Learn how to preview files on Confluence. No downloads and re-uploads are required.

About the preview

On this page, we'll cover the different ways to preview your files on Confluence using the Team Files app, expanding the topics on the page about the file manager.

You can preview files on the file manager and pages where you attached files and folders with the Team Files app. You can preview the most common Office document formats, PDF documents, and popular image formats.

This way, it's easy to use your Confluence pages as your one source of truth, with content always accessible and updated.

Preview files on the file manager

When using the File Manager, you can preview your files' content by clicking the icon or name of the file (1) you want with the full-screen preview. The options available vary slightly depending on the kind of file.

Documents preview in full-screen

PDF documents preview in full-screen

Images preview in full-screen

Preview files and folders on your pages

Using the Team Files app, you can attach files and folders to your Confluence pages with the macro (both new editor and old editor supported). When the page is published, it's then possible to preview the files and folders attached.

The full-screen preview for the files attached works the same way as described for the file manager. Click the icon or name of the file you want to open the preview.

Another option exclusive to the preview in pages is to view the content inline without hiding your page. Every attached file and folder is default displayed in a collapsed view to save screen space. You can expand each file by clicking the disclosure button on the left to preview its content.

You can expand attached folders the same way, so you can easily see their content and even navigate sub-folders. You can also preview the files' contents inside the attached folder by clicking the name to open the full-screen preview.

Disclosure button
Edit document
Download
Open in [Storage]

Disclosure button
Open in [Storage]
New folder

It's possible to make the expanded view the default in the GD Admin settings

Upload a file to an attached folder

When you have an attached folder on your page, you can drag and drop a file from a local folder to upload it there. Doing this will save the file in the storage place containing the connected folder, helping you build your single source of truth.

Depending on the file's size, your file can take a few moments to become available in the app.

Supported file formats for preview

Images: GIF, JPG, JPEG, and PNG
PDF documents (including password-protected files)
Microsoft Office documents: DOC, DOCX, DOCM, XLS, XLSX, XLSM, XLSB, PPT, PPTX, PPTM, PPS, PPSX and PPSM
Microsoft Office templates: DOT, DOTX, DOTM, POT, POTX, and POTM
Microsoft Visio files: VDW, VSD, VSDX
Open Office documents: ODT, ODS, and ODP
Google documents, sheets, and slides
Rich text documents (RTF)
Videos¹: MP4, MOV, and WEBM²

¹ FTP servers don’t support video preview.

² Partial support for WEBM, some browsers like Safari don’t support it.

Preview of unsupported files

The Team Files app can preview many popular file types, but not all of them. When you try to preview a file type not specified above, the preview window will open with the message "No preview available" and a "Download" button so that you can open it with your desktop apps.

It's possible to disable the download option when you share a file by restricting the permissions.

Wrap up

That's all on previewing files. Did you know you can also edit documents attached to your pages? Or create new documents on the file manager?

If you still have questions about any topics covered on this page, visit our support portal and send us your questions. Our team is always happy to help.

Preview files on Confluence Cloud [GD CC]