I think the title says it all, I am new to Confluence and I have heard there is an older editor that is more usable. Please revert to it. Atlassian can do better than the current editor.
What is it you find annoying about the current (Cloud I presume) editor? Perhaps the community can help f you can be a little more specific about your frustrations.
If you want to experience the old editor (which also has pros and cons) you can create a personal Space (in Confluence cloud) and it (for some reason) still uses the old editor.
The thing I find most annoying about this editor is its poor formatting features. For example, there are multiple “Headings” available (1-6 ?) but only “normal text” for regular text. I would really like to be able to format the size of my normal text (font size or even choose the font I want to use). In addition, it is nearly impossible to just cut and paste from some other editor into confluence without picking up lots of empty space between lines. There should be a feature that allows me to set the size of spaces easily, there should be a feature that allows visualization of hidden characters. And so on. This is supposed to be a Wiki and yet the editor is so simple it is impossible to make it look interesting. I would like an editor that is more like a word processor for this task. I know it can be done on the Web, google docs for example. I’m using this tool to document my system for other people that work here and would like to use word processor features to make it easier to read/understand. I would like to be able to easily put in Tables and Images (Yes, those cut and paste fairly well). Come on, Atlassian can do better!
Have you tried importing from Word to create a page? That way you get your word processor but it ends up in Confluence.
What about the templates? Cloud has many that are great or great for inspiration on how to create beautiful content on Confluence. Not to mention, by using templates (either existing or ones you create yourself) you end up with continuity of page layout, which is great for making content easy to digest.
What about Macros and or 3rd party plugins ???
Beyond that, there are some cool clips on youtube to help inspire making simple but effective content on Confluence.
Personally, I think its simplicity is an advantage in making simple, but effective content. You just need to get use to it and approach it in a different way than you would a word doc.
Think more in terms of real time interactive content, rather than a document. Using more visuals, with feeds from Jira, and other macro/plug-in based content.
Yes, I did try to import from Word but apparently the formatting in Word is incompatible with this editor. I ended up with all kinds of space formatting.
Tried Templates for How-To, not very impressive, at least to me.
Macros, 3rd Party Plugins ? Where ? Whose ? Seriously, I have to add plugins to software we paid for for something as simple as an Editor ?
I am trying to use this to document the system and set it up it such a way that I can have To-Dos that I can link to from my Install Doc, Having access to a full featured Editor/WP isn't too much to ask.
Re: @Jaime Capitel
I'm a writer by career and have been a Confluence user for less than 3 years - it takes some time to get used to it, but for good and bad you will have to forget about word processors. I was very unhappy when I tried to use Confluence thinking of it as a bad version of Word. It's really a very different tool.Confluence has the advantage that it makes it very fast to create documentation and format content -- but that comes at the cost of limitations in formatting. Basically, I think at some point (really early on, tbh) Atlassian decided that Confluence had to be designed so every possible page looked clean, no matter what the user builds with it.
I'm a writer by career and have been a Confluence user for less than 3 years - it takes some time to get used to it, but for good and bad you will have to forget about word processors. I was very unhappy when I tried to use Confluence thinking of it as a bad version of Word. It's really a very different tool.
Confluence has the advantage that it makes it very fast to create documentation and format content -- but that comes at the cost of limitations in formatting. Basically, I think at some point (really early on, tbh) Atlassian decided that Confluence had to be designed so every possible page looked clean, no matter what the user builds with it.
I get that Confluence/Jira Cloud is quite different from Word and I agree that trying to get Word functionality out of its comment editor is overkill. However, I shouldn't have to install an extension to get an editor that works. Because the bugs OP describes are bugs I still deal with to this day.
Further, Extensions are essentially a non-starter option for people who work at companies that self-host their Jira cloud. OP has a point; we need something that works out of the box. This is paid enterprise software! No excuses.
Look at sites like Reddit. You can enter markdown text directly into the Reddit editor and viola, you have a clean formatted post in seconds.
To me, the current state of the default editor looks and acts like it hasn't been updated since 2009. Frankly, it's just bad. Any explanation as to why it's like that just feels like a poor excuse to get out of properly supporting the tool.
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