We've now rolled out inline comments in the editor to 100% of customers! All Confluence Cloud customers can now create, view, and resolve inline comments whether you are viewing or editing a page. We hope this new feature helps you and your team collaborate more effectively in Confluence Cloud. To learn more about the new feature check out our community post here: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-articles/Inline-comments-while-editing-FINALLY/ba-p/1444781

@dayele: Great to see this is available now! Will this feature come to the server version of Confluence too?

Hi Confluence Cloud customers,

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and feedback on this feature request. I’m excited to announce that rolling out shortly you’ll be able to create, view, and resolve inline comments whether you are viewing or editing a page. We hope this new feature helps you and your team collaborate more effectively in Confluence Cloud. To learn more about the new feature check out our community post here: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-articles/Inline-comments-while-editing-FINALLY/ba-p/1444781

Best,
Daniel Ayele
Product Manager, Confluence Cloud

In this recent announcement they have said this feature is being worked on

> This is the first of many new improvements we have coming this year for the inline commenting experience, including the ability to use inline comments in edit, so stay tuned for more to come!

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-articles/Find-and-read-comments-easier/ba-p/1412800?utm_source=newsletter-email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=confluence-digest-july_EML-7270&jobid=104728465&subid=1544148466

More and more Google Docs are popping up because of this glaring lack of a feature.

We will no longer be using Confluence due to this feature not being available natively.

While your partners have created a great supporting feature - this is something that needs to be standard product. 

This would be great to have.

Hi Brittany, I have used both Quip and Notion in teams of 3-15. My current team of 20 tried notion but switched to Confluence for business reasons. I'm currently trying to get buy-in with my team to actually use confluence for our remote work but half of my team complains about not having this feature which causes us to still heavily rely on google docs. I personally think that this defeats the purpose of having a beautiful Wiki where all those documents could be stored and we can collaborate on work. I have used google docs for personal use for a decade until I switched to Notion for personal use about a year ago and never plan on going back.

Hi Michael, we are currently working on this feature, so stay tuned! Do you use Quip and Notion for personal, solo, use or for work projects that require sharing and collaboration?

@Adam Fischer: Yeah, actually this is not possible to implement. We are working on it. Stay in touch, as soon we have a solution, I will post it here. 

Best Regards

Domenico 

+1.  Should be able to add comments while editing as well.

Is there any update on that or plan for development and release?

Thanks Domenico but we are on cloud and this looks server or data center only.

Hi all, Pls check this Plug-In out, this will solve your problems and give you also a few more features: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1217328/show-inline-comments-in-editor

Yeah.  Why wouldn't you want this.  +1 for me.

+1. I have been waiting for this feature for the last 4 years. It is literally the only feature that is preventing me from using and recommending Confluence Cloud over Quip or Notion. I don't understand how Attlasian's mission reads "unleash the potential in every team—including our own" and yet they don't provide this critical collaboration feature...

+1 here too.

Not doing it is nonsense.. if you want to solve comments while editing.. you have to have a published and and an editing version of the same page side to side to evaluate 

+1 here too.

Not only view the comments in edit mode but to act on them. As per comment directly above, I have to open two tabs to work through the comments while editing/updating.

+1 to this request. One of my main use cases is to look at a comment while I'm editing the page to incorporate the comment's suggestions, and then resolve the comment. That's not possible currently with Confluence pages. Also, I realized this when I accidentally deleted a comment when I was editing (since I didn't know the comment was there). So what I do now is open up in two different tabs, one with view (so I can see the comments) and the other in edit mode. It's not a good experience. It's a big reason why I think GoogleDocs is WAY ahead in terms of commenting & collaboration features.

This is necessary if we are to adopt this as a collaborative tool, our Business Analysts and Solutions Architects will not move away from Google Docs for document collaboration becasue of this.

So far, the only possibility to find/view inline comments is the "Activity Stream Gadget". It's a little tricky but mostly works.

This gadget will be removed by Atlassian in mid-May.

No substitution ahead!?

Viewing and editing comments and inline comments is important for a fruitful collaboration.

very sad!

@Niko and @Ron: Do you are talking about the Server or Cloud Version? 

