How to change margins/page width in Confluence? New UI makes the page very skinny

[Ian White]

In the new cloud Confluence UI like 50% of the page appears to be white and margins seem fixed. See attached-- any idea if I can adjust the width to use up more of the page?

[Scott Saccone]

I guess I must be using the new UI for the first time. So the layout in my screenshot is the new normal and the left margin/fixed body width cannot be adjusted? I'm very surprised, it doesn't look right to me at all. It seems especially bad when I insert a Jira table because such tables don't appear to use the same layout. Please let me know there's some way to change the layout. Thanks!

[Scott Saccone]

Oh, I see the we're listening blog post mentioned above describes a "full width mode" option that is yet to be implemented. That sounds good, looking forward to it. Also, looks like issue CONFCLOUD-65654 is related to this.

[Diego]

Hey there Scott!

You are correct. The report you linked is indeed related to this request. Also, thanks for pointing out our most recent update at The new editing experience: we're listening!

[Paul Rowlands]

Has this been implemented?

[Karen Dolan]

Is there any way to change the margin width? I don't see the command or any button that can help do that.

[Jakub Rimek]

any news please?

[ReinhardWH]

Especially when using tables with more than 5 columns the new "page" width limitation becomes ridiculous and claustrophobic.

Why does Atlassion dictate the page width - this is limiting my freedom

[Steve]

Are they really listening?  I'm getting a narrow strip in the middle of the screen for content - why waste over half my screen real estate???

[Scott Saccone]

@Ian White They implemented width options a while back. See the screenshot:

Pages that predate the new features will need to be converted. When you edit older pages, it should give you an option to convert them. See the screenshot:

[Diego]

Update:

Recently a new Blogpost about some features on the editor came out. Go check it out!

The new editing experience: we're listening

Hello there Ian! Thanks for sharing with the Community.

This new look is part of the new Confluence Cloud editor. You should be able to select the legacy editor template if you need to use it. However, keep in mind that eventually all content will be migrated to the new editor. The plans are to have 90% of customers with the new editor by April. You can check new information about this here:

A simpler editing experience in Confluence Cloud is here!

Confluence Editing Improvements

A New Year will bring a new Confluence Cloud editor

Let us know!

[Peter Davis]

Agree the margins are too wide on the new editor. It results in horizontal scroll bars for tables, etc which is a usability issue. Is there a bug/fix jira ticket for this?

[Diego]

Hi @Peter Davis !

We do have a new suggestion about it here:

CONFCLOUD-65654 | Choose Between Editor View Style

Currently, the best course would be to vote and watch the report. Voting increases the visibility and watching keeps you up to date with everything there.

[Thomas Wynne]

90% by April.. that's going to be a whole lot of cancellations.  

[Brandon Burkett]

Where is the "legacy editor template" setting located?

[Hezi]

I agree with Thomas. The limited width for the new page layout is highly annoying.  I am trying to push the company I started working at to use confluence and not google docs but the visual result is poor :-(

[Diego]

Hey there Hezi!

Thanks for sharing your feelings here with the Community. I can link to you two things that can be quite interesting. Both of them point to the Editor style we currently have:

• Choose Between Editor View Style
• The new editing experience: we're listening Edited

The blog post by Avinoam tells us that some new features and changes are being worked on due to Community feedback! We will be able to change the width of pages.

Check the links for more information on this Hezi!

[Kim Hirschman]

Please add me to the list of people who are anxious to have their full-width pages back.  Allowing users to configure margins = great idea.  Forcing users to conform or even default to someone else's concept of the best size margin= bad idea.

I am curious as to why this change was added and whether anyone involved in decision-making argued against it.  

[Jon-Pierre Gentil]

Personally, I hate the full-width pages.  It makes writing so ugly; I have to size my browser window to half-screen-width to make it tolerable.  I'd love to see fixed-width the default (because end-user experience is more important than doing things the way they've always been done) but I think a compromise by allowing the full-width pages needs to be in place for backward-compatibility. 

[Kim Hirschman]

(edited) There are situations where having a fixed width would be appropriate, especially when there is not much text on the page.  However, very wide margins can compromise the end user experience by making more scrolling necessary.  

[Jon-Pierre Gentil]

I apologize; I did not intend it as an insult, and I've changed my wording. 

[Jon-Pierre Gentil]

I think that having a fixed width or fixed-max-width is especially important for documents that are text-heavy.  A common design philosophy is that lines that are too long to read across the screen are fatiguing and difficult to read.  Even these forums have a fixed-width presentation to keep the reader from needing to scan too far across the screen. 

I do agree that a margin should not be allowed to be wider than the screen and that a maximum cap should be set as well.  Horizontal scrolling is generally a terrible user experience.

Perhaps instead of a fixed width, simply implementing a max-width would be better?

[Kim Hirschman]

Totally agree- scrolling horizontally is awful!  I can't believe that there are still sites that let it happen.

To be honest with you- I did like seeing some extra white space on my new page as that is definitely less strain on the eyes.  I just wanted some control over it!   This is what my page looks like on my external monitor and it would be nice to reclaim some of that white space.  

[Jon-Pierre Gentil]

It's kinda strange that it centered it that way.  Looks really weird with the left-navigation panel. 

I think the best solution would be to allow both!  Have a setting per-user to set a max-width on pages and the editor.  That way it can be viewed either way and be entirely user-driven.

[Thomas Wynne]

It feels like if this was something people were asking for (which I question), then maybe this should have been implemented as a macro instead of destroying the content editing creation aspect of Confluence.  So for that very rare time I'm asked to write an essay I should be able to select a macro that allows me to specify fixed widths along with any other specific features needed for this kind of activity.

[Jon-Pierre Gentil]

I feel like I have a very different use case than you.  I mostly write technical documentation in Confluence.  Either help guides, technical design documents, or product documentation.  Those are all in long, heavily-worded essay format.  For me, having a fixed right-margin seems essential to making these types of documents readable. 

Here's two reference documents to show the difference in readability, both taken from a simple basic 27 inch 1080p monitor.

No Margin:

Fixed-right-margin (at 1000px):

(click the images to see the full-sized ones)

I really feel like the second one, while it does cause a lot of extra left-sided whitespace, is significantly more readable.