Native inline comments are available only starting from Confluence 5.7. If your instance runs on an earlier version, Confluence native inline commenting won't work.
Take a 3-minute quiz to learn which tool, native inline comments or the Talk add-on, best suits your needs.
The Talk add-on and Confluence native inline comments have some similarities. However, Talk’s functionality includes a number of unique useful features. And we continue working on making Talk a more powerful and flexible tool. Because as a professional using Confluence, you need advanced features. And it’s our objective to provide you with them and help you be more efficient with less efforts.
Read this article for a more detailed comparison between the Talk inline comments and native Confluence inline comments.
Comparison: Talk add-on and Confluence native inline comments
Feature | Talk add-on for Confluence | Confluence native inline comments | Notes |
Creating inline comments by just pointing to the paragraph you refer to |
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| With bigger fragments of text it’s so much easier to just point to a paragraph to comment it.Talk allows that in view mode. With Confluence native inline comments you are supposed to highlight the whole text fragment. |
| Creating inline comments by selecting a text fragment |
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| As an option, with Talk you can add an inline comment by selecting a text fragment in View mode. Once saved, a talk is added after the selected text snippet, the text you've commented stops being highlighted. It allows you to preserve context and avoid your page being overloaded with disturbing colorful highlights. Learn more Confluence native inline comments work by adding inline comments to a selected text fragment with preserving highlighting after adding an inline comment. |
Adding, viewing, managing, replying to inline comments in 'edit' mode |
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| With Talk you can add inline comments anywhere on your page in 'edit' mode, as well as view, manage, reply to Talk comments while editing a page. With Confluence native inline comments you can’t do that in 'edit' mode. |
| Setting default Space comments viewing permissions |
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| With Talk you can set default space viewing permissions applied to all the talks created within the space. In Confluence, you can give a user permissions to delete or add comments (including inline comments), but there's no way to restrict viewing comments to users with the 'View All' permission. It gives no solution for the case when certain users or groups should be able to view all of the available page content but for inline comments. |
Setting permissions for specific comments |
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| With Talk you can very easily configure individual permissions for any separate comment on your page while adding or editing that comment. Learn more You can't do it for specific Confluence native inline comments. Since page's viewing is either restricted together with all of its content or a user can view a page with all of its content (including all of the inline comments). Not very convenient when you need different permissions for different comments on your page. |
| Report with all inline comments |  |  | With Talk you can create reports that give you an overview of all inline comments. It's helpful to track the resolution of discussions. Learn more The report feature is not available in Confluence native inline comments. |
| Suggesting changes on a page | | | Talk comes with Suggestions – you can suggest changes on a page and let page owners decide whether to accept them. Accepted changes are automatically applied (no need to edit the page). While rejected suggestions disappear and can be tracked in page history. Confluence native inline comments don't have this feature at the moment. |
Viewing all inline comments of the page at the same time |
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| With Talk inline comments are displayed in 'view' mode on the right-hand sidebar all at once. You can expand the sidebar, go through all the comments and collapse it once you're done. Talk comments are also displayed to the right of the page content in 'edit' mode. Reviewing and editing your pages; finding needed comments is very convenient with this Talk feature. With Confluence native inline comments are displayed in view mode on the right-hand sidebar only one inline comment at a time. |
| Collapsing of long comments and discussions |
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| Talk has automatic collapsing of long comments and discussions. And you can use the 'Show less' and 'Show more' buttons to collapse and expand long comments. Learn more Long Confluence native inline comments and threads don't collapse. |
| Marking discussions as favourites |
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| Talk allows you to mark discussions as favourites. You can also see and manage all your favourite Talk discussions from all spaces on one page in your profile. Learn more Confluence native inline comments don't have a similar feature. |
| Prioritizing discussions | | | Talk allows you to set priorities for discussions. Learn more Confluence native inline comments don't have a similar feature. |
| Navigating to the previous/next inline comment |
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| For navigation between Talk discussions, you can use arrows in the top left corner of an active thread, as well as arrows that are always in the middle of the screen on the right (near the Talk sidebar toggling button). Learn more It's possible to navigate between Confluence native inline comments by pressing arrows in an active thread. |
Archiving comments and restoring archived comments |
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| With Confluence native inline comments you can delete or resolve comments, but not archive them. While with Talk you can not only remove, but also archive your comments. |
Restore removed (aka resolved) threads |
| Partially | With Talk it’s possible to resolve threads by removing or archiving them. You can restore both removed and archived threads. Learn more With Confluence native inline comments you can either delete or resolve threads. While the resolved ones can be restored, you can’t restore the deleted threads. If you delete them by mistake or for some reason need to get intentionally deleted threads back, you can’t do that. They are gone for good. |
Updating discussions in real time |
| Partially | With Talk if you are having a discussion with someone on the page using Talk, your discussion is being updated in real time; and you can see new comments in this discussion right away. This feature is essential for real time discussions using inline comments. With Confluence native inline comments you only get workbox notifications about new comments and have to click “Show me” every time, as there’s no real time refreshing of discussions. |
Working with comments of included pages and excerpts |
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| When using the Include Page or Excerpt Include macros to include e.g. the Page B (or a segment of the Page B) in the Page A, you can view and work (edit, reply, remove, archive, restore archived, set permissions) with Talk comments of the Page B on the Page A. You can also add new Talk comments to the contents of the Include Page or Excerpt Include macros in the view mode. But you won't be able to view the Confluence native inline comments of the Page B on the Page A. |
| Picking colors for discussions |
| | With Talk you can change the background color of your inline comments to prioritize discussions, distinguish discussions made by users from different teams, etc. Confluence native inline comments don't offer this capability at the moment. |
| Seeing the number of inline discussions on a page |
| | The Talk settings button that is located on the top on a Confluence page shows the number of Talk discussions on a page. Such a counter of inline comments is not available in Confluence native inline comments. |