[Product update] Moving Shortcuts to the content tree as Smart Links

[#1]

Hi everyone,

In an effort to make creating, organizing, and finding simpler in Confluence, we have made the decision to deprecate the Shortcuts feature. As a part of this deprecation, we will transform existing shortcuts to Smart Links in the Content Tree.

Here is our timeline for making these changes:

• June 6th, 2024: Space Admins will begin seeing an option to move their Shortcuts to Smart Links in Content Tree

• September 27th, 2024: Atlassian will auto-move all remaining Shortcuts to Smart Links in Content Tree

Background

Shortcuts

Shortcuts are a feature in Confluence that allow users to link to content that that tends to live outside of their Space. This can be other Confluence content or content external to Atlassian. For example, a user can create a Shortcut to a Google Sheet:

When the user clicks on the Google Sheet link, they will be directed to the Sheet in a new tab.

Smart Links in the content tree

Confluence recently rolled out a new feature called Smart Links in Content Tree which allows users to centralize and structure content from disparate tools, reducing the time users team spend on app-switching while also enhancing collaboration across platforms.

With this feature, users can now add their external content directly to the Content Tree, allowing for far more flexibility than Shortcuts currently offer.

Let’s walk through the same journey we went through with Shortcuts. To add a Smart Link to a Google Sheet, a user will click on the + create icon, then click on “Smart Link” from the list of options:

Next, the user will paste the link to the Sheet that they want to link and click “Add Smart Link”:

That’s it! Once the user has added their Smart Link, it shows up in the Content Tree alongside native Confluence content. Unlike Shortcuts, when the user clicks on the Google Sheet Smart Link, they’ll be able to interact with that content from within Confluence:

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What's changing?

Starting on June 6th, 2024, space admins will begin seeing an option to move their Shortcuts to Smart Links in the content tree:

You will not be able to create additional Shortcuts at this point; however, you can still delete and edit the names of existing Shortcuts:

When you click “move now,” you’ll see a modal tracking progress:

Once complete, you’ll be prompted to refresh the page. At this point, you’re Shortcuts will show up in the content tree under a parent Page called “moved Shortcuts”:

On September 27th, 2024, we will force move all remaining Shortcuts. The downside to not moving Shortcuts prior to this date will be that many Shortcuts will lose their titles and instead will just show up as URLs. If you move the shortcuts manually before this date, then the Shortcut name will be preserved during the move.

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Why are we making this change?

We’re making this change for a couple of reasons:

• Shortcuts are used by a relatively small number of Confluence users.

• Smart Links match and improve upon Shortcuts, leading to redundant functionality.

• Deprecating the Shortcuts menu in the side navigation allows us to move content up a bit farther, meaning less scrolling for users.

Other notes

• Shortcuts with names longer than 60 characters will be truncated as a part of this change.
• We will create a migration log for users so they can track exactly what happened with each Shortcut to Smart Link transformation.
• The downside to not moving Shortcuts prior to this date will be that many Shortcuts will lose their titles and instead will just show up as URLs. If you move the shortcuts manually before September 27th, 2024, then the Shortcut name will be preserved during the move.

[Rita Nygren]

My first question was "is anyone in my org using shortcuts?" - in the Gear admin area, there is a Shortcuts Links that shows what shortcuts exist (and as i have very few/generic ones, I'm assuming my users aren't doing anything with these).  I assume if some admin has bunches, they'll need to pass this change on to their constituents, but this doesn't show us where the short cut was used/who is using them.

[Aura Hill]

We are a tenant in another organization's MS 365 environment and we use shortcuts in almost all our spaces. We are not allowed to give Confluence access to connect to our MS 365 accounts, so using Smart Links does not work for us. Using shortcuts allows us to easily move between the 2 systems and was a crucial part of us continuing to use Confluence. It is not redundant functionality for us. With this change, we will not be able to have external links our SharePoint sites in our content tree.

The same likely applies for links to our Google drives as well. Also, if you add a SmartLink with a URL to a website, it takes the page name from site which cannot be edited. Then it displays a piece of the site on a page and you have to click it again to actually go to the site.

This change is frustrating on many levels. 

Is there some option that will work for users that are not able to use Smart Links so they can have links to external sites in the content tree? 

[Ned Lindau]

Thanks for the feedback @Aura Hill!

> We are a tenant in another organization's MS 365 environment and we use shortcuts in almost all our spaces. We are not allowed to give Confluence access to connect to our MS 365 accounts, so using Smart Links does not work for us. Using shortcuts allows us to easily move between the 2 systems and was a crucial part of us continuing to use Confluence. It is not redundant functionality for us. With this change, we will not be able to have external links our SharePoint sites in our content tree.

Roughly how many shortcuts do you have in a given space?

 > Also, if you add a SmartLink with a URL to a website, it takes the page name from site which cannot be edited.

You can edit the Smart Link name in the same way you rename other content in Confluence — like pages, whiteboards, etc — by clicking "Rename" from the "..." menu.

[Aura Hill]

@Ned Lindau off the top of my head, I would say it ranges from 1-4 shortcuts, with 3 being most common. 

Thank you for the renaming tip. However, it does not eliminate the very odd-looking page that appears and the need to click 2x.  

[Andy Gladstone]

@Ned Lindau I was excited about this concept. We often used Shortcuts for pages from other spaces that are relevant to the current space. I never liked the fact that the shortcut would bring me to the page in the same window, which made me lose context in the page I was previously working on.

I started updating some today and I although I am logged in to Confluence, and have permissions to view the pages in the Smart Links, I am experiencing this series of notifications and cannot display the page as a Smart Link. 

What isn't working?

[Ned Lindau]

@Andy Gladstone Mind sending a screen recording of your entire user journey so I can see exactly how you're going about things? Will also share it with the smart links team. Can either post here or email it to me.

[Andy Gladstone]

@Ned Lindau I sent you an email with a link to a Loom recording of the issue I am experiencing.

Thanks!