This quick-reference guide is for people who regularly used the wiki markup editor in earlier versions of Confluence. It shows you how to use the new editor to do the things you have always done. And more.

The editor offers a number of options in the toolbar. But did you know...?

  • You can use autocomplete and autoformatting shortcuts instead of the toolbar.
  • The trigger characters for autocomplete and autoformatting are derived from wiki markup.
  • You can add macros, links and images by typing the entire wiki markup element. As soon as you close the macro, link, or image, Confluence will convert it to rich text format and add it to the page.

Hints to get you started quickly

  1. Type wiki markup into the editor. Confluence's autocomplete and autoformat will convert the wiki markup as you type.
  2. Learn the keyboard shortcuts. Click the help icon on the editor toolbar to see a list of keyboard shortcuts.
  3. Undo the autocomplete and autoformat actions. To undo something that autocomplete or autoformat has done, press Backspace on your keyboard. Alternatively, press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Cmd+Z (Mac).

On this page:

Related pages:

Before and after guide for wiki markup fans

Below are the most commonly used autocomplete and autoformatting triggers.

Using wiki markup

What you did before

What to do now

Typing wiki markup:
Typed text and wiki markup into the Wiki Markup Editor pane.

Start typing wiki markup – try it and see what happens!

Pasting wiki markup:
Pasted wiki markup into the Wiki Markup Editor pane.

Click 'Insert' > 'Wiki Markup' on the editor toolbar. Note: Confluence will convert the wiki markup to rich text as soon as you add it to your page. The wiki markup will not be available for editing after that. Example:

Adding macros

What you did before

What to do now

Adding a macro to your page:
Typed curly brackets, the macro name and parameters. Example:

{blog-posts}
Type '{' and start typing the macro name to see a list of macros that match your text. Press the arrow keys to select the macro you want. Example:

Formatting text

What you did before

What to do now

Bold text:
Typed an asterisk '*', your text, then another asterisk in wiki markup. Example:

*Surf's Up*
Type an asterisk '*', your text, then another asterisk. Confluence autoformat will convert the text to bold immediately. Example:

*Surf's Up*

Heading levels:
Typed the heading level in wiki markup. Example:

h2. Midnight at the Lost and Found
Type the heading level and a full stop. Autoformat will convert the line to the appropriate heading immediately. You can continue typing your heading text immediately. Example:


h2.

Underlining, italics, superscript, subscript:
Typed the wiki markup characters before and after your text.

Type the wiki markup just as you did before. Autoformatting will convert it as you type.

Left, centre and right alignment:
Not available in previous versions of Confluence.

Click the left, centre and right alignment buttons on the editor toolbar:

(info) This can also be used to align images independently of text.

Indentation:
Not available in previous versions of Confluence.

Click the left and right indentation buttons on the editor toolbar:

Line break:
Started a new line with no empty line.

Press Shift + Enter to force a line break without a paragraph break. This is a line break with no extra space.

Quotation:
Typed the {quote} macro in wiki markup. Example:

{quote}Life is a lemon.{quote}

Use the Quote style – select 'Quote' from the style dropdown menu or use the keyboard shortcut. Example:
Or type bq. in the editor

Colour:
Typed the {color} macro in wiki markup. Example:

{color:green}Bat out of Hell.{color}
Click the colour options on the editor toolbar. Example:

Adding symbols and emoticons

What you did before

What to do now

Smiley:
Typed a colon and a round bracket. Example:

:)
Type the globally-recognised markup for a smiley face (colon and round bracket), a wink (semicolon and round bracket), and so on. Autocomplete will convert it as you type. Example:

:)

Tick or check mark:
Typed a forward slash in round brackets. Example:

(/)
Type a forward slash in round brackets. Autocomplete will convert it as you type. Example:

(/)

Linking text

What you did before

What to do now

Linking to a Confluence page:
Typed the text and pasted the page name inside square brackets. Example:

[Modern Girl|Modern Girl song lyrics]
Type a square bracket '[' and start typing the page name to see the suggested pages to link to. Press the arrow keys to select the page you want. Example:

Linking text to a web page:
Typed the text and pasted the link inside square brackets. Example:

[Modern Girl|http://www.example.com/song]
Type a square bracket '[' and select 'Insert Web Link', then paste the URL into the link dialog. Example:

