How to put an Outlook email on a Confluence page

Written on 14 October 2026 from the Atlassian, Microsoft and Apple pages and tickets linked next to each step. Menu names change now and then. If your Outlook or Confluence looks different, follow the linked page.

Some of the Community questions this guide answers: “how do upload an email on confluence page”, “Embed Outlook email.msg file into a confluence page” and “I am uploading an outlook mail in .msg format in confluence page and there is no preview” (Atlassian Community).

For Options 3 and 4: save the email as a file

Options 3 and 4 below start with the email saved as a .msg or .eml file. Outlook can do that without any add-in (Microsoft: Save an Outlook message as a .eml file, a PDF file, or as a draft):

• Classic Outlook for Windows. Open the email, choose File → Save As and keep the default type. That gives an Outlook .msg file.
• New Outlook for Windows. Open the email, choose More actions (the three dots) and then Save as. Microsoft says the file is saved as an .eml or .msg file.
• Outlook on the web. Select the email, then More actions → Download.

Dragging straight from Outlook into Confluence is not reliable. Atlassian's ticket says dragging an email from the Outlook client on Windows into Confluence Cloud “doesn't work all the time”. Sometimes nothing uploads, and there is no error. Its workarounds: drag the email to the desktop first and then into Confluence, or use Forward as attachment and drag that attachment. Atlassian closed the ticket in May 2025 without a change (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-76968). From the new Outlook, a drag to a folder gives an .eml file, not a .msg (Microsoft Q&A: Outlook: drag and drop to Explorer saves email as a .eml file not a .msg file).

Not sure which format to keep? Outlook .msg vs .eml explains the difference.

Option 1: copy and paste the text into the page

Open the email in Outlook, select the text, copy it and paste it into the page in the Confluence editor.

• What you get. The words become part of the page. Anyone who can read the page can read them, and Confluence search finds them like any other page text.
• Images may not come along. Atlassian has a ticket about pasting text with images from Word, OneNote or Google Docs. It says the text usually comes through, but images often do not. It also says copy and paste from other formats is not a supported feature. Upload the images separately if you need them (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-77928).
• Attachments don't come along. Pasting the text does not bring the email's attachments. Save each attachment from Outlook to your computer and upload it to the page. Atlassian tracks a request to allow copying or dragging attachments straight from Outlook (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-28812).
• It is a copy, not the email. Only what you selected ends up on the page. The sender, date and recipients are there only if you copy them too. The technical headers are never there. Anyone who can edit the page can change the text.

Option 2: save the email as PDF and attach it

Outlook has no PDF type under Save As, so you print the email to a PDF (Microsoft: Save an Outlook message as a .eml file, a PDF file, or as a draft). In classic Outlook, open the email and choose File → Print. In the new Outlook and Outlook on the web, choose Print under More actions. Pick Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer, print, and choose where to save the file. That printer is built into Windows 10 and 11. On a Mac, choose Save as PDF in the print dialog instead (Apple: Save a document as a PDF on Mac).

Then insert the PDF in the page: drag it in, or type /files and choose Image, video, or file (Atlassian: Upload a file, Display files and images).

• What you get. The email as it looked on screen, with its images, in a file that anyone can open.
• How it shows on the page. As a small inline tile or as a thumbnail. The file can be opened in a full-screen preview, so it can be read without downloading, or it can be downloaded (Atlassian: Work with images, videos, and files). The PDF macro that showed a PDF's pages on the page is only available in the legacy editor (Atlassian: Review macros only available in the legacy editor).
• It is a printout, not the email. The PDF holds what Outlook printed. The technical headers are not in it, and neither are the attachments of the email.
• It can be blocked. If your organisation requires sensitivity labels, Print to PDF can be blocked in Outlook (Microsoft: Print to PDF is blocked if Mandatory Labeling is enabled).

Option 3: attach the .msg or .eml file

Save the email as a file (see above) and drag it into the page, or type /files and choose Image, video, or file. You need the Add Attachments permission in the space, and by default a file can be up to 100 MB (Atlassian: Upload a file).

• What you get. The original email. Sender, recipients, date and the attachments inside it are all kept in the file. An .eml also keeps the technical headers. A .msg has them only if the email came in over the internet (see Outlook .msg vs .eml).
• What readers see. A file on the page, not an email. Confluence Cloud has no email view. Previewing .msg files is an open request (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-74736). Showing attached .msg and .eml files on the page is another open request (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-41597). An answer on Atlassian Community also says that previewing .msg files is not supported in Confluence Cloud (Atlassian Community: I am uploading an outlook mail in .msg format in confluence page and there is no preview).
• Reading it means downloading it. Atlassian's workaround for .msg is to download the file and open it in Outlook (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-74736). Readers without Outlook, on a Mac or a phone, may not be able to open a .msg at all. How to open .msg and .eml email attachments in Confluence covers the ways to read them.

