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

  1. Try the commands and menus you know from the old Rich Text Editor. The new editor incorporates much of the existing functionality.
  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:

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:
Typed your content directly into the editor window, using the toolbar buttons to insert other content.

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:
Clicked 'Insert / Edit Macro'.

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:

(info) You can still click 'Insert' > 'Other Macros'.

Formatting Text

What you did before

What to do now

Making text bold, italic or underlined:
Selected text and clicked the respective menu button.

No change.

Heading levels:
Selected text and chose a heading level from the menu.

No change.

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:
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:
Selected text and clicked the respective menu button.

Click this button on the editor toolbar and select from the drop-down list. Example:

Quoting text:
Selected text and chose the 'Quote' style from the drop-down menu.

No change:

Use the Quote style – select 'Quote' from the style dropdown menu or use the keyboard shortcut. Example:

Changing text colour:
Selected text and chose a colour from the menu bar.

No change:

Click the colour options on the editor toolbar. Example:

Adding Symbols and Emoticons

What you did before

What to do now

Smiley:
Clicked 'Insert' > 'Emoticon' on the toolbar. (smile)

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:

:)


(info) You can still click 'Insert' > 'Emoticon' on the toolbar.

Tick or check mark:
Clicked 'Insert' > 'Emoticon' > (tick).

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

(/)


(info) You can still click 'Insert' > 'Emoticon' > (tick).

Linking text

What you did before

What to do now (press Enter to complete actions)

Linking to a Confluence page:
Clicked 'Insert' > 'Link' on the toolbar.

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:

(info) You can still click 'Link' on the toolbar.

Linking text to a web page:
Selected the text and clicked 'Link' > 'Web Link' on the toolbar and typed the URL into the dialog box. }

Type a square bracket '[' and select 'Insert Web Link', then paste the URL into the link dialog. Example:

(info) You can still use 'Link' > 'Web Link' on the toolbar.

Linking to a page that does not yet exist:
Not available in previous versions of Confluence.

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

Linking to a mailto link:
Clicked 'Link' > 'Web Link' on the toolbar and typed

mailto:username@example.com

 

No change.
You still click 'Link' > 'Web Link' on the toolbar and type

mailto:username@example.com

Linking to an anchor on a page:
Clicked 'Link' > 'Web Link' on the toolbar and typed 'DestinationPage#AnchorName'.

No change.
You still click 'Link' > 'Web Link' on the toolbar and type 'DestinationPage#AnchorName'.

Linking to an attachment:
Clicked 'Link' > 'Attachment' on the toolbar.

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:

(info) 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:
Clicked 'Unordered List' on the toolbar.

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.


(info) You can still click 'Bullet List' on the toolbar.

Adding numbered items:
Clicked 'Ordered List' on the toolbar.

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.

(info) You can still click 'Numbered List' on the toolbar.

Adding line breaks in a numbered/bulleted list:
Pressed Shift+Enter.

No change. You can still press Shift+Enter.

Using tables

What you did before

What to do now

Adding a table:
Clicked 'Insert Table' on the toolbar.

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:

| | | |


(info) You can still click 'Insert' > 'Table' on the toolbar.

Editing a table:
Used the table buttons on the toolbar.

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:
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:
Clicked 'Insert Image' > 'From the Web' and inserted the URL of the image on the other 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:
Clicked 'Insert' > 'Macro' > 'Multimedia Macro' and chose content from the browser.

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.
RELATED TOPICS

Planning for Confluence 4

10 Comments

  1. 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. 

    1. Mark Hrynczak

      Yes:

      Type thisTo get this
      * xxx
      • xxx
      - yyy
      • yyy

  2. 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

     

    1. Anonymous

      in 3.x this has worked for MS-IE only but it didn't work for any other browser.

  3. Anonymous

    Hi all,

    Is it possible to align table to center of the page in new Editor (confluence 4.0)?

    1. Anonymous

      1. Create the table as per normal.
      2. Select the table
        (I dragged across the table to highlight all of the rows
      3. Click on the + button then click Other Macros 
        (Unsure why there isn't a Macro Browser button. Having to click + every time is extremely irritating) 
      4. Type 'Center' in the search box or scroll down...
      5. Click the Centre macro
        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 
      6. Save your page

      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. 

  4. Anonymous

    Does anyone else find it ironic that you have to click something on the toolbar to find the shortcuts?

    1. Adam Saint-Prix

      If you click Shift + ? that will also bring up the keyboard shortcut dialog.

  5. Anonymous

    Is there any replacement for Calendar Macro?

    1. 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. 

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