4 ways to highlight text in Confluence Cloud

How to highlight Confluence text

Option 1: Page comments

1. Click and drag over your chosen text and then click Comment.
2. Type in the comment box and press Save.

Benefits:

• Highlighting is quick and easy, with no macros needed.
• Anyone can highlight text, even if they don't have permission to edit the page.

Limitations:

• Highlighting lots of text clutters the page with comments, making it harder to read.
• It can look unprofessional, especially on external or customer-facing pages.
• It's temporary - the text is only highlighted while your comment remains unsolved.

Option 2: Status macro

Benefits:

• It's small and sleek, and it fits easily inside table cells and other macros.
• You can highlight text in a few colours, which helps to add context (e.g., highlight text in red to suggest something negative).
  
  

Limitations:

• It supports a maximum of 29 characters, so it isn’t suitable for longer messages.
• The text size is small, and you can't change its size using the Text Styles dropdown, which isn't useful for larger headings.

Option 3: Panel macro

Benefits:

• Can be customised with several background colours and icons (including emojis) to highlight text in a more eye-catching way. It’s also possible to change the text colour.
• You can add text on multiple lines, making it useful for longer messages.
• It's possible to change the size of text with the Text Styles dropdown menu, which means you can add a heading.

Limitations:

• The background is limited to 21 shades, which isn't ideal for Confluence pages with company branding.
• The panel automatically scales to the width of your Confluence content, meaning text can look lost if the message is short.
• You can’t embed media, making it unsuitable for messages with images.

Option 4: Background macro (from Content Formatting Macros for Confluence)

Benefits:

• An incredibly versatile macro that lets you highlight content any way you want.
• The only solution that lets you highlight text and other content, such as images, a search bar, buttons, and numbered headings.
• Highlight with any colour or upload an image instead (you can even use Pexels' built-in library to find one that fits your theme).
• Choose custom dimensions - whether you want a tiny callout box or a striking banner, you can achieve both.

Limitations:

• As it's an external app, you need admin permissions to install it on your Confluence instance.
• For teams of more than 10, the app is paid (annually or monthly). The good news is you can try it free for 30 days with access before you make a commitment.