Why do we need new keyboard shortcuts?

[#1]

Answer: Google Live Docs

Let's take it back to 2015. Atlassian was soooo hyped about Collaborative Editing back then, they ran a contest that my colleague won where they raced to make edits to a page, but they were in working on the same page. (He won!)

But, WHY was Atlassian so jazzed about Collaborative Editing? Was anybody asking for this feature? 

Here's my theory:

I'm pretty sure _some people_ inside of Atlassian just loved their Google Docs. And they wanted Confluence to work the same way. These people must've been pretty high-up to get their way, because woof, anyone who had to suffer through the whole Synchrony stuff in the early days of Collaborative Editing knows that it was NOT an easy path.

SO, fast forward to 2025. Those Google Docs lovers must still be at Atlassian and still able to make their wishes come true.

Because we got Live Docs. Great. Google Docs inside of Confluence.

But here's the thing. Live Docs means your keyboard is always... live.

Which means your old single-key shortcuts that your fingers have memorized over the past 15 years? They've gotta go.

Hence, for the past 9 months (Live Docs introduced May 2025, new Keyboard Shortcuts announced in June 2025) we've all been seeing this ominous warning after we hit C to create a new page (which I just did several times tonight, which is why I'm writing this now):

I actually wrote about this back then:

Is Atlassian changing 14-year old Confluence Keyboard Shortcuts? 

And I came to the conclusion that you didn't have to panic.

Well, now I'm panicking a little, because back on June 17, 2025, @Abby Crisp 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.

When we asked what "short term" meant, we never got a response, and I'm wondering since that warning is still showing, if that short term is coming to an end.

Some of us old-timers might remember calling keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl-Opt-C "Vulcan Neck Pinches"

I like the term @Joshua Temple used in CONFCLOUD-74778 - Change keyboard shortcuts in Confluence Cloud: "serious finger gymnastics"

Bottom line. They suck. Please stop trying to make Confluence into Google Docs.

References:

how can i keep the old keyboard shortcuts? 

> Accepted answer: You can't

All the New Confluence Shortcuts You Need to Know 

Back in July, 2025, @Patricia Modispacher _k15t_ optimistically wrote:

We know change is tough—especially for muscle memory—but you'll get used to these small shifts quickly.

Uhm, I don't know. With my old age my memory, including that of my muscles is getting pretty bad. And Ctrl-Opt-C is super-awkward to type. Which kind of doesn't match what you wrote immediately before:

Confluence is now faster, more intuitive, and more powerful

More intuitive? How is Ctrl-Opt-C more intuitive? Woof.

But yes. We don't have a choice. Higher-ups at Atlassian who LOVE Google Docs are making the call. 

But at least I can yell about it:

Confluence isn't Google Docs. If you want Google Docs, use Google Docs.

See also: Confluence is not Lucid, Miro, or Jamboard (oh god, more Google envy)

[Darryl Lee]

Shout out to @Kristian Klima who first alerted me about the shortcut changes, specifically as they affected Labels.

I don't use that one much, but I use C to Create all the time and I will be severely annoyed when it's taken away, because that message above makes it very clear that we don't have a choice. :-/

[Darryl Lee]

Ooof, I just had a horrible thought:

Higher up inside of Atlassian, rubbing his hands together:

Yesss, next we should try to do Confluence Spreadsheets..... and then maybe Confluence Slides.

Wait wait, hear me out... CMail

[Kris Klima _K15t_]

@Darryl Lee ... I have a similar relationship with Folders. Like pages but useless. You click and nothing happens. No context, no info, no intro.

Also, I just realized that L still works :D 

I completely lost my hope on shortcuts in Confluence (except to some in Editor) and E.

I'm only reminded of their existence when I accidently press a bunch of keys and get the pop-up that whatever I hit is gonna change. Or something random happens.

[Avery W_ Krouse]

It’s very odd to me that this post bashing on a feature in the Atlassian platform was allowed to be posted as an Article and therefore sent out on the RSS feeds.

I use Live Docs all the time. I significantly prefer them to regular Confluence pages, especially for situations when multiple people are all in there at the same time such as when we are all taking notes in a client meeting. So your keyboard shortcuts changed. Is that really worth writing however many hundreds of words you did here?

[Darryl Lee]

@Avery W_ Krouse Ah RSS feeds. A man after my own heart (even though I actually "monitor" these forums by email which is incredibly ineffective). But I appreciate your use of the right tool for the right job. 

But ok, I will concede that some people must like and make good use of Live Docs. That's all fine and well.

But why does that mean Atlsssian has to deprecate single-key shortcuts for Pages? Let Live Docs users contort their fingers to create new pages.  Leave us old folks with our arthritic hands and fading muscle memory continue to use single keys. It's a version of backwards compatibility, and because for some reason I just re-read the Community Forums Guidelines I'm reminded one of Atlassian's core values: Don’t #@!%
the customer.

If/when they remove the Create and Edit shortcuts (oh man @Kris Klima _K15t_ I forgot about E for Edit. I use that far more than C and I bet the vast majority of my users do too), I will absolutely feel #@!%ed.

. . . 

As to your question about how this article was allowed: it turns out that articles can be written by anyone. Not just Atlassian employees, not just partners, not just vendors. But also customers. Users. Admins. That's me. I'm speaking for myself, but I'm also speaking for my users, and other users. I "bash" a feature (and I try to do so facetiously) because I truly want Atlassian to do better. Yes, somebody believed in Live Docs, and clearly some customers like you, find it to be very useful.

But new features don't have to come at the expense of breaking old features that are also extremely useful. So the keyboard shortcuts aren't "Universal"? Does that actually hurt Live Docs usage? It's consistency for consistency's sake, and if anyone knows the folly of being a pedant, it's this guy. (Pointing at myself here.)

But I digress (again). The button to start and article is a hard to find, but it's there. For everybody. You, even!

Sorry my writing style's not your cup of tea. Yes. I've been accused of using 25 words when 10 would do. It's a curse. 

Maybe your RSS reader can filter me out? But I hope you won't. I'm not always this cranky. :-)