nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Anchor links do not work

Madhav Gudimetla V

Using confluence is so simple and easy. But, I have been having a nightmarish time trying to get Anchor work for me. I am using "Confluence 1000.0.0-66d80941701".

On a page, say, "https://<>.com/myspace/main page/sub page/my page1", I created an anchor with the name bottom. (please note the spaces in my URL).

On another page, say, "https://<>.com/myspace/main page/my page2", I created a link using Advanced tab selection, and pointed to anchor my page1#bottom.

I Published both pages. Clicking on the link NEVER takes me to the anchor location. Always takes me to top of the page in "https://<>.com/myspace/main page/sub page/my page1"

I followed the example https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Insert-an-Anchor/qaq-p/1013116 ... but it doesnt work!

Need this to be resolved ASAP for me to create a bi-directional traceability in the spec I am writing. Kindly help!

Accepted answers

Max Foerster - K15t

Hi Madhav,

how have you configured the link to your anchor on the other page? From what you wrote I assume both pages are in the same space. By entering the page name as it is (with spaces) and adding the anchor name you can make it work. I just tested it again because I like to use this feature as well. So just add on the advanced tab: "page name with spaces#anchorname" without quotation marks and please let me know if it works for you If not, please add a screenshot of the link configuration, the anchor name, and page title so we can build the link together.

Best,

Max

All comments

Max Foerster - K15t

Hi Madhav,

Best,

Max

Madhav Gudimetla V

Yes, I am working in the same confluence space.

I just now created sample / dummy pages with page names containing spaces, and having sub pages within. I created an anchor inside one of the sub pages and a link in one of the top pages. I am able to navigate and it works. (I did not include draw.io images in this experiment!)

Unfortunately, when I do the same on my main confluence spec (which includes draw.io images), I am always getting redirected to top of the page.

One thing I found out thru this exercise is I am using draw.io plugin for drawing images in confluence. And I just now found that draw.io plugin is playing spoilsport. When my anchor on the page is way down below, and I have a fairly large draw.io image on top of the page, the image load re-positions the view to the top of the page! As a result, Anchor gets overridden!

So, I attribute the functional misbehaviour of Anchor in Confluence to the presence of a draw.io image in the page.

Without draw.io image, the anchor is working like a charm!

I will have to accept your answer. Create a new ticket with draw.io plugin issue.

Thanks for your time, Max! You are indeed the community champion!

Max Foerster - K15t

Don't make me blush! You're welcome. But your findings are interesting. I will keep an eye out and test some other embedded contents and how they interact with anchors. And hopefully, there will be a fix soon for your specific issue!

Rodney Hughes

Hi am having similar problems ...

I want to be able to email a link to a specific anchor on a specific page

As far as I can tell I have used the right formatting as follows

Anchor name is UNTICK

Page name is 1 Quick Start Guide

Space Key is CORES

https://groups.org/display/CORES/1+Quick+Start+Guide/#1QuickStartGuide-UNTICK

When I email that link to myself, when I click the link in the email it takes me to the correct page but not to the Anchor point, just the top of the page.

I am currently using Sever 5.8.16 but we will soon be upgrading to 6.15

Max Foerster - K15t

Hi Rodney,

that doesn't look right for me. Could you try:

https://groups.org/display/CORES/1+Quick+Start+Guide#1QuickStartGuide-UNTICK

Best, Max

Rodney Hughes

Thanks Max

tried that ... that also open the right page but doesn't skip down to the Anchor point

I have spotted some other references that indicate that linking to an anchor from outside the Confluence instance has a bug and doesn't work.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-62501

Gary_hql148

I have the same problem. I don't think Anchors work.

The URL I'm trying to make work is:

https://confluence.MyCOmpanyDomain.com/confluence/display/DCPH/Test%3A+Word1+Word2+Word3#myanchor

I tried defining my anchor as both #myanchor and myanchor (in case the octothorp is required in the coding, unlike using the traditional <a .... > tag in HTML. In both cases, when I use my anchor in the URL, it goes to the top of the page, not the anchor.

The HTML snippet in my page source code is:

<td>
<div class="content-wrapper">
<p>
<span style="color: rgb(0,51,102);"> <span style="color: rgb(0,51,102);"> <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="30a27554-999c-45f7-a2fc-ed47f53b34ab" ac:name="anchor" ac:schema-version="1">
<ac:parameter ac:name="">#myanchor</ac:parameter>
</ac:structured-macro>Text for myanchor</span> </span>
</p>
<p>
<span style="color: rgb(0,51,102);"> <span style="color: rgb(0,51,102);">[ OCS ]<br/> </span> </span>
</p>
</div>
</td>

Rodney Hughes

Confluence Cloud claims some sort of fix https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-62589

Pending response on Confluence Server https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-58628

Stephan Gehring

We have noticed similar issues: clicking a hyperlink in a draw.io figure jumps to the wrong place on the same page. Not totally off, just too far down. Sometimes it works better, sometime worse.

Mai Siam_wwoo7q

Hi everyone- I was able to solve the issue today

Create anchor at the location you want it to direct to:

Add Anchor Marco

Anchor Name #testname

then insert link using any page in your sapce

Link: Page name##testname

Link Text: Test Name

the double hashtag did it for me.

hope this helps

Anton Khvorov

Any updates on that? I have the same issue

Rodney Hughes

We are now on Server v7.2.1

I placed an anchor on a page titled "page anchor link 1" and called it "Target"

Then on another page I placed an "Advanced Link" with text "jump to target" and the following link

page anchor link 1##Target

it went to the page, but not the anchor point

I changed the Advanced link to just one #

page anchor link 1#Target

That worked!!

It would seem that there may be an additional problem that the link is "page title" dependant i.e. change the page location or title and the link would be broken.

