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This page is a quick-reference guide describing the changes to the editor in Confluence 4.0 and later, showing you how to perform your day-to-day tasks in the new editor. This guide is for people who regularly used the Rich Text Editor in earlier versions of Confluence.
How to Get Started Quickly
- Try the commands and menus you know from the old Rich Text Editor. The new editor incorporates much of the existing functionality.
- Learn the keyboard shortcuts. Click the help icon on the editor toolbar to see a list of keyboard shortcuts.
- 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:
Before and After Guide
Below are the most commonly used menu options from the old Rich Text Editor, and instructions on how to perform the same actions in the new editor.
Using the Editor
What You Did Before | What to Do Now |
---|---|
Basic typing and editing: | Your experience should be much the same. Generally, the transition from using the Confluence 3.5 Rich Text Editor to the new Confluence 4 editor should be smooth. Try doing things the way you always did, and check the table below if you can't find the feature you're looking for. |
Adding Macros
What you did before | What to do now (press Enter to complete actions) |
---|---|
Adding a macro to your page: | 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: You can still click 'Insert' > 'Other Macros'. |
Formatting Text
What you did before | What to do now |
---|---|
Making text bold, italic or underlined: | No change. |
Heading levels: | No change. |
Left, centre and right alignment: | Click the left, centre and right alignment buttons on the editor toolbar: This can also be used to align images independently of text. |
Indentation: Click the left and right indentation buttons on the editor toolbar: | No change. Click the left and right indentation buttons on the editor toolbar: |
Making text strikethrough, monospace, superscript or subscript: | Click this button on the editor toolbar and select from the drop-down list. Example: |
Quoting text: | No change: Use the Quote style – select 'Quote' from the style dropdown menu or use the keyboard shortcut. Example: |
Changing text colour: | No change: Click the colour options on the editor toolbar. Example: |
Adding Symbols and Emoticons
What you did before | What to do now |
---|---|
Smiley: | 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:
You can still click 'Insert' > 'Emoticon' on the toolbar. |
Tick or check mark: | Type a forward slash in round brackets. Autocomplete will convert it as you type. Example:
You can still click 'Insert' > 'Emoticon' > . |
Linking text
What you did before | What to do now (press Enter to complete actions) |
---|---|
Linking to a Confluence page: | 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: You can still click 'Link' on the toolbar. |
Linking text to a web page: | Type a square bracket '[' and select 'Insert Web Link', then paste the URL into the link dialog. Example: You can still use 'Link' > 'Web Link' on the toolbar. |
Linking to a page that does not yet exist: | Type a square bracket '[' and the name of the non-existent page, then select 'Insert Link to Create Page'. Example: |
Linking to a mailto:username@example.com
| No change. mailto:username@example.com |
Linking to an anchor on a page: | No change. |
Linking to an attachment: | 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: You can still click 'Link' > 'Attachment' on the toolbar. |
Using bulleted and numbered lists
What you did before | What to do now (press Enter to complete actions) |
---|---|
Adding bullets: | Type an asterisk '*' followed by a space. Autoformat will convert the line to a bulleted list. You can continue typing your text immediately. Example: To add another line of text to an entry without creating a new list item, press Shift + Enter at the end of the line. You can still click 'Bullet List' on the toolbar. |
Adding numbered items: | 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: To add another line of text to an entry without creating a new list item, press Shift + Enter at the end of the line. You can still click 'Numbered List' on the toolbar. |
Adding line breaks in a numbered/bulleted list: | No change. You can still press Shift+Enter. |
Using tables
What you did before | What to do now |
---|---|
Adding a table: | 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:
You can still click 'Insert' > 'Table' on the toolbar. |
Editing a table: | No change, you can still use the toolbar table editing controls, with new features such as table merge and split. |
Displaying images
What you did before | What to do now (press Enter to complete actions) |
---|---|
Displayed an image attached to the page: !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: | Click 'Insert' > 'Search' and type search terms to find the image in Confluence. Once found, click the image and it will be added to the page. |
Embedding multimedia files
What you did before | What to do now (press Enter to complete actions) |
---|---|
Embedding a video, movie or audio file into a page: | 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.
- Edit a page in Microsoft Word. See FAQ entry.
10 Comments
Alexander Vyrsky
Is it possible to have a different bullet symbol instead of a circular bullet symbol (black circle) in bullet items? For example, a black square.
Mark Hrynczak
Yes:
Anonymous
Hi all,
with the new V4.0 it is no longer possible to create a link to a document (e.g. pdf) located on a different file server?
In the earlier version it was possible to add the absolute path (e.g. \\<server name>\path to the file) as link to link text.
cheers
Peter
Anonymous
in 3.x this has worked for MS-IE only but it didn't work for any other browser.
Anonymous
Hi all,
Is it possible to align table to center of the page in new Editor (confluence 4.0)?
Anonymous
(I dragged across the table to highlight all of the rows
(Unsure why there isn't a Macro Browser button. Having to click + every time is extremely irritating)
Your table will now be stuck in a high macro box thing which will take up 1/5 of the screen with the name "Center". It looks like the old panel macro in edit mode
Your table is now centered. You can also create your table using | and || to start with. Which is nice. Or use + then Wiki Markup to insert a table. Alternatively, you could insert the center macro first then put your table in the center macro. Get used to clicking that + button, you will be doing it a lot.
No idea how to get your table out though. Careful: If you remove the surrounding center macro it will delete all of the macro contents.
Anonymous
Does anyone else find it ironic that you have to click something on the toolbar to find the shortcuts?
Adam Saint-Prix
If you click Shift + ? that will also bring up the keyboard shortcut dialog.
Anonymous
Is there any replacement for Calendar Macro?
Anonymous
Yes. Confluence Team Calendars. http://www.atlassian.com/software/team-calendars/overview
It is no longer a free plugin. After 3.x the old {calendar} plugin will no longer work.
There is no free replacement for the old {calendar} macro.