Confluence 4.0 Editor - What's Changed for Users of the Old Rich Text Editor

This page is a DRAFT and is visible to Atlassian staff only. We will publish it sometime before the release of Confluence 4.0, when we have enough verified content to be useful.

This page is a quick-reference guide describing the changes to the editor in Confluence 4.0, 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.

On this page:

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).

Before and After Guide

Below are the most commonly used RTE menu options and how they play into the new editor menu.

Using Old Rich Text Editor	What You Did Before	What to Do Now
Basic typing and editing	Typed your content directly into the editor window, using the menu buttons to insert other content.	Much the same. Generally, the transition from using the Confluence 3.5 Rich Text Editor to the new Confluence 4.0 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.
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 the heading text and chose a heading level from the menu.	No change.
Left, centre and right alignment	Not available in previous versions of Confluence.	Unable to render {include} The included page could not be found.
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:
Colour	Selected text and chose a colour from the menu bar.	No change: Click the colour options on the editor toolbar. 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: Read 'em and weep: {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:
Adding Symbols and Emoticons	What you did before	What to do now
Smiley	Clicked 'Insert' > 'Emoticon' on the toolbar.	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	Clicked 'Insert' > 'Emoticon' > .	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
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: 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: 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 '* username@example.com* '.	No change. You still click 'Link' > 'Web Link' on the toolbar and type '* 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: You can still click 'Link' > 'Attachment' on the toolbar.
Using bulleted and numbered lists	What you did before	What to do now
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: 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	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: 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	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: `\| \| \| \|` You can still click 'Insert' > 'Table' on the toolbar.
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.
Linking an image	Included the image markup inside the link markup. Example: [!Home By Now^NoMatterWhat.png!\|http://www.example.com/song]	TBC.
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\|height=800,width=600,id=media!	Use the Multimedia macro. Type an exclamation mark '!' and select 'Insert Other Media'. Example: Or type '{' and start typing the macro name 'Multimedia'. Example:

Autocomplete and Autoformat in Action

Here's a short video showing off the basic editor improvements.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pd02l91V7cg

Functionality that is No Longer Available

There are a few things you can no longer do in the Confluence 4.0 editor, that were possible using the old rich text editor in Confluence 3.5 and earlier.

Note: Development of Confluence 4.0 is ongoing! It is possible that some of the items below will be available in the final version of Confluence 4.0. We will update this list whenever things change.

Things you cannot do in Confluence 4.0:

Remove sections and columns but leave the content in place. Removing the section/column formatting also removes the content. You need to copy or cut the content, paste it to the new location, then remove the sections and columns.
Resize images using draggable corners. The image properties panel offers the following options for image size: small, medium, large and original size.
Edit a page in Microsoft Word. See FAQ entry.

Notes

Update policy: We have made these guides available as soon as they contain useful information. The content is not final, but it is as correct and authoritative as we can make it while the editor is still under development. We will update the guides regularly during the period up to the final release of Confluence 4.0. Please watch this page to stay informed.

Page tree

How to Get Started Quickly

Before and After Guide

Autocomplete and Autoformat in Action

Functionality that is No Longer Available

Notes

RELATED TOPICS