Left align table on page

[Subhaashinie Dastalinggam]

We recently moved to cloud, and when I insert a table onto a page, it is by default appearing at the Centre of the page. Please let me know how to align the whole table so that it appears on the left side edge of the page - inline with my page header and other texts on the page. -Thanks

[Dan Breyen · Accepted solution]

Hi @Subhaashinie Dastalinggam welcome to the community.  If you go out to Atlassian's Jira page (jira.atlassian.com) you will find your request has been submitted here CONFCLOUD-76630  as a suggestion for their Developers to consider in a future release.

I would highly recommend voting for and watching it for future updates.

[Subhaashinie Dastalinggam]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for getting back.

-Subha

[Tania Zirn]

Hi Dan - why is this a "suggestion" for future release and not a bug? Not being able to left align tables anymore has removed basic formatting that was previously available. It also makes our pages look very odd. 

[Rob Brown]

+1 @ bug not a feature

[Nicolas Goutte]

+1 @ bug not a feature

[Patrick-Christopher Mattulat]

+1 @ bug not a feature

[Graham Twaddle]

+1 Bug not a feature , who wants centered tables in docs ?

[Philipp Rupp]

+1 @ Bug not a feature. noone likes centred tables

[Josh Nowak]

+1 This is a bug not a feature.

[Taiko Ammer]

+1 Removing functionality is never a feature. The general obsession with centering everything in Confluence is also annoying.

[David Garrett]

For those equally frustrated with the missing functionality in their new edit-v2 UI, check out this work-around: 

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/edit-vs-edit-v2/qaq-p/1060130

Unfortunately, this only works if you have an old converted edit-v1 page to copy/template.

[pmathur]

This is a bug, not a feature.
It's a basic functionality to be able to align your table on a page.

[Michael Green]

+1 This is a bug not a feature.

[Sven Graf]

Aligning objects is offered by every editor since the 90s. Incredible to call this a "feature" one must vote for to get it implemented. So sad.

[Alexander Fichtinger]

Also +1 (not +1, but actually +300) for: it's a bug, not a feature...

[Bhavya Joshi]

+1, its a bug, not a feature. plz fix asap. its annoying

[Klaus Müller]

+1  It's a bug not a feature

[Juan Chilamack]

+1  It's a bug not a feature

[Andy Bayford]

I saw this page and thought, "ah, someone has fixed it, I was probably being silly"  but no, sadly it is a link for me to get a bug fixed.  Come on Atlassian, this is just nonsense that this is not standard.  Do I need to buy an Add-on!  

[Karen Schoeb]

+1 on Bug.

[Omar Mughal]

I just widened the right most column and the table now fits across the whole page.  Not left aligned, but better than sitting in the middle of the page.

[Michael Goulet]

When I first saw this, I was really frustrated. It's remarkable that such an in-your-face style change was made with no ability to adjust it. I too discovered the "v1" hack of pasting in old tables, and was doing that for a while, but now I'm just accepting the disjointed tables in the center.

In my experience, widening the table (per Omar's suggestion) has a bad side effect of messing with scrolling, which is why I stopped doing that also.

+1 It's a bug not a feature.

[Sveinung Sigbjørnsen]

+1  It's a bug not a feature.

[Mathieu van Straaten]

+1 Bug, not a feature

[Koblenz]

+1 This is a bug not a feature.

[eric_rovellilambart]

+1 Another classic: Atlassian remains out of touch with users, as always.

They recently fixed an issue I'd been following for 12 years. Give them another decade or so, they might fix this bug, too...

[Martin Rogers]

Why was this 'accepted'.  It's not acceptable.  This is hot garbage.  Features which are absolutely standard on all other editors and of course available in the on-prem version of Confluence, omitted and ignored.

Up your game Atlassian

[Tania Zirn]

@Dan Breyen @Rory Baker -  why haven't you responded to all these upvotes on this issue? does anyone at Atlassian look at this one anymore? I can't reply on the actual ticket for some reason so I'm asking here. Wondering if Rory Baker still works at Altassian since I can't tag them here.

[Dan Breyen]

My apologies @Tania Zirn I do not work for Atlassian.  I am a user of Confluence just like yourself.  As such, I don't control if something is an improvement or a bug.

[margeojob]

+1 It's a bug not a feature

[Anthony Alberto]

+1 for Bug, its not a feature request. This exists on previous Confluence already. No wiki page uses centered table as default.

[Vojtěch Kučera]

+1 It's a bug not a feature

[Joe Tenga]

I really wanted to center this comment in this post, but anyways...

+1 It's a bug not a feature

[Andrea Sterpone]

+1 it is a bug

[jdorsch]

Total bug. Makes your pages look cheap and unprofessional. 

[양채원]

+1 It's a bug not a feature

[jcampbell]

+1 It's a bug not a feature

[Tanya Sander]

very disappointing such a basic formatting function is not available.  

[Martin Lobach]

+1 It's a bug. I miss my standard text tools.

[Jamesdan Fajardo]

+1 It's a bug not a feature

[Satyanarayana Potham]

Please fix this bug.

[Martin Weise]

Good thing Atlassian removed private datacenter licenses so they can force us to use their **** cool new UI

[LORI CULBERSON]

WORKAROUND: While editing, you can select the layout icon to create two columns. Insert the table into the left column.

[Troy Weis]

Ok. I did this and it worked.... but this is sooooo dumb we have to do something like this. 

[KP]

Thanks for this workaround! Now that one exists, I don't expect Atlassian to do anything about the underlying problem.

[Andrew Ford]

Why has this not been done yet.

