📣 Early Access: Live-Edit Pages! Create and edit without the need to Publish!

[#1]

👋 Hi Confluence Community! 

We’re excited to announce the highly requested early access program for live-edit pages. Sign up here! 

With live-edit pages, you can create and edit content without the need to publish. 

If you've used tools like Google Docs, you'll be familiar with this style of editing. It's all about making collaboration easier and more efficient.

⚡️ A live-edit page is an instantly editable page that eliminates friction in the editing process. You don't need to click multiple times to enter or exit editing mode.

Real-time edits are visible instantly vs. a published page that initially exists as a draft and must be published and updated to be distributed or shared.

📝 But don’t worry, you won’t lose access to the publishing functionality — page editing just gets a whole lot easier.

Sign up today for exclusive access to live-edit pages!

Try Live-edit Pages today - Early Access Program

You and your team can sign up NOW to try out live-edit pages. All Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise customers are welcome to sign up for this Early Access Program. 

Live-edit pages will be toggled on for all Spaces initially, and can be toggled on/off at the Space level via Space Settings as needed. All existing pages will not be affected and will remain in their former state i.e. as Drafts and Published pages. When turned "on," only net new pages will be live-edit. 

In order to participate, you’ll need someone in an administrative role at the site or organization level to sign up for this EAP. Interested in the Early Access Program, but not an admin? Message your admin to sign up!

• Step 1: Admins can sign up here.

• Step 2: Join our private Community group. Share this Community group link with members of your team so they can give feedback and stay up to date with latest in the live-edit pages early access program.

• Step 3: You will receive an email from us confirming that you have been provisioned into the Confluence Live-edit Pages EAP. Once you receive this email, follow the instructions pinned in our Community Group.

• Step 4: You're good to go!

Once you are in, please feel free to post any questions or comments in our Community group.

We’re very excited to hear your valuable feedback!

[Bri]

@Sam Lucas Looking forward to this functionality! To confirm, is this something that once toggled on affects all spaces or is it something that we can toggle on for only certain spaces to begin? 

[Sam Lucas]

Hi @Bri

Thank you for your interest! 

Live-Edit Pages will be toggled on for all Spaces initially, and can be toggled on/off at the Space level via Space Settings as needed. All existing pages will remain in their former state. I.e. this will only change net new pages created when turned on. 

We will provide more information to all who sign up for the Early Access Program and via our  Community group! 

Thanks! 

Sam 

[Barbara Szczesniak]

@Sam Lucas Does this mean that other users will see my content throughout the editing process, rather than seeing the last-published content until I'm ready for them to see my updates?

[Sam Lucas]

Hi @Barbara Szczesniak ! 

That is correct. With live-edit pages, your editing is visible to others whom have proper permissions. As a user, you can make your page private to you initially. 

If applicable, you can always publish your live-edit pages at any time as well, thus achieving the state of being able to edit while others are viewing your last published version. 

Live-edit pages make the initial creation and collaboration workflow quick and easy, while still preserving the source of truth benefit of "Publish" when and where applicable. 

Hope to see you in the EAP and gather your feedback! 

Thanks,

Sam 

[Martin James]

I have quite a few concerns with this if you decide to roll this feature out to all Cloud customers. I really hope that we can switch this off from a global level so that we don't need to go through the hundreds of spaces to disable it. We should also have the option to restrict space admins from enabling this feature from a space level.

Allowing teams to see content straight away in a Live-edit feature can introduce several high risks:

1. Security Concerns: Immediate visibility of edits could potentially expose sensitive or confidential information to unauthorized users. This increases the risk of data breaches or leaks.
2. Accidental Changes: With real-time edits visible instantly, there's a higher chance of accidental changes being made to important content. Users might mistakenly modify critical information without realizing it, leading to errors or confusion.

3. Lack of Review: Content being visible immediately means there's less opportunity for review and quality control before others see it. Without a chance to review changes, there's a risk of misinformation or inaccuracies being propagated.

4. Loss of Version Control: Instantly visible edits may lead to confusion about the current version of the content. Without a clear version history or the ability to revert changes easily, teams may struggle to track modifications and maintain version control.

5. Workflow Disruptions: Constantly changing content can disrupt workflow and collaboration, especially if team members are simultaneously editing the same document. Conflicts may arise, leading to versioning issues and delays in progress.

While some customers might benefit from this feature, this doesn't particularly help those who take quality control and security seriously. 

