This release is scheduled for September 10, 2024.

Content below curated and copied from Atlassian release notes for our production environment.

Confluence Updates

Catch up quickly with page comments summary

Now, Atlassian Intelligence can summarize page comments for you, making it easier and faster to catch up on important feedback. Just navigate to the bottom of the page, above the first page comment, and select Summarize comments.

New comments since you last checked? Select the refresh icon to generate a summary that includes all the latest feedback.

Effortless content arrangement with drag-and-drop

This update introduces new drag-and-drop functionality for top-level elements in the Confluence editor, making it easier than ever to arrange your content. This feature enhances the user experience by allowing smooth content movement, reducing the need for cut-and-paste actions, and providing a more intuitive and modern editing experience.

What's new:

Drag and drop for top-level elements: A new drag handle makes it easy to rearrange any top-level element on your page.
Instant selection: Select any element with a single action on the drag handle for fast and convenient movement.
Auto-scroll functionality: Move content above or below the fold with automatic scrolling, ensuring smooth navigation while rearranging elements.

More control over notifications

Page owners no longer receive notifications by default when someone interacts with their page. Instead, they can opt-in to notifications by choosing to Watch the page. This change reduces the noise of unnecessary communications (for example, when pages are no longer actively monitored or updated) — and improves the value of the notifications that do appear in the person's inbox and message feeds.

Whiteboards Updates

Comment on whiteboards for further collaboration

The commenting experience will now be available in whiteboards, alongside pages. Leave comments, @mention teammates, reply to conversations, and more with comments in Confluence whiteboards. You can see mentions and replies directly in your notifications.

Switch to comment mode in a whiteboard by selecting the comment icon in the toolbar on the right or use M on your keyboard. Once you're in comment mode, click anywhere on the whiteboard to create a comment.

Create more custom shapes with whiteboards border styling

Add borders to shapes in Confluence whiteboards.

Choose between a solid or dashed line border, with a selection of colors. Borders can be added to a shape with or without fill color.

You can remove borders by selecting the border button again. A shape must have a fill color to remove the border.

Fixed column widths for tables

We’re pleased to introduce a new feature that enhances your control over your tables. You can now set column widths to fixed, ensuring that your table layout remains consistent even on narrow screens. This option is available in Table options in the table toolbar and is unchecked by default, allowing tables to scale as they always have. For those who prefer their tables to respond dynamically to screen sizes, we’ve increased the maximum scaling to give your tables even more flexibility.

How to use:

Insert or select a table on your page.
Select the Table options icon in the table toolbar.
Select the Fixed column widths option to prevent your table columns from scaling down on narrow screens.

This update allows you to maintain the integrity of your table layouts across different screen sizes, providing a more consistent viewing experience.

Unread comments indicator

We've added a small blue dot to the comments icon on the toolbar whenever there are unread comments. Thanks to this dot, it's now easier than ever to know if you have unread comments to address.

By selecting the icon when the blue dot is present, you'll be able to navigate through your unread comments as the topmost items in the comments panel.

Profile cards show in edit mode

Selecting an @mention while editing will now show the person's profile card.

Introducing text highlighting

We are thrilled to announce the addition of text highlighting to our editor, a highly requested feature that enhances your content creation and collaboration experience. This new functionality allows you to easily highlight text, making important information stand out.

The ability to highlight text is easily accessed from the main editing toolbar, located right beside the text color option. Six highlight colors are available: grey, teal, lime, orange, magenta, and purple.

Highlighting can only be done by individuals with editing privileges for a page, unlike comments.

Floating emojis

We’ve made reactions more delightful in Confluence!

All users can now respond with floating emojis on Confluence pages, blogs, and comments, and even react to activity in your home feed.

This isn't limited to our emojis -- the floating effects will work on any Atlassian-provided emojis or custom emojis you've created.

To get started, go to an existing comment and select an emoji. The delightful reaction will then appear on your screen.

Jira Updates

Plan the next quarter of work with the Program Increment Planning Board

Plans now has an interface to help you plan the next quarter of work.

Introducing the Program board -- a new way for planners to coordinate and align the delivery plans of multiple teams at the team-of-teams level.

Check out our community post.

Summarize issue comments with AI

Use Atlassian Intelligence to quickly catch up on an issue’s comments. Read a quick AI summary instead of going through all comments one by one.

To read a summary:

In the Activity section of the issue, show Comments.
Select Summarize.

List View enhancements

View parent, team, development and version information as columns

You'll also be able to filter by team, parent and versions.

To view your new fields, scroll the list all the way to the right. You can then organize your fields how you like.

To view your new filters, select Filter at the top right of your list. They will be available in the menu.

Create ideas for a group in the list view

Add new ideas to a group in your list views more easily with a new '+' button alongside each group in the list view. When you select Group by on a list, this new button appears, making it easy to add new ideas to specific groups.

View even more issue information from your Jira list

View project, groups, cascading select, radio buttons, resolution, and status category information as field columns.

To view your new fields, scroll the list all the way to the right. You can then organize your fields how you like.

