Confluence: How to preview attachment?
Asked by Rene Schade:

Hi,

I just upgraded to Confluence 6.11 and wanted to test the new editing functionality for attachments.

In the guide it states "Preview the attachment, and then..". But how do I actually preview an attachment?

I have created a page with a lot of different attachments (word docs, images, sheets etc). If I go to the attachments page, that listes all files attached to the page, there is no "preview" button. Clicking the file name, just downloads the file. Clicking the "view" button, opends the file (for a word doc the content is presented as html on the page).

So: How do I preview a specific attachment?

Update: I think I now fully understand the issus, and have a suggstion for Atlassian to inprove this feature. Please see my answer below.


Answers:
author: Rene Schade
body: Follow up on my own question.

Backgrund:  
In Confluence 6.11 a new editing feature was introduced. The button "Edit in office" has been removed and replaced by a "edit" button on an attachment-preview. This is great, since it makes it easier for e.g. Mac-users to edit attachments.

What I did find out in 6.11

When you navigate to a page and click on the attachments-icon, all attachments are listed, as in earlier versions of Confluence. The "Edit in office" has been removed, *but not replaced with a "preview" button!*So, no easy way to edit the attachment anymore from the attachments page :(

Workarounds:

\[1\] Add the attachments macro that list all the attachments to the page. The attachments macro has a "preview" button.

\[2\] Add the attachment to a section on the page. This results in an icon in the page. Clicking the icon opends the preview.

I have suggest to the confluence team, that they add the "preview" button to the attachments view, similar to the attachments macro.

Check it out and please vote for it :)

<https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-56445>

comments: author: Grigory Salnikov
body: Done!


author: Tilwin Joy
body: Thanks! The attachments macro came for the rescue :)


author: Grigory Salnikov
body: Hello!

Please, check out the similar question and the related answer by [@John Lill](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/861877) here:

[Unable to preview attachments](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Unable-to-preview-attachments/qaq-p/675093)

Hope this helps.

comments: author: Rene Schade
body: Thanks, I did read that and it is not the same problem. At least, I belive its not :)

My question is also specifik to the new features in v6.11   

<https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/confluence-6-11-release-notes-953678666.html>

"A better way to edit files".

For me it's a user interface problem. The guide states I must go the the preview of the file. But how do I enter the preview page?

How do I navigate from the list of attachments page to the preview page for a specific attachment?


author: Rene Schade
body: Update:  
If I add the attachment to a confluence page, as part of the page contents, it is presented as an icon with the name of the file (like "testing.doc"). If I click that attachment the preview is opened.

So I have found one way to get to the preview page. Why is that link not available from the attachments page?


author: Grigory Salnikov
body: Sorry for the delay.

Unfortunately, we only have 6.8 so I couldn't reproduce the issue in my environment.

Glad you've found a way :)


author: Rene Schade
body: Thanks for trying!