Confluence 4.0 Editor FAQ

With the release of Confluence 4.0, currently planned for early 2011, we will introduce a shiny new rich text editor. At the same time, the wiki markup editor will disappear.

People are already asking important questions, which we will answer below as soon as we can and in as much detail as is available. We are publishing these FAQ as early as possible, as soon as we have information that will be useful to you. The content is not final, but it is as correct and authoritative as we can make it. We will update it on an ongoing basis, as we get closer to the release date of Confluence 4.0.

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On this page:

Why is Atlassian doing this?

When will the new editor appear in Confluence?

The new editor will be in Confluence 4.0, currently scheduled for release in early 2011.

What are the features of the new editor?

The editor is a rich text editor, also known as a WYSIWYG editor, providing:

All features of the existing Confluence rich text editor and wiki markup editor combined.
A new editing toolbar.
Full-screen editing.
Easy-to-use macro placeholders in the editor itself.
A platform on which we can build high-demand features in future releases.
Improved stability and consistency between editor mode and display mode.

What does the new editor look like?

Pretty cool. It is still evolving, of course. You can take a look at the early alpha version that was demonstrated at Atlassian Summit in June 2010.

Go to the Confluence State of the Union presentation on the Atlassian Summit 2010 web site.
Play the 'Presentation Video', go to the 30 minute mark and watch the next 4 minutes of the video.

Will Confluence still have a wiki markup editor?

No. We plan to support one-way entry of wiki markup code. There will be an option in the editor where you can select 'Insert Wiki Markup' and then enter or paste wiki markup code into a popup dialogue box. When you click 'Insert' to submit your code, Confluence will convert the wiki markup to XHTML and place it on the page. You will not be able to edit it in wiki markup mode after the initial insertion.

Will you be able to edit the source XHTML code directly?

Yes and no. You will be able to switch to a source view (XHTML view), which will give you limited editing capabilities. The source view is not designed for use as a fully-featured editing mode.

What format will Confluence use to store its page content?

XHTML. Up to now, Confluence has stored its content in the database as wiki markup. In Confluence 4.0, the content will be stored as XHTML. Basically, XHTML is like HTML but complies with stricter formatting rules. Where HTML is based on SGML, XHTML is based on XML, which is a subset of SGML. Because XHTML documents need to be well formed, they can be parsed using standard XML parsers.

Will there be a tool to convert existing content from wiki markup to the new XHTML format?

Yes. Where possible, Confluence will automatically upgrade existing content into the new XHTML storage format. Please note that all our existing APIs will continue as normal, accepting wiki markup as input.

Will the Office Connector support the new XHTML format?

Yes. When you edit a wiki page in Word, the Office Connector currently translates what you have created in Word (with some limitations) into wiki markup for the page being edited. We are working on ensuring all our existing plugins work in the new editor and the new storage format. This includes the Office Connector.

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