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How to Make Text Bold or Strikethrough in Confluence (Ctrl+B, Toolbar & Markdown)

· 3 min read

Bold text is one of the most common formatting actions in Confluence — for headings, callouts, and emphasis inside paragraphs. There are two ways to do it: the toolbar button / keyboard shortcut in the standard editor, and Markdown syntax inside Enhanced Markdown for Confluence. This guide covers both, plus the common "why isn't it working" cases.

What you'll learn
  1. The standard editor method — B button or Ctrl+B / Cmd+B
  2. The Markdown method — **bold** syntax
  3. Bold vs italic vs strikethrough
  4. Fixing bold that renders as literal asterisks

How to Add a Block Quote in Confluence (3 Methods Compared)

· 5 min read

A block quote sets a passage apart from the surrounding text — usually indented with a left border — to indicate that the words are quoted from another source. Confluence does not have a dedicated "quote block" button, but there are three reliable ways to create one. This guide walks through each and helps you pick the right one.

What you'll learn
  1. The native method (toolbar Indent) — no app required
  2. The Markdown method (> syntax) — fastest for keyboard users
  3. The panel macro method (Content Formatting) — most styling control
  4. How to nest quotes and add attribution

How to Choose a Markdown Editor for Confluence

· 6 min read
Quick Answer

Confluence has no native Markdown editor. To write pages in Markdown you need a Marketplace app. The right choice depends on how your team works: occasional converters need a simple paste tool; engineering teams writing specs, docs, and equations daily need a full Markdown macro with live preview, math, and diagram support.

What you'll learn
  1. Why Confluence needs a Markdown app (and what happens without one)
  2. The four categories of Markdown tools for Confluence
  3. A decision framework for picking the right one
  4. What features matter most for technical vs non-technical teams

Developers, technical writers, and data scientists think in Markdown. READMEs, API docs, pull request descriptions, and design specs are all written in it. But Confluence — where most of that knowledge ends up living — has no native Markdown support. Pasting Markdown into the WYSIWYG editor produces broken tables, literal asterisks, and lost formatting. This guide walks through the options so you can pick the right Markdown approach for your team without trial and error.

Write Markdown in Confluence With Mermaid, LaTeX & Code — One Editor, Live Preview

· 9 min read
Who should read this
  • Engineering teams who write docs in Markdown but live in Confluence
  • Research/academic teams who need LaTeX math equations inside wiki pages
  • Anyone tired of Markdown editors that drop Mermaid diagrams or render math as plain text
What you'll learn
  1. How to write Markdown in Confluence with a live split preview
  2. Embedding Mermaid flowcharts and ZenUML sequence diagrams inside Markdown
  3. Rendering KaTeX and full LaTeX (MathJax) math — inline, block, and fenced
  4. GitHub-flavored tables, 190+ code languages, and dark mode

The scenario every technical team hits: your engineering docs live in Markdown — READMEs, API references, design docs — and they contain diagrams (Mermaid), equations (LaTeX), and code samples. You paste that Markdown into Confluence, and it falls apart. The Mermaid code blocks render as plain text. The LaTeX equations show as raw $...$ syntax. The code blocks lose their syntax highlighting. Confluence's native editor is WYSIWYG, not Markdown, and the import tools treat Markdown as a one-time conversion rather than something you edit live.

Enhanced Markdown for Confluence solves this with a Markdown editor that renders everything inline — Mermaid diagrams, KaTeX and LaTeX math, syntax-highlighted code, and GitHub-flavored tables — with a live split preview. It runs on the Quikdown engine, so all rendering libraries are bundled locally (no external CDN dependencies, which matters for "Runs on Atlassian" compliance). This guide walks through writing Markdown in Confluence with diagrams, math, and code all rendering live.

Best Confluence Apps & Plugins in 2026 — Developer Tools Compared

· 7 min read

Developer teams use Confluence differently than marketing or HR. You document APIs, share architecture diagrams, write runbooks, and collaborate on code reviews. The default Confluence editor works, but it wasn't built for technical documentation.

This guide covers the best Confluence apps for developers in 2026, organized by use case. We built several of these apps at NGPILOT, so we'll be transparent about where our apps fit and where competitors offer better solutions.

