Displaying Office Files in Confluence

Prerequisites

If you want to use the View File macro, or to view Office files attached to a Confluence page, you need the setup described below.

Browsers and Flash Player

You can use any browser to view an Office file on a wiki page or attachment view, provided that you have installed Adobe Flash Player version 9 or later. You do not need to have an Office desktop application installed on your computer in order to view Office files in Confluence.

File Types

Confluence can display files compatible with Microsoft Office 97-2007, and PDF files, of the following types:

• .doc and .docx
• .xls and .xlsx
• .ppt and .pptx
• .pdf

Attaching and Displaying Office Files and PDF Files

There are two ways to do this in Confluence:

• Attach Office files to a page and display them in a Confluence page using the View File or Attachments macros
• Attach an Office or PDF file to a page and embed its contents onto the page by simply dragging and dropping it into the editor window

To attach and display Office files in Confluence using macros:

1. Attach the Office file(s) to a Confluence page:
   • View the Confluence page on which you want to display your document.
   • Choose Tools > Attachments.
   • Browse for your Office files and upload them to the Confluence page.
     Refer to detailed instructions in Attaching Files to a Page.
2. Now you have two options for displaying the attached document:
   • You can embed the document into the Confluence page, using one of the Office Word, Office Excel, Office PowerPoint or View PDF macros. These macros can be found using the macro browser. Refer to the detailed instructions in the View File macro topic.
   • You can display a list of page attachments using the Attachments macro. People viewing the page will be able to click the View link to see the Office or PDF document in Confluence.

To attach and display an Office file on a Confluence page using 'drag and drop':

• Drag the Office file from your computer and drop it into the editor window. Only one file can be dragged and dropped at a time. The appropriate View File macro placeholder will appear in the position where you dragged the file. However, the contents of the file will be rendered in full when you preview, or save and view, the page.
  Older browser versions require Google Gears to have been installed for you to use drag and drop. Refer to Using Drag-and-Drop in Confluence for information about setting up Google Gears.

Viewing and Editing the Attached Office Files

If an Office document is attached to a Confluence page, you can view the attached Office document from within Confluence. View the Office document in one of the following ways:

• Search for the Office document by file name, then click View next to the Office document on the Search results page. (See Searching Confluence.)
• View the list of attachments for a specific Confluence page, then click View next to the Office document on the Attachments page. (See Viewing Attachment Details.)
• View a list of attachments displayed on a page via the Attachments macro, then click View next to the Office document in the list of attachments. (See Displaying a List of Attachments in a Page.)
• View a Confluence page which has the Office document embedded in the page via the View File macro. (See View File Macro.)

Any Confluence user who has an Office application installed will also be able to launch their Office editor from within Confluence:

• Editing an Office Document from Confluence.
• Editing an Office Presentation from Confluence.
• Editing an Office Spreadsheet from Confluence.

Troubleshooting

Problems? Please refer to our guide to the Office Connector limitations and known issues.

Related Topics

View File Macro
Working with the Office Connector

• Office Connector Prerequisites
• Displaying Office Files in Confluence
• Importing an Office Document into Confluence
• Editing an Office Document from Confluence
• Editing an Office Spreadsheet from Confluence
• Editing an Office Presentation from Confluence
• Installing the Firefox Add-On for the Office Connector

Configuring the Office Connector in the Confluence Administration Guide

Take me back to the Confluence User's Guide.