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Suggestion
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Resolution: Unresolved
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None
NOTE: This suggestion is for Confluence Cloud. Using Confluence Server? See the corresponding suggestion.
There has been much said about how difficult anchors are to use, because of the esoteric syntax (see the comments in the Anchors page), especially as it relates to anchors linking to target pages different from the source page ... or, say, sending a colleague an email with a URL anchor link to your page.
The syntax often recommended by Atlassian tech writers is:
http://myconfluence.com/display/spacekey/pagename#pagename-anchorname
...but there are problems/bugs with this syntax:
- this breaks for pages that begin with a number (e.g., the very commonly used "2015-04-04 Meeting Notes" naming convention) ... in actuality, you need to use the "id-" prefix after the hash symbol, if the page name begins with a number
- the #pagename-anchorname part of that syntax actually needs to be #pagenameWithSpacesRemoved-anchorname; which is poorly documented, poorly understood by most users, and leaves the anchor link susceptible to broken links if the page is subsequently renamed
- the syntax is so convoluted, that anchors are unusable for our users, making anchors not a collaborative gadget tool, but a gadget only for developers or Confluence administrators.
- is related to
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- Gathering Interest
[CONFCLOUD-36940] Anchor syntax is so difficult to use, our users cannot use anchors
Martin Gregory
added a comment - It sounds like that should be a separate bug report.
IE the way it currently works is not only basically unworkable (which is what this ticket is about), it's also buggy perhaps.
Martin Gregory
added a comment - It sounds like that should be a separate bug report.
IE the way it currently works is not only basically unworkable (which is what this ticket is about), it's also buggy perhaps. Hi Steve Haffenden,
I noticed you change this issue type from "Bug" to "Improvement" ... fair enough, but can you attach or include the specification for how anchors are supposed to work, so that we can verify that what I reported in the description (e.g, anchors not working under the standard syntax, for pages beginning with numbers) is expected behavior?
Thanks,
Ray
Martin Gregory
added a comment - The idea that you need to "know a syntax" to use anchors is utterly ridiculous.
You should be able to right click on an anchor, grab the reference to it, and insert it where you need it.
Anything more complicated than that is unwarranted and unnecesarily difficult to use.
Martin Gregory
added a comment - The idea that you need to "know a syntax" to use anchors is utterly ridiculous.
You should be able to right click on an anchor, grab the reference to it, and insert it where you need it.
Anything more complicated than that is unwarranted and unnecesarily difficult to use.
Just to be clear, this issue is not necessarily about anything IE specific ... and if we're talking specifically about the "id-" prefix after the hash for page names that start with a number, in my testing the use of that prefix to the page name successfully takes you to the anchor in IE, Chrome, and Firefox (but did not work in Safari).