Searching for content in the knowledge section

Agents can use the knowledge section of the context panel while working with tickets to conveniently get information and answers relevant to the conversation they're in.

The knowledge section uses Zendesk bots to automatically provide relevant suggestions you can use to answer questions in your tickets. You can also manually search your help center to find content relevant to the issues raised in the ticket.

The knowledge section search uses the same search technology as the help center search. The search includes help center articles and community posts. On Enterprise plans, if you've configured federated search, you'll also see links to external content in your search results. The search does not include comments on articles and posts.

Once you find the content you’re looking for, you can use the knowledge section to link to, quote, or pin content directly to the ticket you’re working on.

This article covers the following topics:

• Opening the knowledge section
• Using filters in the knowledge section
• Searching for content in the knowledge section

Opening the knowledge section

You can open the knowledge section in the context panel to find help center content relevant to your ticket.

To open the knowledge section

1. In a ticket, click the Knowledge icon () in the sidebar to open the knowledge section.

   

   The knowledge section opens with automatic suggestions matching the topic of the ticket, if there are any. The icon beside each item indicates whether it is an article, a post, or restricted internal content. When there is a new reply in the ticket conversation, the automatic suggestions are refreshed to include that reply. To manually refresh the search results after the customer's reply and view the updated suggestions, click Check for new suggestions.

   If there is no suggested content, you can click Search for content in the Knowledge section to enter a search query using the available filters.

   

   On Enterprise plans, if federated search is configured, you will also see relevant external content. External content is indicated by the icon. The icon also appears next to the external content title, indicating that the content automatically opens in a new tab.

   

2. You can then take any of the following actions:

   • Preview an article of post by selecting it in the list. You can then click the Open in Help Center icon ()to view the content in another tab.
   • Search for relevant content.
   • Link to, quote, or pin content to a ticket.

Using filters in the knowledge section

In the knowledge section, search includes default filters that filter search results based on ticket brand and ticket language.

If agents routinely change the default search filters shown in the knowledge section to meet their needs (for example for a help center or language), account admins can configure default search filters for Knowledge in the context panel to customize the default search filters shown to agents when they search for content.

Note: You can also configure default filters for the knowledge section of contextual workspaces (Enterprise plans). When default filters are configured in a contextual workspace, those filter settings override default filters configured in the Context panel.

Agents can further refine their search by:

• Clicking the Filter icon () next to the search bar, then selecting one of the available filter options.

• Typing one of the available filters in the search field, then selecting a subfilter option from the options that appear. To search for plain text instead of applying a filter, you can select the “Search for...” option at the top of the list.

  For example, when you enter the word “type” in the search field, you can choose to search for the word "type" or you can select one of the available subfilters for content type (articles or community posts. If federated search is configured and you have enabled external content in knowledge in the context panel, you can use type-ahead filters to filter on external content types and sources as well. Specifically, you can enter "type" or "source" in the search field to display filter options for filtering on external content sources and types defined during federated search setup.

  

Following are the available filter options (type-ahead filter names are shown in code format):

• Content type (Type): Filter by article, post, or external content type (if you are on an Enterprise plan, have configured federated search, and enabled external content in knowledge in the context panel).
• Brand (Brand): Filter based on a specific help center brand.
• Article placement (Available with the filter icon only): Filter based on a specific help center category or section.
• External Source (Source): (Available on Enterprise plans where federated search is configured and external content is enabled in Knowledge) Filter based on external content sources.
• Language (Language): Filter by one of your supported languages.

Searching for content in the knowledge section

You can use the knowledge section in the context panel to search for and filter content relevant to your ticket.

To search for content

1. In a ticket, click the Knowledge icon () in the sidebar to open the knowledge section.
2. Click the Search icon ().
3. If you want to filter your results, you can either click the Filter icon () next to the search bar, then select a filter and sub filter from the drop-down menu, or you can use a type-ahead filter to select a supported filter directly from the search field.

   A filter tag is added beneath the search bar for each filter. You can remove individual filters as you like or click Clear filters to remove all filters.

   

4. Enter your search term, then press Return or Enter.

   The search results appear. The icon beside each item indicates whether it is an article, a post, or restricted, internal content.

   On Enterprise plans, if you've enabled federated search, search results also include links to external content, identified by the icon.

   Each result shows up to three comments in the following order: The official comment (if available), the most upvoted (if available), and the most recent .

5. Click any of the search results to preview the content in the knowledge section.

   You can then click the Open in Help Center icon ()to view the content in another tab.

6. When you find the content you're looking for, you can link, quote, or pin it to your ticket.