How to export knowledge base content from your Help Center as PDF (no coding required)

"Hi Patrick, 
we really love your product, could you please send us a 
printable user manual so we can have an in-depth look at it? Thanks!"

I was shocked when one of our biggest new customers asked me that question. We just moved to a 21st century solution for all our customer support and knowledge sharing activities (yay Zendesk <3) but struggled to deliver on this request in time.

We really love our customers and don't want that to happen again, so we decided to build a Zendesk app that makes exporting knowledge base content as a PDF a breeze. We hope you can benefit from it too! :) (If you do, please let us know! <3)

How does it work?

It only takes 5 minutes, here is how

1. Install the Knowledge Base to PDF Zendesk App

You can find the latest version of the app in the Zendesk app directory. Click install

1.1 Private Help Centers

In order to make the app work with a private help center it is required to configure the app's email (your agent's e-mail) and token field.

Here is how you can obtain a token: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/226022787-Generating-a-new-API-token- 

If you already installed the app and want to configure the fields afterwards you can do that at Admin / Manage / Knowledge Base to PDF / Change settings

* The link above explains how to obtain an API token. Make sure to use your agent's e-mail, otherwise the token won't work

---

After successfully installing the app you can access it by clicking on its icon in the left navigation bar:

2. Configure your PDF User Manual

Set a PDF front page title

This text will be shown on your first page, it should describe the document. e.g. [MyProductName] User Manual, etc

Optional: Select categories you want to export

Don't want to export your whole knowledge base? No problem!

This UI control enables you to filter the content that will be included in your PDF. Select any number of categories by clicking on their label, it will only include articles that are part of your selected categories.

3. Download it

A click on the "CREATE USER MANUAL" button will get you to the next step and the download will trigger automatically. Voila, that's it!

Note: This step can take from a few seconds to a minute depending on the size of your knowledge base.

---

Other popular use cases

Product Knowledge Base Versioning

You just released a new version of your product that will require changes of your knowledge base articles, but you still have to support previous versions of your product.

No problem! Create a snapshot of your whole knowledge base as a PDF user manual before changing the articles for your new product and send it to customers requesting documentation about older versions

---

Updates

2017-05-01: Added support for generating PDFs from private help center content

Contact  

If you have questions, feedback, or love the app, please leave a comment or contact us directly: support@kolibridigital.com