Set up Confluence Cloud
Get the high-level details you need to set up your Confluence Cloud site in order to meet your team's needs.
Insert links
Messy URLs can actually make it harder to get work done and lead to mistakes. From Confluence or other Atlassian products, simply copy and paste URLs, then watch as your link turns into a name or other display options.
If a Confluence site requires that users have to be logged in to see its content, sharing a link to a certain page on that site won't work for people without access to log in.
Turn page content into links
Highlight the text to be used as the link and select the link icon , or just select the link tool.
You can also use keyboard shortcuts to open the link menu. Ctrl K for Windows, or cmd K for Mac.
Selecting the link tool allows you to link to:
an anchor macro
pages outside Confluence
recent Confluence pages or blogs
page comments or inline comments
email addresses
attachments
recent Jira issues in the same instance
After establishing the destination of the link, you can modify the text that is displayed to page viewers.
Link formats
Depending on the destination of your link, there are a variety of ways to format your URL.
Anchor
To link to an Anchor macro on the same page:
Make note of the name of the anchor to which you want to link. The name is displayed on the anchor when editing the page.
Highlight the text you want to use as the link.
Select the link tool .
Enter the name of the macro prefaced by a # symbol. If your Anchor Name is topofpage, you'll enter #topofpage when creating your link.
To link to an Anchor macro on another page:
Copy the URL of the page whose anchor you want to link.
Make note of the name of the anchor to which you want to link. The name is displayed on the anchor when editing the page.
Go to the page where you want to add the link and edit the page.
Highlight the text to be used as the link.
Select the link tool .
Paste the URL to the copied page in the link field followed by a # symbol and the anchor name.
Example
page name = Project notesAnchor name = notes from today
Link = sitename.domain/wiki/Project+notes#notes-from-today
Pro tip — if you are adding a link to an anchor from a Gliffy diagram, you must use the entire URL, not just the pagename#anchorname portion.
External pages or Confluence pages
To link to external sites, Confluence blogs, or Confluence pages:
Go to the page whose link you want to use.
Copy the URL.
Paste the URL in the link tool pop-up where ever you want it to appear on the page, and give it a more friendly name if desired.
Jira issue
To link to a Jira issue (where Confluence and Jira are connected):
Go to the Jira issue.
Go to and edit the page where you want to link to the attachment.
Paste the URL onto the page. Confluence automatically converts this to a smart link that displays the issue number, summary text, and status.
Comments
To link to a page comment in a Confluence blog or page:
Go to the page whose link you want to use.
Locate the page comment.
Select the date link below the comment. The page reloads scrolling you to the comment.
Copy the URL.
Go to and edit the page where you want to link to the comment.
Paste the URL in the link tool pop-up where ever you want it to appear on the page, and give it a more friendly name if desired.
To link to an inline comment in a Confluence blog or page:
Go to the page whose link you want to use.
Locate the inline page comment, and select to open the pop-up.
Hover over the date link in the comment. The page reloads scrolling you to the comment.
Copy the URL.
Go to and edit the page where you want to link to the comment.
Paste the URL in the link tool pop-up and give it a more friendly name if desired.
To link to an email address:
Go to the page where you want to link to the email.
Type the email address in the link tool pop-up where ever you want it to appear on the page, and give it a more friendly name if desired. Confluence automatically creates a 'mailto:' link.
Attachments
To link to a page’s attachment:
Go to the published version of the page containing the attachment to which you want to link.
Go to More ••• > Attachments.
Right-click on the file name of the attachment, and select Copy Link Address.
Go to and edit the page where you want to link to the attachment.
Paste the URL in the link tool pop-up, and give it a more friendly name if desired.
To link to the latest version of an attachment on another page:
Go to the published version of the page containing the attachment to which you want to link.
Go to More > Attachments.
Right-click on the file name of the attachment, and select Copy Link Address.
Go to and edit the page where you want to link to the attachment.
Paste the URL in the link tool pop-up, remove any text after the file extension in the URL, and give it a more friendly name if desired.
Headings
To link to a heading on a page or another page:
Go to the page and scroll down to the heading.
Hover over the heading to reveal the link icon to the left of the heading.
Select the link icon to copy the link.
Go to and edit the page where you want to link to the heading.
Select the link tool from the toolbar.
Paste the URL in the link tool pop-up, enter a more friendly name in the field below, and press Enter.
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.
Go to and view the page containing the heading.
Copy the page URL for future use. Keep in mind that the page URL capitalization must match the page title capitalization. Spaces in the page title are replaced with a plus ( + ).
Make note of all the exact headings that to which you want to link.
Go to and edit the page where you want to link to the headings.
Select the link tool from the toolbar.
Paste the page URL in the link tool pop-up, enter a more friendly name in the field below, and press Enter.
Repeat Step 6 until you’ve created all the heading links needed.
yoursite.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AAA/pages/#####/Page+title+goes+here#Heading-name-goes-here
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.
Smart links
Authenticate to display Smart Links
When pasting a link to a non-Atlassian product, you’ll need to log in to connect that product with your Atlassian Cloud account. You’ll only need to do this once, and that product’s links will work across all of Atlassian Cloud. This process will only affect your account, and no one else’s. Your teammates will have to authenticate their own accounts in order to view smart links.
