Send your readers to the right spot by using one of Confluence's content links. You can link to pages or to content on a page, like comments.
Pages in your site may use the new editor or the legacy editor. This page explains how to use both editors.
Use these links to jump to the section detailing the editor you use:
Which editor does your page use
When you edit a page, you can look over the toolbar for visual indicators, like the differences between the text color pickers or the inclusion of an emoji icon in the new editor toolbar. You'll also notice that the Publish and Close buttons were moved to the top right in the new editor.
New editor
Legacy editor
New editor
The way links are added in the new editor has been simplified to provide you with an easier way to get this done.
Use the Confluence Cloud Editor Roadmap to track the status of features in the backlog and those that are gathering interest.
This section details how links can be added to pages without the use of adding anchors.
Insert links
Either highlight the text to be used as the link and click the link tool, or just click the link tool.
You can also use keyboard shortcuts to open the link menu. Ctrl K
for Windows, or cmd K
for Mac.
Clicking the link tool gives you the ability to paste a link or search for all pages and blogs in your Confluence instance and recently viewed Jira issues in the same instance. After establishing the destination of the link, you can modify the text that is displayed to page viewers.
Smart links
For certain links, you'll get special styling when you paste a link from one of the following products onto your page:
Confluence
Jira
- Jira Roadmaps
Bitbucket
Dropbox
Box
Google Drive
Microsoft OneDrive
Asana
Github
- Figma
- GItlab
- Adobe XD
After the URL is converted to a Smart link, you can decide if you'd like it to be shown as a card.
Smart cards offer richer detail than links, and more detail will be added to cards over time.
Link formats
Depending on the destination of your link, there are a variety of ways to format your URL.
Description | How to find and use |
---|---|
Link to external sites, Confluence blogs, or Confluence pages |
|
Link to a page comment in a Confluence blog or page |
|
Link to an inline comment in a Confluence blog or page |
|
Link to an email address |
|
Link to a page’s attachment | Doing this through the link tool is coming soon. In the meanwhile, you can use this process to accomplish your goal.
|
Link to the latest version of an attachment on another page |
|
Link to a heading on a page or another page | Heading links use a combination of the three character space identifier and the page ID along with the page name and header name. If you only need to get the URL that takes viewers to a heading, do the following:
If you need to create several links to headings on a page, it’s more efficient to get the page URL and construct the heading portion yourself.
yoursite.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AAA/pages/#####/Page+title+goes+here#Page-heading-goes-here
|
Link to a Jira issue |
|
Creating links to non-heading sections of your page isn't possible in the new editor. If you need to link to a part of the page that isn’t worthy of a major heading, try using a smaller heading like an H5 or H6.
Linking to text formatted as headings in tables isn’t currently possible in the new editor.
Link to an undefined placeholder page
Sometimes you want to link to a Confluence page that doesn't exist yet. To do this, you can add an undefined link and come back to it later. When you click on the link, Confluence will create a draft page with that title for you to then add content to and publish when you're ready.
Undefined placeholder links can't be added to templates.
Create an undefined placeholder page link
- Type
[Placeholder Page Name]()
.
This follows the syntax as the keyboard shortcut for adding defined links[Link] (http://a.com)
. - Press
Enter
orReturn
to create the placeholder. - Select Close to keep the page as a DRAFT or select Publish.
Using a keyboard shortcut is the only way to accomplish this right now. In the coming months, the ability to add undefined links will be added to the editor toolbar and slash command menu.
A link to an undefined page is shown in red. Until you actually publish this newly created page, anyone with create permissions in that space can click on the link, while viewing or editing, and it will continue to create new draft pages.
View undefined pages in a space
The Undefined Pages view shows you all the undefined pages in your space.
To view a list of the undefined links in a space:
- Choose Space settings in the sidebar, then choose Content tools
- Choose Undefined Pages.
The undefined page links have a green badge to remind you that these pages haven't been published yet. Click on the link for an undefined page to create a draft and add content to it.
Legacy editor
This section provides the details for adding links and anchors to your page using the legacy editor.
Internal links
Here's how to link to content from within Confluence
Link to a page
If it's a page in the same space:
- Choose Link > Search then enter part of the page name. Select the page when it appears in the list.
- Choose Link > Recently viewed and select a page from the list.
- Type [ and enter part of the page name, then select the page from the list.
- Paste the URL of the page onto your page (Confluence will automatically create the link).
If it's a page in a different space:
- Choose Link > Search and from the space dropdown, either select the space the page lives in, or All Spaces. Then enter part of the page name, and select the page when it appears in the list.
- Choose Link > Advanced then enter the space key followed by the page name
spacekey:mypage
. - Type [ and enter part of the page name then select the page from the list. (You can hover over each suggestion to see which space the page is from).
Link to a blog post
- Choose Link > Search and enter part of the blog post name, then select the post when it appears in the list.
- Type [ and enter part of the blog post name then select the blog post from the list.
Link to an attachment
On this page:
- Choose Link > Attachment then upload or select an attachment from the list.
- Type [ and enter part of the attachment file name then select the attachment from the list.
On another page:
Choose Link > Search and enter part of the attachment name, then select it when it appears in the list. (You can hover over each suggestion to see which space the page is from).
