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Just Add+ Markdown


If your team already uses Markdown and you're here to see what Just Add+ can actually do inside Confluence, you can skip the background and head straight to the section called "Why Just Add+ is Built for Teams Like Yours." That’s where we walk through real use cases, workflow improvements, and how Just Add+ fits seamlessly into technical documentation.

That said, let’s answer the question Google wants us to answer first.



What is Markdown and What is Markdown Used For in Confluence?


Markdown is a lightweight markup language used to format text. It’s especially popular among developers, technical writers, and content creators who want to write clean documentation without fiddling with WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors or embedded formatting.


Markdown is often used in Confluence when teams want to embed GitHub README files, technical documentation, or real-time synced content from Git repositories. More broadly, it's used for:

  • README files in GitHub

  • Technical documentation

  • API references

  • Blog posts and changelogs

  • Wikis and knowledge bases


Its popularity comes from being fast, clean, and portable. You write once in Markdown, and it renders beautifully across platforms—at least, when those platforms support it properly.



Why Markdown in Confluence Can Be Frustrating

Confluence is a powerful workspace, and Atlassian has made strides in supporting lightweight Markdown use through basic macros. But for teams who rely heavily on full Markdown files, embedded code, or Git-based documentation, the experience can still feel limited. Formatting may not always render as expected, and larger workflows—like embedding Git-based Markdown files or rendering syntax-heavy code—often require workarounds that introduce friction and slow teams down.


For many teams, this becomes a daily headache. And we know this firsthand.



Meet the People This Actually Affects


Greg the Technical Writer is managing a living library of documentation. Everything starts in Markdown, whether it's written in VS Code or pulled from GitHub. But every time he pastes into Confluence, something breaks. Code blocks lose formatting. Headings get demoted. He wastes hours reformatting what was already perfect.


Liam the Developer works across GitLab and Confluence. He documents microservices, deployment steps, and code snippets—all in Markdown. All he wants is a way to share those docs with the product team in Confluence without rewriting them or flattening them into screenshots.


Sasha the Admin supports three engineering teams, each with their own Markdown workflows. They're all asking for a better way to embed Markdown and diagrams in Confluence. She doesn’t want to install something clunky or train users on a complicated tool that doesn’t feel native.


That’s where Just Add+ comes in — an Atlassian Marketplace app designed specifically to help teams embed and render Markdown, diagrams, and Git-based content inside Confluence.



What’s the Problem with Markdown in Confluence?


Confluence does support Markdown — but only through a one-time importer. Once your Markdown file is imported, it's converted into Confluence's native formatting. From that point on, it’s no longer Markdown, and any connection to the original source is lost.


That might be fine for one-off documents, but for teams that treat Markdown as a living format — especially when syncing from Git repositories or embedding frequently updated files — this approach doesn’t hold up.


Formatting can be altered during import, code blocks may need manual cleanup, and teams often fall back on copy-pasting or workarounds just to keep documentation current.

Just Add+ solves this by letting you embed and render Markdown directly in Confluence — with full control, live updates, and formatting that stays intact. No conversion. No loss of fidelity. Just Markdown, right where your team needs it.



Want to See It in Action?


If you're already a Just Add+ user and have ideas for how we can enhance the Markdown features or embed experience, we're all ears. Drop a comment to start a conversation or reach out through our contact page.


If you're considering Just Add+ for your team, you can:

So, to wrap up this Markdown blog post: Just Add+ enhances Confluence by giving teams a simple, reliable way to render Markdown directly inside their workspace. From Git-based docs to live code snippets, Just Add+ makes it easy to embed the content your team already creates—without compromising the Confluence experience you know and trust.


Thanks for reading. Come back soon—we’ll be sharing regular Just Add+ updates, tips, and feature deep dives.

 
 
 

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