It's with great pleasure that we announce an updated Article management experience in Guide Admin.
What is in the release?
Clear distinction between Article Status and Review Status
Have you ever asked yourself any of these questions: What happens if I have to update a published article? Does the fact that I have a work in progress article mean that my end users can’t see the previously published version? Do I have to type with the speed of light so that all the changes are made before someone realizes that an article is “missing”?
We heard all of these questions, and we knew we could improve the usability of article publication and review status.
With this update to the article list interface, we are introducing a clear visual separation between Publication Status and Review Status.
Publication Status is still indicated by the familiar green dot next to the title of the article - it indicates that the article has been published. If the dot is transparent it means that the article is in a draft state and has not yet been published or it has been unpublished. It also addresses the previous list interface’s accessibility issues for our color impaired users.
The Review status is now more specific and is displayed as three separate labels:
- In progress (previously Work in progress)
- Awaiting review (previously Ready for review)
- Ready to publish (previously Approved for publishing)
You can see it in the Review status column, where it is available as a filter, and in the article editor view next to the title.
More control over the list interface
The Review status column isn’t the only new column that we are introducing with the article list interface update. We’ve added a bunch of new column options (up to 22 in total, depending on the features you have enabled on your account), that you can choose from in the flexible column menu. Additionally, you can now sort on (almost) all columns.
We have also added new filters and organized them in sections so that they are consistent with what you see in the flexible column menu and in the bulk actions menu. You may also have noticed that we’ve renamed some of the column filters to make them easier to understand. Refer to our cheat sheet to quickly find your way around all of these changes.
Better list navigation
We also took a good look at the left-pane list menu and decided that it needed a refresh as well. First of all, you can see the lists per Publication status, per Review status, and all of the lists related to your tasks. Finally, you’ll find your Archived list after all of your custom saved lists.
We wanted these lists to provide the most important data at a glance, so we’ve made sure that each list has a set of default columns that bring you the most relevant information.
Please note that the Flagged translations list has been removed, but Flagged is still available as a filter.
Scheduled articles are easier to find
Last, but not least, we've added a separate list which shows all the articles that are scheduled for publishing, unpublishing, or a campaign, and we’ve updated scheduling icons for articles:
- Set to be published
- Set to be unpublished
- Set for campaign
When will it be available?
The updated List interface in Guide Admin will be available to all Guide customers. We are starting the rollout on Wednesday, October 7th, 2020, and expect the feature to be available to all accounts within the following week.
How do I find my way around?
Below you can find some quick reference tables to providing a quick overview of the differences between the old and the updated article management interface.
Left-pane menu
| Old Article Management Experience | New Article Management Experience | Comment | Default columns |
| Publication status | |||
| Published | Published | Title Edited Review status |
|
| - | Draft | Shows versions of the articles that have not been published yet | Title Edited Review status |
| Review status | |||
| Work in progress | In progress | Title Edited by Edited |
|
| Ready for review | Awaiting review | Title Assigned to Edited |
|
| Approved for publishing | Ready to publish | Title Approved by Edited |
|
| Flagged translations | - | - | |
| Tasks | |||
| Assigned to me | Assigned to me | Title Review status Assigned by Assigned |
|
| - | Scheduled | Shows all the articles that are set to be published/unpublished or campaign | Title Review status Publish date Unpublish date |
| Needs verification | Needs verification | Title Review status Unverified Owner |
|
| Content Cues | Content Cues | No change | |
| Captured Knowledge | Captured Knowledge | Title Review status Assigned to Edited |
|
| Other |
|||
| Archived articles | Archived | Title Archived by Archived |
|
Filters
| Old list Article Management Experience | New Article Management Experience | Comment | Flexible columns |
| Source | Default language | - | |
| Workflow | Review status | Y | |
| Article status | Publication status | Includes: Published, Draft | Y |
| Author | Author | Y | |
| Owner | Owner | Y | |
| Assignee Assigned |
Assigned | Includes: Assigned (relative date), Assigned to (previously Assignee), and Assigned by | Y (all options) |
| Created | Created at | Y | |
| Last edited | Edited | Y | |
| - | Edited by | User | Y |
| - | Approved by | User | Y |
| Article placement | Article placement | Y | |
| Management Permissions View Permissions |
Permissions | Includes: Management Permissions, View Permissions | - |
| Label | Labels | - | |
| Comments enabled | Comments | Includes: Comments enabled, comments disabled | - |
| Promoted | Promoted | - | |
| Flagged | Flagged | - | |
| - | Archived | Includes: Archived (Y/N), Archived (relative date), Archived by (user) | Archived Archived by |