Links from the following products will automatically get special styling when you paste them onto your page:
Atlassian products:
Confluence
Jira
Jira Roadmaps
Jira Align
Bitbucket
Compass
Atlas
Atlassian Analytics
Trello
Non-Atlassian products:
Slack
Zoom
Dropbox
Box
YouTube
Google Drive
Microsoft OneDrive (personal only)
Asana
Github
Gitlab
Figma
Invision
Marvel
Mural
Miro
Zeplin
Adobe XD
Stripe
Salesforce
Azure Devops
Pro tip — To stop a link displaying as a Smart link and simply display the URL, use a keyboard shortcut like Cmd + Z (Mac) or Ctrl + Z (Windows) immediately after the link you pasted converts into a Smart link.
After the URL is converted to a smart link, you can decide if you'd like it to be shown:
as the actual URL
as an inline representation of the page title; this often includes an icon or an emoji to convey the content type or website logo
as a card; smart cards offer richer detail than links, including summaries and actions. More detail will be added to cards over time
as an embed – an interactive preview of link content. The Display embed option only appears for file types that can be previewed, like a YouTube video, Figma file, or Google doc.
Users can only preview embedded content if they have permission to view the file or link that you have embedded.
To change how a link is displayed, click on the link to show the link toolbar, and select one of the four display options (URL, Inline, Card or Embed).
Your browser may prevent links from displaying as an embed. To solve this problem, go to your browser settings and add the site or application to the list of sites that can always use cookies.
Learn more about supported browsers for Atlassian cloud products.
Paste URLs as plain text in the editor
To stop links from becoming Smart Links when creating content in the editor, just use Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + V when you paste content.
Use this command to paste text or links to keep URLs in their original format.
You can also use Cmd/Ctrl + Z to change a link back to its original URL if it has already converted to a Smart Link.
Unlink a link
Anytime a link is added to a page or blog, it gets converted to a selectable link that can take the reader to another location. You may prefer to display the URL without the interactive capability.
To unlink a link:
Select the link while editing the page. If the link became a smart link after pasting, change the display type to Display URL.
Select the URL. A floating toolbar appears.
Select the Unlink icon . The blue interactive state of the text is removed.
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 select 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 or Return 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 select on the link, while viewing or editing, and it will continue to create new draft pages.
View undefined pages in a space
The Undefined page shows you all the undefined pages in your space.
To view a list of the undefined links in a space:
Go to the space in Confluence Cloud.
Select Space Settings from the sidebar.
Select Undefined from the Manage pages card.
The undefined page links have a green badge to remind you that these pages haven't been published yet. Select an undefined page link to create a draft and add content to it.
Link preferences
You can set your preferences on how links are displayed across Confluence, Atlas, Jira and soon for other Atlassian products. Your chosen link display option appears when you edit pages or comment on issues.
Go to link preferences from Confluence:
Select your avatar from the top-right menu, then go to Settings.
Under Settings, select Account preferences.
From the left-side menu, select Link preferences.
Go to link preferences from Jira:
Select the settings cog [cog image] on the top-right menu.
Under ‘Personal settings, select Atlassian account settings.
From the left-side menu, select Link preferences.
Set your default display for new links
You can choose how to display links you create:
From Link preferences, go to the Default display section.
Choose your preferred display option.
Links created by other users will appear depending on the display option they choose.
Remember to refresh active editor sessions after you update your preferences.
Exceptions for specific domains
You can set different display options for links from specific domains:
From Link preferences, go to the section labeled Exceptions for specific domains.
Type or paste in a domain or URL.
Choose your preferred display option from the dropdown.
Select Submit.
Add exceptions for other domains if needed.
Exceptions for subdomains
You may enter subdomains as your URL to set default display options for links from specific sections of a website.
For example, if you set a preference for links from google.com to display as a card, all subdomains will follow the same rule.
If you only set an exception for slides.google.com, the other Google domains display as the default setting or any custom preferences you may have set.
If a domain cannot be displayed as an embed, your link will default to inline.
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:
From the toolbar, select Link > Search then enter part of the page name. Select the page when it appears in the list.
From the toolbar, select 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:
From the toolbar, select 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.
From the toolbar, select 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
From the toolbar, select 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:
From the toolbar, select 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:
From the toolbar, select 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
From the toolbar, select 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
From the toolbar, select 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.
Be aware that these links will break if you edit the heading text. Consider using the Table of Contents macro or an Anchor instead.
Link 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 jump to specific parts of a long document. Anchors are invisible to the reader when the page is displayed.
Link to an anchor
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
Select some text or position your cursor where you want to insert the link
From the toolbar, select Link in the toolbar or press Ctrl+K
Select Advanced and enter the anchor name in the Link field, following the format below.
Anchor location | Link syntax for anchor | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Same page | #anchorname | #bottom #importantinformation |
Page in same space | page name#anchor name | My page#bottom My page#important information |
Page in different space | spacekey:pagename#anchorname | CONFCLOUD:Mypage#bottom CONFCLOUD:Mypage#importantinformation |
4. 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)
5. Select Save
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 select 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:
From the toolbar, select Insert > Link or press Ctrl+K on your keyboard.
Select Advanced from the left navigation
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 select 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:
Select Space settings in the sidebar, then choose Content tools
Select Undefined Pages.
The undefined page links have a green badge to remind you that these pages haven't been published yet. Select on the link for an undefined page to create a draft and add content to it.
Link to a personal space or user profile
From the toolbar, select 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:
From the toolbar, select 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)
Select 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
Select 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
Select Unlink from the link properties toolbar to remove the link
Select Edit from the link properties toolbar to modify the link, make your changes, and choose Save
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