The Knowledge Base module functions as an information center featuring user centric articles, FAQs, eBooks, videos and more.
These resources offer detailed explanations of products and services, empowering users to learn about products and troubleshoot their issues.
As the KB expands, there will be articles in different stages, such as expired, unpublished, drafts, etc.
To find such articles quickly, users can utilize the options provided in the module list view.
Article status based list view
The articles created in the knowledge base are grouped under four statuses.
- Published - All or My articles
- Drafts - All or My drafts
- Expired - All or My expired
- Unpublished - All or My expired
By clicking on each of these statuses, the user can find all the expired articles, published articles, and so on. By default, the published article will be displayed.
Note: Depending on the article status, the options will be displayed. For example, if there are no unpublished articles, the option will not be displayed.
Published articles
Articles that complete the review and approval process are published and made available to the public. These articles can be viewed by the agents and the customer in the help center.
You can edit a published article whenever required. It includes articles that are published for all users, only agents, and only registered users.
Drafts
A document undergoes several phases before the initial version is drafted. Inputs gathered from various teams can be compiled and organized to shape the content effectively.
Before finalizing, the document can be saved as a draft, allowing for revisions before publishing.
Writers can select the Save as Draft while editing or drafting an article to later view it under My drafts page to work on it later.
Only admins can view the All draft options. Others can only view the drafts that they have created.
Note:
By default, all articles are auto-saved as drafts when the writer is editing to prevent data loss.
You can view the history on the right side panel under the
Versions tab.
Expired articles
The writers can set an expiration date for the articles to ensure that the article stays relevant and accurate. For example, a technical document created two years back could be outdated. Setting an expiration date will help the writers revisit the content and keep it up-to-date.
When the article reaches its expiry date, it will no longer be available in the help center.
The agent has to review the content and republish the article. All published articles that have expired can be viewed and tracked under this list view.
To set expiry date for an article
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base module and click on an article.
- Click the Edit icon.
- Select the expiration date and time in the Article Expiry section and click Publish.
Notifications for expired articles
Zoho Desk sends email notifications to the article owner before the expiry date at the following instances:
going to expire in the next 7 days
- going to expire tomorrow
- had just expired
The notification can be customized from: Setup > Templates > Email Templates.
Unpublished articles
If a published article becomes outdated or obsolete it can be removed from the help center by unpublishing. An unpublished article can be republished if needed.
To unpublish an article
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base module and go to the Published tab.
- Hover on the required article and click the More icon.
- Click Unpublish and Continue.
Filtering articles by visibility and expiry
In addition to the above list views that segregate articles based on their status, users can filter articles based on visibility and expiration.
Filter by visibility
Articles can be published for registered users, all users, or only agents. This option allows to locate articles from the above category quickly.
Filter by expiry
If the expiration date is set, then the articles can be filtered based on the expiration status: expiring today, next 7 days, and next 30 days.
Setting display preference for articles
The display preference allows agents to set the preferred view for the articles.
- Order By - Articles can be viewed in the order in which they were published with the latest or oldest article on the top.
- Sort By - Articles can be sorted based on the created time, modified time, and custom order.
If a custom order is chosen, the admin can drag and drop the published articles to a preferred order. - Record count - Users can set the number of articles that can be viewed at a time in the list view.
By default, 20 articles will be displayed. A maximum of 50 articles can be viewed per page.
Mass actions in article list views
Users can perform mass actions from the article list view.
- Update - Bulk update the article tags, article owner, and status to published.
- Delete - Delete multiple articles at once.
- Move to - Move articles in bulk to another category, section, and subsection.
Note:
- Transferring articles to a different category may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the number of articles involved.
Please avoid repeating the action multiple times. - Administrators can move articles between categories regardless of ownership, while other users can only move articles they own.
- Only those users who have the permission to Manage Knowledge base can perform mass actions.