Keyboard Shortcuts, Markdown, and Autocomplete

Keyboard shortcuts and autocomplete

Want to be an absolute Confluence ninja? Get to know the keyboard shortcuts and autocomplete, and in no time at all you won't even need to use a mouse or trackpad.

We could give you a list here, but then you'd need to keep referring to this page. The best way to go is to show you how to find the list of keyboard shortcuts within Confluence.

Keyboard shortcuts

To view all Confluence keyboard shortcuts, do any of the following:

Select the help iconfrom the navigation bar near your profile picture, then select Keyboard Shortcuts.
When viewing a page, press shift+?
Regardless of the editor, press Ctrl + / (Windows) or command + / (Mac) when editing a page.
While editing a page, select thefrom the bottom left corner of the page if you are using the new editor, or select theat the top right of the page if you are using the legacy editor.

You'll see the available keyboard shortcuts, for your operating system, in Confluence.

Shows the keyboard shortcuts available in Confluence based on your computer's operating system

The keyboard shortcuts are broken up into 3 categories:

General – Global, page and blog post shortcuts.
Editor – Text editing and formatting shortcuts.
Editor Autoformatting – Wiki markup and autoformatting shortcuts.

You can turn the 'General' keyboard shortcuts off when you visit the General tab in the keyboard shortcuts dialog.

Autocomplete

Certain key combinations and markdown can be used to quickly change formatting, create lists, and add tables.

Pages in your site may use the new editor or the legacy editor. This section explains how to use autocomplete in both editors.

Which editor does your page use?

You can see which editor your page uses by looking at the differences in the editor toolbar.

The New editor: Includes Publish… or Update and Close buttons in the top menu and the emoji icon
The Legacy editor: Has earlier versions of text-color picker and page formatting

New editor

Legacy editor

New Editor

This section provides the following details for using keyboard shortcuts, markdown, and autocomplete in the new editor.

Use keyboard shortcuts and markdown

When editing a page that uses the new editor, select the menu at the bottom left of the page, and select Editing keyboard shortcuts.

Shows the options available when selecting the help icon on the lower left when editing a page or blog

You can see the list of all the keyboard shortcuts and markdown available in the new editor.

The shortcuts you see in the application depend on the operating system you use.

Use the slash command

In the new editor, several autocomplete shortcuts have been combined into one place. The slash command opens a menu that contains the following:

Tools from the toolbar like paragraph formatting and lists as well as adding links, images, mentions, emojis, tables, and layouts
Elements like expands, dates, adding files, quotes, code snippets, and statuses
Macros
Custom apps

Shows the list that appears when you type a slash while editing a page or blog post

The items available in the slash command list are exactly the same as the items seen when selecting from the toolbar.

Open the autocomplete menu:

Type / then the first few characters of the shortcut.
Choose the shortcut from the list of suggestions.

Some of the shortcut combinations require a space to be added afterward, like Action item and Decision.

Legacy editor

This section provides the following details for using autocomplete in the legacy editor.

Autocomplete shortcuts

When you edit a page or comment, you can use autocomplete to add links, images, and macros to your page as you go.

Use autocomplete for links

Either:
- Type [ and then the first few characters of the page title, user's name, image name or file name.
- Type the first few characters of the page title, user's name, image name, or file name (or select relevant text) and then press ctrl+shift+k.
Click the relevant link from the list of suggestions.

If the item you need is not in the list, either choose Search for 'xxx' to continue looking for the page within Confluence, or Insert Web Link to link to an external page.

Use autocomplete for images, videos, audio files, and documents

Either:
- Type ! and then the first few characters of the image, file, or document name.
- Type the first few characters of the name of the image, file, or document (or select relevant text) and then press ctrl+shift+m.
Choose the relevant file from the list of suggestions.

If the item you need is not in the list, either choose Open Image Browser to search in the image browser, or Insert Other Media to open the macro browser and use the multimedia macro to display your file.

Use autocomplete for macros

Type { and then the first few characters of the macro name.
Choose the relevant macro from the list of suggestions.
Configure the macro by completing the form fields as prompted.

If the macro you need is not in the list, or you can't remember the name, choose Open Macro Browser in the list of suggestions and continue looking for the macro in the macro browser.

Use autocomplete for mentions

Use autocomplete to automatically notify another Confluence user that you have mentioned them in a page, blog post, or comment. Type @ and part of the person's name to see a list of suggested users.

Cancel autocomplete

Autocomplete starts when you press the trigger characters, but if you're just trying to use those characters and want to cancel autocomplete, you can do any of the following:

Press Esc on your keyboard.
Click somewhere else in the editor panel.
Press an arrow key to move out of the autocomplete area.
For the link autocomplete only: enter a right-hand square bracket, like this: ]

Turn off autocomplete

You can turn off (and if you want, later turn back on) the autocomplete triggers [ and ! through your user profile.

Choose your profile photo > Settings
Under Your Settings in the left hand panel, choose Editor
Choose Edit.
Select or deselect Disable Autocomplete
Submit.