Nested tables in Confluence

[Jinyoung Park]

Hi all,

I used to be able to create a table within a table using the button on top in edit mode. Now, it's grayed out when I'm within a table, and when I hover over the icon, I'm told that nested tables are unsupported.

Is this an issue with the new version of Confluence? Is there a way to get around this? The document already contains nested tables and I would like to keep the format uniform, and copying and pasting does not work.

Thanks,
Jinyoung

[SAVDEEP SINGH · Accepted solution]

Is there any workaround?

[Shannon S]

Savdeep,

If you check the bug ticket I posted in my answer, you'll see that some user has come up with a workaround last month. I recommend you reach out to him on that case for more details regarding the workaround. He's attached some images but they appear to not be showing.

• Nesting tables workaround

Regards,

Shannon

[Denise Kramer]

Hi Savdeep,

Place your cursor in the table and select {} Markup from the Insert More Content menu. Ensure Confluence Wiki is selected from the Insert drop-down. Then, type  ||col into the Insert text box. You'll a table column in the Preview pane. Click the Insert button. A one column, one row table will be placed within the table. You can then add columns and rows as you normally would.

I saw this work around in another post and it has worked consistently for me.

Good Luck,

Denise

[Jignesh Jaiswal]

Thanks, this works. 

[Charisma Riley]

Denise, your solution saved the day for me! Thanks!

[Alexander Poole]

Thanks for this solution Denise. Simple and effective.

[Camie Thistleton]

Brilliant solution Denise. You saved my day and saved me many hours of work re-constructing Confluence pages.

[Jaine Steer]

What if I do not want a header on the nested table?

[Camie Thistleton]

Jaine,

Create the table via Markup as instructed above.  Ensure the cursor is in the header row of your nested table and then toggle the header on/off using the button on the toolbar. See attached screen shot. 

Creating the table via Markup is simply a way to "start" a nested table. Once the nested table exists, you can manage it via the toolbar buttons just as you would a non-nested table.

[Zandrea Lange]

Hi @Denise Kramer

1. Do you by any chance found a workaround on the new Editor released about 2-3 weeks ago?

The {} Markup option is no longer available under the insert options..

2. @Camie Thistleton  referred to the table editing options above here (with the red arrow pointing to the toolbar), this toolbar is no longer available either in the new editor, you now have to select each row or column you want to edit, individually - its very frustrating and unnecessarily time consuming, but there is also no option to create a header row in the middle of an existing table, splitting the table out into sections (the exact icon Camie pointed above here). Does anyone have a workaround to this one also?

[Denise Kramer]

@Zandrea Lange Unfortunately, I have not found a work aroun in the new editor. :(

[Onur Dursun]

If anyone out there still looking for a workaround for this in the new Editor

1. Follow the steps in this accepted answer to get the old Editor for a new space

2. Then follow Denise's workaround above

[Shannon S · Accepted solution]

Hi Jinyoung,

I believe you may be using the new Confluence Cloud version, correct? If so, Nested Tables are no longer supported here.

I've created a ticket in our reporting system so that the team can let us know whether or not it will be brought back, but it may be unlikely.

• CONFCLOUD-58656

Regards,

Shannon

[Chad Sailer]

I'm forced back to Excel.
Might as well stay there now :( 

[Mary Johnson]

I can't believe this functionality has been removed without warning! My company is highly dependent on this functionality for documenting requirements.  I tried copy and pasting a previously created row and the paste functionality did not work as expected.  This is a major issue from our point of view.

[Bar T]

Added my comment as well. We rely heavily on our program status pages and inside the tables are more important pieces of data that have to be displayed in a table format. Please provide a work around of some kind.

[丘麗娟]

This is a very useful feature for me too, so I would like this feature to be reinstated. 

Thank you.

[Zandrea Lange]

I have found the simplest solution..

Simply select the "page layout" icon twice. Then the nestled table becomes available again.

Must be a bug on Atlassian's side.

[Charisma Riley]

Holy cow! That’s so cool. How did you figure that out? Also, is this for classic pages or the new editor ?? You’re awesome!

[Zandrea Lange]

Hehe! Thank you! It's a pleasure! I'm glad you can use it :)

I actually wanted to see if there was some kind of "add table" option under page layouts, and then saw the nested table icon become available again.. who knew..hehehe!

I'm currently working on the classic version. Not a big fan of next-gen, it's got to many limitations on things I need to use, even though it is sleek and pretty.

[Aninda Sen]

This is really cool! Thanks! :)

[Anthony Vizza]

haven't been able to get this to work yet. Here's what I did:

1. Opened confluence page with table
2. clicked in a cell with intent to embed a table
3. clicked page layout
4. clicked page layout again
5. table function still greyed out as long as my cursor is in an existing cell

is it a different sequence of events from those above?

