You can set reminders based on article verification rules to notify you when articles need to be reviewed and verified.
When articles meet the criteria and the time interval based on a rule, they are considered unverified, and remain so until someone verifies the articles.
Verifying an article consists of reviewing it, making any necessary updates, and clicking verify. After you verify an article it will indicate in the article that it has been verified. You can verify articles individually or in bulk.
Verifying individual articles
Articles that need verification are considered unverified until someone verifies the articles. You can verify articles individually or you can verify articles in bulk.
- In Guide, click the Manage articles (
) icon in the sidebar, then click Tasks > Needs verification.
Alternatively, if you received the "It's time to verify your articles" email in your inbox, you can click Verify articles in the email.
The Needs verification article list opens.
- Click the article you want to verify to open it in edit mode.
- Review the article and make any updates you need to make.
- Click the options menu in the article sidebar, then select Verify
article.
The article is verified and indicated as a Verified article in the sidebar.
Verifying articles in bulk
Articles that need verification are considered unverified until someone verifies the articles. You can verify articles in bulk or you can verify articles individually.
- In Guide, click the Manage articles (
) icon in the sidebar, then click Needs verification.
Alternatively, if you received the "It's time to verify your articles" email in your inbox, you can click Verify articles in the email.
The Needs verification article list opens.
- Select one or more articles to update.
You can select a maximum of 30 articles at a time. To select 30 items at once, select the check box beside Title at the top of the list.
- Click the Article settings bulk actions menu at the bottom, then select
Verify.
- Click Verify to confirm that you want to verify the selected articles.
The articles are verified and removed from the Needs verification article list.
9 Comments
Why you can verify only 30 articles at a time? I've spent an hour just verifying over 700 articles in our Help. After we upgraded to Enterprise all our articles are marked as unverified. *crying face*
Hey Alina,
I wasn't able to find an alternative solution for you at this time :( I'll be sure to pass this feedback along to our Guide team as I'm sure others have run into a similar issue.
Thanks for sharing!
Can someone clarify the permissions surrounding article verification?
Can an article owner verify articles?
What about an assignee?
What about an author?
Right now it seems like Help Center Managers are the only people who can verify articles... which is not helpful. We need SMEs to review content for technical validity.
I'm have the same problem as above. My agents do not have the option to verify the article. They see the "Unverified article" box, but do not have an "options menu" to verify the article.
Hi Paul and Christopher! So sorry for the delayed response on this one but I had to confirm the expected behavior. Right now the only agents who can verify articles are those who have publishing rights. This would mean that even if an agent has editing rights - and thus can see the Unverified status - they wouldn't be able to take action unless they are also granted permission to publish the article(s).
Madison Davis Can we put in a feature request to change this? It seems arbitrary that publishing and verifying are tied to each other.
The article "Owner" is the one who receives the "You have x number of articles that need to be verified" email. The owner cannot verify articles unless they have publish rights.
This seems like a sloppy implementation of the verification rules.
It would really help if article owners could verify the articles they own, regardless of their publish permissions.
My company only allows a small set of users to publish articles (Technical Writers). We allow SMEs (Product Owners and other experts in narrow fields) to edit/author articles because they have the technical expertise to write drafts on their areas of expertise.
That technical expertise is what lets them be very effective as "verifiers". Technical Writers cannot know the intricacies of every aspect of a complex platform, but the SMEs can.
Paul, I definitely recommend that you share this feedback with the Guide Product team! I took a peek around and don't see an existing post sharing feedback on this functionality. You will want to create a new post to call out your request (and the excellent details you've shared) in Feedback on Guide.
How many days does it take for an article to switch from verified back to unverified? Verification should happen in cycles. It would be nice if we could also manage the length of this period. It depends on the type of content how often it needs verification. Also I agree with the points above. Editors should be able to verify articles as well. If the article is still valid, they just have to verify it. If it needs editing, they can edit it and submit for review.
Hi Mirjam! You can indeed set verification rules yourself (to be applied on a recurring basis). As mentioned to Paul, I would definitely recommend that you share any product feedback you have on Guide in the linked Feedback on Guide topic!
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