Here's a round-up of the most requested Confluence features, the current workarounds and third-party solutions.

In at 5...

5. Numbered Headings (CONF-1732)

With 271 votes, a popular request is for the ability to display numbered, formatted headers that includes dot-notation so that you can produce something like the following:
1. One
1.1 One-one
1.2 One-two
2. Two
2.1 Two-one
2.1.1 Two-one-one

This would be a useful option within the text editor, especially for those producing lengthy reports and documentation. There are CSS workarounds such as using CSS counters which may work for some. A sticking point with this for Atlassian seems to have been the requirement to support older browsers such as IE7 in which this doesn't work. However following the release of Confluence 4, IE7 is no longer supported and so no longer needs to hold back development. Until it is added though, the Numbered Headings plugin by Avisi does a great job and has been updated for Confluence 4.

At 4...

4. Spell Checker (CONF-1212)

At first to some this might seem like an odd requested feature as Spell Checking is standard functionality in many modern browsers. Sadly for those stuck with IE, this isn't the case and with 280 votes the demand for this feature is still high. Without this as a native feature there doesn't seem to be a single solution that works for all. Some have created plugins including ourselves who created a TinyMCE RTE plugin with an extensible dictionary, however, for onDemand customers this is no good as they can't install plugins. Others have tried third-party services like SpellCheckAnywhere which embeds spellchecking in to Windows applications, and of course there are browser plugins for those using Firefox. Others make do copying and pasting between Word and Confluence. However, we might be in for a long wait still to see this one in Confluence itself - how can Atlassian justify spending their limited resources on a feature that the majority don't need?

At 3...

3. Changing usernames (CONF-4063)

With 304 votes, the ability to change usernames in Confluence is a much-voted for feature. The requirement is quite common where usernames are based on people's actual names with people changing their names, often through marriage (or divorce) and wanting to see this updated within Confluence too. Whilst you can change your full display name, your username isn't currently editable. For the brave souls determined to tackle it there are some SQL commands you can try to edit the usernames directly in the database. This isn't supported though, so try at your peril.

In the number 2 spot...

2. Sectional Editing (CONF-5913)

Those just wanting to edit parts of pages are out of luck with Confluence out-of-the-box at present. Despite the 306 votes and the seeming simplicity of the requirement, this must be easy to add, right? But in the words of Charles Miller from Atlassian "we've been constantly frustrated that something so simple in conception is so difficult in practice" as it's all about the edge-cases. Many a "fresh-faced, optimistic new hire goes away for a weekends or two, or takes some 20% time and comes up with a really great prototype that works 80% of the time". Unfortunately for us the devil is in the detail it seems and it's "the remaining 20% [which] is a writhing mass of entangled edge-cases" that make this so difficult to add.

To get around this limitation you can make use of the Include page macro, try our Sub-section plugin or for those who really want to get it nailed, then Stiltsoft have a commercial plugin that works well too.

Topping our list, with 368 votes...

1. Copy page hierarchy (CONF-2814)

The ability to copy whole spaces or hierarchies of pages along with their attachments is the most voted for feature currently with Atlassian. The workaround is pretty horrible and so an inspired Atlassian tried to tackle it as part of one of their FedEx days creating the Copy Space plugin documented here. If that doesn't work, then you can also try using the Copy Page Tree plugin or Confluence Command Line Interface, which you might want to read more about.

So there we have them, the Top 5 most requested features. Don't see your must-have feature listed? Here are details about how to request a feature and info on how Atlassian determine what to implement. According to one Atlassian Product Manager, it's the most difficult part of their job. Nevertheless, the average age of those top 5 requested features is 6 years. For those that can't wait any longer, or who have some other must-have feature they want to add - then consider our Plugin Development services and check out our range of Confluence plugins to make sure it doesn't already exist.