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How to Use Speech to Text in Confluence – User Guide

How to use Speech to Text for Confluence: add the macro, dictate with voice commands, a team glossary and templates, then add a comment or the text to the page.

Overview

Speech to Text is a Confluence macro that turns your voice into text in its own editor. Edit it, then add it to the page — after or before the macro, at the start or at the end — or add it as a comment. While you edit a page, dictate and copy the text into the page with its formatting. Every change is made with your own Confluence permissions.

Before you start

  • Browser: Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge on desktop, and recent Safari. Firefox has no speech recognition (you can still type).
  • Where your speech goes: your browser sends the audio to its own speech service — Chrome to Google, Edge to Microsoft. The app itself never receives, sends or stores audio.
  • Microphone: the browser asks the first time you press Record.

Add the macro

  1. Install Speech to Text from the Atlassian Marketplace.
  2. Edit a page or blog post, type /speech and choose Speech to Text.
  3. Choose the scope: select the macro and click its pencil icon.
    • Private (default) — only the page owner (on a blog post, its author) sees the macro: “Only you see this (private scope)”. They can Add a comment and Add to page.
    • Public — everyone who can view the page sees it and can Add a comment.
  4. Publish the page.

People outside the macro’s scope see nothing where the macro is.

Dictate into the page

  1. Choose the Language (your Atlassian profile’s language until you choose) and, optionally, Automatically turn off recording.
  2. Press Record and speak; each phrase becomes a paragraph. Alt + Shift + R (macOS: Option + Shift + R) starts and stops recording.
  3. Edit: headings, lists, links, code, tables, panels. Type @ to mention a colleague; Link a page finds pages and blog posts by title.
  4. Put it on the page:
    • Add to page (private scope) — adds the text as a new page version, where Where says: after this macro (default), before this macro, at the start of the page or at the end of the page. The app reads the newest version right before writing, so edits made meanwhile are kept.
    • Add a comment — a comment at the bottom of the page.
    • Clear — empties the editor.

After a confirmed write the editor is cleared and the page reloads to show the text (or tick Don’t refresh the page after adding and use Show it). A refused write keeps your text and shows Confluence’s reason. Unsent text is kept in this browser for two weeks.

Files

Attach files, paste or drop an image under the editor. Add a comment or Add to page first attaches them to the page as you; images then show as Confluence images, other files as links.

Dictate while you edit the page

The macro works in the page editor too: dictate, then Copy text and paste it (Ctrl+V / ⌘V) where you want it — the formatting comes along. The app never changes a page while you edit it. On a new page that was never published, only Copy text is offered.

Voice commands

In English, Russian, Ukrainian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish and Dutch, Commands lists what to say:

“add comment” and “append to content” (or “add to page”) press that button after a 3-second countdown; “cancel” stops it. Turn Voice commands off when you need these words as text.

Templates and the team glossary

  • Templates — save texts you use often and Insert them, or say “insert template” and the name.
  • Glossary — teach the app how to write names and terms: Heard as what the speech service writes, Write as what you want.

Both are kept on Atlassian for your account. In Confluence the team is the space: its space admins can Save for the team / Add for the team, and everyone who uses the macro in that space gets them (your own entry with the same name wins). The Jira and Confluence apps keep separate lists.

Languages

Over 60 languages and 101 regional variants; which ones work depends on the browser’s speech service.

Permissions and data

  • Your permissions: commenting needs permission to comment; Add to page needs permission to edit the page.
  • Stored on Atlassian: templates, glossary and the space’s team entries, in the app’s Forge storage. The macro’s scope is stored with the page.
  • Stored in your browser: language, settings, the insert position and unsent drafts.
  • Outside Atlassian: only the audio, sent by your browser to its own speech service.

See the privacy policy.

Troubleshooting

  • Only Copy text is offered — you are editing the page, or it has never been published.
  • Others do not see the macro — its scope is Private; switch it to Public in the macro settings.
  • “Microphone blocked” — press Allow microphone, or allow it next to the address bar, then reload.
  • The Record button is disabled — use Chrome, Edge or Safari.
  • “Speech to Text is not licensed for this site” — a Confluence admin renews it in Manage apps.

Still stuck? Contact support.