For the Server-Version we had a very cool and convenient solution: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1217328/show-inline-comments-in-editor

With "Show Inline Comments in Editor" you have great opportunities: 

Edit already existing inline Comments
Reply to inline Comments
Resolve and Delete inline Comments

Here you can find a "smal" Demo of the functionalities: https://gifyu.com/image/dADT
If you want to know more, just test the app or contact me, I would like to give you a live-demo.

Be st Regards
Domenico

I agree, Our Business Analyst refuse to move to confluence because of it. 

This is a serious blocking concern for Confluence being a real option for collaborating on documentation. It creates enough pain that enough people are vigorously against moving documentation to Confluence.

I agree, how is this NOT a feature? 

but what can I tell you I humble Italian user of Atlassian since 2003... they are like that, according to them this feature is secondary, but console yourself, now you can put the figures of the kittens in the function of the online comment, certainly earns the business. (I know that it's since 2015 that this feature is requested now I'm talking seriously, and it's evident that the product owner of Confluence doesn't think it's useful for customers).

For five years

in fact we must distinguish here, between a request that so many users are making, and many users not stupid understand both the urgency and importance of the request and obviously the time it takes to make a change not small. So we wait patiently. 

How is this not yet a feature? Probably because it's more difficult than a yet another miniscule design change...

@Calogero: Thank you  This Plugin is available since 2017. 

@Ron McFarlance: Actualy is technical via cloud not possible, but we are looking for an solution. May we should talk how we can help you? Just send us an E-Mail at info@actonic.de. Looking forward to hear from you.

@domenico Manzo. Is there a version of the plug in available for Cloud. Thanks

excellent work @domenico manzo

@calogero bonasia: Pls check this Plug-In out, this will solve your problems and give you also a few more features: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1217328/show-inline-comments-in-editor

@Shay Nehmad: Confluence give you a lot of more and better features then Google Docs do! If you need help or free consultancy pls contact us via info@actonic.de We are pleased to help you! 

Best Regards
Domenico 

This is going to be the deciding factor between Confluence and Google Docs for me

hello everyone, I am the person who has asked and urges this function with great urgency. In my case I have several customers, for a total of about 5000 users, who ask for this function. Tell me if it is not the case to see it already in the next release of April 2020 in Confluence ??

This would be very valuable to my team

@Linda please post the url should the bug be accepted

Sorry: Apparently they have to review it before it's actually posted as a bug. The URL they sent me is
https://getsupport.atlassian.com/servicedesk/customer/portal/23/JST-546076

@Linda Schmandt Is the url: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JST-546076? If so, I get "You can't view this issue
It may have been deleted or you don't have permission to view it." If not, please can you provide the url.

I attended an Atlassian webinar yesterday where they highlighted all the benefits of the new editor.  I posted a question asking if this is resolved as part of the new editor.  They ignored my question, so assume the answer is No.  It's obviously not an easy fix (or even one that might be possible) or they would have addressed it by now.  

If this issue concerns you, please vote for bug JST-546076. Like all of us, Atlassian pays more attention to bugs than to suggestions, so it may be more compelling for them to get a lot of votes on a bug than it is to get a lot of votes on a suggestion. Thanks.

Wondering if there is any plan to get this ticket resolved.

I feel Carolyn McDonough's pain. It's things like this that drove me to use Confluence Server, even though Cloud would be far simpler for me. There are at least three apps that provide this functionality for server only.

• [Stiltsoft Talk|https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/978531/talk-advanced-inline-comments?hosting=datacenter&tab=overview]
• [K15t Inline Comments|https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1220375/inline-comments-in-the-editor?hosting=datacenter&tab=overview]
• [Actonic Show Inline Comments|https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1217328/show-inline-comments-in-editor?hosting=datacenter&tab=overview]

This issue has caused me to look to several other tools for internal doc. I kept waiting for this to be addressed. I don't understand. Another very popular tool that I won't name does this really well. Really well. But I loved some of the Confluence features so much that I have tried to stay with Confluence for an entire category of docs. We have internal doc that needs many  reviews.We have been creating it in another tool, then moving it to confluence, SOLELY BECAUSE OF THIS MISSING FEATURE. This is just silly (as no one has told us WHY)  and so as the other tool gets more Conf-like features, we are tending to keep things in that tool. If you wonder why you are losing content share, that's why. It is the single biggest issue causing churn away from this tool for my team and others.  I love Atlassian but this is odd to me. Usually you are great at explaining things for users and responding to what we want,. At least please explain if there is some reason so that we can understand? Is it not technically possible? Does it conflict with something else? Would love to understand. We, the people who take the time to comment on your dashboards, represent a tiny slice of those who simply get frustrated with this odd omission and walk away. So we would love to understand why!

