Try out the new editing experience

[Ricardo Clements]

Not sure how any advanced user would see this as an improvement.

Lost control of layout for canned layouts.

Lost macros like Panel

maniuplating a table (like adding a row) is now a mystery (clearly not intuitive)..

I feel like im working on Wordpress and thats not a compliment.

[adam.pallant@vodafone.com]

I can't believe that you would release an update with so many obvious bugs. We have hundreds of page which are now broken - cropped content, lost images, lost formatting, broken tables, etc. etc. And no way to roll-back. Not impressed.

[Freek D'Hooge]

Is the new editor still being rolled out?
Or did this happen some time ago?

[JoAnna Black]

I still have the old editor on my site but it seems like others have been totally forced into the new one.

[Deleted user]

We got it today ;<0

[Ian Wermerling]

We moved to the cloud last week, and where old spaces still use the old editor, new spaces have the new editor.

[midei.toriyama]

Can we please go back to the previous editor. UX is very different, and it's frustrating particularly on table editing. I wish we had a choice to toggle new and old. 

[jemm1]

A smart idea. I'd like to hear the response to this request

[Darryl St_ Pierre]

I've seen a lot of feedback about page width and I don't necessarily agree with the current "centered, mobile-friendly" page layout, but I ran across this statement on the Confluence Cloud Editor Roadmap page:

If you want your whole page to be full-width, choose the ellipsis button (next to the Publish button) and check the full-width option.

The option is not there, though it is listed as a current "improvement".

@Avinoam , do you have any further information about whether this is valid?

[jemm1]

If the option to use the OLD editor existed, 90% of the concerns people have with the new editor would probably disappear immediately. It would cost very little to add that option. So far, Atlassian is listening but not responding to feedback on this request.

[Stepan Kveton]

Its the same for me. No way to enable full-width.

[Avinoam]

@Darryl St_ Pierre apologies for the confusion, full width is very much in testing on our end internally but not available just yet. We'll update that page asap. It is however, not too far off.

@jemm1 sorry for not responding sooner to your question, but offering the option to toggle between the new and old editor is actually non-trivial from a technical standpoint. This is why we roll out the editor gradually allowing for the old editor template to remain available for a while and we don't migrate pages automatically so you can still edit them using the old editor.

[Cameron LaBorde-Zank]

The old editor template isn't available and its been almost a year and you DID migrate pages automatically. Rewriting history isn't helpful. And while its "not trivial" you've been able to do both things via support tickets or flag a whole template for the old editor OR new editor which would indicate that you could have just done the same in the reverse order with the new editor? Right? While the IDEAL form would be the way that Jira works with the experimental features the method you're "supporting" currently would have been fine as well, but the opposite happened.

[jemm1]

Exactly right. Not too late to fix it.

[jemm1]

Hi @Avinoam  do you have a link to the Confluence Cloud github repo? I'd like to take a look at the product to see how page edit is implemented. Thanks

[George Smith]

I don't see the ellipsis next to the Publish button.

[ian_wermerling]

Sadly I will be moving away from Confluence until they sort this mess out.  I have always considered Confluence a great tool, but I'm annoyed that Atlassian have just steam rolled this out with no option to opt out of a very unstable, feature lacking, and often unusable editor.

So my team and I will be moving to Nuclino until this disaster is sorted.  You better hope we are not there too long, before we start setting roots in Nuclino land.

[Andrew Beak]

@Avinoam This is quite badly broken with respect to plugins that are essential to us.  it's frustrating that Atlassian has closed a bug report on this even while the comments on the ticket are very clearly saying there is still a problem.

I know you can't test every plugin, but you could at least make the upgrade optional for customers instead of breaking functionality and then stone-walling complaints.

How do we revert to using the old editor (the one that works) instead of using something shiny but broken?

[jemm1]

Agree there are common sense rules to follow on product upgrades that are critical to customers.

[Duncan Margetts]

The new way of editing Tables is really really bad.. I much prefer the old ribbon that used to appear that provided everything I need.. I cannot for life of me work out how to cut/paste a row for example.. its just horrid. 

Additionally the page title now appears in the centre of the page for some reason.. 

This is not a positive step forward.