Type [ and enter part of the attachment file name then select the attachment from the list
Link to a website
- Choose Link > Web Link then enter the website URL.
- Type or paste the URL onto the page (Confluence will automatically create the link).
Link to an email address
- Choose Link > Web Link then enter the email address.
- Type or paste the email address onto the page (Confluence will automatically create a 'mailto:' link).
Link to a heading on a page
Choose Link > Advanced then enter the heading in one of the formats below. Heading text is case sensitive and must be entered without spaces.
- For a heading on this page:
#MyHeading
. - For a heading on another page in this space:
Page Name#MyHeading
. - For a heading on another page in another space:
spacekey:Page Name#MyHeading
.
Table of Contents macro or an Anchor instead.
Be aware that these links will break if you edit the heading text. Consider using theLink to a comment on a page
- Go to the comment, right click the Date at the bottom of the comment, copy the link, and paste it directly into your page.
- Type [$ then enter the Comment ID (12345 in this example):
[$12345]
Link to an anchor on a page
Use anchors to enable linking to specific locations on a page. These can be especially useful for allowing your readers to navigate to specific parts of a long document. Anchors are invisible to the reader when the page is displayed.
Add an anchor
- Do either of the following in the Confluence editor:
- Choose Insert > Other Macros, then find and select the Anchor macro
- Type { and the beginning of the macro name, then select the Anchor macro
- Enter the Anchor Name (For example, bottom or important information)
- Choose Insert
Link to an anchor
- Select some text or position your cursor where you want to insert the link
- Choose Link in the toolbar or press Ctrl+K
Choose Advanced and enter the anchor name in the Link field, following the format below.
Anchor location Link syntax for anchor Examples Same page #anchor name #bottom
#important information
Page in same space page name#anchor name My page#bottom
My page#important information
Page in different space spacekey:page name#anchor name
CONFCLOUD:My page#bottom
CONFCLOUD:My page#important information
- Enter or modify the Link Text (this is the text that will appear on the page. If this field is left blank, the page name or URL will be used as the link text)
- Choose Save
- Anchor names, including the space key and page name, are case sensitive.
- Enter page and anchor names with spaces when you link to them in the same Confluence site
- If you're linking to an anchor on a different page that has special characters in its name, where the URL displays a page ID rather than a name, you should still enter the page name when linking to it
Link to an undefined page (a page that does not exist yet)
Sometimes you want to link to a Confluence page that doesn't exist yet. To do this, you can add an undefined link and come back to it later. When you click on the link, Confluence will create a draft page with that title for you to then add content to and publish when you're ready.
Create an undefined page link:
- Choose Insert > Link or press Ctrl+K on your keyboard.
- Choose Advanced.
- Enter the name of the page to be created in the Link field.
A link to an undefined page is shown in dark red. Until you actually publish this newly created page, anyone with create permissions in that space can click on the link, while viewing or editing, and it will continue to create new draft pages.
View undefined pages in a space
The Undefined Pages view shows you all the undefined pages in your space.
To view a list of the undefined links in a space:
- Choose Space settings in the sidebar, then choose Content tools
- Choose Undefined Pages.
The undefined page links have a green badge to remind you that these pages haven't been published yet. Click on the link for an undefined page to create a draft and add content to it.
Link to a personal space or user profile
- Choose Link > Search then enter the user's name and select their personal space overview or their profile from the list.
- Type [ then enter the user's name and select their personal space overview or their profile from the list.
Link to a Jira issue (where Confluence is connected to Jira)
- Paste the Jira issue URL - Confluence will automatically create a Jira Issue macro.
Use a shortcut link
If you have configured shortcut links on your Confluence site, then you can link to an external site using a shortcut link that looks like this:CONF-17025@jira
.
For example, this Confluence site uses the shortcut @jira to link to jira.atlassian.com. So, the shortcut link CONF-17025@jira
produces this link.
To add a shortcut link using the Insert Link dialog:
- Choose Link > Advanced and enter or paste the shortcut link into the Link field (shortcut links are case-insensitive)
- Modify or enter link text (this is the text that will appear on the page)
- Choose Insert
You can also type [ and choose Insert Web Link > Advanced to enter a shortcut link.
External links
Here's how to link to Confluence content from other websites and in emails.
Link to a heading
Example
http://myconfluence.com/display/spacekey/pagename#pagename-headingtext
Link to a comment
Example
http://myconfluence.com/display/spacekey/pagename?focusedCommentId=commentid#comment-commentid
To find out the comment URL and comment ID:
- Go to the comment you wish to link to
- Choose the Date at the bottom of the comment and examine the URL
The number after comment- is the Comment ID
Link to an anchor
Example
http://myconfluence.com/display/spacekey/pagename#pagename-anchorname
Some important details to keep in mind:
- The page name is repeated in the URL, after the # sign. The second occurrence of the page name is concatenated into a single word, with all spaces removed.
- There is a single dash (hyphen) between the concatenated page name and the anchor name.
- The anchor name in the full URL is concatenated into a single word, with all spaces removed.
- The anchor name is case sensitive. You must use the same pattern of upper and lower case letters as you used when creating the Anchor.
Remove or modify a link
- Select the link text or image
- Choose Unlink from the link properties toolbar to remove the link
- Choose Edit from the link properties toolbar to modify the link, make your changes, and choose Save