[Zandrea Lange]

Hi @Anthony Vizza

That is very strange, I just tried it again now, and it still works, however I only need to select table layout once now, instead of twice.

are you using the Classic/Cloud version of Confluence? (I am using this one), the new page layout does not support it.

Here is a screenshot of my screen (get the old page layout under the requirements page template).

This new page layout below does not work:

[Davin Studer]

Atlassian recently announced that they are removing that ability. Personally, I think it is a terrible decision as they are assuming that they know best how you should write your documentation. The reason they gave was so that your documentation could be more readable.

[Shannon S]

Hi Davin,

I created a ticket linked in my answer to gather feedback on this issue, so please feel free to vote on it as well and comment with your feedback.

Regards,

Shannon

[Russell Zera]

I also posted this in the comments on the Jira ticket:
While I admit it is quite "hacky" and adds lots of extra clicks for updating, this is an alternate workaround for cloud users (btw, this particular macro is a LIFE SAVER for MANY "missing" features in Cloud. 

1. On the page you have your primary/parent table I created a sub-page under it and created a table for the nested table contents and only had that table in it... save/publish.
2. Go back to the parent page and go into the edit mode and go to the cell of your table that you want to nest your sub-table in.
3. Add the "Include Page" macro (or type /include to quick-prompt the macro) and when the window pops up, select the sub-page you created in step 1 (above).
4. Save/Publish. Your table now has a nested table. The only inconvenience is to edit the nested table, you can only edit it by editing the table in the sub-page.

I attached a screenshot of what the end-result renders as in Confluence Cloud. 

[Jamie Wolman]

Does this work for Templates? I am trying to recreate a template which had nested tables and now I cannot. Not sure how sub pages work along with Templates, thanks.

[o_loktionov]

Disappoited to discover that nested tables are now not working. Convienced nested tables should be reenabled as soon as posible.

Thank You!

[Siddhartha Ghose]

Nested Tables are still an issue - showstopper. Any ETA on this feature?

In addition, when will numbering be visible on a published page with numbered headings?

[Steve Iribarne]

This is just crap.  I can't believe that this has been removed.  For those of us out here that are trying to get our companies to use this tool, Atlassian with their "Here today, gone tomorrow" attitude really bites.  

All of us that do engineering know there are hard challenges to overcome.  The excuse that less that 1% of the users use nested tables is complete and utter nonsense.  Less than 1% use it because you've DISABLED IT!  We can't use it.

And the MS Excel importer is no real gem to replace this.

I really like the Atlassian products.  But you guys make it really hard for those of us that have to explain to our teams that "well, it just doesn't support it, sorry" 

[Chad Sailer]

Back to Excel, might as well stay there too. 

Even if Atlassian re-implements the feature, no way to rely on them to stick with it.

What a waste of time....  

[Raphael TANT]

since the new editor come up and still no solution. Each years I am trying, so enough of confluence. removing my account today

[Jasmeet Singh]

Unfortunately not able to find nested table feature but simulated it using merge and split cells feature of the table. I know it is a bit tedious but it is the closed I have come to simulate nesting. Hope this will help at least some individuals. 

[John Corwith]

Not sure what your data looks like but have you thought about putting your data in a spreadsheet and using the Office Excel macro to include it on your page?

[Paul Steckler]

Unfortunately that defeats the purpose of a collaborative document. Might as well use Sharepoint/Dropbox/etc.

I really wish we could just flip back to the old editor until the new one was production-ready.

[Paul Steckler]

Unfortunately it looks like View More... no longer has markup available in the Cloud version. Any other thoughts?

[Denise Kramer]

Hi Paul, It is still available in my version. Here is a screenshot to be sure you are looking in the correct place.

[Paul Steckler]

Sadly I cannot find it anywhere... and wonder if this is one more feature that is being removed to simplify Confluence.

Are you running on the Cloud version? This is the new editing surface.

[Denise Kramer]

Yes, I am using the cloud version. I hope mine does not change anytime soon. :(

[Paul Steckler]

Are you using the new editing experience? That might be the big difference. I am now trying to find a way to go back to the old editor.

Good luck and thanks for the input Denise.

[Daniel (home) Harvey]

<deleted as I missed this answer as nested reply above - sorry> 

[Denise Kramer]

Hi Shannon,

Thanks for submitting the ticket. I have added my comments to it. This change will make creating my API documentation on Confluence very difficult.

Everyone,

The only thing I have found as a work around is to copy an existing nested table and just change the text. It is a lot of work, but in a pinch it can work.

Thanks,

Denise