Won't recognize wiki markup during Word import-Conf 7.1

[Jim Heddles]

I'm trying to include wiki markup syntax in my Word document in order to have it translated during Confluence Word import.  The import recognized "markdown" syntax but not "wiki markup" syntax.

Markdown example (.doc)

*Italic characters*
_Italic characters_
**bold characters**
__bold characters__
~~strikethrough text~~

Works well:

Wiki markup example (.doc)

{info:title=This is my title|icon=false}
This is _important_ information. {info}

Doesn't convert in Confluence:

The documentation has the following:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/import-a-word-document-into-confluence-170493136.html 

If your document contains characters that are the same as Confluence wiki markup (for example square brackets, hashes etc) these characters may be automatically converted to their wiki markup value when you import your document, or wrapped in a wiki markup macro to preserve the formatting. 

Should { } type markups be recognized during Word import?

[Diego]

Hello there, @Jim Heddles ! Thanks for reaching to the community with your situation.

Reading the issue description, I went on and tried to replicate this locally. I started a Confluence 7.0.4 instance for this. Right after importing the Word file I was able to replicate this. According to documentation, Confluence should either convert or wrap the content in a Markup macro.

As you stated, our documentation does say that the characters may be converted to their values. With this situation at hand, I raised a new bug report pointing to it. You can take a look at the report here:

• [Confluence Server] [CONFSERVER-59161] Importing a Word file with macros as markup does not convert the markup to macros 

The report I created aims at two possible solutions:

• Implement the feature
• Update the documentation to reflect the expected behavior

Currently, the best course of action would be to vote and watch the report. Voting helps to increase the issue visibility and watching it will keep you up to date with everything posted there!

I hope this serves as some guidance, Jim. Let me know your thoughts on this.

[Shannon S]

Hi Jim,

Thank you for contacting us about this.

I don't believe that Confluence is supposed to interpret the Wiki Markup when importing a Word Document.

I see a feature request for this in the past, as it seems that it used to work prior to Confluence 4.0, but it was closed by the team as we don't intend to implement it in the future:

• CONFSERVER-28707 Wiki markup doesn't load automatically when you create a new page from a word doc

In Confluence 4.0, we released a new editor, which replaced the Wiki Markup editor. See Why We Removed the Wiki Markup Editor in Confluence 4.

You might be able to use an add-on from our Marketplace as a workaround for this. If you discover something that works out for you, please let us know so it can help other users in the future!

Regards,

Shannon

[Jim Heddles]

Shannon,

Thanks for the reply.  If this is true then I suggest you update the doc page, https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/import-a-word-document-into-confluence-170493136.html , as it includes the following note.  This is what led me down this path.

[Shannon S]

Hello Jim,

Thanks for the follow-up!

That message means that if you happen to have any characters in your word document that are the same as Wiki Markup, then they may automatically be converted to the wiki markup value, as an unintended behavior.

Below you can see a bug with the reported behavior and examples of how that might look:

• CONFSERVER-53030 Word importer should be able to handle wiki-markup-like characters within tables

I hope that helps to explain the issue, but do let us know if you have any questions about that.

Regards,

Shannon

[Shannon S]

Jim,

I'm working with my colleague Diego below to try and find out what the actual behavior should be. Our investigation in past cases shows that this hasn't reliably worked for some time since the release of Confluence 4.0. If it's meant to be a feature, then it needs to be fully implemented, and included in the documentation.

We will let you know what we find out.

Shannon

[Shannon S]

Hi Jim,

Thank you so much for your patience.

Diego and I just completed our investigation, and it's determined that this is not a supported feature, and it's indeed left over from the removal of wiki markup. As far as I am aware, there are not plans to include this feature in Confluence going forward.

As a result, the documentation for versions 7.1 and above has been updated so there will not be any confusion going forward.

I would recommend having a look at the add-ons available in Marketplace. There may be a solution there for you to use Wiki markup to format your pages created from Word documents.

Let us know if you have any questions about this.

Regards,

Shannon