This change is great for me, most times I use a tables I want the full width. The big problem it's solved is the columns drifting outside the page width, causing me to scroll. However I use tables inside the layout macro alot, but this new custom width is not working inside the layouts. So I still have the same problem where I need to scroll to see columns outside the width of the layout window.

Echoing Ruben Lado's comment: 

Hello. Tables cannot be resized if they are inside the tabs macro. Also, currently, tables with many rows have he information presented very poorly. Is this still being worked on? Ideally, the option from legacy where the table adjusts each column to text width without crunching it, and also takes as much space on screen needed should be available again.

Hello. Tables cannot be resized if they are inside the tabs macro. Also, currently, tables with many rows have he information presented very poorly. Is this still being worked on? Ideally, the option from legacy where the table adjusts each column to text width without crunching it, and also takes as much space on screen needed should be available again.

Although the implemented feature is better than it was, it is still not good enough.  A custom width, to me, means any width I would like, including one defined in pixels and not limited to "100%" of the screen.  

A primary purpose of confluence is to share information in a way that makes it easily digestible.  Unfortunately the table implementation fails in this regard for tables with many columns.  Without a "fixed width" table option, there is no way to have a table that is "wider" than the screen (e.g. if columns overflow the available width, display a horizontal scroll bar).  Instead, if there are too many columns, each column just gets squished into the available space, forcing text wrapping and killing readability.

I am not surprised that tables still don't work in other macros, one of the user complaints we got after migrating to the cloud last year was that we could no longer embed a table within another table.

More troubling to me is that we still can't left align a table when resizing, that seems like a bad design oversight.

4 years down the road and after a 15 minute try-out, I must say the results was not worth the wait 💩

It seems the new table experience is not working inside other macros?

90% or more of the tables we create are inside other macros (Page Properties, Layout macro, Table Filter, just to name a few).

Any of these macros I try, all produce a full width table again.

It boggles the mind...

Good luck with this.

That's it? Center aligned width adjustment? After all of that feedback - over 1,000 users who took the time to vote for the simple ability to control the width of a table that was there in the older UI, and it's not left aligned? Center alignment looks worse - what sort of "research" did you do?

And now we have to start all over with a new issue ID?

Hey Rory, is there also a ticket to upvote a Responsive formatting option?

Another half assed implementation, thanks Rory. 

THE PROPHECY! o_O

Hey everyone 👋

A quick update here! As some of you have already seen, Custom Table Widths has now started rolling out 🎉 Please be aware that this is a progressive rollout so if you don't see it yet - rest assured you will soon! You can find more details in our community post here.

Some feedback on recent comments:

• How will I know whether I've received the new resizing functionality? You will no longer see the 'width selector' button at the top right of the table (check out the community post linked above for more info)
• Inserting tables on full-width pages - To confirm, tables are now created at the same size across both page types (fixed-width and full-width). We really appreciate your feedback regarding the size tables are created in full-width pages - if this is a concern for you, please let us know by adding a further comment or by giving a thumbs up on the relevant comments below. We will continue to monitor this area.
• More alignment options for tables - Thanks everyone for your feedback in this area, we hear you! Although we don't have any immediate plans to introduce alignment options for tables, it is something we will be considering in our roadmap across the next 12m. I've created a new JAC ticket (https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-76630) to track interest in this feature, if it's important to you then please can I ask you to add your vote so we can get a better gauge of demand.

Please continue to share your feedback and any questions with us.

Cheers,
Rory

hmm, maybe select the table and then the line will appear?

> if not, have to ask Atlassian for support

& from what I've seen, yes, unfortunately we have to use the scroll bar to move left and right on table with multiple columns

Hello. I am not seeing the "light blue line," also if I have a table with quite a rows and columns, do I have to scroll to the bottom of the table to see the horizontal scroll bar? 

@wells blanchard Hello! If you hover over the right side of a table (next to the table) there should be a very light blue line.
When you click on that light blue line you can adjust the table size

Can anyone share the steps to access the new table width functionality?  I can't figure out how to find it in the new cloud editor.

I can see the new ability to resize a table but as pointed out by Freek Dhooge, I would like to align the table to the left hand side inline with the text rather than having it fixed in the centre of the page.

Will this include auto wrapping text in the "Expand" Macro?