[UPDATE] I'm not amazed. That was a lie. I fully expected it. I'm just disappointed.

I am amazed that this ticket has been open since 2015 and has as many comments as it does, yet somehow wasn't included in the new editor. This was something that you knew people were asking for, have several use cases provided in the comments, and have still ignored.

Daniel Ayele updated this in June and said it had been added to the roadmap - I just checked the public-facing roadmap: nothing doing. Also, November 2019 saw the release of an updated commenting feature and it wasn't mentioned there, which makes me feel like it's been forgotten again.

We've been on Confluence for a couple of months now, and are already phasing it out of our long-term strategy...

So glad this is on Atlassian's radar at least for Cloud. It is seriously a reason we have been shifting to an inhouse tool and Google Docs. I love the structure and many features of Confluence, but the editing limitation has been a real difficulty. We write highly technical doc and need to be able to see comments and respond to them in context. I guess there is some reason this is a difficulty technically given it's been asked for since 2015. It would be nice to know if that's the reason it hasn't been implemented if true, just for context. So much else about Confluence, but as Rufus & Kevin said–deal breaker for anyone who writes doc that needs multiple, frequent reviews. 

Kevin said it well above ^

This is almost a deal-breaker for me and is the reason we are still using Google Docs for some technical docs and qa purposes. It's too cumbersome to constantly close/publish so that you can read or add a comment, then go back into Edit mode (which takes a long time to load the doc, and also losses your current place in the doc. 

Without being able to read/write comments in edit mode I find it highly frustrating to use Confluence except for those cases where I'm the only contributor.

Confluence is getting much better with the full screen but I truly feel Comments in Edit Mode would be a real game-changer for us in fully adopting the tool.

It would also be great if (in both Cloud and Server) comments could be hidden from the user. If you want to publish an in-progress document that still has comments to be reviewed, you either have to delete them (and maybe then re-enter them), or publish with comments users have no business seeing. Just my two cents....thanks!

I have just returned to evaluate Confluence again after we took a break from it a few years ago, when it had no collaborative editing, and some of our users occasionally lost their edits. I am happy to see that collaborative editing now seems to work as effectively as Google Docs.

The deal-breaker for me, though, is the inability to create/edit/maintain comments during the editing cycle. I routinely create comments for myself during editing. Also, if I am a contributor to a document and am reviewing it, I usually want to do that in Edit mode because I can then fix any minor items (eg. typos, a missing word, etc) as I go.

As it stands, I would need to write down my comments and apply them after I have published my document – clearly not ideal.

The other problem is that if the editing experience does not show the comments, you have no idea if you are potentially deleting text which a comment pertains to, which rates anywhere from undesirable to somewhat dangerous.

Thanks for sharing the good news Daniel. Guessing this will be ported to server/data center more like Q4 of 2020 or into 2021?

Daniel, the above is great news.

But, I see this ticket is for Confluence Cloud. We'r running Server. Will the same enhancements be made there?

Thanks.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on how we can improve the commenting experience in Confluence.

I'm happy to share that we have added this suggestion to our roadmap and plan to enable inline comments in the editor in the next 12 months. In addition, we are making a number of changes to the commenting experience in Confluence to make comments simple, familiar and delightful. Specifically, we are solving the following:

1. Improving the discoverability and accessibility of comments
2. Making comments consistent across the edit and render views of pages
3. Making the commenting experience consistent across web and mobile platforms

We'll keep you updated on progress and timelines for when the above issues are resolved.

Best,

Daniel Ayele
Senior Product Manager, Confluence

Hi John, 

thx for your questions. We are currently working on it, stay tuned. 

BR

Domenico 

This is basic functionality that shouldn't require a plugin let alone one you have to pay for.

Doesn't look like it works for Cloud. Does it?

