I would like to edit a Wiki page while seeing the Navigation and Page Comments.

Question

I would like to edit a Wiki page while seeing the Navigation and Page Comments, but not sure why the update to Confluence forces me to edit pages in fullscreen. As a result I lose all context and am unable to refer to user comments or refer to the navigation when editing copy within the page. Can this setting be changed? or is it a UX bug introduced with the latest changes to the navigation? Assistance is greatly appreciated as it is wastes a lot of precious copywriting time and is super slow and difficult to work with.

Shannon S · Answer

Hello Clarence,

My apologies for the delay in getting back to you!

The main navigation bar previously appeared on the left while viewing the page, but it wasn't visible while editing. I was able to confirm this with a few past examples. The page tree navigation and comments are part of the page view, separate from the edit view, so this is why it doesn’t appear when editing the page.

The new navigation bar is now at the top of the page, but it also does not appear while editing a page.

I discovered two feature requests logged by customers who agree that a navigation and overview of page comments should be available while editing:

* CONFCLOUD-65766 Viewing comments at the time of editing
* CONFCLOUD-27051 Provide navigation in the editor while editing

By voting on these requests, you can help to ensure that they are properly prioritized according to our new features policy.

Thanks again for providing that feedback! Let me know if you have any further missing requirements or questions.

Shannon

clarence_ob6u2s · Answer

Thanks Shannon! Am I going cray cray? I am sure I used to see the Main Nav Bar on the left whilst editing the page on the right? The new nav bar I am sure didn’t used to hide. But I use a lot of great products so maybe I could be mistaken.

Either way don't you think the UX is bad based on hiding the tree and comments when editing a wiki page???

I think that as a wiki it’s important to be able to edit in context of the page tree.

Often times you are naming a page in context to pages around it. Or the referring to names of other pages to include as links on the page you are working on.

The basic premise of a wiki is organising pages into trees. If I wanted a focused word processor you would use google docs. Building a wiki microsite as  knowledge base is different use case. Content is inherently related.

Feel it is very bad UX to therefore force users to open a page fullscreen to edit when that is not their choice.

In addition surprised how customers on cloud are able to amend a wiki page based on user comments if the the users comments don't appear when I am editing the document??? That’s definitely cray cray.

This is a basic UX bug if you use the product collaboratively. Cant even reply comments taken without cumbersomely navigating out of edit mode waiting for page to construct and the find comment the  repeating all over again for the next feedback comment.

In conclusion it is really hard to have to edit/close edit close just to capture feedback comments into the copy.

Appreciate a fix or instructions if I am missing some options available that rectifies all the above.

Also the new automatic slide in and out navbar breaks in Safari. Happened several times on client and internal calls where I am sharing my screen and the bar  bugs out.

Nav bars should just be simple persistent and hide-able when required. Should be very easy to solve - simple UX. Plenty of great industry patterns. Getting basics right is so important.

Shannon S · Answer

Hello Clarence,

Thank you for raising this with us. When you say that Confluence is forcing you to edit pages in full screen, you don't mean that it puts your browser in Full Screen Mode, but that the editor takes up the full height and width of your browser. Is that right?

To compare, the newest Confluence navigation has moved the navigation bar back up to the top of the page.

The previous version has the navigation on the side of your screen:

In both cases, when editing a page in Confluence, the navigation bar is not displayed. This is not related to the new navigation.

In Confluence Server, however, the top nav does display (see in The Editor):

Perhaps this is what you might be remembering? If not, would you be able to show me an example of how your editor page used to look?

In all cases, the page comments do not display, as these are only supposed to display in page view. I can't recall a time when page comments did display in edit mode, but if you can show me how it used to look for you, I might be able to determine what changed.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Shannon