Using the new article editor with generative AI article summaries (EAP)

What's my plan?

The new article editor with generative AI article summaries is currently in an early access program (EAP). You can sign up for the EAP here.

The new, enhanced article editor provides a more intuitive and enriched content creation experience, designed to streamline your content creation process and boost audience engagement.

With the new article editor, you have access to:

• New editing tools such as text-wrapping around images, table editor, Markdown support, and more.
• Source code improvements that provide better control over source code when inserting content blocks.
• Article components including HTML blocks, article summaries, and horizontal lines.

This article includes the following topics:

• Converting articles to the new experience
• Article editing tools
• Source code improvements
• Article components

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Converting articles to the new experience

After you register in the EAP, you can migrate your articles on an as-needed basis. This means that each article you open after registering in the EAP will automatically open in the new article editor experience, but will not be migrated until you save the article.

Before saving articles in the new article editor, you can preview articles to make sure they look and function as you expect. If they aren't correct, you can switch to the legacy editor, then save to revert the articles to the legacy experience.

Once you save articles, they will be migrated to the new article editor experience. However, if you change your mind after saving, you can always choose to revert to the legacy experience.

To convert articles to the new experience

1. Register for the new article editor EAP.
2. In your help center, navigate to the article you want to edit, then click Edit article in the top menu bar.

   The article opens in the new article editor experience, displaying an onboarding link and a button that lets you switch to the legacy editor.

   

3. Click Preview in the article editor footer.

   A new tab opens, displaying the article in Preview mode. See Previewing articles as you edit in the knowledge base.

4. Review the article to make sure it appears correctly in the new article editor.
5. If the article:
   1. Appears correctly, then return to the new article editor and click Save to migrate the article to the new experience.
   2. Does not appear correctly, then click Switch to legacy editor in the Article settings panel, complete the requested feedback, then click Switch to legacy editor to return the article to the legacy experience.

      

Article editing tools

The article editor includes new editing tools designed to streamline and enhance your content creation process. You can access the new article editing tools by creating or editing an article in your help center, then using the new article editor toolbar to access the tools. The following image shows the location of new or updated tools on the editor toolbar.

Table editor

The new table editor features a contextual toolbar that exposes available functionality when your cursor is positioned within a table cell.

To use the new table editor, click the down arrow on the table icon in the article editor toolbar, then drag your mouse across the number of rows and columns that you want in your table.

Click in any cell in the table to expose the contextual menu.

Use the menu options to format your table. Refer to the following table for a list of table tools and how to use them.

Tool	Name	Description
	Toggle caption on	Lets you enter a table caption that is displayed and centered at the top of the table.
	Merge cells	Select cells, then click to merge, or click the down arrow to select additional merge and split options.
	Cell properties	Displays the Cell properties window where you can set the following options: Border Background Cell dimensions (width, height, and padding) Table cell text alignment (horizontal and vertical)
	Column	Click the down arrow to select the following options: Create header column Insert column to the right or left Delete column Select column
	Table properties	Displays the Table properties window where you can set the following options: Border Background Table dimensions (width and height) Alignment
	Row	Click the down arrow to select the following options: Create header row Insert row above or below Delete row Select row
	Select table	Select the table to perform the following actions: Drag-and-drop Delete Copy Cut Paste

Image tools

After you place an image in your article, you can use the new image tools to control how the image appears within the text. You can use this functionality to:

• Wrap text around the image
• Resize the image
• Add Alt text to enhance the accessibility of your article

To use the image tools, click the image and then select the tool that you want to use.

Refer to the following table for the available image tools and how to use them.

Tool	Name	Description
	Wrap text	Wraps text around the image, allowing you to select a left-align or right-align.
	Align image	Lets you determine the image alignment (right, left, or center) within the article.
	Resize image	Provides options for enlarging the image (25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%). You can also resize images by dragging them by the corner until you reach the correct size.
	Alt text	Displays a field where you can type the alt text you want to use for the image. Alt text is read aloud by screen reader software and enhances the accessibility of your article. See Creating accessible help center content. Note: ALT text is added to the image location in the article, and not to all instances of the image in the help center.

Drag and drop functionality for content elements

You can use the new drag and drop functionality to move elements such as (but not limited to) paragraphs, content blocks, images, and tables within your article editor.