[Martin Rogers]

Presumably it's not a feature that can appear in a sales pitch as "new"

[Sebastian]

It should simply be possible to align the whole table on the left side of the page without any work arounds or containers around.

Please fix this.

[cp-richard]

I eagerly anticipate the arrival of a substantial competitor.

The moment one emerges, we'll swiftly transition away. The recent shift towards forced center alignment is merely the latest in a series of detrimental changes to the layout and editor experience.

Eliminating previously functional features and handling options represents a step backward, catering only to the least discerning of users.

[Richard Tipple]

A work around ... use the page column divider feature and size it to approximately the size of your table.

Closest thing I've found to left align tables

[Michael Goulet]

Nice work around. Unfortunately since I can't freely adjust the width of the page columns, it feels too limiting - I really tried to like this! :-)

Though unrelated, it should be noted, I think in the last week (or maybe last day?) they have introduced a significant update to tables (https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-25847). You can finally grab columns and rows and drag them around to be repositioned. Sadly, the table is still jammed awkwardly in the center of the page with no option to left-align.

[Richard Tipple]

It's a limited workaround ... or should I say ... 'least crap' option :-)

[Shelley Duncan]

+1 @ bug not a feature

My workaround is to create a page from legacy editor. Legacy editor is in my templates (i think Atlassian added it after I complained about all of the issues with the new editor).

Otherwise, copy an existing legacy editor page. 

Unfortunately some of the functions of the legacy editor have been disabled. We at our company view upgrading to cloud, a massive downgrade

[Kristen Littlefield]

+1 Something that used to work and no longer does is a bug, not a feature. 

[Scott Pankhurst]

yes.  so frustrating to be "upgraded" to something worse than before.

[Alan Broady]

Please vote for this issue here --> https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-76630

This is more likely to be checked by the Atlassian development team.

[Hannes Hoberg]

Is there a timeline for fixing this? 

[Graham Twaddle]

Is anyone from Atlassian reading these :-( 

[Attila Papp]

I guess they don't because the thread is marked as "resolved", despite the issue is still present as of today.

[Shelley Duncan]

The ticket itself is not resolved. I think the resolution of this thread is that yes, it is indeed a bug. 

[Hannes Hoberg]

I recommend to share your feedback here: https://ifuckinghatejira.com/

[David Garrett]

For those equally frustrated with the missing functionality in their new edit-v2 UI, check out this work-around: 

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/edit-vs-edit-v2/qaq-p/1060130

Unfortunately, this only works if you have an old converted edit-v1 page to copy/template.

[Kreitlein, Martin]

The same for me: +1 Bug, not a feature
It is very sad that customers have to tell software developers to do their job properly :-(

At least there is an update here from May 3rd

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-76630

Some good news - the team is currently working on introducing a left alignment option for tables. In addition to this we will be making tables created in full-width pages insert left aligned by default. These changes are currently on track to ship in the next couple of months.

@atlassian official: Are you kidding??? "in the next couple of months" ???

[Drew Contractor]

This defies belief for me as well. Like all the others I came here expecting to find the quick easy answer and thinking they couldn't possibly have removed the ability to align.

As a clunky workaround you can insert a MarkDown defined table which will align left.

[Klaus Müller]

There are already a lot of good comments and helpful workarounds in this thread. 

I'd like to add one or two experiences of things we've tried in the last couple of weeks. 
Maybe some of you may find this helpful. 

First i want to state that, in my personal opinion, one of Atlassians biggest mistakes was the removal of the 'panel' macro. 
Not the Info or Warning panel but the 'panel' panel.
This was _tremendously_ helpful and its removal has a larger impact then Atlassian might think.

As for the tables,  we've been toying around with two tools and / or macros:
the first one is the "Office Excel" macro that comes with the cloud version of confluence.

This macro "only" previews already existing attachments but does so in a manner that it simulates an embedded excel sheet. 

You'd still have to use a third party tool like GoEdit to edit the real excel file but it's still a good way to fully display an excel sheet properly.

The second one is a third party tool called "Enable Table Macro".
This allows you to embed an actual and editable excel file into the page. 

Plus it automatically aligns to the left or rather fills the whole page. 
And it adds some of the basic tools from excel.

One drawback is you'd have to pay for it. 

[Christian Pfleghart]

Please add this bacis feature

[juha.siltanen@relexsolutions.com]

I could not get the table to the left or to full width of the page. Not fully same thing as OP posted but relates closely so posting here.

Took too long to find this, but check out the right side of the table, there it actually let's you resize. I was loosing my mind over this for a while...

[Subhaashinie Dastalinggam]

Thanks for this juha, I was aware of this 'Resize' feature, but still would like to left align the table within the page.

[juha.siltanen@relexsolutions.com]

well it does "left align" but then you just need to have the table for full width of the page

[Matt Bush]

juha.siltanen@relexsolutions.com  which for intrinsically small tables like status tables and page properties looks completely ridiculous to have it full width.

For example create a document using `Project Plan` template and try sizing them to full page width it looks bad and is not page/space efficient.

As a work around I am using the page section layouts and creating 2-column / 3-column sections.  Is a lot faffing around but is better than waiting multiple years for Atlassian coders to implement stock+standard edit functionality.

[Matthew Prescott]

My workaround is to copy a table from an old page (which doesn't have this issue) into the new page. This seems to get over the problem. I then change the table contents/structure to whatever I need in the new page.

[Tracy Deffendol]

It is a bit strange that you cannot change the table alignments when you could on the server version. We have used tables extensively in our server version and now they are all goofy looking.

Not that these even matter, but it would be great to have it fixed.

[Graham Twaddle]

+1 makes our audit / compliance pages look somewhat unprofessional