[Keith Sottung]

I'm 100% behind the concern raised by @mybucket2018  

[Barbara Szczesniak]

@Sam Lucas I don't think you took my question/comment as the negative I intended it to be.

[Tobias H]

I really like the idea of having something to challenge the easiness of starting new joint documentations with Google Docs, but I do share the concerns of the people above.

Especially with this being the main way to create new pages AND the lack of control from admins. Why would it FIRST be enabled workspace wide and then need to be turned of one-by-one on Space levels?

What is the thought behind using Live Edit as the one and only method of creating new pages? What would be the drawback of having create "Page [Unpubllished]" and "Page [Live Edit]" (or similar)?

How well would a non-read up users be able to understand that if they create this new page, potentially writing a to-be change that would massively change one or more ways of the company, that it will be visible from the get-go and even findable by search/keywords from the first word has been entered?

---

Additionally; I fail to see how this is a good successor of the private notes. Again and again I need to take up Notepad (physically or digitally) just to jot down some quick notes during a meeting. I have no intentions of ever publishing that information, as it's just a To Do list, but I would love to have them easily accessible in my go-to work tools, Jira and Confluence, as it is often something that I should put into one of my stories, or perhaps something that needs to turned into a full fledged documentation page.

[Kristian Klima]

I've been longing for a proper Draft/Publish scheme on Confluence for quite some time - the idea being that my drafts are visible but not editable without clicking the Edit button.

In tech doc, you rarely edit just one page when working on your content so ability to work with multiple VISIBLE saved drafts is crucial. Just like the ability to keep any number of pages in the saved DRAFT mode and exclude them from being picked up by the likes of Scroll Viewport, Refined, Spacecraft...

Hence my use of Comala Doc Approval, Comala Publishing, Scroll Docs and Scroll Viewport.

Based on the available info, Live Edits are far from being the best of both worlds - and as Appfire and K15t confimed, they do not recommend using Live Edits in certain setups. 

I like the concept, I'm not quite convinced of the execution. It's not like the workflow apps are getting sherlocked. And the good thing is that there appears to be a toggle.

For now, it's wait and see.

[Philip Feldmann - appanvil]

@Kristian Klima Appanvil also does not recommend using live edit pages. Apart from @mybucket2018 concerns (which are all valid), third-party macros are not supported at all, and even most native Confluence macros are poorly supported. If anyone wants to try out this EAP I highly recommend to create a new testing instance, as it will completely mess with your production environment.

[Kristian Klima]

@Philip Feldmann - appanvil 

There should be a Live Edit page where we could chip in with Live Edit macros and apps issues ;)

[Stefan Draber]

Hi @Sam Lucas 

we're really curious about live-editing, but also have some concerns which still hinder us from registering.

Would it be possible to turn the activation on space-level from opt-out to opt-in (spaces are deactivated by default and can activate if they want to?)

And once the feature is activated in a space and I'm creating a new page, can I then decide whether it's gonna be a live-editing or a "normal" page? Or will all new pages automatically be live-editing pages?

Thanks and best regards,

Stefan

[Tony Gough _Adaptavist_]

Hi @Sam Lucas , how long does it normally take to give access? Been waiting a couple days now :)

[Sam Lucas]

Hi @mybucket2018

Thank you for your feedback! 

Live-Edit Pages are only available to customers via our Early Access Program where we look forward to working closely with each of you to gather more feedback and improve this early feature. 

Our goal is to introduce a more simple, modern, and collaborative page creation experience all-while preserving Confluence's "source of truth" identity. The features that make Confluence great are not going anywhere. 

Site, Space, and Page Permissions will continue to work the exact same. Users and Admin can control who sees what content.

All Live-Edit pages can still be Published, ensuring that any and all existing workflows remain available.

Live-edit pages continue to save version history. You will not lose this ability. 

Notably, Live-Edit pages can be configured at the Space level. Ensuring certain knowledge bases that may not be suited for this feature at this time can remain as is. We hear you regarding more admin control! 

Thanks again for your feedback and concern. We'd love to have you join the EAP where customers will help influence the direction of this feature. Otherwise, please feel free to contact me for further discussion. <slucas@atlassian.com> cc @Keith Sottung 

Sam 

[Sam Lucas]

Hi @Philip Feldmann - appanvil @Kristian Klima 

You’re right that today, many third-party macros are not fully functional in live-edit pages. We do have a Partner/Vendor specific EAP running with partners whom have chosen to participate.