When using a full width page, the new table macro is always centered instead of aligned left of the page with the other text.
Is this by design or something that just is not changed between fixed width and full-width pages?

I can understand this setting in fixed width pages, but for full-width it would be nice to leave the option with the user
Just as we have when adding pictures to the page

See an example below of how it now looks when you have a small table in a full-width page

Silly question, perhaps - how can I see that I have received this new tables functionality?

Update: I guess I can go in and see if I can set the table width? (as opposed to todays "narrow/wide/entire width":ish icon ?)

BR! /marcus

Hey tables community,

Thanks to everyone who participated in our recent research study, we really appreciate you taking the time to speak to us!

I'm excited to share that we plan to start progressively rolling out this feature over the coming weeks. The new solution will allow you to resize tables in both fixed-width and full-width Confluence pages.

As the feature becomes available to you, we would love to know what you think. Please feel free to comment on this ticket or alternatively to book time to speak with us directly using the Calendly link below.

https://calendly.com/rb-atlassian/tables-research

Cheers,
Rory

I'm hoping the setting of width will be allowed & respected from the content side too (i update content via rest interface). 

PS. Wish this was documented somewhere i.e. storage format html tags.. i kinda reverse engineer it from the base html tag

Hi Phaemie Ng,

Thank you for the update! Tables in Confluence are the biggest complaint I get from our users at the company so it will be nice to see some improvements.

The only times on your calendar available are after 9pm my time so I can't meet, but I'd like to offer my suggestions based on the feedback I receive:

• Users want to filter tables like you would in a standard spreadsheet by column
• Users want to drag and drop rows to reorder them
• Users want the ability to justify text in each cell of the table
• Bonus: simple computing options

Appreciate the update on this project!

Hi everyone,

My name is Phaemie, a Product Designer on the editor team. We are looking for participants for a user test on Confluence tables.

Details

This user test will take place online, and is an opportunity for you to share your valuable feedback about the existing tables experience with us. During the one-hour session, you will be asked to complete a series of tasks using our tables in Confluence cloud.

As a token of our appreciation, participants will receive a small reward for their time.

Interested?

Apply for the user test here

Please note that limited spots are available. Thank you for considering this opportunity to help improve Atlassian products!

Rory, thanks for taking the reigns on this. If you want to know how this should be implemented, simply look at Google Docs. There is no auto scaling of columns. Seems like there should be an option to turn off any auto scaling of columns.

Why is this a "suggestion" vs. a defect?  Tables should not behave the way they do in Confluence.  When you publish the table, it should look the same as in the editor.  I have a page where the table on one tab adds a scroll bar, and the other tab is does not - I cannot discern any difference in the settings, etc.  It's bizarre. 

Thank you very much for the update Rory! Looking forward to seeing it in action.

It would be great to see some improvements to tables in Confluence Cloud, to at least get the functionality to a baseline that existed in the on-prem version.  I've said this before in reference to other functionality, but it's really disappointing to have "upgraded" to the cloud and find the user experience so degraded in areas that we use heavily.  Personally, I don't bother to create new pages but rather make copies of existing pages so I can continue to use the functionality I need.  Not a good look for Atlassian.

Hi everyone,

My name is Rory - I’m a Product Manager from the editor team. Thanks for your continued feedback on this ticket.

I’m excited to let you know that we are actively developing a solution for setting custom table widths and plan to roll this out in Q4 2023. Our target solution will enable this feature in both fixed-width and full-width pages within the Confluence editor.

We would love the opportunity to speak with you about our target solution and more generally about your use of tables in the editor. If you are interested in having a conversation or providing feedback, then please feel free to book time with us using the Calendly link below.

https://calendly.com/rb-atlassian/tables-research

Thanks,

Rory

Facing the same issue with my team. The table auto adjusts, making the columns shrink and the data to break down in an inconvenient manner. Would love a speedy resolution.

Hi @Jonno Katahanas,

How many votes do we need to get Atlassian's attention in getting this fixed? I see we already have over 1,000 votes, which means this issue affects a lot of users. Can we expect this to be fixed in the near future? Can you give us an ETA for a fix?

Thanks!
Shirly

Coming soon eh? Can't wait...

Why do you auto size my table anyway.  If I pick a particular window size for my page, why in the world would you over-ride it with the Table width option.  the page width should apply to all elements on the page. 

