Editing Articles

After an article has been created and saved, it can be edited by users who have the appropriate permissions to work on articles in that folder. To prevent the loss of information through overwriting, users check out articles they wish to edit, and check them back in once they are done editing them. Checking out an article automatically locks it, preventing other users from editing it at the same time.

If you are editing a published article in a folder that has knowledge workflow applied to it, the edited article will go through the workflow before the changes can be published.

To edit an article:

  1. Either create a new article or select and checkout an article from the Articles List by clicking the Edit button in the Content pane. For more details about creating articles, see Creating Articles. You can also edit the name of the article by clicking the Edit edit button next to the name of the article in the Content pane.

  2. With an article selected, the Content area refreshes. Here, you can add and edit the content of the article. If you have selected an article template while creating the article, the content of the article is pre-filled with the contents of the article template. Type the content of the article in the text box. Here you can use the various formatting tools available to format the article content. You can also add hyperlinks to articles. By default, all articles are HTML. To create a plain text article, do not use any HTML elements while creating your article. By clicking the Expand Toolbar  button, you can perform additional tasks to add more value to your content.

    1. To add hyperlinks to the article content, click the Link link button in the text editor toolbar and in the Link window, enter the details of the hyperlink you want to add and click the OK button to add the link to your content. 

      hyperlink

    2. To insert an image from an external location, click the Add Image Add image button and perform one of the following in the Select Article Image window:

      • Upload the image: In the Select Article Image window, click anywhere in the Drag & drop to upload file or click to browse area to navigate to the image's location on your local drive and select it to upload the image.

      • Drag and drop the image: If the image file is open on your local drive, you can drag the file directly into the empty area of the window.

      • Provide the image URL: In the Image URL field, provide the URL of the image you want to add. The images should be stored at a location that is accessible to an external user. If the image is removed from this external resource or the address is changed, the inserted image will no longer be visible. Instead, a red X or a placeholder may appear in its place.

        You can add a maximum of 100 images per article. 

      Once the image has been selected and added to the Insert Image window, you can preview the image of how it appears in the article as well as the details of the image. You can also edit the width, height, horizontal padding, and vertical padding to further adjust the image. Depending on your configuration, the following file types can be used in articles: .GIF, .SVG, .BMP, .JPG, .JPEG, .JPE, .PNG, .TIF. Additionally, the images cannot be larger than 12 MB in size. Now, click the Insert Image button to add the image. 

      image

      Once the image has been added to the content, if you wish to make the image a hyperlink for viewers of the article, you can add anchor <a> tags to the image. From the text editor toolbar, click the Source button and add anchor <a> tags to the <img> tags and provide the URL.

    3. To conditionally tag text in the article, access the Tag Palette from the Content pane by clicking the More more button and selecting Open Tag Palette. Highlight the desired section of text, select a tag, and click Apply. For more information about tagging, see Tagging Article Content.

    4. Lastly, before saving the article you can preview it to see if it appears as you want it to. In the Content pane, click the More more button and select Preview In Portal. The Preview window appears. Here you can preview the content and attachments of the article. For more information, see Previewing Articles.

  3. Now, go to the Source of the content. In the Source view, you can view and edit the HTML code of the content. You can make changes to this code if you are familiar with HTML coding. The changes made to the code are reflected in the content of the article. 

    While in the Source view, you can add embed codes from online video sources. However, be aware that videos that are using <iframe> do not render on most web mail clients like Gmail or Hotmail. If the desired video source is using <iframe> tags, it is recommended to use an image as a stand-in for the video in the article itself and link directly to the video with a URL hyperlink instead.

  4. In the Properties pane, you can choose the sections to be displayed and edit additional article properties. For more details, see Configuring Article Properties.

  5. Once you are finished editing your article, you have three options:

    • Click the Save save button to keep the article locked so you can edit it further. This saves the article as a new version, in the Draft state.

    • Click the Check-In button if you are done editing the article for now, but want to keep the article in a draft state while opening it up to other authors.

    • Click the Publish button, if you are ready for this version of the article to become available for use. This creates a new article version and changes the article state to Published.  If a knowledge workflow is configured for the type of article you are editing, you may also see the Send To button. For details, see Working on Articles in Knowledge Workflows. When an article is published, you have options for identifying the changes as major and entering a summary of the changes. The major Update box in the summary window can be pre-selected or left unchecked depending upon the settings configured by the Administrator. If the Major Update box in the summary window is selected then,

      • If the article is new, it appears in the New Articles list.

      • If the article already exists and has been edited, it appears in the Updated Articles list.

      • For users who have created subscriptions, a notification email is sent.

      • If Read & Sign is enabled, users subject to the specified compliance policy need to confirm reading the article within the specified SLA.

        Major Update Box

To edit articles with structured authoring:

  1. After creating an article using the General article type with structured authoring enabled, or a custom article type with Structured Authoring enabled, go to the Articles List and click the Edit button in the Content pane to check out the article. For more details about enabling structured authoring , see the Administration Console Help.

  2. The Content area refreshes with defined fields for structured authoring. From the Content area, provide details for the following fields:

    1. Confidence Level: This field reflects the current stage of the article’s life cycle and indicates its status. From the dropdown menu, select one of the following options: Work in Progress, Not Validated, Validated, or Archived. These values track the article’s progression and the author's confidence in its readiness.

    2. Environment: In this field, describe the relevant products, category, or business process associated with the issue.

    3. Issue: Provide a clear description of the problem, symptom, or question that the article is meant to address.

    4. Cause: Use this field to describe the underlying cause of the issue, identifying any factors contributing to the problem.

    5. Resolution: In this field, describe the solution to the issue. You can utilize all available authoring tools to edit and format the article as needed.

      Authoring Structured Articles

  3. In the Properties pane, you can choose the sections to be displayed and edit additional article properties. For more details, see Configuring Article Properties.

  4. Once you are finished editing your article, you have three options:

    • Click the Save save button to keep the article locked so you can edit it further. This saves the article as a new version, in the Draft state.

    • Click the Check-In button if you are done editing the article for now, but want to keep the article in a draft state while opening it up to other authors.

    • Click the Publish button, if you are ready for this version of the article to become available for use. This creates a new article version and changes the article state to Published.  If a knowledge workflow is configured for the type of article you are editing, you may also see the Send To button. For details, see Working on Articles in Knowledge Workflows. When an article is published, you have options for identifying the changes as major and entering a summary of the changes. The major Update box in the summary window can be pre-selected or left unchecked depending upon the settings configured by the Administrator. If the Major Update box in the summary window is selected then,

      • If the article is new, it appears in the New Articles list.

      • If the article already exists and has been edited, it appears in the Updated Articles list.

      • For users who have created subscriptions, a notification email is sent.

      • If Read & Sign is enabled, users subject to the specified compliance policy need to confirm reading the article within the specified SLA.

        Major Update Box

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