How to paste markdown using new editor?

[Tyler Long]

How does one paste markdown into the new editor and NOT get it formatted as a code block but rather as properly formatted text?

I have already gone through these resources:

* https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-65663

* https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-65756

* Updated keyboard shortcuts, autocomplete, and full Markdown support

[Diego · Accepted solution]

Hello there!

Tyler, I have tried this procedure on our new Fabric Editor and it worked as expected.

I copied the text from a plain text editor (notepad, or in my case Sublime). And then, pasted it straight into the page I was creating.

We could try the following:

1. Create some markdown text in a plain text editor
2. Copy it
3. Paste into Confluence
4. Check if it gets converted

I have tried the following text:

*TEXT*

_TEXT_

**TEXT**

__TEXT__

* LIST
* LIST

1. LIST
2. LIST

> QUOTE QUOTE

Right upon pasting, the text was displayed as formatted text.

I have also tried to copy directly from the text above (from browser) and paste it into Confluence Editor. It did not work. However, If I paste it back in a plain text editor and then copy it, Confluence recognizes the markdown.

With this issue in mind, I have filed this report:

CONFCLOUD-66301 | Copying and Pasting markdown from webpage on Fabric Editor renders unformatted text

So, you could go over there to vote and watch this issue. Voting helps to increase the issue visibility and watching will keep you up to date with everything posted there!

 Further, Could you help us understand things a little better?

1. Has this worked at some point?
2. Is this behaviour affecting you regardless of browser being used?
3. Is this affecting other users as well?
4. Is this happening on already existing pages?
5. Is this happening on newly created pages?

Let us know from you Tyler!

[Tyler Long]

Thank you @Diego for the thorough testing.  Answers to your questions:

1. Has this worked at some point?
   • No as it relates to the NEW editor.
2. Is this behaviour affecting you regardless of browser being used?
   • Per my comments in CONFCLOUD-65756, my original copy source of markdown was coming from the VS Code editor where the markdown would be interpreted as a code block rather than being formatted properly when pasted.  This is quite the opposite of what you experienced, which I have not tried yet, in CONFCLOUD-66301 where the text pasted is not formatted at all.
3. Is this affecting other users as well?
   • This is likely, see CONFCLOUD-65756.
4. Is this happening on already existing pages? No, but since the markdown macro is not supported anymore per CONFCLOUD-65663 using the old editor it is difficult to get large amounts of markdown text imported.
5. Is this happening on newly created pages?
   • Yes using the new editor.

[Pete Terlep]

Curious why this answer is accepted if the bug is still open?

[Dan Gunatunga]

Markdown has now been changed since the update. So what used to work will again look like a code snippet. I've not yet found a resolution to this yet.

The workaround is to go into the 'Old view', Click to edit description, Paste, Save and switch to the new view again.

Come on Atlassian, this is seriously annoying.

[Stephen Gibson]

Yeah it's really silly.

I have a README file in a repo that has simply outgrown, it needs to be moved here so we can have child pages. Being unable to straight up copy and paste markdown into a markdown editor is just....like wtf.

[Jeremy Fiel]

i normally write my md files in vs code and push them to a azure devops git repo on because the devops wiki can be deployed directly from git.  (amazing btw)

i tried copy and paste from vs code into confluence cloud and it was formatting as a code snippet. So I pasted into a notepad and then copy and paste again into confluence and it formatted correctly. 

[Matthew Mamet]

When you paste, make sure to select "Paste and Match Style" from your browser. 

[Csaba Szitar]

Right click, then select 'Paste as plain text'. It works in Chrome v89

[Greg Woods]

Paste from VS Code into Notepad works in Firefox.
As far as I can tell, VS Code should behave no differently to notepad. I even tried switching the doc in VS Code from UTF-8 to Windows 1252 codepage, and it still pasted as code!

[Deleted user]

Greg Woods May 06, 2021

As far as I can tell, VS Code should behave no differently to notepad

Actually, It does behaves differently.

VSCode adds a text/html layer to the clipboard (with VSCode / Monaco HTML markup) which is interpreted by Confluence as a code block. 

Pasting your markdown int Notepad (or any plain text editor) and then pasting into Conluence will be fine (there will only text/plain in Clipboard, and Confluence will parse the Markdown as formated text)

[Csaba Szitar]

Right click, then select 'Paste as plain text'. It works in Chrome v89

[Jan Aagaard]

My result is that the markdown is pasted in as-is. It's better than simply pasting, because it's inserted as normal text and not a code snippet.

What I want is that the markdown is rendered as markdown when pasting.

[Jochen Ulrich]

I found a good workaround:

Instead of copying the markdown source code, let the markdown be rendered (for example using the "Preview" functionality of Visual Studio Code or some other markdown editor).

Then copy the rendered HTML and paste it into Confluence.

[Corey Huinker]

This means that the markdown editor is better at converting HTML to markdown, than markdown to markdown.

/me blinks

[Andrew.Minor]

Thanks @Jochen Ulrich this tip helped me.   I now output HTML, view in a browser, then copy/paste into JIRA.

Come on Atlassian, this should be SO MUCH better!

[Zakk Hoyt]

Works sorta. Some things don't make it over correctly like checkboxes.

[Gabriela Costa]

My team developed a plugin that can help you, check out Markdown Extensions for Confluence.

Here's a list of what it supports:

• Import markdown from Github, Bitbucket, Gitlab, and generic URLs
• Edit and preview markdown inline
• Support for HTML within markdown
• Offers extended markdown formatting

[Alexander V.]

For those of you who are used to use Shift+Insert to paste (plain) text, beware it does not work in Jira, only the more conventional Ctrl+V works! I was really surprised to find this out, as in the vast majority of use cases these two shortcuts are literally equivalent. (My browser is Chromium 92.0.4515.131, in case it is relevant.)

[Gavin McQuistin]

When copying from an IDE, 2 versions of the text will be copied: formatted and unformatted. Firefox and Chrome will paste the formatted version when you press cmd/ctrl+v. As others have noted, this trips up the Jira editor as it doesn't work with the formatted version. You can paste the unformatted version instead with shift+cmd/ctrl+v. This works in Firefox and Chrome.

[Scott Wehby]

I was able to get what I wanted using pandoc.

`pandoc -f gfm -t commonmark -s [original_file.md] -o [output.txt]`

I opened the output.txt file in VSCode, copy, paste into new confluence editor document. No special copy or copy as plain text.

When I look at the two files side by side, they look identical, but the output.txt works and the original_file.md does not.

[Robert Hardiman]

Truthfully, this is a real blow to Confluence for us. If I'm moving from markdown to markdown and have to do a ridiculous dance ritual for every .md doc I want to move up then I will definitely not be advocating we keep spending time and money on this.

There are extensions, but honestly the largest issue this raises is the bizarre company philosophy. If the powers that be decided this is better than being able to simply edit as markdown, then I have no idea what bad idea they will force through the UI next.

[Andrew Elms]

Markdown formatted text, copied into the Atlassian VS Code extension jira editor, and saved, will then render correctly when viewed in the browser.  sigh.  

[Richard Rance]

The new editor will apply any styles that are part of the clipboard contents. If you copied the text from a webpage or your IDE it will likely have formatting such as font and text color.

Visual Studio and JetBrains will both copy with an indicator that the text is code. When pasting Confluence correctly formats it as a code block.

When pasting markdown that you want Confluence to interpret you must paste it as plain text. (CTRL+SHIFT+V)

[Zakk Hoyt]

TIL. Thanks for the tip.