Getting Started
Setting Up a Custom Domain
Managing Users
Setting the URL Style for your Articles
Can I Schedule a Demo?
Switching Between Multiple Accounts
Adding or Changing Your Profile Image
Logging In To Your HelpDocs
Understanding Smart 404 Pages
The HelpDocs Trial
Understanding Top Articles
Writing and Editing Articles
Stale Articles
Text Editor
Content Blocks
Inserting Videos
Adding an HTML Block
Using Markdown Blocks
Adding Embeddables
Using Code Blocks
Getting Started with Content Blocks
Using Quote Blocks
Using Folds
Using Ordered Lists
Moving an Article to a Different Category
Inserting Images into Ordered Lists
Inserting Images
Adding Note, Tip, and Warning Callouts
Switching the Editor Mode
Adding Tags to Articles
Article Backups, Revisions, and Versioning
Understanding Article Statuses
Adding Buttons
Unassigned Articles
Text Editor Shortcuts
Managing Clips
What is Readability?
Collaborating on Articles with Presence
Adding a Table of Contents
Filtering Articles
Restoring Deleted Articles
Editing Category Metadata
Exporting & Backing Up Your Articles
Hiding Articles from Public Search Engines
Delete a Category
Downloading Articles to PDF
Featuring an Article
Creating Draft Versions of Published Articles with Working Copy
Incompatible Browser Extensions
Bulk Select & Edit Multiple Articles
Creating a Subcategory
Hidden Categories
Understanding Search Results
Linking to a Part of an Article
Previewing Articles
Using help.new to Create Articles
Editing Images
Setting Up Integrations
Front Integration
Slack Integration
Available Commands in Your Slack Workspace
Get Feedback, Activity, and Contact Form Notifications in Slack
Installing the Slack Integration
Sharing Articles From HelpDocs to Slack
Configuring Your Slack Integration
Intercom Integration
Drift Integration
Chrome Extension
Connecting Google Analytics
Connecting Gorgias
Connecting Lucidchart
Connecting GoSquared
Connecting Gainsight PX
Connecting Segment
Connecting Kommunicate
Using HelpDocs with Ticketing Systems
Connecting LiveChat
Adding Hotjar
Adding a Feedier Carrier
Connecting Chatra
Connecting Statuspage
Connecting Crisp
Connecting Belco
Syncing Content to elevio
Adding FullStory
Enabling Comments with Disqus
Connecting Doorbell
Connecting Sunshine Conversations
Connecting Hyperping
Customizing your HelpDocs
Code Snippets
Making Video Embeds Responsive
Disabling Authorship and Updated Times
Getting Help with Code Snippets
Disabling Top Articles
Using Different List Styles
Using HelpDocs with RTL Languages
Disabling Related Articles
Overriding the Font on Your Knowledge Base
Using a Background Image in the Header
Making Tables Scroll When They're Too Wide for the Page
How to Change the Logo Link
How to Add Extra Spacing
Adding Lightboxes to Images
Add HTML Before the Closing Body Tag
Customizing Feedback Icons
Making Your Printed HelpDocs Look Nicer
Condense Top Article Spacing on Bars V4
Custom HTML Templates
Hiding the Contact Button
Customizing an Article Slug, Meta Description & Short Version
Adding Custom CSS
Setting Article Display Order
Adding Custom Navigation Links
Setting a Custom Favicon
Setting Category Display Order
Uploading Your Brand Logo
Adding URL Redirects
Featuring a Category
Adding Icons to Categories
Hosting HelpDocs at a Subfolder of Your Site
Changing the Language in Common Phrases
Adding an Open Graph Fallback Image
Choosing a Template
Testing Customizations with .dev
Adding Custom JavaScript
Understanding the Contact Form
Adding Cookie Consent
Multilingual Translation
Automatically Translate Articles with Machine Translations
Understanding Multilingual Translation
Translating Categories
Translating Articles
Setting Up Multilingual
Permissioning
Assigning Permission Groups to Categories
Assigning Permission Groups to Articles
Getting Started with Permissioning
Creating and Managing Permission Groups
Removing Permission Groups from Articles
Authentication
Restricting your HelpDocs with Custom JWT SSO
Setting Up and Using SAML Single Sign-On
Using OpenID Connect for Single Sign On
Configuring Slack Single Sign On
Restricting Your Docs to Logged In Users
Shared Password Protection
Accessing User Data in HelpDocs
Data & Analytics
Getting Team Event History with Audit Trail
Understanding Articles Clicked
What are Tickets Avoided?