To drag and drop a content element

1. Click the element to select it. If you are moving a paragraph, you must select the entire paragraph.
2. Drag the element to its new location, then drop. As you drag the element, the original location remains highlighted while you drag the element (outlined in red in the image below).

   

Formatting text with Markdown

Markdown is a simple markup language you can use to easily add formatting to plain text. The new article editor now supports the following Markdown commands:

• Bold – Type **text** or __text__,
• Italic – Type *text* or _text_,
• Code – Type `text`,
• Bulleted list – Start a line with * or - followed by a space.
• Numbered list – Start a line with 1. or 1) followed by a space.
• Headings – Start a line with # or ## or ### followed by a space to create a heading 1, heading 2, or heading 3 (up to heading 6 if options defines more headings).
• Block quote – Start a line with > followed by a space.
• Code block – Start a line with ```.
• Horizontal line – Start a line with ---

Source code improvements

You can click the HTML icon () on the article editor toolbar to access the source code of your article. Additional source code improvements in this release include:

• HTML blocks - Previously available only in content blocks, HTML blocks are available in the article editor as an insertable article component. See Article components below.
• Cleaner code when using content blocks - Previously, when you placed your cursor above a content block in the article editor, you could only see the HTML code for the text above the content block. To see the code below the content block, you had to go back into the editor and place your cursor below the content block. This issue is now resolved, and you can now view the article source code both above and below the content block, regardless of your cursor position.

  Content blocks are identified with an ID number in article source code. With this improvement, you can now see the source code both above and below the content block ID in the HTML view.

  

Article components

HTML blocks

You can use HTML blocks to quickly access and edit complex HTML code in your articles. HTML blocks let you work with blocks of code that would otherwise not be editable within the article editor, and to display them in a safe manner within your help center.

With HTML blocks you can copy and paste unsupported code for HTML elements into the source code editor. The code is then wrapped in an HTML block and displayed within the article editor. You can click the HTML block within the article editor to open a source code editor that displays only the code for that block. You can use this focused view to manipulate the HTML for your selected content without scrolling through the source code for the entire article.

When you create an HTML block, you can click the block to display a menu bar, where you can select:

• Edit () to edit the HTML code in the source code editor. You can also click the Actions menu in this view to clean up styles, unlink, or delete the block.
• Unlink () to inline the HTML block and remove any unsupported markup from the content. You can preview the code that will be removed prior to unlinking it.
• Delete () to remove the HTML block, including the text and code within that block, from the article. When you click Delete, the HTML block is immediately removed, without confirmation, and can't be undone.

Note: To display HTML blocks in a browser, you must enable unsafe content. See Editing the source code of help center articles.

To create an HTML block

1. In the help center or Guide admin, create or edit an article.
2. In the article editor, click the source code icon () on the toolbar.
3. In the source code editor, create or edit the unsupported source code you want to use.

   

4. Click Apply to save the code and return to the article editor. The unsupported code appears as an HTML block within the editor.

   You can click the HTML block to display additional options (edit, unlink, or delete), or you can click and drag the block around the editor to move the element to a new location.

Horizontal line

You can insert a horizontal line in the article editor to visually separate groups of content with a divider. To insert a horizontal line in your article, place your cursor at the beginning of a row, then do one of the following:

• Type three dashes (---) and press enter.
• Click the Article components button () on the article editor toolbar, then select Horizontal line.

  

Article summaries

You can insert the article summary component into your help center article to display a concise description of the article content in a shaded box at the top of your article.

The component will provide AI-powered summaries while it's in EAP. Once the EAP concludes, you will need to have the Advanced AI add-on for AI-powered summaries.

After the EAP, if you:

• Don't have the Advanced AI add-on, then you can create a blank article summary and type your summary in the text box.
• Do have the add-on, you’ll also see an option to generate the summary using AI.

To generate an article summary

1. In the help center or Guide admin, create or edit an article.
2. Click the Article components button () in the article editor toolbar, then select Summary.

   

3. You can either:
   • Enter your summary in the Summary field.
   • Click in the Summary field to expose the AI menu, then click Generate.

     

     The AI-generated summary appears in the shaded box. If you want to regenerate the summary, click Generate again until you are happy with the content.

4. Click Save.