Highlighting code within a code block?
Asked by John Malone:

Is there a way to visually highlight a piece of code inside a {code} block in Confluence?


Answers:
author: justindowning
body: No, but you could 'make' your own macro of sorts to do this. Use something like:
> {panel}{html}\<pre\> \<insert_content_with_html_formatting\> \</pre\>{html}{panel}

This way, the content inside is uses monospace formatting and allows you to use HTML markup (bold, italics, text and bg colors, etc) to distinguish pieces of code.

comments: author: Wim Deblauwe
body: Interesting. I have a lot that I want to use {code} or {noformat} but put some lines or words in bold inside of that. Will try this.


author: Avdhesh Chauhan
body: Hi , Justin we also want the same functionlity , so you any written macro for the same. please do let us know.


author: Juan Vasquez
body: This issue should not be marked as solved.

If Github can do this, including providing an HTML anchor point for bookmarks and sharing URLs, why can't Atlassian? People pay money to use Atlassian but you can't provide equivalent service to a free competitor?

comments: author: Juan Vasquez
body: agree with you, this is really easy feature to implement, and really useful


author: Juan Vasquez
body: this is not solved, again: we need a way to highlight a new entry within a given piece of code to point new lines added.

comments: author: schapsl
body: Agree.


author: ashutosh joglekar
body: Team Confluence, we really need a way to highlight the new lines of code.

While creating a tutorial we need to tell developers what has to be done next in the code and which lines to be added in the code.

So for this reason please develop a macro or configure the existing macro where we can highlight content within the code.

OR at least provide a temporary solution in this forum. Looking forward to hearing from you guys!

Thanks,

Ash.


author: Eugen Labun
body: Hello Atlassian's people! The problem is still not solved. Since 2011...  
Please note: it's not about general-syntax highlighting, it's about \*additional\* highlighting for a piece of otherwise already syntax-highlighted code.

The "accepted" solution from [May 30, 2011](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Re-Highlighting-code-within-a-code-block/qaq-p/20186/comment-id/3335#M3335) doesn't solve the problem, because the general syntax highlighting (e.g. Java, XML) gets lost.

We need highlighting of code lines, like this:  
[Sharing Line Highlights in GitHub Files](https://blog.mariusschulz.com/2015/07/25/sharing-line-highlights-in-github-files) (see screenshots there!)


author: Prakash Nadar
body: Its so frustrating that this can't be done. Please add support to highlight code lines inside the code block


author: Patrick Henry Costello
body: Agree - I would really like to be able to highlight parts of codeblock yellow


author: John Malone
body: I'm not looking for general syntax highlighting. I'm looking more for a way to denote a specific piece of code within a block. Like, to actually highlight lines of code a all yellow, so they stand out.


author: Rene Minder
body: Just got Atlassian support to open <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-59278> for us. Please vote for it.


author: trung
body: I am able to do it with HTML block below on Confluence 5.8.17.

```
<script>function highlight(codeBlockName, lineNumber) {  setTimeout(function() {    $("div.codeHeader:has(b:contains(" + codeBlockName + "))").siblings(".codeContent").first().find(".code .line.number" + lineNumber).first().attr("style", "background-color: #ccc !important");  }, 200);}

highlight('MyCodeBlockTitle', 3);
</script>
```

Assumption is code block must have a title. It won't be hard to modify JQuery to reflect HTML structure changes.

You can put the function into a footer page and reuse it across your space.


author: weweave UG
body: Even though this question is quite old, for Confluence Cloud you can give our app Prism Syntax Highlighter for Confluence (see <https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1222532/prism-syntax-highlighter-for-confluence>) a try. Our app includes an option to highlight single lines or sections (like line 3-7). You can even highlight multiple lines and/or section. A live demo is available here <https://weweave.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CONFPRISM/pages/932905118/Live+Demo>.


author: Matthew Grover
body: Hi all,

I've created a plugin that lets you highlight parts of code or pre-formatted text which you want to highlight which should solve the problem discussed here. It is available here: <https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1222433/custom-code-highlight-for-confluence>. Please let me know if this helps solve your issue or if there are features missing which you'd like,

thanks,

Matt


author: Stephen Kairys
body: Does anyone know if this suggestion is an official feature request in Atlassian's JIRA? Thanks.

comments: author: Marcel Nick
body: If you need one for JSON we have a [macro](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.view26.macro.json.viewer.confluence/cloud/overview) for highlighting JSON syntax


author: Avdhesh Chauhan
body: Hi Pro,

Did you get any solution for this, Please let me knoow.


author: TylerA
body: As of Confluence 3.5.X, I don't think this is an option. The idea behind the {code} blocks is that you'd include the important code as needed. I think that's also a reason for having Fisheye/Crucible, as they do real code reviews rather than what's "thrown together" under JIRA or Confluence.

As a work around, we in Support tend to put "\<-- blurb" near the relevant parts we want to point out in bad config files or code.

comments: author: Brett Ryan
body: That might be the idea behind it, but sometimes context within a code block is necessary, like context within a patch file so you can identify the area where someone might be needing attention.

Take the case of a tutorial where one might need to add lines to a piece of code, how would you achieve this?


author: Matt
body: Are you looking to highlight synatx based on the language? The ability to do this was shipped in Confluence 3.5. [See here](http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Confluence+3.5+Release+Notes#Confluence3.5ReleaseNotes-EnhancedCodeMacro)


author: Matt

Tags: code

syntax-highlighting