Editing Attachments on a Confluence page
Asked by Juan Du Toit:

Hi,

I have 3 questions related to attachments on a Confluence pages

On a page on Confluence cloud, I uploaded a PDF document

1) How do I get the document to show a link and not a tile?

2) When I edit the document using the Atlassian companion (which was first downloaded for server) it works fine, but when I go back to the document on the page, I can't seem to click on it. I need to go into the attachments sections and view it from there. Is this a bug?

3) Is it possible to view the version of an attachment without downloading it? At the moment I am going into the attachment section to see the version, but if I want to compare versions, then I need to download it, is this the correct behaviour?


Answers:
author: Diego
body: Hello Juan! We have three distinct things at hand.

The first is attachment linking, correct? With this in mind, I will try to address this first.   
You can surely insert attachments as links by following this workaround:
> 1. *Login* to Confluence
> 2. Go to the page where the *attachment is located*
> 3. Click the *paperclip at the top right* to access the attachments
> 4. *Right click* the desired attachment
> 5. Select to "*Copy Link Location*" (on Firefox)
> 6. Go to the page again
> 7. Enter *edit mode*
> 8. Use the *CTRL+K* (for Windows) / *CMD+K* (for macOS) shortcut
> 9. *Paste the link* you copied earlier
> 10. Add a *display text to it*, if so desired
> 11. *Publish* page

After doing so, your file should be *presented as a link* and users can download it when they click the link.

Now let us try and address your *questions about Confluence versioning* . Confluence *does create attachment versions*. You can check more bout it here:
> * ***++[Manage files - Upload a new version of an attached file](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/manage-files-724765113.html#Managefiles-Uploadanewversionofanattachedfile)++***

However, there is no*native tool that can can perform the comparison* between attachment versions. The closes to version control in Confluence is GoEdit *Revision Control*:
> * ***++[Confluence Cloud - GoEdit](https://goedit.io/goedit-add-on-for-atlassian-confluence-cloud/)++***

<br />

It is possible to see an attachment version, yes. Here is how you can proceed to do so:
> 1. *Login* to Confluence
> 2. Go to the page where the*attachment is located*
> 3. Click the *paperclip* at the top right to access the attachments
> 4. Click the *arrow pointing at the Attachment name*
> 5. This should *show previous versions* and also the current one

This page looks like this:

![Screen Shot 2019-07-03 at 17.13.29.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/59550i900058D0018D06E0/image-dimensions/509x157?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2019-07-03 at 17.13.29.png")

Hope this helps you out Jua! Let us know your thoughts. Looking forward to your reply.

comments: author: Grace_Rago
body: Hello Diego,

Thanks for the workaround and detailed information.

I just notice that when attachment is shown as link, we can only download it and not able to edit directly. We still need to go to the Attachments page and then click Edit file to make changes.

Is there a way we can edit it directly through the shown link?


author: Diego
body: Hello there. Thanks for keeping the thread moving, Grace!

Currently, we can not edit files directly in Confluence.

We need to use the *++Atlassian Companion App++* to edit files that are attached in Confluence.

You can check more information about this here:
> * [***++Confluence Cloud - Edit Files++***](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/edit-files-724765124.html)  

Let us hear from you.


author: Juan Du Toit
body: Hi Diego,

Are you saying that we can now edit the files from a link without downloading it first or going to the attachment section of the page?


author: Diego
body: Hello there, Juan!

No, I am not saying that. What we currently have to do is use the *++Atlassian Companion App.++* With the Companion App, we can get files from the instance, edit them in our machine and then re-upload them to Confluence.

For further information on this, you can take a look here:
> * ++***[Confluence Cloud - Edit Files](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/edit-files-724765124.html)***++

Let us hear from you, Juan. Looking forward to your reply!


Tags: confluence-cloud