Exporting Your Stats
What is the Happiness Score?
Filtering Analytics
Lighthouse
Lighthouse Widget API
Understanding Lighthouse
Installing Lighthouse
Adding Lighthouse Trigger Buttons to Webflow
Integrating Lighthouse with Live Chat Providers
Billing
Invoices and Email Receipts
European Union VAT Charges
Updating Your Billing Information
Cancelling Your Account
Subscribing to a Plan for the First Time
Changing Your Plan
Tax Residency Certificates and Forms
FAQs
Can I have a single article appear in multiple categories?
Can I host my internal docs in HelpDocs?
Who counts towards the user limit on plans?
I’m seeing a blank screen when I load my knowledge base
Is my data secure and protected?
Help! No articles are appearing on my knowledge base
What is an account slug?
How do I reset my password?
Can I Change the HelpDocs Branding?
I've added a script but it isn't working
Help! My app's not loading 😭
I can't log into my HelpDocs account
Can I use multiple HelpDocs accounts together?
Can I embed files into HelpDocs?
How do related articles work?
Can I host my API docs in HelpDocs?
Can I migrate or import my data from another service?
Is HelpDocs GDPR compliant?
Will translated articles be deleted if I remove that language?
My Article Has a Blank Space to the Left. What's Wrong?
One of my headings isn't showing in the table of contents
How do I change my email?
I'm getting 'Your connection is not private' on my custom domain
HelpDocs Support Scope
How do I publish an article that's not available in the default language?
Why isn't my contact form showing up?
Guides
Optimizing Your Knowledge Base for Search
Finding CSS Selectors in Your Browser
Clearing the Cache in Your Browser
Creating a Knowledge Base from Scratch
Writing Clear and Digestible Knowledge Base Articles
Resources
Table of Contents
- Knowledge Base
- Guides
- Creating a Knowledge Base from Scratch
Creating a Knowledge Base from Scratch
Updated
by Jarratt Isted
It's great making the first step towards help users with your product but knowing what to write when you've got a blank knowledge base can make it difficult to make progress.
In this guide I'll give you some examples so you can start helping users right away.
Starter Categories
The categories you create will depend wildly on what your product is and what it does. Luckily there's major similarities in all businesses:
- All customers are new at some point
- A team will answer customer questions
- Businesses charge money for services
So whether you sell car wash liquid or language subscription software, the following three categories should help. Feel free to create these in HelpDocs, including the descriptions.
Category | Purpose | Example description |
Getting Started | Helping new users get up to speed with how your product works so they're more successful. | New around here? Let us get you up to speed with how everything works. |
FAQs | A place for your customer service/success reps to put answers to questions that don't find anywhere else. | Read answers about the things customers ask us through support. |
Billing | Users will find it easier once they know your payment policies, like how you handle cancelling and refunds. | Learn how we handle billing, cancellations, and plan related queries. |
Starter Articles
These articles will depend on what industry your company is in, but they should be enough to help you start scaling your support with self-service help. Just copy, paste, and adjust.
Subscribing to a plan
It's fantastic to hear you're looking to subscribe—we can't wait to welcome you as a customer. It doesn't take long to start your subscription.
Note: You'll need to be an administrator to subscribe to a card.
Subscribing to a plan
[Enter instructions here about how customers subscribe to any of your plans.]
How we take payments
We use [Provider] to process payments. You can read about how they secure your data over here: [LINK].
How we handle cancellations
First off, we're sorry to see you go. If you've got some time we'd love to hear whether we missed the mark somewhere.
You can cancel your subscription by [INSTRUCTIONS].
It usually takes us [TIMEFRAME] to get everything cancelled. After cancelling, you'll no longer be able to [FEATURES] so you may want to export your data beforehand.
Exporting your data
Whether you're taking the data to a meeting or moving platforms, we've made it easy to export your data. We provide your data in [FILE FORMAT(S)].
[EXPORT INSTRUCTIONS]
Next steps
Creating useful documentation for users is going to take some time. Getting into the habit of writing new content when questions are asked and then answered by your team can reduce the time to making it successful.
To make this process a little easier, here are integrations we've made that allow you to create articles directly inside their software:
- Front plugin. Answer emails and write draft articles straight from the sidebar.
- Slack integration. Discuss new product features or feed support into your workspace, and write new Drafts inside a modal.