Hi @all, 

there is a great plugin which will solve exactly this issue, check this out, "Show Inline Comments in Editor": https://marketplace.atlassian.com/1217328

Best Regards
Domenico 

Happy late birthday to this issue. It's now 4 years old! This feature is still broken. Happy Birthday 36956!

+1 as well. This one is a blocker for getting more of our org off Google Docs and onto confluence.

To add to my earlier comment: I'd like there to be some mechanism (macro/token) that could be added to a page to have something similar to page comments (so the comments can also be hierarchical, like discussions), that could expand/collapse in-place; this would allow for more natural discussion, and also for these inline comments/discussions to be moved at will if needed (since they're be actual objects that is part of the page structure).

I have dealt with this issue by using the Talk plugin by StiltSoft. It allows in-line commenting in edit or view mode. Another benefit is that it allows commenting (in view mode) on content displayed from other pages, such as excerpts and page includes.

Sorry... This is for Confluence Server only.

Currently the entire editor is being redesigned but still doesn't have this feature and it isn't suggested that it would even be arriving ever. Not being able to see these in editor makes the inline comment feature almost useless. What was the intent behind this feature? 

Absurd that such basic functionality is missing.

It would also be useful to be able to add inline comments from edit mode. For example, when writing a page, you might need input from someone else. The best way to do this would be to tag them in a comment and ask them for their input. It's frustrating that the only way to do this would be to publish a page you're working on, add the comment, then continue editing, without having a load of '@' mentions embedded within the text, which is messy.

In addition to viewing the inline comments, being able to maintain them when moving text around would be good, because at times it's beneficial to reorganize the structure of text (which might have inline comments) for clarity, but currently doing so will lose any inline comments. Ex: moving text from the page into a table cell/row.

Adding my support in favor of this feature.

My company uses Confluence to collaborate on Project Specs, and they tend to collect a lot of comments with people double-checking or asking questions. However once you go into edit mode to codify a decision you often come up with another question, leading you to flip in and out of editing mode, which is frustrating.

We have adapted a workaround convention of writing questions inline with a particular text color, but this has proven half-effective at its best.

+1 for this functionality. Google Docs got this right, commenting, reviewing, and editing work seamlessly together. 

I share others' frustration at having to jump in and out of Edit / Review+Click mode to do this.

I might have to move to Google Docs if this isn't fixed soon. Seems crazy that I can't see reviewer's suggestions made in comments while in edit mode. FRUSTRATING!!

My work around is to have two tabs open - one in view mode so I can see the comments, and one in Edit mode so that I can make changes.  I agree it is a pain, and I wish they would fix it.  

Seriously, what's it going to take guys? This feature is nearly useless without the ability to see comments while editing. The whole idea of commenting is to leave feedback for the author, but the author cannot see the feedback while editing...

Wow - I am amazed that this has been around since May of 2015.
Are there so many other bugs in confluence, that this is not even scheduled for implementation?  Why not just disable comments that half support them?
( comments don't make it to history and are not treated as valuable input )

+1 for this feature, when trying to integrate feedback specifically into specifications documents. Referencing two windows for the same document especially when working directly off a laptop screen is extremely painful.

This is extremely important as Confluence is designed as a collaborative tool.  We are REQUESTING feedback on a page (particularly a Requirement Document).  I  can see the comments entered in Review mode and need to edit the page based on the comment, but cannot!  I have to enter EDIT mode, which hides the comment, and have to then remember exactly where which Requirements need to be edited.  Opening two browser instances is a workaround, but not a good one.  

At least make it so you can open the editor using the "Editor"-pencil in a new window please.

Inline commenting in the editor is important to me, because I want to be able to comment on my own work, as I create it. I use inline comments in Word and Google Docs to leave notes to myself and temporary explanatory text for readers and reviewers. Inability to do this in Confluence is often a 'deal-breaker' that forces me to compose in a document instead – and that is a shame.

