Setting Content Standardization with Article Templates - Online Help | Zoho Desk

Setting Content Standardization with Article Templates

In collaborative environments involving multiple teams or contributors, maintaining consistency across content can be challenging. 

A WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor is often used for a wide range of purposes, such as training materials, product documentation, FAQs and troubleshooting guides, announcements, surveys, and even security or compliance content. 

However, each collaborator may bring their own writing style, tone, perspective, and subject knowledge, leading to variations in how content is structured and communicated. This can lead to inconsistency and lack of clarity due to missing information.  


Let's look at some examples where an article demands certain structure. 
  1. In technical documentation, a standard format is preferred, which can be distinct for every department or business. Consider if a feature configuration is written differently by different writers, it can cause confusion due to lack of detailing, missing information, and poor content structure. If a writer includes introduction, benefits, feature availability, and to-do section, along with screenshots, while another writer doesn't, the users can find it challenging to configure the feature. 
  2. An API documentation requires a standard structure that includes a description, method, parameters, request and response examples for clarity and consistency. 
  3. A training material must have learning objectives, target audience, prerequisites, permissions, step-by-step instruction, test cases, best practices, FAQs, summary, and quiz.  
  4. Frequently asked questions or troubleshooting guides must include clear and concise solutions and answers for the users to be able to resolve issues efficiently.
To bring consistency across similar topics and to ensure content standardization, article templates can be useful for an organization. 

Availability
InfoPermission
Users with the permission to access the Knowledge Base module can create, edit, delete, or restore article templates.
Check Feature Availability and Limits

Creating an article template

To use templates in the KB editor, agents must first create the article templates. The headings, paragraph styles, tables, images, videos, accordions, and tabs can be added as a part of the template to provide the desired structure to the document.
To create an article template
  1. Navigate to the Knowledge Base module > Templates.
  2. Select the required category and click + Add template. 
  3. Enter the required style and format to the template. 
  4. Click Publish.

Reviewing article templates

If there are reviewers added to a category, the article templates can also be sent for review using the Send for Review option. 

On sending the template for approval, an email notification is sent to the reviewers. 

For more information on adding reviewers, refer to Adding Reviewers to the Knowledge Base Categories.

The templates can be used by the other agents once it is approved. 

To review and publish an article template
  1. Navigate to the Knowledge Base module > Templates.
  2. Select the Review tab.
  3. Edit the template if needed and click Publish.

Inserting an article template in kb editor

The agents can use the templates created in a specific category while creating an article. 

For example, if an agent wants to create an article on the Onboarding Process or QA Compliance checklist, they can use one of the templates created in the category.

To use templates in an article
  1. Navigate to the Knowledge Base modu
  2. In the Articles homepage, click the Add article icon ( + ) from the top panel.
  3. Click Insert template.
  4. Select the required article template and click Use template.


  5. Enter the content in the respective places.
  6. Click Publish.

Deleting and restoring an article template

The article templates can be deleted and restored at any given point of time. 
To delete an article template
  1. Navigate to the Knowledge Base module > Templates.
  2. Hover on the required template and click the Delete icon. 
  3. Click Delete in the confirmation pop-up. 

The deleted article can be restored from the recycle bin within 60 days or deleted permanently based on the requirement. 
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To restore an article template
  1. Navigate to the Knowledge Base module > Recycle Bin.
  2. Select the Templates tab.
  3. Click the Restore icon to restore the template, or click the Delete icon to delete the template permanently.