Linking to a page that does not yet exist:
Typed the name of the non-existent page inside square brackets. Example:

[Future of the Modern Girl]
Type a square bracket '[' and the name of the non-existent page, then select 'Insert Link to Create Page'. Example:

Linking to an attachment:
Typed '^' and the attachment name inside square brackets. Examples:

[^attachment name]
[Page Name#^attachment name]
Type a square bracket '[' and start typing the attachment name to see the suggested attachments to link to. Press the arrow keys to select the item you want. Example:

Linking to an anchor within a page:
Typed the page name with the anchor name appended. Example:

{anchor:index}
[Page Two#index]

To create the anchor: Add an anchor macro using wiki markup. Confluence will convert the macro to rich text format and add it to the page. For example, to create an anchor named 'index', type the following: {anchor:index}

To create the link: Use wiki markup too. Type the link, including the alias (if required), the hash character # and the anchor name. As soon as you type the closing square bracket, Confluence will convert the link to rich text format and add it to the page. This means that you can skip the link browser.

  • This works if you have 'Autoformatting' enabled in the editor settings in your user profile.
  • This does not work if you paste the wiki markup onto the page. You need to enter the closing bracket manually.
  • Example: [Index|#index]

Using bulleted and numbered lists

What you did before

What to do now

Adding bullets:
Typed an asterisk '*' in wiki markup. Example:

My list:
* Bad Attitude
Type an asterisk '*' followed by a space. Autoformat will convert the line to a bulleted list. You can continue typing your text immediately. Example:

(info) To add another line of text to an entry without creating a new list item, press Shift + Enter at the end of the line.

Adding numbered items:
Typed a hash '#' in wiki markup. Example:

My list:
# A Time for Heroes
Type a hash or pound '#' followed by a space. Autoformat will convert the line to a numbered list. You can continue typing your text immediately. Example:

(info) To add another line of text to an entry without creating a new list item, press Shift + Enter at the end of the line.

Adding line breaks in a numbered/bulleted list:
Started a new line. Typed a double slash for an empty line. Example:

//

Press Shift + Enter.

Using tables

What you did before

What to do now

Adding a table:
Typed pipe characters '|' in wiki markup. Example:

||  || Title || Owned ||
| 1  | 	45 seconds of ecstasy | Y |
| 2  | 	Amnesty Is Granted |   |
Type a series of pipe characters '|' then press Enter. Autoformat will convert the pipes to a table. Example – to create a table with three columns:

| | | |

Editing a table:
Edited the text and shuffled the pipe characters around.

Learn the keyboard shortcuts for table editing. Click the help icon on the editor toolbar to see a list of shortcut keys.

Displaying images

What you did before

What to do now

Displayed an image attached to the page:
Typed/pasted the image name inside exclamation marks '!'. Example:

!NoMatterWhat.png!
Type an exclamation mark '!' and start typing the image name to see the suggested images to insert onto the page. Press the arrow keys to select the item you want. Example:

Displaying an image attached to another page:
Typed/pasted the page name, a '^' and the image name inside exclamation marks. Example – to display an image that is attached to the page titled 'Home By Now':

!Home By Now^NoMatterWhat.png!

Exactly the same as when the image is attached to the same page, or use the new "Search" tab in "Insert" > "Image"

Aligning images:

!NoMatterWhat.png|align=right!

Click on the image and then:

Click the left, centre and right alignment buttons on the editor toolbar:

(info) This can also be used to align images independently of text.

Embedding multimedia files

What you did before

What to do now

Embedding a video, movie or audio file into a page:
Used the wiki markup image format. Example:

!HotPatootie.mov!

Use the Multimedia macro.

Type an exclamation mark '!' and select 'Insert Other Media'. Example:

Or type '{' and start typing the macro name 'Multimedia'. Example:

Functionality that is no longer available

This section contains a list of things you could do in in earlier versions of Confluence, but can no longer do in Confluence 4.

  1. Edit a page in Microsoft Word. See FAQ entry.
  2. Edit, copy or view the wiki markup source of a page. This is because content is no longer stored in wiki markup format.

New source editor plugin

The Confluence Source Editor plugin allows users to edit the XHTML-based storage format of the page. You need Confluence 4.1.5 or later to use the plugin.