[Scott Paden]

I created a new table, put significant work into it, and now I can't add sort to a column.  What happened to sort.  This new tables interface has some nice features but shouldn't be consider minimum viable product.  How do I sort a column?  How do I apply the same text formatting to all cells in a row?  How do I click on a document attachment link while editing a table and see the document.  Why does it keep breaking my table into more tables at row boundaries?  How do I get back to the old table interface?  These are just a few of the short comings.  

[jim mason]

Agree. It looks like a complete replace of the old editor by a new editor that is not yet ready. I suggest keeping both and allowing the user the option of choosing the old editor for a page if needed. While there is some development work needed to support that option it's a minor change compared to trying to write a better new editor that has taken a long time.

I suspect there's some sort of licensing issue that has caused Confluence to stop using the old editor on new content.

[Naily Makangu]

Agree with both comments (and pretty much most of the issues reported so far this year).

There are many attractive features about the new editor. However, fundamental usability features such as the ability to sort a column and basic formatting make life very difficult for us.

I now have to consider embedding an Excel spreadsheet inside a page created with the new experience. This is so messy and not the best way to use Confluence.

[Duncan Margetts]

@Avinoam how do we disable the "Try new editing experience" on our instance of Confluence when users add new pages? Pages that are created with it are just a mess and very problematic for us.

[Deleted user]

Please make it possible to rearrange sections (or columns or whatever they are called now). It's now super difficult to do modular page development. This would be the simple action of moving up/down a given section. Seems like it does not break the core philosophy of the redesign. As it stands it is cripplingly difficult to reorganize a page.

[Bob Sovers]

I figured out how to trick Confluence Cloud into using the OLD editor!

The page entitled "How-to articles" that automatically gets created when you create your first page using the "How-to article" template uses the old style editor, and it must be an attribute of the page design.

So if you either have one of these pages, or can have the system generate one for you (by adding a dummy "How-to article"), then you can copy the page entitled "How-to articles", delete its contents, and start using your very own page that uses the old-style editor.

--- Finally a worthwhile bug in Confluence Cloud!

[jemm1]

Thanks. I tried creating a how-to article in a new space ( not a space before the new editor was created ). Unfortunately for me, the how-to article also had the new editor. Hopefully your space will continue to work with the old editor as you noted.

[Bob Sovers]

Its not the how-to article that you create that has the old editor, but the report page entitled "How-to articles" that is automatically created with your first how-to article.  Use the report page to get new pages that use the old style editor.

[Marc Zampetti]

I too cannot stand all the new design changes and the editing experience. I have already started working on figuring out how to migrate off of Confluence Cloud with the expectation that the new experience will be turned on and negatively impact my business. The fixed-width layout is the height of laziness and makes ALL of my pages look terrible. I don't care about mobile. We use Confluence as a documentation site and management tracking solution, not a web site. I understand the need to make mobile a better experience, but as it has been stated many times in these comments, there are LOTS of ways to do that, if Atlassian was interested in doing the work. But instead, they took the cheap and easy way, and force EVERYTHING into a mobile view. 

I am simply dreading the day that my site changes, and I don't even know when that will be. So I say again. Atlassian, you have already lost this customer, and its just a matter of time before I migrate off of all your products. And I already tell everyone in my community to avoid your products and your company. I don't how you can claim to be "listening to your customers" when the volume of complaints in this comments and from those I talk to, but whatever you are hearing, its not from the Software Development and technical world that stuck with you through the years.

[Brian Welch]

I just jumped in and created a new space in Atlassian Cloud.

The user experience is terrible. And the default layout is also terrible.

The pages are all centered.

Included pages now have some sort of skeuomorphic shadow at the right side of the page.

And I find it challenging to make the pages look organized the way they used to be.

There are no ways to change the color scheme anymore...

This makes me long even more for the good old days when I could just create pages using the code screen.

Is there any documentation or manual that can help me create pages that look the way I want them to look?

[jemm1]

Yes. the old editor support that worked great has been removed on new spaces. I don't know why they are not willing to provide the option to use the old editor on new pages going forward. It would be an easy change.

[Bob Sovers]

I found a "workaround" that may get you the old editor....

Use the "How-to article" template to create a dummy page.  This should also create a page entitled "How-to articles" (which uses the old editor.)

Copy the "How-to articles" page to a new page and delete everything on the page.  Save the empty page with a name like "Old Style Editor".

