Create article content

Articles describe a product, system, or feature and provide answers for customers who are searching for questions or information on your knowledge base.

In this article 

• Create a new article
• Edit a published article
• Article settings tab
• Feedback tab
• Manage article SEO
• Set permissions on an internal article

Create a new article

The knowledge base editor provides the tools you need to create your article content. Similar to a word processing editor, the top toolbar provides formatting options such as bold or italics, supports ordered or unordered bulleted lists, and much more. The bottom toolbar lets you add hyperlinks, images, and emoji to your articles. For more information, see Knowledge base article editor.

To create an article:

1. Go to Settings> Knowledge Base > Articles.

   Note: If you have more than one brand configured, you can also select Administration followed by Brand. Then, select Edit for the brand for which you will be creating articles.

2. Select Create Article.
3. Enter an article title and URL slug in the Create Article window.
4. If you have multiple brands configured, select the brands the article will reside in. For more information, see Multi-brand knowledge base.
5. Select Create.
   
6. Enter your content using the editor. Toolbars provide various options to format your text and add media, such as images, to your article.

   Notes:

   • The total file size of an article cannot exceed 15MB. Additionally, individual attachments to an article cannot exceed 9.5 MB. If you need to include media that exceeds 9.5 MB we recommend hosting the content externally and adding a link to it in the article.
   • You can edit the HTML source directly by selecting Code View < > .
7. You can privately view an unpublished version of the article before you publish it live by selecting Preview.
8. In the Settings tab, select the level of article access you want to grant to users. The available options are Public or Internal.
9. Select the category and brand your article should reside in by selecting Manage Brands and Categories. For more information, see Add articles to brands and categories.
10. Select Publish Now to immediately make the article available Your article will now be made visible in either your Public or Internal knowledge base. If you have multiple brands, the article will be visible in whichever brand you chose. If you want to schedule your article to publish at a later time, select the arrow and select Schedule Publish. For more information, see Schedule knowledge base articles.

Edit a published article

To edit an article that is already published on your knowledge base:

1. Go to Settings  > Knowledge base > Articles and select the article you want to edit from the list.
2. Select Create New Draft.
   
3. Once you are done making your changes, select Publish Now or schedule your article for a later date.

Article settings tab

The options in the article Settings tab are available when editing an article. Here, you can view specific article details, as well as add or change an article category, the brand the article resides in, or viewing access. The following options are available:

• Access 
  Sets the article to either be Public or Internal. Internal articles can only be seen by members of your organization.
  
  
• Version 
  Lists all previous versions of the article. If more than one version exists, you can choose to revert to an earlier version and publish it again.
  
  
• Visibility 
  Shows the current state of the article.
  
  
• Last Updated By 
  Shows the name of the user who last updated the article, along with a date and timestamp.
  
  
• Created By 
  Shows the name of the user who created the article, along with the creation date and time.
  
  
• Category
  Determines what categories and brands the current article will live in. For more information, see Add articles to brands and categories.
  
  
• Article Tags
  Enter tag labels for the article. For more information, see Add tags to articles.
  
  
• SEO
  Enter information to help optimize your articles for search rankings. This option is only available if Access is set to Public.
  
  
• Permissions
  Allows you to select which users or teams can view an internal article. This option is only available if Access is set to Internal.
  
  
• Featured Articles 
  Specify if the article appears in the Featured Articles section of your knowledge base home page. For more information, see Feature articles on your knowledge base home page.
  
  
• Article status
  Shows if there are changes that need to be published, or if the article is currently up to date.
  
  
• Discard Draft
  Deletes the current draft of the article. This action can not be undone.
  
  
• Publish Now 
  Publishes the most current version of the article. 
  
  
• Schedule Publish
  Select the exact day and time an article will be published. For more information, see Schedule knowledge base articles.
  
  
• Delete
  Permanently delete the entire article from your knowledge base.

Feedback tab

The Feedback tab is where you can view how your article has been performing over the last 30 days and access further metrics found in the Knowledge base report. 

Manage article SEO

Every public article in your knowledge base can be further optimized for Search Engine rankings. By default, we auto-populate these fields in case you don't optimize them yourself.

The Search Results Preview box shows a glimpse of what your SEO settings will look like in a search browser. The SEO Title, SEO Description, and SEO Keywords boxes are editable and give you full control over what information search engines like Google and Bing use to determine if the content should be presented to searchers. You can also optimize the SEO for each language the Article is written in to further improve your SEO rankings.

Set permissions on an internal article

You have the ability to share internal articles with specific users or teams in your organization. With article permissions, you can ensure that users have access to information that is relevant to them.

To set an article permission:

1. Select Internal from the Access drop-down menu.
2. Select Permissions.
   
3. Enter the names of the teams or users that will have access to view this internal article. You can add up to 50 teams or users.
   Your internal article will now only be visible to those individuals.