Import Markdown into Confluence — 3 Methods Compared (2026)

· 5 min read
Who should read this
  • Development teams importing GitHub READMEs to Confluence
  • Documentation engineers migrating Markdown file sets
  • Anyone who wants to write Markdown directly in Confluence
What you'll learn
  1. Comparison of three Markdown import methods
  2. How to choose the best tool for your use case
  3. Step-by-step setup instructions

Many teams have documentation in Markdown format (GitHub READMEs, API docs, developer guides) and need to bring it into Confluence. Confluence doesn't have a native Markdown import feature, but there are three ways to get Markdown content into Confluence pages.

Enhanced Markdown Setup Tutorial — Insert Macro, Modes & Publish

· 4 min read

Confluence Markdown support lets developers write documentation in their preferred format. This guide covers how to add Enhanced Markdown to Confluence for raw Markdown editing, WYSIWYG preview, tables, code blocks, and more.

Who should read this
  • Developers who prefer writing in Markdown
  • Technical writers needing to import Markdown files
  • Teams migrating from GitHub or other Markdown-based wikis
What you'll learn
  1. How to install and use Enhanced Markdown in Confluence
  2. Raw Markdown mode vs WYSIWYG mode
  3. Supported syntax: tables, code blocks, task lists
  4. Comparison with Confluence's native editor

How to Write Markdown in Confluence — Syntax, Tables & Code Blocks

· 13 min read
Who should read this
  • Developers and tech writers who want to write Markdown in Confluence instead of the WYSIWYG editor
  • Teams migrating README files, docs repos, or API references into Confluence
  • Anyone who needs Mermaid diagrams or LaTeX math inside Markdown content
What you'll learn
  1. Whether Confluence supports Markdown natively (and why it doesn't)
  2. How to write Markdown with live preview, including code blocks, tables, and Mermaid
  3. How Markdown content behaves after publish (search, exports, permissions)
  4. When to use Markdown vs. Confluence's native WYSIWYG editor

Confluence's built-in editor is strictly WYSIWYG — there is no native Markdown editor. For teams who already write in Markdown (README files, docs repos, pull request descriptions), that means manually reformatting every doc through toolbar buttons, losing time and introducing inconsistencies. Enhanced Markdown for Confluence solves this by embedding a full Markdown editor with live split preview directly inside Confluence — and it renders Mermaid diagrams, KaTeX/LaTeX math, and 190+ code-highlighted languages, all in one macro.

This FAQ answers the questions teams ask most often about writing Markdown in Confluence.

Markdown vs WYSIWYG in Confluence — When to Pick Which

· 12 min read

Confluence has been the go-to knowledge base and documentation platform for thousands of organizations. At its core, Confluence uses a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that lets users format content visually -- clicking toolbar buttons for headings, bold text, tables, and macros without writing a single line of markup.

But an increasing number of teams are asking a different question: can we write Confluence content in Markdown instead?

Markdown is a lightweight plain-text formatting syntax originally created by John Gruber in 2004. It has become the default writing format for developers, technical writers, and content teams who work with Git repositories, static site generators, and API documentation. Its appeal is simple: you focus on structure and meaning rather than visual styling, and the formatted output is generated automatically.

Teams choose Markdown over WYSIWYG for several compelling reasons. Developer-heavy teams often already write in Markdown daily -- in README files, pull request descriptions, and documentation repos. Switching to a WYSIWYG editor for Confluence pages feels like a step backward. Markdown content is also plain text, which means it works seamlessly with version control systems like Git, diff tools, and automated pipelines. Finally, Markdown files are portable; the same .md file can be published to GitHub, a static site, or a Confluence page without reformatting.

On the other hand, WYSIWYG editing remains the better choice for non-technical users who prefer visual feedback, drag-and-drop file attachments, and toolbar-driven formatting. Many business teams have no interest in learning syntax rules, no matter how lightweight.

This FAQ addresses the most common questions teams have when evaluating Markdown versus WYSIWYG editing in Confluence, and explains how Enhanced Markdown for Confluence by NGPILOT bridges the gap between both worlds.