Is Atlassian changing 14-year old Confluence Keyboard Shortcuts?

[#1]

tl;dr - You won't lose these popular single-key shortcuts, except for Labels.

According to the latest documentation for Keyboard shortcuts and autocomplete, there are some new keyboard shortcuts for some of the most common actions my users and I regularly need in Confluence:

• Create page: Ctrl Opt C
• Comment: Command Opt C (what if you're on Linux or Windows?)
• Edit Labels: Ctrl Opt A
• Watch: Command Opt W (again, what about Linux/Windows?)

Source: Keyboard shortcuts and autocomplete (new)

I think these are coming starting in June.

These new shortcuts are very different from the single-key shortcuts added to Confluence way back in October 2010, as part of Confluence 3.4* that have stayed the same for the past 14 years:

Create (C), Comment (M), Labels (L), and Watch (W)

Source: Confluence guide to keyboard shortcuts! (2018, but they're the same)

But Don't Panic! (maybe)

Thankfully, right now it looks like MOST of the single-key shortcuts STILL WORK!

I tested on my Dev instance where I have the enabled the Live docs beta as well as the early access to "New/updated content layout", which I believe is described in the very recent announcement, ⭐️ Exciting collaboration updates for Confluence starting in June! 

And doing further testing, all but THREE of the old single-key shortcuts listed here still work:

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[Screenshot of my Prod instance on the Bundled Release Track (last release 2025/05/13). Inset from my Dev instance on the Continuous Track with Live docs beta and "New/updated/simplified content layout" enabled.]

So I've never used the shortcuts to view attachment or link content, but apparently as @Kristian Klima has discovered, at least regarding Labels, people got confused.

The lesson from that?

Atlassian - please do not deprecate (any other) old single-key shortcuts. And if you can bring back L for Labels, that'd be great.

I've definitely got long-time users who will most certainly start yelling at me if they can't hit C to create a page or W to watch a page. Probably have some old school users that  still bottom-comment. They'll be mad too. (And I'll be mad about the create thing.)

Thank you for your consideration!

*OMG will you look at those beautiful release notes, @Jens Schumacher - Released_so ? If only there was something like that for Cloud. Oh wait, there is!

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Darryl Lee 

Thanks for the information!  

And...that "Don't Panic" image took me back to having a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game for my older computers, which included the button and other misc. stuff :^)

Kind regards,
Bill

[Abby Crisp]

Hi @Darryl Lee,

Thanks for the feedback!
We do not plan to deprecate the single-character shortcuts in the short term, and we'll continue supporting them — including keeping "L" for Labels, "T" for Attachments and "K" for Link to Content.

We added the new shortcuts (like Ctrl + Opt + A) to ensure these actions work consistently across different page modes and editing environments in Confluence. That said, we understand the value of familiar, quick-access keys and are committed to supporting both where it makes sense.

In response to your other question above:
If you're on Linux or Windows Comment is Ctrl + Alt + C and Watch is Ctrl + Alt + W. 

Kind regards,
Abby, Page Create APM

[Darryl Lee]

Thanks for the reassurance, @Abby Crisp !

I confirmed that L is working for labels, and K is now working for Link to Content, however Ctrl+Opt+A now is not working for Labels.

I'm using Chrome 137.0.7151.104 on a Mac (Sonoma 14.7.5)

[Darryl Lee]

I spoke too soon. It works inconsistently. Sometimes I have to click somewhere on the page (this is in View mode). If I reload page, or go to a different page and then back, it also sometimes works. Odd.

[Darryl Lee]

Hey @Kristian Klima - ahhh, the discrepancy is still there with whether you've clicked into the page or not, but I now realize that there's a difference in Labels behavior between Home/Overview pages and regular pages:

Home/Overview pages (this is a new feature - you didn't used to be able to add Labels to these pages w/o Editing a page):

Regular non-Home/Overview pages:

Interesting stuff, eh @Kristian Klima ?

[Kristian Klima]

Am I holding it wrong? @Darryl Lee , if you have something to treat reality distortion field, I'll buy it :) 

I double checked and both sites seem to have new nav and new layout enabled.

Exhibit A

Private site - no label menu in the home page edit mode, but CAN add labels with the L shortcut.

Exhibit B

Company site - Label menu present, CANNOT add labels with the L shortcut.

[Darryl Lee]

Sorry to clarify, I believe the Edit labels menu option is part of the newest "Collaboration Updates" (which comes with the Live Docs beta) and yes, I see it's only available on company not personal sites. That's a good catch.

What I was trying to say is that that option is NOT available in the "New Navigation":

[Darryl Lee]

Hi @Abby Crisp --

Our instance that is on the Bundled Release Track received the "New collaboration features" today. I noticed this warning when my muscle memory kicked in and I created a new page using the age-old shortcut of "C" (without any modifier keys):

So uhm, back in June when you wrote:

We do not plan to deprecate the single-character shortcuts in the short term, and we'll continue supporting them — including keeping "L" for Labels, "T" for Attachments and "K" for Link to Content.

I probably should have asked - what does "short term" mean? 

Honestly, I'm not sure how you can call something "universal format" when Macs and Windows don't have the same modifier keys.

Universal to me would be shortcuts that don't require any modifier keys. You know, like these ones that again, have not changed in 14 years and are probably burned into many users' muscle memories:

Create (C), Comment (M), Labels (L), and Watch (W)

[Kris Klima _K15t_]

Can we, please, avoid this shortcut-gate to be a ... SHIFT-show? :) 

We might be half-way there... (but we're livin' on a prayer).

Every so often when I use an old shortcut, I'm surprised it still works and then there's the popup. So I'm with Darryl here questioning what's temporary/short-term. 

What we have now is less then ideal:

• confusing messaging
  • will be replaced
  • will be replaced soon
  • will be replaced eventually
  • some classics will remain but new shortcuts will be available too
• confusing behavior
  • some shortcuts work in some environments but not in in others...

And that's on top of the often discussed fact 1-key logical shortcuts are being replaced by 3-key shortcuts with no logic behind it. L stands for Label. Why replace it with A.

(I admit that this point of view is English-centric - but English is not my second language, and in my 12 years on Atlassian in very mixed language environments, L based on Label was accepted without prejudice :) )

[Darryl Lee]

You know what shortcut I would love for Atlassian to implement for Confluence?

Command-K. The Command Palette

Here is a keyboard shortcut that for some reason was learned very easily (maybe because it only takes TWO FINGERS), and more remarkably, I've already forgotten the beloved dot (.) menu.

But oof, like all changes, there were unhappy users too (oh hi @Kristján Geir Mathiesen!):

• We’re removing Jira’s dot menu to make way for a new and improved command palette 

But hey, only 74 comments, so it's not like it was as bad as moving the Status field/button with its 470 comments.

Heck comments here still fit on one page!