Community tips are detailed posts by Zendesk community members that share specific workflows, customizations, or code, and provide the community with problem solutions, unique ways to utilize features, and best or new practices.

Community Tips are the most-viewed part of the Zendesk community and help to make the community the great resource that it is. If you post a high-quality tip, we'll send you some swag, feature it our Weekly Digest, and it may even turn into an article in the knowledge base! Sharing tips is a great way to build and demonstrate your technical expertise and get your knowledge published in a public forum.

Below are some general best practices for writing your tip:

Break your tip into different sections. Dividing your tip into sections increases readability and prevents readers from skimming over text. The sample sections in this article provide ideas on how to break up your tip.

Add headings to your sections. Headings give readers context to the section before they begin reading.
To add headings
1. Select the text you want to make a heading.
2. Click the paragraph icon at the top of the Details box.
3. Choose the appropriate heading level from the pick-list.
  Your text will now be displayed as the selected heading.
Title your post with a clear description of what your readers will learn. Beginning with progressive verbs like "Creating" or statements like "How to" are good ways to capture readers' attention.
Link documentation related to your tip. Including documentation can help guide readers with different levels of background knowledge.
Include step-by-step instructions. Using numbered steps will make it easier for other users to implement your tip.
Include screenshots. Screenshots help orient the reader and make it easier to follow along. They should not be larger than 600 pixels or smaller than 300 pixels. This is to accommodate the end-user layout.

What to include in your tip

The following sections can be used when writing your tip.

What is the challenge or problem you faced?

This section provides a useful introduction or overview while keeping your tip in real-world context. Your readers can compare their situation to your own.

Content to consider for this section:

Describe how the problem originally occurred. What were you trying to accomplish before this problem or challenge happened?
Explain how the problem or challenge affected your workflow.

For an example, check out the "Intro" in Andrew J's tip, Set up On Hold Status Reminders.

What is your solution?

After you discuss the challenge or problem, you can briefly describe the solution. This section is a good basis for your title.

Content to consider for this section:

Provide a short description of the solution. This section should only define the solution. The following section will describe how to implement it.
List any exceptions to the solutions. For example, your solution could only work for users with triggers already created.
Explain why the solution worked for you.

Check out "The Plan" in Andrew J's tip How to email ticket info automatically to non-agents.

What are the steps to implement your solution?

After you define your solution, you can then instruct readers on how to implement the solution. These steps are most effective when they are numbered and sequential.

Content to consider for this section:

Include screenshots to show where readers find items or how results should look.
Indicate any feature that needs to be enabled. Additionally, note if there are reasons steps might not work for users.
Divide steps about separate features into different sections.

Andrea Saez's Managing projects with Zendesk and Wes Drury's Embed videos in Help Center articles with two easy steps are just a couple of great examples you can use.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with the Zendesk community!

Alejandro Colon

June 08, 2020 16:09
Edited

Thanks for providing this Devan. If I can make a suggestion to add some of the commonly used Sections and Titles for Posts to your post.

Here are some often used Sections and Titles for Posts.

----------------------------------------------------

Zendesk level: Beginner
Knowledge: HTML
Time Required: 10 minutes

Note the following before you begin:

Installation:

How to use it:

Let’s Get Started:

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 4

That's it!

Use Case:

How it works (simplified):

How it works (detailed):

Prerequisites:

How to Create:

How to Install:

How to Use It:

Notes:

Nicole - Community Manager

June 08, 2020 16:07

Thanks for those suggestions, Alejandro.

June 09, 2020 14:38

No Problem.

I figure if he adds some of those to his post then that could help people have a semi-template for posting.

June 11, 2020 22:35

Possibly. We like to allow some flexibility for different kinds of tips; not all of them would fit into those areas. We also find that the more specifics we ask, the fewer tips we receive. We generally would prefer to have more users sharing their knowledge, than to not publish a tip because they're daunted by a highly involved template.

But users may see your suggestions there and use them as inspiration!

How to write & submit a tip for the community

What to include in your tip

What is the challenge or problem you faced?

What is your solution?

What are the steps to implement your solution?

4 Comments

Installation:

How to use it:

Let’s Get Started:

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 4

That's it!

Use Case:

How it works (simplified):

How it works (detailed):

Prerequisites:

How to Create:

How to Install:

How to Use It:

Notes:

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