This page last changed on Sep 08, 2011 by edawson.

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.

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).

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 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 4.0 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.

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:

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 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

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:

  1. Edit a page in Microsoft Word. See FAQ entry.

Notes

  • Update policy: We have made these guides available as sooon 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.
RELATED TOPICS

Planning for Confluence 4.0

Document generated by Confluence on Sep 19, 2011 02:29