Option 4: attach the file and show it with MailView for Confluence

Full disclosure: Dortus makes MailView for Confluence. It shows an attached .msg or .eml file as a readable email on the page. Other apps on the Atlassian Marketplace also handle email in Confluence. This guide only describes the one we make.

You still need Option 3 first. MailView does not take the email out of Outlook. It reads the file that is attached to the page.

• Show one email on the page. Edit the page, insert the Email (MailView) macro, choose the attachment and click Save. The email shows in the editor. After you publish, readers of the page see it too: sender, recipients, date, the message with its formatting, the images stored inside the email, and its attachments. Images that the email loads from the internet stay blocked, for privacy.
• A list of the emails on the page. Emails on this page, under the page title, lists the .eml and .msg attachments of the page. Click one to read it in a large view.
• A phishing check. Each email you open gets a verdict: Looks OK, Be careful, Likely phishing or Not enough to judge, with the reasons. An email you wrote yourself, or one that never left your company, often has no delivery or authentication headers. It then gets Not enough to judge, unless something else in it looks suspicious, such as a link or an attachment. The check can miss things, so treat Looks OK as “nothing suspicious found”.
• PDF and Word export. When you export the page, each MailView macro becomes a plain-text version of the email: subject, sender, recipients, the date in UTC, the verdict line, the text without earlier replies, and the names and sizes of the attachments. Images and formatting are left out, and very long emails are shortened.
• What it does not do. It does not copy the email text into the page. If people need to find the email with Confluence search, also paste the key text into the page (Option 1). Files over 10 MB show a download link instead of the email. Protected Outlook messages (.rpmsg) show a note that they can only be opened in Outlook. Confluence Cloud only.
• Before you install. A Confluence admin installs it, and it needs an active license. Without one, MailView shows a message on the page instead of the email. Once installed, Emails on this page shows under the title of every page and blog post, also on pages without emails.
• Privacy. It only has read access to attachments. The email is shown in the reader's browser. For a PDF or Word export, it is read inside Atlassian's Forge platform. MailView keeps no copy of the email and sends nothing outside Atlassian.

The details, limits and documentation are on the MailView for Confluence page.

Not in Confluence Cloud: sending an email to a page

Confluence Cloud has no address you can send or forward an email to so that it lands on a page. Creating pages from emails is an open request (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-1726). A newer request asks for “Email into Confluence” and says this is only available in Confluence Server and Data Center (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-79455). Confluence Data Center has its own email features (Atlassian: Create content with email, Mail Archives).

Which one should you use?

	Readable on the page	Original email kept	Text in the page itself
Copy and paste	Yes, the text	No	Yes
PDF	In a full-screen preview	No, a printout	No
.msg or .eml file	No, download it first	Yes	No
File with MailView	Yes, up to 10 MB	Yes	No

Only the text matters, and nobody will need the original email later? Copy and paste. Readers should see the email as it looked, without an app? Save it as PDF and attach it. The email is evidence (a complaint, an approval, a phishing report) or people will need it again? Attach the .msg or .eml file, so the original stays with the page. Put a PDF next to it for reading, or use a viewer app.

Short answers

Can I drag an email from Outlook straight onto a Confluence page? Sometimes. It does not always work, and a failed drop shows no error. Save the email as a file first (see above) and drag that file into the page. For the Outlook client on Windows, Atlassian's ticket also suggests dragging the email to the desktop first (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-76968).

Can I forward an email to Confluence Cloud? Not with Confluence Cloud alone. It has no email address for pages or spaces (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-1726). Some apps on the Atlassian Marketplace add one. MailView does not.

Does Confluence Cloud show .msg or .eml files as an email? No. Both stay files. Showing them as an email is an open request (Atlassian: CONFCLOUD-74736, CONFCLOUD-41597).

.msg or .eml? Both can be attached. Classic Outlook saves .msg. The new Outlook saves an .eml or .msg file, and Outlook on the web downloads the email as a file (Microsoft: Save an Outlook message as a .eml file, a PDF file, or as a draft). If some readers have no Outlook for Windows, choose .eml when your Outlook offers it. Apple Mail and Thunderbird open .eml, but not .msg. Outlook .msg vs .eml explains which keeps what.

Questions

Spotted something wrong on this page, or a way we missed? Email support@dortus.com.