Secondly why do you auto size my columns?  If I set the column width by dragging the column handle to my desired width, then adjust another column, confluence makes some very unnecessary changes to the width of my columns, some strange algorithm is used as some columns are so small you cannot read what is within them and others are so large that they almost fill the whole table.  Seriously did no one test this?  Tables are almost NOT usable due to this so-called "feature". 

We cannot wait until H2 2023 for this to be fixed.  So many people complain about this feature. Stop worrying about votes and just read the multitude of comments on this subject.  Not everyone can find the right thread to up vote it.  The voting feature for this reason is useless.  Have your Product Owners do their own homework and listen to the community instead of looking for UpVotes.  UpVoting is not working.

All - please vote for this feature (top right corner of this page) so that it takes a priority ...

Really needed for wide/long tables. Not so sure how you came to a conclusion we can live without it

It would be really nice to have it by 2032 as I have been watching this issue since 2019. You are really best Atlassian, real hard workers and I trust in you. I will probably be retired once this is fixed, but it's going to be an end of an era. Ten years of fixing table width. The patience of people here is unlimited, so don't hurry.

Hey Jonno, is there any progress on this. I do agree on this being a very basic functionality that's required

Upvoting this feature.

@jkatahanas, Yes, please provide the ability to control the width of columns, which is a fundamental capability in any Web page.  I've been running into more and more issues where a capability that existed in the old editor is absent in the new editor.  If there are such a significant # of feature gaps between the old and new editors, it would be helpful if Atlassian would keep the old editor enabled alongside the new editor for a period of time so that users have a workaround for needed features that don't exist (yet?) in the new editor.  

This seems to relate to CONFCLOUD-31173 (and indirectly CONFSERVER-31173) asking for wrapping in tables.

I especially want to be able to have a table that is sized to the window, where text wraps.  I'm not sure if this ticket provides for that, but being able to put a fixed width on would at least allow the table to be reasonable to read when there are paragraphs in cells (currently have to just left and right like an old-fashioned typewriter, trying to read.)

Please at least roll out the ability to set the width of a table with out having to use layouts. Fixed width columns would be helpful as well.

Hey @Jonno, I understand the desire to overhaul this whole thing. It's not wrong; a lot of this does need to be redone from the ground-up.

However, a lot of us have been down this path before with Atlassian. Y'all yank a piece of functionality while promising you're going to "overhaul the whole thing" and "bring it to the next level"....and after X decades the promised fix either never materializes at all, solves a completely different problem, or (frankly, all too often) doesn't do anything for us at all. The one near and dear to my heart is the panel macro, but I'm sure if you ask anyone whose commented on this ticket they'll have plenty of other examples.

Can you please please please just give us the ability to set these widths the way we're asking to, and then go disappear into a cave for 20 years developing the greatest table management UI we've ever seen?

Thanks for the update @Jonno.  I'm looking forward to having this functionality back.

Can you please make sure to address the following in your requirements?  Each of these use cases is really important to particular subsets of our users.

• Full auto-sizing: Keep the ability for the TABLE & COLUMNS to AUTO-size
  • Please make sure that auto-size works within layout sections (Currently, the table expands beyond the width of the layout section frequently; having to use a horizontal scroll within a layout section somewhat defeats the purpose of having layout sections IMO)
  • Would be ever so nice to have it default to never exceeding 100% of the section width; but have an opt-in option for allowing the table width to exceed 100% of the section (and trigger a horizontal scroll bar)
• Hybrid: MANUALLY set the TABLE width & AUTO-sized COLUMNS within the overall table width constraint
  • Ability to set max table width as % of section width
    • Please make sure that % of section works correctly within section layouts too
  • Ability to set col width as % of table width
  • Would be nice to have an option for specifying width by pixels (nice to have, not essential)
• Full manual: MANUALLY set TABLE width & MANUALLY set COLUMN widths
  • Ability to set TABLE width as % of section width (as above)
  • Ability to set COLUMN width as % of table
  • When new column is inserted, keep the table width definition (so I only have to resize # of new columns + 1 instead of having to resize the entire table every time I add a column.)  I understand that others might want a different behavior, but I'd really appreciate a way to have this feature even if it's something the org needs to manage by choosing an org default method for column add behavior in settings.

