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.
- 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.
Converting articles to the new experience
After you register in the EAP, your articles will automatically be converted to the new article editor experience. Articles are converted to the new editor the first time that you open them, thereby ensuring that content is migrated on an “as-needed” basis.
Once articles are converted to the new editor, they cannot be reverted to the previous 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:
|
|
Column | Click the down arrow to select the following options:
|
|
Table properties | Displays the Table properties window where you can set
the following options:
|
|
Row | Click the down arrow to select the following options:
|
|
Select table | Select the table to perform the following actions:
|
Image tools
- 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.
- Click the element to select it. If you are moving a paragraph, you must select the entire paragraph.
- 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
- 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.
or1)
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 ifoptions
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
- 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.
- 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.
- In the help center or Guide admin, create or edit an article.
- In the article editor, click the source code icon () on the toolbar.
- In the source code editor, create or edit the unsupported source code you want to use.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- In the help center or Guide admin, create or edit an article.
- Click the Article components button () in the article editor toolbar, then select Summary.
- 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.
- Click Save.