New filtering capability on columns in list view

In the list view, use the new filter option when you select a column to further filter the results shown in that column. This opens the filter panel so you can further drill down into the information for any particular column in the list view.

Bulk edit issues in Jira list

Bulk edit up to 1000 issues at one time from your Jira list.

To bulk edit multiple issues:

Select multiple issues from your list using the issue checkboxes.
Once you’ve chosen the issues you’d like to edit, select Edit from the toolbar that appears.
A sidebar will open which allows you to make edits for the shared fields across your selected issues.

Resize your columns in the new issue navigator

You can now resize columns in the issue navigator list view. To try it out, go to the issue navigator by selecting Issues in the project sidebar. Alternatively, select Filters in the navigation, then select View all issues.

From the list view, drag the right border of a column to resize it. Alternatively, select the More actions (︙) menu on a table header, then select Resize column.

Additionally, we've updated the appearance of the list view, making it more modern, compact and easy to use.

Improve the clarity of issue descriptions with AI

Use Atlassian Intelligence to add clarity to your issue descriptions. Quickly improve your descriptions with clear structure and headings so they’re easier to read.

To get started, while you’re writing an issue description:

Type / in the issue description field, or select the Atlassian Intelligence button.
Type or select Add structure.

Using AI, we’ll generate a new, structured issue description for you to review. Look over the new description, and choose to replace your existing description or add the new one underneath.

Assign colors to cards on your board based on request types

You can now assign colors to cards on your board based on request types.

From your board select More actions (•••), then Configure board.
Select Card colors in the settings menu.
From the Select method dropdown list, select Request types.

Use Confluence templates in pages you create in Jira

When you create a Confluence page from a Jira issue, you now have a choice of templates to add to your page.

From the Jira issue's drop-down menu, select Create and choose Page. We will start a draft and you'll have the option to choose a template from a list on the right side of the page.

Confluence sprint retrospectives are now available

We are adding a prompt to launch a sprint retrospective in Confluence as a whiteboard or page. When you finish a sprint, you'll see an option to collaborate with your team in Confluence using our sprint retrospective templates. You can pick a whiteboard or a page.

Duplicate dashboard gadgets

When you're editing a dashboard, you can now duplicate a gadget and its configuration to appear alongside the original.

To try it out:

Open a Jira dashboard that you can edit.
Select Edit.
Select More actions (...) > Duplicate for the gadget you want to duplicate.

The duplicate gadget will appear at the top of the leftmost column on your dashboard.

JSM Updates

JSM: Calendar view for new Jira Service Management projects

We’re excited to launch a new view of issues in Jira Service Management: calendar view! Like the board or your queues, the calendar is another way to view and manage your work in the way that works best for you and your team.

It’s a great way for team members to plan, track, and prioritize, and for team leads to see potential roadblocks before they cause delays. Read more about using the calendar to view your issues.

Create a new project, then select Calendar in your project navigation to check it out. You can schedule issues in the calendar by adding and filling out the Start date and Due date fields on an issue. Once those fields are filled, the issues will appear on your calendar so that you can view your work across the coming month and beyond.

At the moment, the calendar is only available in new Jira Service Management projects, but it will become available for your existing projects soon, alongside new and improved calendar features to help you and your team do their best work.

JSM: JQL query support for boards in Jira Service Management

You can now create swimlanes on your board in Jira Service Management projects using Jira Query Language (JQL).

To add swimlanes using JQL:

From your board select More actions (•••), then Configure board.
Select Swimlanes in the settings menu.
From the Select method dropdown list, select Queries.

JSM: Control who has access to raise requests in Jira Service Management

Need to control who can and can't raise certain requests in Jira Service Management? Now you have the ability to restrict request types - one of your top requested features!

There may be times when only specific people or groups should be able to raise certain requests. These could be requests reserved for managers, different departments in your company, or even those managing sensitive information such as HR or Legal teams.

Now from any company-managed service project, you can restrict individual request types by giving access to specific people and groups, which then automatically restricts access to all others.

JSM: Use canned responses for agent signature

You can now use canned responses to specify your personal signature, which is added automatically when an agent comments on an issue using the issue view. Your signature can include your name, designation, contact information, etc.

To add your personal signature:

Go to the issue view for any issue.
Select Add internal note or Reply to customer.
Select Canned responses.
Select an existing personal canned response or Create new to create a new one.
Enter the following details:
- Name - Give a unique name to your response.
- Availability - Agents can only create personal canned responses and would not see this option when creating a new canned response. If you're a project admin, select Personal.
- Response - Use this field to specify your signature.
Select the Use as Signature checkbox.
Select Save or Create to save your signature.

Atlassian Fast Facts

Tips and information for WashU Atlassian users.

Atlassian Intelligence Features

Curious about the AI features in Atlassian? Check out these links to learn more about how Atlassian Intelligence might create efficiencies in your work:

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On this page:

1 Confluence Updates
2 Jira Updates
3 JSM Updates
4 Atlassian Fast Facts
- 4.1 Atlassian Intelligence Features
- 4.2 Need access to Confluence or Jira?

Washington University Confluence Cloud

September 2024 Atlassian Monthly Release