To get a new page that uses the old style editor, just copy the "Old Style Editor" page.

NOTE: This may or may not work for you, but it did for me.

[Shane Dodd]

Similar workaround I found.

When you create a new space, look at your "Overview" page. It has the "page layout" option and the page allows the use of the macros for section, columns,  and other macros.

Copy the page, rename it, move it to a spot that's easy to get to, and clear it out of all of its contents.  Save is under a new name and when you need a new page later, copy it, rename it, move it, and edit. 

[fhw]

Several negative comments here, so I'd like to say thank you for this long overdue update to the editing experience. I take it for granted that bugs will be sorted out, but I can't see a future for Confluence without an update on this area. Too many other options now that offer a much better user experience.

[Alik]

Can you share with us those "options that offer a much better user experience"? I believe you can save some time to many, who are not as thankful as you for a "long overdue update" nobody asked for. :)

[Sharon Helms]

@Avinoam  can you please offer insight into when the ability to add alt-text to images will be returned? We're otherwise very excited to move to the new editor, but this is a deal breaker for us.

Alternative text is a MUST HAVE for accessibility -- otherwise all of our images become useless to users with screen readers. We're committed to (and required by law) documentation accessibility, and alt-text for images is not just a "nice to have".

Please let us know that this is something that is being rolled out before general release of the new editor -- and please help communicate that basic accessibility features are super-important to Confluence users.

Thanks for your help! 

[Darryl St_ Pierre]

@Avinoam what is the best page to watch for when updates/changes are actually rolled out for the editor? At this point, I'm tired of most of the comment notifications coming from this page.

Thank you.

[Avinoam]

@Darryl St_ Pierre great question!

I'd recommend the two pages below:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/confluence-editing-improvements-945107733.html

https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/confluence-cloud-editor-roadmap-967314556.html

Please let me know if there's anything else I can help with.

[Darryl St_ Pierre]

@Avinoam Thanks very much for the reply! Curious, I am currently watching the first page already, but I don't see an option to watch the second (Roadmap). Is that by design?

[Avinoam]

@Darryl St_ Pierre just added the option to the roadmap page as well :) thanks for calling that out!

[JoAnna Black]

@Avinoam I see on the roadmap that Atlassian companion is "coming later."

Does this feature not exist at all in the new editor? We are trying to get more buy-in for Confluence and this feature will be pretty key.

[Alan Batruk]

I have been able to use new editor and I love it, but now I cannot create new page with it. There is no banner on top that would allow to create new page with it and when I use + button it is not there anymore also. Anyone having same problem?

[Darryl St_ Pierre]

@Alan Batruk , I still have the option to "Try the new editing experience" when clicking + to create a new page.

[Alan Batruk]

Actually, in the past I have created few new pages in one space by just using the banner on the top of the page. I have never tried it through + and do not recall I have seen the try option over there.

[Alan Batruk]

Is there a setting somewhere to add that option to + options? I have tried finding it but no luck.

[Darryl St_ Pierre]

There's an option to globally disable the new editor experience (you disable the template under Global Templates and Blueprints under Settings), but nothing to configure it to appear or not appear with the +.

I'm actually not clear about your reference to the banner at the top of the page. I don't have that.

[Bob Sovers]

There is a keyboard shortcut "C" that is supposed to create new page.  (Available when NOT editing another page.)

It works for me, but I can also see the big + in the left margin.

[Darryl St_ Pierre]

Yes, and to the best of my knowledge, they both invoke the same dialog box with Template selection.

[Avinoam]

@Alan Batruk I'll follow up via email to see how I can help.

[Charles Johnson]

Event Atlassian's own confluence pages don't like the 30% narrow column nonsense! (you'll have to scroll to the right to see the screenshot of a page cutting off the right table column)

[Scott Saccone]

@AvinoamHi, will we eventually be able to add borders to images? That would be great. Perhaps this is part of the "Image properties" roadmap item? Thanks.

[Avinoam]

Hey @Scott Saccone as mentioned in the roadmap the image annotations will be replacing that functionality. Would love to hear more about how you use image borders.

[Tom Crowley]

He probably uses image borders the same way I do: to put borders around images. 

[Tom Crowley]

But seriously, when you're including an screenshot of software with a white background on a page with a white background, borders are pretty important...