Alternative approaches just don't work for this. Here is why

• Page comments: Cannot add while editing, and in any case, the point of inline commenting is to pinpoint the context or location on the page, without the burden of quotation and screenshots.
• Two tabs: Changes made in the editor in Tab 1 do not appear in Tab 2 until Tab 1 is published. Commenting in Tab 2 would require publishing Tab 1, refreshing Tab 2, then commenting in Tab 2 and finally restarting the editor again in Tab 1.
• Within-page comments: I have tried using a different font or colour to leave comments within the page. This works as filler material for content to be added later, but it gets in the way when used as a second layer, or adjunct to the main content.
• Save comments for later: It's possible to make notes while editing, then publish the page and add comments to the published page. The object of commenting on my own work is to capture thoughts and related information as they happen.
• Just use Word: Presumably, editing the Confluence page as a Word Doc would work for adding comments. The only issue I have with this is that I like working directly in Confluence whenever I can.

Like Jan-Peter Rusch, I really like Confluence's functional editor and clean view. I don't think inline commenting within the editor would ruin that.

Maybe it could be an option that users could enable?

As I can understand the demand for this feature, when editing I don't want to be distracted & prefer a clean editing space. I use a second browser window displaying the same page in view mode with inline comments. Having my editing space cluttered with inline comments is not the thing I want...

Regards

Christian: +100

Good karma that I received an email alert about this feature. Because today, I'm working through a doc that had apx. 15 comments generated form a discussion with my manager. I need to use these comments to drive my next round of edits. Not having this feature slows down workflow. 

This request is now almost three years old (19/Mar/2015). Maybe it would help to open a support ticket to remind Atlassian we're all waiting on this request?

Thanks.

Here is hoping that we will achieve voting critical mass on this feature soon! I echo all the comments, it does render the inline comments feature somewhat useless if one cannot directly relate it to the text needing editing.  Also noted that there has also been no feedback from Atlassian directly on this important request?  

We somehow got the ability for multiple people to edit a page, but have yet to have the ability to view and resolve inline comments while editing? I have to have two tabs open, one with an old version and comments to take action on and another with the editor open. Not good design as is.
 

Are there any plans by Atlassian to add this feature? It's the main drawback of using Confluence for us

Please, please, please.... need this feature to edit/author efficiently. 

Definitely need this feature.

+1 really need this feature

Perplexing this issue has been debated since early 2015.  Inline comments not visible in edit mode obviates the need for them in the first place.  They're only use is as comments from readers to editors.  (editors would simply edit the page instead of comment).  And editors can't see them while editing.  So what's the point?

You guys really need to add this feature. It would be so helpful and so much easier if we could add, view, and resolve inline comments while in edit mode.

Dean, +1

Yeah, there are times I want to throw up my hands in disgust with Confluence's quirks, deficiencies, etc. But, the thought of porting everything to another platform is not pleasant. I'm not sure I'd even trust Confluence to export our content accurately.

this is one of the biggest debated lack of functionality in our organisation. Almost to the point where we are considering using alternative tools that have this functionality.

But i guess Atlassian is it it for the money and their partners. Stiltsoft won't be happy if they add this functionality because they then loose out.

Lacking this functionality essentially renders it useless from the authors perspective. This is surprising as the strong side of inline comments is really to give locally precise suggestion to the author. Hope this will be included soon

Yes, we need it in Confluence itself, w/o needing to resort to add-ons. Thanks.

From my side +1 for this feature as well - please allow to print comments / export them in PDF/Word and to view them in edit mode.

The Talk plug-in is not available for the Cloud version, and this really should be a built-in capability of the page editor.

Like Mr. JC mentioned, this capability is available in the Talk add-on.

You can learn if Talk suits your needs by taking this quiz.

Adam - +1! Thanks for supporting this issue. And, yes, with 99 votes to date, that's more than enough to justify it's inclusion in a release....sooner than later.

+1 for also adding while in edit mode.  For example, I am writing a draft which I want others to comment on.  Sometimes I have questions to ask, or comments to make myself - maybe asking a certain person to confirm a particular statement is correct or giving my opinion about which of two options to take, etc.  I want this discussion to continue in the inline comments, and I also want to separate my opinion/comments into comments and leave the main text as the proposed draft.  So I want to add a comment while in edit mode.

Really don't see this as an advanced feature and somewhat surprised it's not already supported! Since it's been 20+ months since this issue was created, maybe someone from Atlassian could give us an update on it's status!

+ 1 It would be a very useful feature. Currently, my workaround is to edit the page keeping the same page in view mode in another tab...

+1.  Should be able to add comments while editing as well.

+1

+1

Really a basic feature. Please include it soon!