15 Comments

  1. John Masson

    If you have feedback about something specific to add to this page, please leave a comment below.

    If you have feedback about the removal of wiki markup or this has caused an issue for you, please see the Confluence 4 Editor - Customer Feedback page where we've been tracking feedback and raising JIRA issues for people. The page contains a list of resolved and open JIRA tickets as well as an FAQ and list of resources to assist those who have workflows that were reliant on Wiki Markup in previous versions of Confluence.

    1. Anonymous

      I want my Wiki markup, beyotch!

  2. Anonymous

    I'm a user both of Confluence and JIRA system. I used to create the table in Confluence then copy its wiki markup to JIRA.

    But Confluecne 4 removed the Wiki markup feature, how can I easy to create a table on JIRA? Creating table in Confluence has becoming good to use, but I cannot export it to JIRA now...

    1. Graham Hannington

      Creating table in Confluence has becoming good to use, but I cannot export it to JIRA now

      You might like to consider using Wikifier. For example, the Greasemonkey user script that adds a Wiki markup toolbar button to the Confluence 4 rich text editor:

      1. Create your table in the Confluence 4 rich text editor
      2. Click the Wiki markup toolbar button (introduced by the user script)
      3. Copy the wiki markup to the clipboard
      4. Paste the wiki markup into your JIRA issue

      If you do not like the idea of installing a Greasemonkey user script, use the Wikifier RT web page instead.

      I have not exhaustively tested the conversion of Confluence 4 tables into wiki markup; just the simple examples created by authors at my site.

      Let me know if you run into conversion problems. I suspect it is likely that you will. I will do what I can to fix any problems (no promises, though).

    2. Graham Hannington

      For very simple tables, as an alternative to creating the table in Confluence, you can create it in Microsoft Excel (I have tested the following procedure with Excel 2010):

      1. Create the table as a range of cells in Excel.
      2. Copy the cells to the clipboard.
      3. Paste into the Wikifier RT web page. The corresponding wiki markup appears.
      4. Copy the wiki markup to the clipboard, and then paste into your JIRA issue.

      This method does not honor any cell formatting (for example, bold highlighting is ignored). If you want the top row of the table to appear as a table header, you'll need to add the double vertical bars to the wiki markup yourself.

      1. Rob F

        Unfortunately many people can't use the Wikifier RT page. Most of us can't be pasting our proprietary company documentation on an external site. It's a really bad idea for anything sensitive or constrained by IP law.

        I wish that code was released and we could toss it on a local server.

        Kudos to whoever maintains it - just not something I can use, as much as I'd like to.

        1. Graham Hannington

          Thanks! That would be me (smile). (Click Help on the Wikifier RT web page, and you'll see my contact details in the "Support" sidebar.)

          Some points:

          • Wikifier RT is open source (for details, see the License heading at the end of the readme). It is released (on the web!); I just haven't made any effort to package it for distribution (sorry).
          • Feel free to toss a copy on a local server. Copy the following files (from http://www.amnet.net.au/~ghannington/confluence/wikifier/rt/) to a directory on your server:
            • index.html
            • rte-xhtml2wiki.xsl
            • sample-rt.html
            • readme.html
            (Yes, sorry, I should add this information to the readme. Or - as another user suggested - add the source to github.)
          • I created Wikifier RT, but I'm not actively maintaining it right now. I have good intentions of keeping up with changes to the Confluence RTE and storage format (XML) as they evolve, but paid work (my day job) might get in the way.

          Finally, regarding this:

          Most of us can't be pasting our proprietary company documentation on an external site. It's a really bad idea for anything sensitive or constrained by IP law.

          An excellent point. Which is why (from the readme):

          Wikifier RT does not send your content to a server. All processing of your content is done in your browser ("client-side").

          But I could say that, and then, in the JavaScript, be secretly copying your IP-laden documentation, right? (wink) That might even be possible with a locally installed copy (unless your firewall blocked such traffic).

          I am definitely not asking you to trust me. You can pick through the few lines of (JavaScript) code (in index.html) to see what it's doing (and smile or grimace at the coding style). Or throw it away and just use the XSLT stylesheet.

          Feel free to contact me directly about any of this (no promises, though).