We are actively working with our Vendor Ecosystem to ensure the best experience for our customers who seek to use marketplace apps and live-edit pages. For all Vendors/Partners, I encourage you to sign up here if you haven't already.

We do recognize the above, and therefore not all EAP sign ups will gain immediate access to this EAP. If you're instance has extensive marketplace apps integrated, you may be delayed in receiving this feature. Although, we will be in direct contact with all sign ups. 

For Confluence native macros, most all native macros that customers use are fully functional in live-edit pages today. 

Thanks,

Sam 

[Sam Lucas]

Hi @Stefan Draber! 

Thank you for your interest! This, or similar, is possible. We are happy to work with you. 

I encourage you to sign up for the EAP and contact me at <slucas@atlassian.com>! I would love to hear more about your concerns. 

By signing up, the feature does not get enabled for you immediately, but simply adds you to our interest and qualification form. 

All EAP sign ups will be contacted in the near future regarding their acceptance into the EAP with a date that they can expect to see the feature enabled. @Tony Gough _Adaptavist_ 

Thanks,

Sam

[Tere Pile]

Signed up!  Would have come in useful on a virtual team meeting this morning!!

[Trent Murray]

Oh man... Atlassian's "Helpful" features are becoming seriously damn worrying...

Have you forgotten that many of your customers are enterprise that have to abide by Quality standards? (Change management, configuration management, risk assessments etc)

We absolutely cannot have edits visible "Live" to people in our pages when they click on them!

Sure, build the feature - but don't force it on everyone and make us turn it off... This is so bad I can't even describe it.

STOP forcing features on us... Nag screen us sure, tell us about the cool things you're doing, but this "No, you're going to take what we build - and turn it off if you don't like it" model of doing business is really scary.

[Kristian Klima]

@Trent Murray 

Based on the experience so far:

• You need to switch it per-space for existing spaces.
• When creating a new space, you have the option to enable it or keep it off.
• Live Edit, by default, only applies to new pages in an 'enabled' space.
• You can save (publish) and update a 'live edit' page normally. When you do, it becomes a regular page that, based on preliminary testing, workflow apps treat as any other page.

Do I find it useful? Not quite in our current setup and workflow :) 

[Stefan Draber]

@Kristian Klima 

that's not the whole truth: you can't turn the feature on/off per space. You can only turn the default live-edit page creation on/off per space.

That means, even in a space where this is turned off, every user with edit permissions will be able to convert all classic pages into live-edit pages.

[Kristian Klima]

@Stefan Draber Actually, you're right, the System Settings only apply to NEW Pages. 

In which case I definitely call for a better permission setup. 

Because applying Live Edit on EXISTING pages definitely messes up with some workflow and sync apps.

Having said that, it's still not forced as it has to be enabled, but as admins we need to be able to control WHO can enable it per space AND per page.

[Stefan Draber]

@Kristian Klima 

I still don't agree with what you're saying (or maybe we're lost in translation) 😉

(At least in our instance) it's possible for every user with edit permissions in a space to convert every page to a live-edit page, no matter whether live-edit is toggled on or off in the space settings, no matter whether the page has been initially created as classic or live-edit page, no matter whether the page existed before the feature has been rolled out.

So, the feature live-edit is enforced (for EAP-participants of course). The only choice you have as a space/Confluence admin is whether you want create classic or live-edit pages as default in your space. (But since you can convert all of them forth and back as you want, it's more of a cosmetical choice to me.)

[Kristian Klima]

I was testing Live Edits with some marketplace apps:

• Scroll Viewport by K15t
• Scroll Documents by K15t
• Comala Document Approval by Appfire
• Comala Publishing by Appfire

I summarized the experience in this article. Mind, things change quickly for both the apps and Confluence so I'm vendors might rectify the issues without me noticing.

[Kristian Klima]

@Stefan Draber I overlooked one definition of the settings but I think we're just talking about the same thing from a different perspective each - possibly influenced by what users and permission setups we have.

Based on mine, the risk of somebody switching Live Edit on for an existing page is very low.

But I agree with your that this should be tightly controlled.

[Stefan Draber]

@Kristian Klima 

Good point. We have a very liberate permission setup, i.e. almost everybody can create (and thus edit) content in most spaces. This enables these users to also convert classic to live-edit pages.

In a more restrictive permission setup, e.g. where users are only viewers by default, that might not be that relevant.