Thanks so much!

Thanks for the update @Jonno.  To back this up could you please move this ticket to "In progress" rather than "under consideration".  As you state "We have a team looking into a new approach" I'd suggest the former is a more accurate statement of status and would likely give more confidence to the 1048 people who voted for this ticket.

Can a PM explain how a feature that used to exist, worked perfectly, was removed in a redesign, is missed by so many users, is still missing... three years later?

Please address this issue related to table widths. Regular status updates would be helpful.

Confluence, please

• Fix the bug - I'm unable to display a table at full width, wide or center
• Restore missing functionality - I'm unable to set my own table width
• Provide an status update

Thanks!

This is even worse - if you have a fullsize page and a table, confluence will hide a portion of the right side and there is no way to scroll to it. 

Clearly a defect - I add content and I cant see it.

I don't agree on the comment regarding the medical devices and equating it to fixes in Confluence.  I wholeheartedly agree that a company making medical devices should never have issues or when they arise be very quick to resolve as people's health and lives could be at stake.  While Confluence has some feature shortfalls that some of us view as serious, none of us are going to lose our lives over it.  However; if many of the Confluence issue remain unresolved, what we will lose is this system because we'll have migrated to something better!

This would definitely be a great resolution!  I have been fighting column widths in tables all day and am very frustrated by it.  It's moments like this that I ask myself why didn't I look at other options for our knowledge base besides Confluence. I've resorted to putting my tables into a panel in order to force the table columns to not expand on me and have that horrid wrap on the right side of the table.  But even that is problematic as anything in the panels won't export into a Word or pdf document.  Not to mention, in edit mode it's still a beast to deal with.  Please fix this Atlassian!!!

The last status update for this was almost a year ago.

Status Update 26 Jan 2022

Can we get an update on when we should expect a resolution? This shouldn't be classified as an improvement or feature request. This missing functionality should be classified as a bug. How was this editor even deployed without this functionality in place?

Anyone here who works for a medical device company will know that if a medical device company were to ignore customer complaints, without an extremely good rationale, as is being done here, then the independent body who audits the medical device company would issue a major non-conformity finding, and force the medical device company to perform Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA).

I'm not paying a dime to Confluence Server until I can use table without being tortured

This is such a basic feature in every other product, yet they want to set their own standards and seem just enjoy making people feel uncomfortable 

it's obvious that users want to set their own width of their tables.

It's that simple.

Yet those they are so proud of their stupid design and refuses to listen to people

Same for us. Would be great to get this function back.

I use server for work. For a small non-profit project I need to use cloud. It's amazing and sad at the same time what doesn't work in the cloud version and how Atlassian deals with issues.

Stop trying to figure out "the best" solution to this. Any solution, at this point, is better than a non existing "best" solution.

I'm strongly leaning towards ClickUp. I like Notion better for some things, but it's missing features like native forms. ClickUp seems to be a more complete product. If I had the budget to hire a dedicated Sharepoint developer I'd probably go that route. We also briefly looked at monday.com and some others.

@Scott Beeson What other alternatives have you considered?

I think it's pretty obvious right now that Atlassian has lost the ability to effectively develop and maintain this software, probably due to series of bad decisions in planning and design and technical debt. Talking about alternatives and eventually migrating to one of those is probably the only way to fix this right now.

Last update was in January with over 900 votes. When can we get an update?

@Chris von Toerne: Let us know what you go with. We are leaning towards Notion or ClickUp.

@Divya Sriram: Your "we do care" message from above is 9 months old. I guess at this point, we can conclude that you really don't.

I'm out of here. I'll move away from Confluence. Really loved the server installation, but the cloud solution is just a train wreck, and support isn't supportive. Time to move on.

This is extremely limiting.  Tables are such a basic function and we frequently have many columns of data to maintain.  It is also extremely irritating to have the entire table adjust when changing the width of the first column.  When will this ticket be implemented??  Isn't 3 years of irritating users enough???

All the more ridiculous! 

Placing a table inside an /Expand will always result in a slightly too wide table ⇒ forcing horizontal scrolling. 
You must have looked away on purpose when releasing.

Confluence Cloud needs the option of Fixed Width on its tables.
Having 20 columns and all the text within them essentially unreadable is no use.
Also can we have the ability to lock the width or set the default?

