/quotes/header), click Export, then save the CSV and open it in Excel.

Export to CSV is also available in the Pivot Table and Table Transformer macros if you need to aggregate table data in a pivot table or merge several tables before exporting to Excel.

Here’s the key point, though: if further analysis is the goal, exporting your table to Excel isn’t even necessary. With the Table Filter app, you can stay in Confluence and work with the table like a dataset while filtering, performing calculations, and reshaping the view to fit your needs.

Alternative: skip the export and work with your table directly in Confluence

Use the Table Spreadsheet macro to create an Excel-like spreadsheet or turn your existing table into one, all with familiar formulas and functions. As part of the Table Filter app bundle, this macro enables you to work with tables in Confluence just as you would in Excel.

Option 1: Stay with the original table (no spreadsheet required)

First up, however, double-check whether you even need a spreadsheet in the first place. If all you need is to filter, sort, or hide data, you can skip the spreadsheet and work with your source table directly using the Table Filter macro. For more complex data work, choose one of the two options below.

Option 2: Add an Excel-like spreadsheet to your Confluence page

1. Edit the page where you want the spreadsheet to live.

2. Type /Table Spreadsheet and insert the macro, or use Insert → View more and find the Table Spreadsheet macro there.

3. Start typing data directly into cells, or import an existing file (supported formats include XLSX, CSV, and ODS).

4. Add filters, pivot tables, or charts, just as you would in Excel.

5. Save the spreadsheet manually or enable autosaving (it’s stored as a page attachment; versions are kept).

6. If you still need to export the spreadsheet, follow the steps described above.

Option 3: Convert your existing Confluence table into an Excel-like spreadsheet

1. To convert a Confluence table to Excel, make sure the Spreadsheet from Table macro is enabled by your Confluence admin (it’s off by default).

2. Edit the page and insert /Spreadsheet from Table, or add it in view mode via More actions (⋯) → Apps → Use Table Filter App Macros, then follow the preset dialog.

3. Copy-paste your existing table (manual or macro-generated) into the macro body.

4. Publish the page, switch to view mode, and you’ll see your table rendered as an Excel-like spreadsheet.

FAQs

Can you export a Confluence table to Excel in Confluence Cloud?

Confluence Cloud doesn’t offer a native “Export Confluence table to Excel” feature. Most teams either manually copy-paste the table into Excel (or Google Sheets) or use a marketplace app like Table Filter to export the table to CSV or XLSX.

How do I export only part of a Confluence table to Excel?

Manually, you can copy only the rows or columns you need. Using the Table Filter app, you can first filter rows and hide columns, then export the file to contain only the visible (filtered) view.

Can I export directly to XLSX instead of CSV?

Confluence Cloud doesn’t natively export tables to XLSX. If you need a real Excel file, you’ll typically use an Excel-like spreadsheet macro such as Table Spreadsheet.

Can I work with a Confluence table like in Excel without leaving Confluence?

Yes, you can use the Table Spreadsheet macro and continue working with your data in Confluence using familiar Excel-like formulas and functions such as filters, charts, and pivot tables. You can also stay with the original table and apply the Table Filter macro if your data doesn’t require more complex processing that can only be done in a spreadsheet.

I don’t see the Table Spreadsheet and Spreadsheet from Table macros. Why?

Those macros only appear if the relevant app (Table Filter) is installed and enabled by your Confluence admin.

Will a converted spreadsheet stay synced with the original Confluence table?

The content of the spreadsheet created by the Spreadsheet from Table macro is dynamic, so it will change in its corresponding cell range whenever the source table is updated.

Try Table Filter, Charts & Spreadsheets for Confluence for free