Create, review, schedule, and publish a knowledge article

A good article lets another person solve a problem without reconstructing the original case. Authoring brings together the explanation, audience, topics, review, and publication controls. Use a draft to develop the answer, then follow the review route your permissions and article policy require.

Prepare a reusable answer  ·  Create and save a draft  ·  Follow the available review route  ·  Publish now or schedule a version  ·  Keep customer access intentional  ·  Give the article a maintenance path  ·  Build an article that another person can use without you  ·  Review as a customer-facing support operator  ·  Resolve common authoring problems

Prepare a reusable answer

• Search for existing guidance and improve the canonical article when it already covers the task.
• Verify the procedure against the applicable product behavior. Record prerequisites and a way to confirm success.
• Remove customer names, private identifiers, credentials, and logs containing secrets. Choose an internal or restricted audience when the guidance is not suitable for every customer.
• Confirm who owns the content and who should review it. The role permissions Create articles, Alter existing articles, Publish articles publicly, and Archive existing articles are separate. Articles require review before publishing can impose a review route. The separate Create article drafts from cases and chats permission can allow a case/chat draft or review submission without granting general article creation, existing-article editing, or publication rights.

Create and save a draft

1. Open Knowledge base → Create Article, or choose Create Article from an eligible case activity.
2. Enter a task-focused Title, select the intended Division, and choose Visibility: Internal or External. External is an audience choice, not a publish action.
3. Write a concise Summary. Choose relevant Topics and curated Tags. Add Search keywords for useful alternative names, error messages, or customer phrases when that control is available.
4. Use an appropriate Template if offered. Write the prerequisites, numbered procedure, expected result, common problems, and related guidance.
5. Use current images only when they clarify the steps. Crop to relevant controls, remove private details, and provide descriptive alternative text and a caption. The essential procedure should still work without the image.
6. Preview the article and choose Save as a Draft. Draft content remains separate from the published version, and draft saves do not email subscribers.

Tags, Search keywords, and topic placements are shared article properties and can apply when saved even while content is a draft. Review those changes deliberately.

Follow the available review route

The primary action reflects your permission and the article’s review policy. It can be Submit for Review, Approve and Publish, Approve for publication, Approve review, Schedule publication, or Finalize & Publish. Use the action shown; a contributor should not assume they can publish directly.

1. Submit a complete, checked draft with enough context for the reviewer.
2. Reviewers inspect the current submission and its comments/history in the Review pane. Check technical accuracy, audience, instructions, links, and media.
3. Approve through the available action, or assign the submission back with specific corrections.
4. Recheck changed content after correction. A review-required change must follow the approval route again.

Publish now or schedule a version

1. Review Advanced version properties and enter a meaningful version summary where applicable.
2. Set Publish on to schedule publication. Leave it blank for immediate publication when your available action permits it. Check the active time-zone context.
3. Choose whether to enable Notify subscribers. Enable it only when eligible topic/article subscribers should receive a publication email.
4. Complete the displayed review or publication action and read the result. A scheduled version is not yet a currently published version.
5. Open the saved article in the agent reader and intended portal context. Verify the content, images, links, audience, and actual publication state.

Keep customer access intentional

Use Security to review applicable restricted tags, assets, asset categories, and customer roles. Asset/category restrictions do not automatically include children. Portal and topic rules also affect access. A tag, topic placement, or visible link is not a substitute for authorization.

Give the article a maintenance path

Set Next review date and the appropriate Review action when your team owns the resulting queue or action. Record a clear owner. Use feedback, case reuse, search terms, and relevant product changes to identify when the article needs another review.

AI-generated copy is a draft to inspect. Confirm facts, remove private case details, and check links and product scope before applying it. A confident paragraph is not evidence that the procedure works.

Build an article that another person can use without you

Begin with a specific reader and task. “Export problem” is too broad; “Check a failed nightly order export before retrying” tells the reader what this procedure helps them decide. Use a real verified resolution as evidence, then remove customer-specific detail. The outline below is an editorial example, not a product-specific fix to apply.

Keep the core answer early in a focused procedure. Use a broader feature guide to explain the concepts and choices, then link the focused tasks. A long guide and a focused task article have different jobs; neither should depend on unexplained prerequisites.

Review as a customer-facing support operator

1. Follow the steps from the stated starting point with the intended role. If a menu is unavailable, determine whether the prerequisite is wrong or the role needs a separate procedure.
2. Read every instruction beginning with “configure,” “run,” “select,” or “verify.” Confirm it explains where, what to enter/choose, and how to recognize success.
3. Check alternative outcomes: missing permissions, an empty result, an existing record, a failed save, or an uncertain response. Cover the relevant cases explicitly.
4. Check each example against the feature implementation and clearly label recommendations. Do not turn a suggested queue name, priority or schedule into a claimed default.
5. Review the article in the portal and agent reader after publication, then search using the reader’s natural question. A successful save is only one part of publication quality.

Resolve common authoring problems

Continue learning

• Practice KCS
• Flag and resolve article suggestions
• Configure tags and audiences
• Configure knowledge-base topics