Tables, and basic associated features, are a fundamental part of Confluence. @Atlassian, how else can we go about getting this prioritised?

They won't fix this any time soon because then they would make less money on addons like these: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/search?product=confluence&query=tables

We've all heard the saying "Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence", but don't underestimate greed.

so, when cloud version of confluence will get back ability to have fixed width tables, like datacenter/onprem version has?

From my experience after dozens of tickets which have been "dumped":

1. They do not know how to do it.
2. They do not care about doing it.

 Not sure which is worse.

How many votes does it take to get an issue prioritized?

This is a really basic feature. Not having it feels like we're back in 1996.

@Christophe Trille: Or they intentionally handicap their product to prop up the add-on business.  There is literally an add-on to delete multiple pages that costs money. A feature which, by the way, exists in Confluence Server but not cloud.

Why fix things when you can have other people fix things and literally take a cut of the profits? Atlassian is getting paid to let other developers do their work and the customers are the ones getting screwed.

It is not even 100%!!!
If you use column, it is 100% of the page in 50% of the width... SO ONLY HALF OF THE TABLE SHOWS!!!!!!

It really looks like programmers at Atlassian are paid by competitors to sabotage the interface.

@Chris von Toerne  

Totally understand that frustration

To note that Data Centre version (needs either your or a third party to host for you) is not anywhere near as impaired and "un-functional" as Cloud has become - it used to be equivalent in I'd day all respects.

IMHO, Cloud seems to have become be like the Black Knight of the Monty Python film Holy Grail after the White Knight has ridden past ...

I'm currently trying to establish a collaboration tool such as Confluence within my organization, but I have to say the continued lack of basic features such as this is making me second-guess. It's really quite embarrassing to have to explain to your peers that this commercial piece of software cannot have custom-width tables.

Folks from Atlassian probably won't read this, but, guys: please help us out promoting your product!

I always feel like I have to apologize to my colleagues whenever I use a table...

@Kevin Hinners
You can control the width of the table relative to the width of the window with the Width-Control toggle at the upper right of the table.  I'd paste a small screenshot, but the Comment box here doesn't seem to want to let me do that.

I would say I agree with the others. Whoever thought setting the default for a table to 100% page width was a good idea has not done content creation. The default should at least be based on the size of the content, not the page layout. I have a simple two column table mapping virtual host to physical IP address, with 255 rows. This simple table is really difficult to line up the data on a wide-screen monitor.

Need this please! 

I am less concerned with getting true full-width tables than I am in being able to make a table with three narrow columns NOT take up the entire width of the screen. It is silly that a table with say a three-character acronym in each column stretches the entire width of the screen when it should only be as wide as required to display the data.

Another request for this issue to be resolved, it is quite surprising this has been going on for so long.

@Rob McGarry and all who are not aware: giving control over column width will not solve your problem.

There is another bug that prevents the use of the full screen width: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-68780

It's classified as a "Bug" but thrown on the LONG TERM BACKLOG which means it will be addressed... never

Another vote for this capability.  Working with tables that have more than 15 columns becomes pretty difficult, even on a 24" monitor.  Laptops... forget about it.

Interesting: https://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/

Any migration tools?

Hi Tere,

I have moved clients to a couple of different platforms based on need. If you want something like what Confluence is suppose to be? Look at ClickHelp, https://clickhelp.com. If you want to see whats possible? Have a look at my portfolio sample at:

https://devdennw.clickhelp.co/home/en-us/

This even goes beyond what Confluence Cloud was suppose to be in that you can build a homepage to match the client's existing website scheme. Yes, the ability to properly size tables and images are included.

The other product I use is XWiki.

I still have a minimal account for Confluence and use it for simple content such as press releases. Hoping at some point I will see the fixes we all long for.

Jack Wilson
Development Den Northwest, Inc.
www.linkedin.com/in/jwilsonjr

Martin - I'm guessing a move away from Atlassian was for more than just tables, and I'm not looking for all reasons, but I am curious what you went 'to'.  Not because I want a change, but I am always curious about other systems and costs especially as we come 'out' of the last 2 or is it 4 years of remote/hybrid teams and budgets being what they are and everyone wanting more w/less.  So if there are different or better options, would love some reading materials (w/out digging myself)