Create and Publish Knowledge Articles
Learn how to create and publish a knowledge article in Service Desk.
Create a knowledge article
- Go to .
- Select the service under which the article should be created.
- A new record form is created whenever a knowledge article is added to a service. Knowledge records use the same basic layout as other record forms and can be filled out with the required information (see within "Summary" through "Time" sections below).
- Click Save when finished. Customer feedback statistics then appear in the summary section. See Publish an internal knowledge article for next steps.
Summary
The summary section lists all the basic information about the record, including the following:
- Service – The service to which the record belongs
- Record ID – The individual ID used to distinguish between records
- Owner – The technician who created the record
- Title – The title of the record
Article tab & Status
The Article tab lists all the content needed for the article, including the following:
- Category – The record's category (as configured by an administrator under service settings)
- Internal Only – Selecting this prevents the article from being published in the Customer Portal
- Allow customer comments – Selecting this allows customers to leave comments on the article once it is published in the Customer Portal
- Custom Fields – Any custom fields created under service settings
- Article – An area to create the actual content of the knowledge article and upload any attachments (50 MB max); click Formatting Tips for hints about how to format articles
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Discussion – A space to include any further details, discuss the development of the record and include updates as development continues; comments can be prevented from appearing in the Customer Portal by selecting the "Hide from customers" check box.Note: Account admins can click Delete to permanently remove a technician and/or customer comment.
- Draft / Published – Selecting Draft will leave the article unpublished; selecting Published will publish the article internally and externally (unless the "Internal Only" check box is selected)
- Assignee – The technician to whom the record is assigned
- Watchers – The watchlist is a list of individuals and groups who are "watching" a particular record (click x person watching. Invite more... link to modify list); when the "Notify watchlisted" check box is selected when a record is saved, watchlisted individuals and groups receive notifications about the changes
- Notify watchlisted – When this box is selected, all watchlisted individuals will receive a notification about the changes; in addition, technicians can add a particular group to receive the notification on a per-record basis (without being added to the watchlist)
- Close – Closing a record means that there is no more work to be done and the record is completely finished
Tasks tab
Each record can have an unlimited number of tasks assigned to it. See Add Tasks for more information.
Linked Items
Service Desk allows records to be linked to customers, configuration items and other records. This helps ensure that related items are easily visible and the connections between them and other items within Service Desk are visible. Use this space to link all the incidents and changes that are included in a release to have an easy record of each releases contents.
- Link customers – Use the search box to find and select customers who are affected by or related to the record (only 1 customer may be linked to each record).
- Link incidents – Click the Add icon to link related incidents to the record, then select "search existing" or "create new." There is also an option to include the incident's symptom and resolution within the link (visible by clicking it).
- Link problems – Click the Add icon to link related problems to the record, then select "search existing" or "create new." There is also an option to include the problem’s symptom and resolution within the link (visible by clicking it).
- Link knowledge articles – Click the Add icon to link related knowledge articles to the record, then select "search existing" or "create new." There is also an option to include the knowledge article's discussion and resolution within the link (visible by clicking it).
- Link changes – Click the Add icon to link related changes to the record, then select "search existing" or "create new."
- Link releases – Click the Add icon to link related releases to the record, then select "search existing" or "create new."
- Link affected items – The affected items section automatically includes the record's service and linked customers; in addition, related configuration items (CIs) can be linked by clicking the Add icon .
- Tags
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Tags are arbitrary labels that can be added to any record using the text field.
Technicians can click a tag to see a list of results that includes all records with that tag, which can be filtered by state and service.
- Activity
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The activity log is a list of all actions and changes (e.g., status, tasks, email notifications, mass actions, etc.) that have occurred for a service record. Technicians can click View Allto view all of the entries in an activity log, and even click Print to print the service record's history.
Additionally, if an external watchlist user was notified via email for a problem, the technician can click Remove External Email Activity in their incident activity log, then search for the external watchlist user's email address, check the box to select it, and click Remove to permanently remove the email address of that external user from the problem activity log.
Within the Activity pane, email notification delivery alerts are displayed to inform technicians if an email notification failed to be delivered to a user, customer, or person that is enabled on the watchlist.
When viewing the undelivered email notifications alert, the following is displayed:- Email address of the user, customer, or person
- Status (e.g., bounce, delivered, etc.)
- Reason (if undelivered)
- Count (number of emails sent)
You can click on any of the fields listed above to view the changes that were attempted to be sent within the undelivered email notification. Learn more.
- Watchlist
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The watchlist is a list of users who are "watching" an incident; you can choose to notify all watchlist users (including technicians with a seat, the customer, and/or any groups that you have created) any time an incident is updated. Additionally, you can add external watchlist users (those not a technician or a customer) that you would like to update about an incident by adding their email address to the "external watchlist" section and clicking Save.
- Time
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Service Desk provides a time-recording functionality that enables technicians to log the time spent working on records, as well as access visualizations of the work completed and generate reports. Time management can be accessed by selecting Service Desk > Time.
Time users and time administrators can log time spent working on a record under the Time section. They can also click View All to see the full time log history for the individual record.
Publish an internal knowledge article
Knowledge articles can be published internally within the Service Desk web app.
1. Open the knowledge article to be published.
2. Ensure that the "Internal only" check box is selected.
3. Select Published.
4. Click Save when finished. Agents on the account will be able to view the knowledge article.
Publish an external knowledge article (in the Customer Portal)
Knowledge articles can be published externally to the Customer Portal.
1. Open the knowledge article to be published.
2. Ensure that the "Internal only" check box is not selected.
3. Enable "Allow customer comments" check box if desired.
4. Enable the "Watchlist" and/or "Customer" check box(es) to send a notification to your desired parties.
5. Select Published - Customer Viewable.
6. Click Save when finished. Customers will be able to view the article when they log in to the Customer Portal.