Learn how to preview native attachments on Confluence with the Team Files app.

About the Confluence attachments macro

This page will cover how to preview and edit Confluence attachments on your pages using the macro for native attachments without downloading files and reuploading multiple copies. This macro allows you to preview and edit the most common Office document formats, PDF documents, and popular image formats.

Preview Files and Documents with Team Files

When your Confluence page has native attachments, you can use the “Confluence attachments” macro to show them with the Team Files app.

This macro supports a full-screen preview and an inline preview, where you can see and read the content, unlike Confluence’s thumbnails. Click the preview button or name of the file you want to open the preview for the full-screen preview or see the inline preview by clicking the disclosure button.

Adding the Confluence attachments macro

To add the Confluence attachments macro to your page:

• Type “/team files confluence attachments” and select the macro from the dropdown

• Click the Insert Elements menu, type “team files confluence attachments,” and select the macro from the list.

The macro automatically shows all the current attachments and adds future attachments by default.

Managing attachments

With your page in edit mode, select the “Team Files—Confluence attachments” macro and click the edit button. In the modal dialog, you can view the available attachments and a live preview.

You can clear the checkmark of specific files to prevent them from being shown in the macro. You can also clear the select all mark to select only the attachment you want.

Turning off the “Add future attachments automatically” option is also possible by clearing the checkbox.

Edit Microsoft Office Files

You can edit Microsoft Office files directly from your pages. This eliminates the need to download them to your computer or reupload multiple copies.

To edit a file, click the edit button in the file details or the full-screen preview header. The editor has an autosave feature, so you can close the tab when you finish.

Open Office files are also supported and work the same way as Microsoft Office documents, using the Microsoft 365 editor, but do not support real-time collaboration.

Edit Permissions

To be able to edit attachments, please check if you have the correct permissions defined on Confluence. You’ll need to be able to edit the page.

Upload native attachments NEW

You can upload directly to the Native attachments macro to keep your page organized and fully control the layout.

All files you drop will be attached to the page, but only Office files, images, and PDFs will be available for preview. Other attachments will be available in the “Attachments” menu.

Upload to a published page

To upload a file to an existing macro, drag and drop the file over the macro. You’ll see a blue dropzone. After dropping the file, the upload starts. Depending on the file size, it can take a few moments.

Upload to a page in Edit mode

To upload to the native attachment macro while the page is in edit mode, you’ll need to select and edit the macro. When the dialog opens, you can drag and drop files to the attachments list.

Layout options

All the layout options from Team Files are now available for your Confluence Native Attachments, greatly expanding what’s possible in Confluence.

While in macro edit mode, in the layout tab, you can select the option to open the preview immediately when you open a Confluence page, customize the preview area, change the header style, or hide it completely. Check Customizing the layout for more details.

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, PPSM

• Microsoft Office templates: DOT, DOTX, DOTM, POT, POTX, and POTM

• Open Office documents: ODT, ODS, and ODP

• Rich text documents (RTF)

Supported file formats for edit

• Microsoft Office documents: DOCX, DOCM, XLSX, XLSM, XLSB, PPTX, and PPSX

• Microsoft Office templates: DOT, DOTX, DOTM, POT, POTX, and POTM

• Open Office documents: ODT, ODS, and ODP

Turn off the support for Confluence Attachments

Admins can turn off the Confluence attachments macro in the Admin settings. For more details, please check the Admin settings documentation.

Wrap up 

That's all on previewing and editing native files.

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