Why Does Pasting a URL Create a Link Now?
Asked by Jason Tolotta:

The following is in reference to Confluence Cloud.

For me personally, it is sort of annoying pasting a URL and automatically turning into a link.

I am unable to create a link from typing with square-brackets in a single pass, e.g.

```
[WEB LINK|http://www.example.com]
```

If I had typed \[WEB LINK\| then were to paste <http://www.example.com> the URL will automatically turn into a link and closing the square bracket would not format the entire string.

I have to either type the whole string to make it work without pasting the URL, i.e. \[WEB LINK\|<http://www.example.com>\]

or I would have to unlink the URL and then close the square bracket.

Is this a bug or a feature?


Answers:
author: Shannon S
body: Hi Jason,

This has been the behavior of Confluence for some time now.

To insert a link in Confluence and format with a description, rather than pasting the link directly into the page, you would type**\[** and select **Insert web link** from the menu that pops up. Then, you can paste your link in the Web Link field in the window that pops up.

For more information see [Insert Links and Attachments](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/links-and-anchors-724764900.html#InsertLinksandAnchors-Linktoawebsite).

Let us know if you have any questions about this.

Kind Regards,  
Shannon

comments: author: Shannon S
body: One more thing - if you paste a link into Confluence and it auto-formats as a link you can then also go into the link and edit it, allowing you to edit the description yourself. So this might help you in case you paste the link first.

Kind Regards,  
Shannon


author: Patrick O_Connell
body: Hey Shannon,

I'm currently pasting partial URLs and suffering the auto-format-as-a-link thing, which is undesired.

I'm guessing that if there's a way to modify this behavior of Confluence's, you'd need to be an admin?

Thank you,  
Pat O'Connell  
Technical Writer  
MindGeek


author: Shannon S
body: Hello Pat,

Thank you for following up on this thread.

From my investigation and testing, it is not possible to disable this behavior on either Confluence Cloud or Confluence Server, even as an admin.

In the editor, after pasting a link you can click the link and select the text **Unlink** that pops up. This may look different depending on your Confluence version.  

![Screenshot_2019-06-11_at_10_33_32.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/57197iF1293C6B2AC6ED6E/image-dimensions/518x124?v=v2 "Screenshot_2019-06-11_at_10_33_32.png")

Another option would be to add the [Noformat Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/noformat-macro-139545.html). This is possible in Server, but is being deprecated soon in Cloud, so please be aware of that. This would be most useful for you if you are pasting a block of URLs which you do not want to link to.

I hope that clarifies things, but do let me know if you have any questions about it.

Regards,

Shannon


author: Shannon S
body: Hello Pat,

I found a few feature requests that also might interest you. They haven't been implemented yet, but you can vote on them and comment, and be updated when there is any progress.

* [CONFCLOUD-28229](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-28229) *Use Ctrl-Shift-V to 'paste unformatted'*
* [CONFSERVER-28229](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-28229) Same as above, for Server.

Essentially, the Ctrl-Shift-V shortcut (Option+Shift+Cmd+V on a Mac) is what is mentioned here. It's supposed to paste without formatting, but it appears that it is being ignored in Confluence.

I had tested the keyboard shortcuts on Chrome version 75.0.3770.80, in both Cloud and Server. You can test yourself on the different web browsers you have. If you happen to notice one does work for you, please feel free to update the appropriate Feature Request above.

Let me know if you have any questions about that.

Regards,

Shannon


Tags: cloud