[Nicole]

@Tom Crowley Yep, this is my exact use case and is part of our style guide for using Confluence as a KB for external documentation.

[Tom Crowley]

@Nicole It's such a basic requirement, if I hadn't been reading back through the rest of the pages I'd have been surprised that the question was asked...

[Dan Winkler]

@Tom Crowley I think that question is straight out of the Product Manager's playbook. Had someone at WalkMe ask me the same thing one time about a very simple feature that was supposed to be introduced in a new version but wasn't. I was pretty incredulous at first, but then realized it's part of their canned script. I can understand the question if the feature is complex, but for something like this, it seems very superficial.

[David Kennell]

Inline link editor is broken.

It's been unusable for about a month now. I have no alternate way to link between pages. Please fix this quickly, or at least allow me to use the previous version of the editor on new files.

Thanks!

[Scott Saccone]

You mean like this (new editor):

I inserted the first link with CTRL+K and used the search popup, and the second I entered a URL. What problems are you having?

[Maurice Pasman]

Try searching for an internal page (like used to work in the old editor with [ . It does not find most of the pages.

[Scott Saccone]

Ok, I can see that I have that issue as well. CTRL-K only seems to show the 5 most recent pages in the autocomplete list, and it only searches those 5. If I type the exact name of an existing page outside of that list, it doesn't find it. Must be a bug, is there an issue?

[Helen Griffith]

I have this problem too. I have many hundreds of pages in my space but it only returns the most recently viewed...

[JoAnna Black]

@Avinoam 

Can we schedule a time to talk? I have some questions about stability, rollout, and sunsetted macros.

Thanks!

[Avinoam]

@JoAnna Black absolutely! Please feel free to schedule a time here https://calendly.com/azelenko. thanks!

[Jakob Breivik Grimstveit]

I want to upload a file, and have that file linked to in the page content using a regular text link like this. Not possible any longer!?

[Tom Crowley]

Removing the ability to link images from other pages is a terrible idea, but the rationale behind it is straight up offensive:

"This would cause a number of dependency issues, such as where someone would unknowingly delete the image from the first page, and it would leave an error on all the other pages. In order to prevent this from happening, we've removed this functionality."

What are we? Five-year olds? Or are we adults who can take responsibility for the way we use our system?

And more puzzling is this:

The Excerpt Include macro still has the same issue (you can still delete it, there is no warning, it just deletes it)!

So all you've done is make the user experience worse. Much worse, in fact, because you can now no longer edit the image, for example by putting a border around it (because the add image feature seems to have been made worse too). You can't do this in the excerpt, and you can't do this in the target page. Or if you can, it's obviously too complicated for my five-year old brain to understand, and needs making clearer...

It also now takes longer to load the images because, I can only assume, instead of just calling the image, it has additional steps to go through with the Excerpt macros.

And on top of that, it takes longer to actually add the image, as you have to create a page for the image and add it to the Excerpt macro. And then in the target page, you have to remember to manually select Remove Surrounding Panel, particularly if it's for an inline image like an icon.

Although it becomes less puzzling when you look at the other useful features you've removed. Tell me, how many customers did you consult on this editor refresh?

[Tom Crowley]

And while we're at it, why can't we nest admonitions in ordered lists anymore? 

[Tom Crowley]

Also, the changing of how you handle inline images so that we now have to create them as emoji first then add them is a nice idea in principle, but not a great one in practise. The images don't come out well at all, and can't be resized to fit in with the text.

I thought I was going to have to grudgingly award you a point there, but then I tried it out and realised that it's not great. 

[Tom Crowley]

@Avinoam Since there seems to be a workaround by which we can continue to use the better editor, can you just confirm that any pages we create this way will always be able to be edited and copied using the good editor, not migrated to the poor new one?

As my company is just starting out using Confluence, I want to know whether I'm going to spend the next few years apologising for making them use the terrible editor, or if I can set up a process now that means that we can continue to use the flawed but functional one by copying an old page.

[JoAnna Black]

Seconding that being in this state of limbo is an issue for our organization.

We're trying to increase user adoption of the platform but I am hesitant to train. The new platform has many bugs and requires workarounds. The old platform may be going away completely.

Training on either seems counterproductive until the new editor is stabilized or Atlassian decides to allow continued use of the old platform.

[Martin Boehme]

It would be nice if there was a single-column layout.