Wiki markup in Confluence 4.0

[Tim Milner]

Hi. I am considering upgrading from Confluence 3.5.7 to 4.x.x. However, my main concern is the disappearance of the wiki markup tabs for copying page formatting. How have Confluence 4.x.x users gotten around the disappearance of this most useful feature? Has it been replaced with something similar, or are there sufficient workarounds?

Would appreciate any views and experience. Is it worth the upgrade?

Thanks,

Tim

[Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist] · Accepted solution]

You will find a lot about it in this thread. Also be aware that a new editor is under development.

[Tim Milner]

Thanks Jobin.

[hsuhailah]

The following will be an interesting read regarding this:

http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+4.0+Editor+-+Customer+Feedback

[Andrew Frayling]

Hi Tim,

Specifically on copy and paste the new editor is not too bad. When viewing a page you can select Tools -> View Source and CTRL-A, CTRL-C, CTRL-V to select all, copy and then paste into a new page. When sharing layouts the bit that I've missed is being able to just copy and paste wiki markup into an email or a blog post, etc. as you have to be in Confluence for the View Source copy and paste to work.

Overall though I do like the new editor, it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you start to getting to grips with autocomplete, autoconvert, keyboard shortcuts, etc. it's really nice.

Before upgrading my advice would be to set up a test instance with Confluence 4.x (or use http://sandbox.onconfluence.com/) and spend some time recreating your more complex content and running through your most frequent editing tasks to see how it compares to 3.5.7. If after running through those tasks you decide that you do want to upgrade I would strongly advise giving your users fair warning (at least 2-4 weeks) that you will be upgrading and give them a sandbox to play in (you could use http://sandbox.onconfluence.com/ if you are unable to run your own sandbox) as if your users are heavy wiki markup users they will find it a shock. Most people get used to the new editor after a couple of weeks and do like it, but it's the usual shock to the system that you get whenever you change anything (new email system, new Word Processor, new billing system, etc.) that is familiar to people - they panic and take instant dislike.

Hope that helps?

Andrew.

[Graham Hannington]

You might be interested in this Wiki markup toolbar button.