           

          1. Rob F

            Thanks a lot for all the work you've done on this, I'm getting around to looking at running it locally now. I really hope Atlassian provides something like this in the future. Between this and Bob's wiki markup macro, I can tolerate newer versions of confluence and avoid the RTE.

            Thanks again. (sorry about late response, I turned off Watching on the page)

          2. GregS

            Graham,

            Thanks a lot for the directions to install this on Chrome. This is exactly what I needed... (as a newly indoctrinated Confluence system admin, I find it weird that there is no native way to edit Wiki markup).

            All the best in 2013!

            Greg-- 

  3. Graham Hannington

    You're welcome (smile).

    You will probably discover formatting (or combinations of formatting) that Wikifier RT does not convert properly. Feel free to let me know (no promises, though).

    I am not currently devoting much time to Wikifier (and related projects).

    Atlassian has made its position clear regarding wiki markup, and has remained steadfast despite much negative feedback (much of which is no longer visible because, rather than evolving the Confluence page comment mechanism to handle many comments, Atlassian took the expedient step of culling comments).

    As Atlassian evolves the Confluence storage format (XML vocabulary) and editor (RTE), it is likely that it will, increasingly, introduce new features that cannot be reproduced in wiki markup (and Atlassian has shown no intention of evolving wiki markup to match these features).

    I've previously suggested to Atlassian introducing an option to restrict the editor to using only "wiki markup"-friendly formatting (for selected pages, or sets of pages), but I think that this - or any change to support wiki markup - is unlikely to happen.

    The writing is on the wall. Wikifier et al is just me banging my head against the wall.

    When Confluence 4 arrived, I was already (mentally) prepared for the loss of wiki markup editing. I knew it was coming. In fact, I was optimistic about the possibilities of the new XML source format. While other users were railing against the loss of wiki markup editing, I was aghast at the lack of support for editing the XML; in particular, the lack of a schema or DTD. So I developed a schema/DTD; having done that, developing Wikifier et al was relatively straightforward, but it was an almost-incidental offshoot of working on the schema, rather than my original goal.

    Only later did I realize (as I mentioned in a comment on another page) that Atlassian's lack of - or, at best, lacklustre - support for editing the newly introduced XML source format was entirely consistent with its deprecation of wiki markup: Atlassian does not want users to edit page source directly. Atlassian introduced the XML source editor only grudgingly. (Lacklustre, grudgingly; I do not like using such words, but I am prepared to defend my use of them.) Atlassian wants you to use the RTE to edit pages. Period.

    I do not mean to engage in incessant, unproductive "Atlassian bashing". I'm writing like this because - it's a surprise to me - I care (for a whole bunch of reasons that I won't bore you with here).

    1. Anonymous

      Thanks for your sisyphean efforts...!

      I used to be a Confluence advocate/champion in our organization and interested in seeing how we could integrate it into our processes, including automation based on markup (simpler than XML, if I'm hacking XML I might as well just hack a web server...).  Being able to rapidly write content in markup and adjust it easily is, for me, essential to a wiki.  We'll keep using Confluence, for now, due to our investment and all the content we have in it, but I have zero attachment to it and we will be considering alternatives in the future.

  4. Anonymous

    What's the new workflow for users that copy the text into a real editor (like BBEdit) that they're already familiar with, and productive in, and copy the edited text back before saving?

    One use cases for this workflow is that real editors does autosaving and is therefore resistant to browser crashes (or accidental browser window closures) while editing large documents.

    While typing this comment I hit Preview, and then Cancel to get out of preview and back to editing my comment but my comment was now lost.

    1. Anonymous

      This is the same case for me.  For editing, I found it MUCH, MUCH faster to covert back to wiki, paste the text into TextPad or BBEdit, modify tables, graphs, tabs, etc., then paste back in and verify.  I could make changes/additions to a page in seconds.  Not being able to edit in wiki is a HUGE disappointment.  Trying to make changes/additions now is slow and painful, not to mention all of the bugs that the new editor has!

      1. Anonymous

        Completely agreed. I will be using Wikifier RT for my editing needs. 

         

  5. Anonymous

    I cannot nearly accomplish formatting wise with this editor what I could do in previous versions.  This is really disappointing. 

Except where otherwise noted, content in this space is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia License.