| Language | Language | Y | |
| Not translated to | Not translated to | - | |
| Origin | Knowledge Capture | Y/N | - |
| Scheduled for publishing Scheduled for unpublishing |
Scheduled | Includes: Set to be published, Set to be unpublished, Publish date (relative date), Unpublish date (relative date) | Publish date Expiration date |
| Verification | Verified | Includes: Verified (Y/N), Verified (relative date), Unverified | Verified |
| - | - | Reviewed by |
Bulk Actions
| Old list Article Management Experience | New Article Management Experience | Comment |
| Publications | ||
| Publish | Publish | |
| Unpublish | Unpublish | |
| Set schedule | Set schedule | |
| - | Remove schedule | |
| Assignment | ||
| Assign | Assign | |
| Unassign | Unassign | |
| Review status | ||
| Submit for review | Submit for review | |
| Approve |
Submit as ready to publish
|
|
| Article settings | ||
| Change labels | Change labels | |
| Open for comments Close for comments |
Comments | Includes: Enable, Disable |
| Verify Unverify |
Verification | Includes: Verify, Unverify |
| Change author | Change author | |
| Change owner | Change owner | |
| Change permissions | Change permissions | |
| Archive | Archive | |
| Delete | Delete | |
| Restore | Restore | |
14 Comments
Hi everyone, am I the only one that now really struggles to handle the translations and updates of the articles? We used to rely a lot on the red dot that appeared everytime we updated an article, and now there's no visual way to see which version (language) is In progress when you edit an article. The "In progress" taf is grey so we can't really see it + there's no indication in the drop down. When you work with translators that directly translate in the articles, it's really hard to work with the new system. If only we could at least have an indication from the drop down (languages) with the In progress tag text to the article title, that's be very nice.
Is there a flow digram or life cycle diagram? Like when an article is created then the review state is X and published state is Y.
Allison S, if I understand you correctly you'd like to be able to define a type of article in article properties in order to be able to see engagement metrics. I can totally see the benefits of it and I'll see if and how we could accommodate this request. I'll also bass on your feedback to Explore team to ask if we can include label data as well.
Ryan Boyer Thank you for sharing your feedback. We've decided to simplify the relative-dates-based filters therefore the previous filters (more than, less than) are not available in the filter menu anymore. However, we don't want to break previously saved customer lists so the old filters are still supported if they were used in custom lists.
Rebecca -
I stand corrected. I thought you were referring to something else; the pop-ups you're asking about are a customization that we built in-house using Zendesk Garden elements.
I have a question about the change to the Last edited filter (see below).
This filter used to have options to show articles last edited more than a set time period (e.g., more than 1 week ago, more than 1 month ago, etc.). This would mean that it would exclude articles that came before the set time period and only include articles after. However, now the filter is different (see below).
The set time period now includes the articles before and during the set time period (e.g., in the past 6 months, in the past year).
I preferred the previous filter of more than to in the past because I am able to monitor which articles have not been edited in awhile. What's curious is that in one of my saved lists, the previous filter still works (see below); however, I can no longer access the filter in the Filters button. If my saved list still has the previous filter, why is not it showing in the current Filters selection?
Slightly off topic ;-) I just saw the guided Help inside of Zendesk. Are you using Guide to create the guided tutorials that pop up in Guide?
Cécile Luft, This is an excellent suggestion. I'll log it as an improvement to the feature. Thank you for that.
Is this for Guide Enterprise accounts only? I don't see the UI changes on my Guide Legacy plan.
Heather Cook, Allison S, thanks for your questions. We've updated this article with workflow diagrams for Lite, Pro, Legacy and Enterprise. I hope it will help answer your questions.
Rebecca McMurry We had indeed a small delay. The feature is rolled out to 75% of our customers, we are planning to add the last 25% tomorrow, so you should be able to see all the UI changes by then.
This might be a question for another space, but I was wondering, is there a way to filter by article type?
I currently manage this by adding a label to each article type (FAQm How-To, Troubleshooting or Reference)
This helps me see how many articles we have of each type, but I need an easy way to display this data in explore against our success metrics (as you can imagine an FAQ will have different engagement metrics than a troubleshooting for example)
It would be nice to have a field in the toolbar that would allow me to classify the article (just like we select the visible to, etc.)
Thanks for the explanation, Katarzyna Karpinska! I would like the ability to do a deeper analysis with the dates for Edited, Created, Verified, Reviewed, Approved, etc. This would include picking a date range, more than/less than, etc. I'll make sure to post this feedback in the Feedback on Guide community. Thanks!
Katarzyna Karpinska yes, exactly! This would be a great addition to segment articles to see how each is performing. Thank you!
Allison S I do not see it in my accounts either. Perhaps there was a delay?
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