Handy Macros for Confluence (Status, Dropdown & Formatting)

We've been rolling out Handy Macros on a trial basis as part of a structured BRD lifecycle tracking initiative across our PMO space, and the experience has been very positive. The Handy Status macro has been particularly valuable — it gives us a clean, visual way to represent document states (Draft, In Review, Approved, etc.) directly within our BRDs, with a history chain that lets us track transitions over time. For a team managing hundreds of project documents, that audit trail is genuinely useful in conjunction with an LLM. Minor feature requests that would push this to a full organizational rollout: 1. The ability to set Handy Dates as a blank value or 'mm/dd/yyyy' so they can be added to project templates and then actual dates can be chosen in the future without disrupting SDLC metrics. 2. A 'Handy Text' feature so project action items can be updated directly on a page properties report rather than within each individual project page. We're currently in an adoption phase and plan to expand usage broadly if these workflow enhancements can be put in place. Would recommend to any PMO or delivery team that needs lightweight, visible status tracking without heavy tooling.

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  Stiltsoft Europe OÜ

  Hi Gavin,

  Thanks a lot for your review! Really great to hear how you’re using Handy Macros in a structured PMO workflow. We’re especially glad the Handy Status macro is helping you track BRD lifecycle stages clearly and at scale. That visibility and audit trail is exactly what it’s designed for.

  Our team appreciates you taking the time to share these thoughtful feature suggestions. They’re well noted, and our team will carefully evaluate them as we continue to improve the product.

  Wishing you a smooth rollout, and we’re here if you need anything along the way!

  Best regards,

  Veronika

I have used Handy Macros for years in Atlassian Server and have been very happy. Now I have worked with Confluence Cloud in three different companies and it has been the same everywhere: Handy Status still is brilliant and useful deserving four stars. I really appreciate that Handy Status also can be changed in Page Property Reports. On the other hand, Handy Cards is problematic in the cloud and gets one star. Hence my overall 3 star score. It has to be said that some of the issues probably are due to Atlassian because sometimes the macro simply disappears from a page and first resurfaces sometimes later. Other times some users v´can see the macro contents while other gets an "extension not loaded message". In general Handy Cards doesn't seem to live happily on a space home page and even on sub-pages it sometimes never updates itself when child pages are added. Sometimes you have to edit the macro again to see new pages, which rather defeats its purpose. It's a great shame because Handy Cards are a very convenient way to create a nice user experience for newcomers in the otherwise fairly sloppy overall look of Confluence. The problem may be linked to the very slow performance of Confluence Cloud, even on the premium version that I'm working with. I have been in contact with Stiltsoft support before and they are normally fairly responsive. But when I reported this issue for some time ago, I was asked to provide all kind of information that I normally would gladly would provide. But as I have seen the same issues in a several Confluence Cloud instances, I believe that either Stiltsoft should simply test and bug fix, or just drop Handy Cards from the product.

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  Stiltsoft Europe OÜ

  Hi Morten,

  Thank you for your feedback! It helps us improve and better address your needs.

  I understand how frustrating recurring issues can be. We’ve dedicated significant effort to investigating them:

  1. Overview Page Issues: this issue is linked to a Confluence bug. While the bug is unresolved, recently we implemented a workaround and fixed these issues.

  2. Handy Cards Performance: we’ve conducted extensive research, identified solutions, and plan to implement them soon.

  Unfortunately, the app's maintenance complexity requires us to balance priorities across multiple areas, which impacts the speed of implementation.

  We sincerely appreciate your understanding. I would be grateful if you could review the app’s current behavior on the overview page and share any feedback on its functionality post-fix.

  I will keep you updated on our progress regarding performance improvements.

  Best regards,

  Dmitriy

After using these macros, I can honestly say that it saves a lot of time not having to edit all the pages. Moreover, it can give an overview of the status per page, creating a nice one-eye view for our management department. It is affordable and it is definitely worth buy. If you don't trust me, use the 30-day trial and try it for yourself. Another thing is that their support team is responsive and helpful.

Datacenter: Highly recommended if you want to create content management in Confluence or if you simply want to press the Edit button less frequently just to change a status. It even works remotely from e.g. a document status report :-) Very smart plugin with great and friendly support and quick bug fixes. Cloud: It's a pity that the Handy Timestamp function in the cloud no longer exists, so our solution implemented in Datacenter, where you can sort by the date of the status change, is no longer possible. The HandyPageStatus can do this sonmhow maybe, but since the status is not directly visible in the header, but only after you have clicked on it, it is unfortunately still not very brilliant.