Overview:
Vanilla Knowledge is a feature that lets you create knowledge bases.
Knowledge Base types
Two Knowledge Base types are supported: 1) Guide type KBs and 2) Help Center KBs. The Guide type is for a series of articles that should be consumed in sequential order, for example a product user guide. Help Center types are for articles that are consulted individually and are usually found via search. Both Guide and Help Center types support creating categories to organize content.
Help Center type:
Guide type:
Multiple KBs & Localization
Vanilla supports creating multiple KBs of either type. Multiple KBs are useful if you want to create several KBs for several products or creating KBs in multiple languages. Vanilla supports localization of the user interface, presently article content cannot be automatically translated.
multiple knowledge bases:
Permissions
Before getting started, make sure that the user roles adding KB articles have the correct permissions. In your Dashboard under Roles & Permissions click on the edit icon next to the role(s) that can create. Under Knowledge > Articles select ‘ADD’. Additionally, you can select which user roles have the ability to view KBs. At this time, the permission will apply to all KBs.
roles & permissions:
See more in our Knowledge Base Permissions Doc.
Creating a Knowledge Base
To create your first KB go to your Dashboard and under the Settings Tab go to Knowledge > Knowledge Bases. Click on ‘Add Knowledge Base’.
adding a knowledge base:
Enter the KB name, the URL code (the URL slug), a short description that will show on the KB home page if you create multiple KBs, an image icon, a banner image that will be displayed at top of page, the type (Guide or Help Center) and the article sort order (Newest, Oldest, Alphabetical).
Adding Knowledge Base Articles
Go to the Knowledge Base home page, select a category in an existing KB where you would like to add an article. Open any article, and select New Article from the ellipsis ( .. ) menu.
If this is your first article just click on ‘Add Article’ on the main KB page. This will bring up the editor, and let you compose a new article. You can specify in which category the article will be published by clicking the category folder that appears above the article title.
new article:
Creating Categories
You can create a category by going to the Organize Category page and clicking on ‘New Category’.
organising categories:
You can also create a category while adding or editing an article. While editing an article, click on the category name above the article title.
category selector:
Click on the chevron " > ", to go to the category list for the selected KB. From here you can create a new category.
category selector (level two):
Organizing Categories
Guides are essentially a KB with articles organized in a specific order and is ideally suited for things like Installation or Onboarding guides.
When you organize a Guide's categories you can manually sort articles and move them around.
Clicking on ‘Organize Categories’ in the left margin of any article in that KB brings you to the Navigation Manager where you can create categories, order categories, nest categories and move articles by dragging and dropping them.
Note: This only works with the Guide Type KB and not the Help Center Type.
navigation manager:
Help Centres are a bucket of articles organized by categories.
When you organize a Help Centres categories, you do not have the option to organize its articles manually because HC articles are automatically sorted either:
- By Oldest
- By Newest
- Alphabetically
You can set which organization structure you would like to use in the KB settings from your dashboard:
Importing Content
If you already have content and would like to import it into Vanilla, please contact your CSM to see if this can be performed by our professional services team. Self-serve imports or referencing content on a source code control platform such GitHub is not available at this time.
Creating a KB Article from a Community Post
Navigate to the discussion that you would like to convert to a KB article. Clic,k the gear icon, and choose "Convert to Article". Click "Create Article" on the confirmation dialogue box. Select a Category (see above) and click Publish.
Using the Editor
The Editor makes content creation easy and intuitive. The content created will display consistently on any device and adheres to the WCAC AA 2 standard.
The simplified button bar lets you add an emoji, insert an image, attach a file or embed media such as a YouTube video. The editor supports file and image drag and drop and will auto-generate a preview of embedded URLs.
To format text, select the text to be formatted.
To edit a paragraph (set heading level, create bullets, format code, etc.) click on the pilcrow (¶) .
To add an anchor on the side panel for easier navigation, simply use the H2 Heading for your subtitle.
The editor is a true WYSIWYG editor and does not support nor require markdown or HTML tasks.
Editing Articles
To edit an article, navigate to the article and click on the ellipsis to bring up the article options.
Drafts and Revisions
When composing an article, Vanilla automatically saves drafts. An article will remain in draft mode until it is published. Article revisions are saved each time an edit is published. You can revert to a previous revision by selecting the desired version under Revision History in the article options.
drafts & revisions:
Translating KB Articles
If you're using subcommunities on your community to offer your content in different languages, you can easily add translated version of all of your KB articles. Learn how in our Translating KB doc:
