Why is the Confluence Cloud Editor so much worse?

[Ryan McDonald]

We recently migrated to the new Confluence Cloud editor and it was quite a shock to see how much more limiting and cumbersome it is to work with. I assumed I would just need to learn how to use it and be OK, but that doesn't seem to be the case after about 6 months of struggling. It's simply lacking features and has more bugs than the previous version. A partial list of issues include...

• Moving rows and columns in tables is not possible
  • Workaround: Highlight text to drag between cells
• Can't insert text between tables
  • Workaround: Cut entire table, enter text, paste table below
• Text spacing is huge and uneditable, so it makes getting lots of information on a single page very difficult
• Sections macro is missing the full wide section and is generally clunky and weird to use, like trying to move them around or insert a section between existing ones
• Adding pictures to a page and moving them around is very difficult. It makes formatting a page with technical details that reference pictures slow and cumbersome. The spacing and sizing between pictures is seemingly random as well
  • Helpful hint: Pasting pictures into pages works better than drag-and-drop
• If you unlink a link, it deletes the link text
• Task lists don't update when you change the name of it
  • Workaround: Click on the Task List, re-enter page name to re-link it
• Search function both from any Confluence page and when trying to copy or move a page doesn't always work - pages are missing from the provided lists

[Lawrence Elkins]

10 months later and it's not any bit better.  It almost feels like Atlassian is not even actively developing the product.... Every single day I have to use Confluence, and every single day I am frustrated and shocked that this is how it is.

[Scott Seiter]

I've been a big advocate of Confluence when we were on the datacenter version with the 'Legacy' editor . . . now . . . with the dreadful cloud editor . . . starting to wonder about alternatives to confluence.

Atlassian, why oh why? I imagine there are technical reasons you're pushing the 'cloud editor' but please . . . stop . . . now! Bring all the great formatting/layout features from the 'legacy editor' into the cloud editor . . . I mean, how about some basic layout like indenting of lists, better table capabilities . . . and all the other things you'll find by looking at your own forums.

This is a "content collaboration and management workspace" and providing good formatting for content is table stakes . . . let's get that right instead of attempting to foist a terrible editor on everyone!

[masayuki onishi]

Atlassian does not listen. We can still copy the old page and keep using the legacy (far better than curren crap) editor.

[David Zimet]

Four years of customer aggravation over this tremendous downgrade in user experience as expressed in thread after thread in community forums, and no significant recovery of the system's prior capabilities in sight. 

[Raimon Colmenares]

Great to see that someone else is annoyed by those issues.

[Jenia Craighead]

Holy shit, is it bad.. Is this your idea of Markdown support? Every time it tires to be smart, i want to punch my screen. i am trying to be a good programmer and write documentation, but this is driving me up a wall.

- Every time i add a hyphen, it tires to do something stupid.
- When i undo the stupid thing, it HIGHLIGHTS my text. WHY!??!? This turns adding a hyphen from a simple press of the "-" button, to - + ctrl+z + left arrow
- But when i actually want to make a bullet list, it never does what i want.
- Square brackets get auto turned into empty links
- i press enter, it adds five lines. I press enter again, three lines! Shift enter, the only way..

Every auto-format thing it does has to be undone. I am literally scared of this tool, because of how much time i know i will waste wrestling with it.  STOP TRYING TO BE SMART! JUST LET ME ENTER SIMPLE TEXT INTO THE EDITOR, PLEEEASE!

PS: i see this site is about as bad! This page spins for an eternity if you try to do anything.. How are you people in business? (oh right, we have no choice) Also, why even have templates if they can't be used?

[Serene Mathew]

I simply use Google Docs and add a link from Confluence page to the Google Docs because of how much painful it is to align or format text in Confluence.

[Holly Green]

We had so many more options before we moved to the cloud version. Please at least bring the cloud version capabilities up to the baseline of the on prem version.  When my work is compared to the work of someone who built something in an on prem version, it looks sloppy as if I didn't care about formatting at all!!