So I tested that and changed the target page title

Good news .. the Advanced Link automatically updated

Bill Rudy

All, I was having this problem until I realized something...you can't select the page you're linking to, then go and add JUST the anchor in the Advanced field. You have to go to Advanced and add BOTH the page name, the "#" character, and the anchor name (keeping in mind it is case and space sensitive). That made it work for me. Frankly I find that confusing and not documented accurately or clearly here https://confluence.atlassian.com/conf76/anchors-1018768661.html#Anchors-Step2 , but hey, go with what works. We are on Server 7.4.1 FYI, but I suspect this is true going back many versions.

Mike Frohme_fbyaql

This worked for me ... finally! (at least within Confluence) ... I guess I have always missed the 'Advanced' recommendation. I have not been successful with anchor links from external pages , but will try again.

ABoerio

I still see a big problem when trying to link to anchors from outside confluence, eg from a web page, a pdf file, email or whatever else.

In these cases I normally use the absolute link to the page Id (from "Share link"), because page titles might change. If I try to add #anchor name to these links, it just goes to the page top. :-(

arthurgoldberg

Much too complicated and cumbersome, IMHO.

arthurgoldberg

Much too complicated and cumbersome. Effectively broken.

Joseph Calaway

So this may be an issue because of user error (as I discovered with myself). I'd suggest validating that your anchor macro itself doesn't have a # in the naming convention. Eg, use anchorname in the macro, not #anchorname. Then in your link, use #anchorname and it should work.

Lawrence S Harris

Using the server version, it's a shame the anchor links don't work if accessed from outside of confluence.

Anchors are a very poor implementation of something that should be a basic feature and should be easy to figure out. Instead it is arcanely implemented and non-functional in a wide variety of possible use cases for no apparent reason.

I also see that the cloud implementation allows implicit anchors for section headers, however, that implementation breaks completely if we add numbered headers.

Furthermore, the server version doesn't do implicit anchors on section headers at all. I cannot explain why very basic functionality between implementations can't be synchronized.

greg calica_01wbut

I have finally figured it out.

Well maybe I figured out my "it" and the community can use my solution as way to figure out their "it"s.

I'm exclusively using MS' Edge browser. I haven't tried the others, so your mileage may vary.

So, I was putting in two anchors in a page where one would be linked elsewhere within the same page and the other from another page (actually from a Scroll imageMap). No matter what I did based on the suggestions provided by the others, I could not get the imageMap external link (the other options don't allow for the #) to work. I gave up and went to the other anchor link (the one that links within the same page) and it worked. Just by chance I looked at the URL and what do you know--it looks NOTHING like any of the documentation and blogs I seen to date. I'm gonna do my best to explain the URL without disclosing my actual. I hope my explanation is clear.

On my page called "My Page" I have two anchors: #paragraph_one and #paragraph_two
Using the Link utility to setup a link to an anchor within the same page works
- just the #<anchor name> format works
- the <page name>#<anchor name> format works
- I'm willing to bet that the https://site.com/confluence/<page name><page name>#<anchor name> format would work (IDK, didn't bother testing)
Clicking on this link revealed the following URL
- https://site.com/confluence/My+Page#MyPage-paragraph_one
Note the format: #<pagename>-<anchor name>
- no space between the words of my page's name
- the dash that separates the page name and anchor name
Using this format to specify the external link for my other page's imageMap (https://site.com/confluence/My+Page#MyPage-paragraph_two) "worked"
- I placed the word worked in parentheses because, there is still some bugginess in that the anchored point is presented out of the viewable area
- I think this is due to the sequence of how the page loads (images get loaded after the anchor, which pushes the anchor out of view)
- I just placed the anchor I little further up than the obvious point and the experience is close to what I want

Colin Smart

This worked for me too - thanks @greg calica I was about to give up!!

ps. I was using Chrome, and on Confluence 7.4.11

Revital Ferster

Found a solution.

I have tried all the suggestions above. None worked for me from outside of Confluence.

Finally I have used the html macro instead, with html code for a bookmark

And voilla - finally I can refer to this bookmark from outside

Example:

The bookmark: Within the html macro I have put: <h2 id="AAA"/>

Then I could refer to this bookmark by : page-url#AAA

Brandon Zupancic

So, in other words, anchor links work exactly the same as a hyperlink INSIDE of Confluence, but anchor links cannot be linked to from outside of Confluence. I'm struggling to understand why you would even use an anchor link instead of a regular hyperlink inside of Confluence.

It would be far more valuable to be able to insert an anchor link inside a document that you can then link to from an external source. For example, if you have a lengthy Confluence document with dated updates, it would be extremely valuable to add an anchor link to each date that you can share to make it easier for colleagues to click through to the specific information they need without having to scroll through a long document. That's just one example of how an anchor link SHOULD work. There are dozens of other, similar use cases. For now, anchor links serve no purpose that a hyperlink does not already serve.

Rodders Hughes

Having an Anchor inside a Confluence page ...

Putting a link in an external Word doc or PDF or some other web site to that Confluence page Anchor is only useful if the reader has User access to your Confluence site.

We produce Word and PDF documents for an industry public web site. We use Anchors and links to Anchors on the Confluence page. When we export the Confluence page to Word or PDF, it correctly converts the links to Anchors into links to the document location on my PC and then to the Anchor location in that document.

"Normal" hyperlinks dont do that as they would always point to the Confluence page.

David

Worked for me on DC v8.5.18.

But it's absolutely not normal/instinctive behavior..

christian_winheller

Thanks that syntax helped. I was able to see it in the page code using developer tools. It still works imperfect since it directly jumps to that location and any content loaded later may move the scrolling position, but, ok, at least now we are closer to the content on the page. Really needs improvement