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Knowledge Article Templates
Posted Mar 02, 2018
Hi, I have 2 knowledge article templates setup using the knowledge capture app. This works great when you are starting with a ticket. How can those same templates be used if the agent doesn't start with a ticket? The main use case it that they are in Guide and click Add Article. They are presented with a blank page instead of being asked to choose a template.
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49 comments
Official
Katarzyna Karpinska
Hello everyone, thank you for your continued engagement on this thread and expressing your interest in this feature request. We understand that this feature is a priority for many of our customers however; our last update remains as the official response to this post: and this feature request is valid however we will not be prioritizing this request at this time.
We remain excited about delivering Guide users exciting features this year and are focusing our energy in the following areas:
Thank you again for your feedback and for being valuable customers of Zendesk, we sincerely appreciate your business. Please view Shawna's comments at the end of this thread (last page) for more information as well.
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Ryan McGrew
Thanks for the feedback Steve!
We've talked about a wider use of article templates internally. Would love to hear more about how you'd use them outside the KC app.
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Eitan Blumin
We have a need for using templates outside the KC app as well.
We plan on having several articles with the same structure, not based on existing tickets.
One of those article types is what Zendesk already has as example KC templates (problem, symptom, solution or something like that). But we want to create a series of such articles in advance, instead of waiting for actual tickets.
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Brad Marshall
We would also love to see templates for articles. For example, we have "service disruption" and "release notes" articles that always follow the same layout and sections. Currently, we have to open a previously created article, copy the HTML, and the past it into the new article. Would be great to be able to create a draft article that we can then copy for every new article that we need to create.
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Kirk Anderson
I'd like to add interest in this topic. Our use case is slightly different, but could still benefit from templates.
We recruit for several internships and programs within our company, and use the Guide to post articles about our application process. Each program we offer has various nuances, though, so we created header graphics to illustrate which program(s) a particular article applies to. I'd love to be able to create several templates with the various graphics so that my team can select a template and then write the needed article. Currently, the team must browse to a shared drive and identify the graphic that fits their article and proceed to upload into the article, and we are finding several team members forgetting to upload the header image altogether.
Below is an example of the type of header image I'm looking to create templates for:
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Sakura Ticer
I'd also like to have the ability to use a template when creating an article outside of tickets--the use cases are: Release Notes and feature Set-up Guides. Is anything available yet? If not, what is the suggested workaround?
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Hillary Latham
We also have a use case for this. We are trying to build up internal only articles for reference by our agents (not for reference by customers) and we have different templates for explaining how to troubleshoot a specific bug vs how to troubleshoot generic issues in the software vs FYIs for recent customer communications or issues. Often, we close tickets and go back and write articles later, so there is no ticket to link to the KC article - our agents just go straight to the guide. It would be nice if we could have the KC templates available directly in the guide (it would also help agents have the visible and section already filled out).
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Elizabeth Burke
Hi Ryan, has there been any development in this area? My company just upgraded to Zendesk Enterprise and we would like to make templates that are editable to our agents in the Guide Admin. We would like it if they were to go to the section they wanted to add the article in, add an article, and then choose a template to follow. From there they could edit the text directly from the editor. Right now, they will have to copy and paste the HTML from a previous article and use that instead of a premade article. Is there something in the works for this?
Thanks!
Liz
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Andreas Ramstad
Hey Zendesk, are you listening?
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Vanessa D
Hey Zendesk any update or information on this one as it's been open for nearly 2 years now :)
Cheers
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Kavita Warrier
Team Zendesk,
My team also is looking for an option to invoke templates from "Add" Article. Is there an update on this requirement.
Thanks
Kavita
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Chloé Mauduit
Dear Zendesk team,
Our team is also interested in using article templates for Zendesk Guide, it would be great to have this feature.
Do you have any update on this?
Thank you,
Chloé
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Allison Sargent
Same here! We would love to have templates for our different article types so that I can delegate some writing to my team with confidence that the articles they create will follow our brand voice guidelines!
REALLY WANT THIS! +100000 thumbs up
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Riley
I also need this. I have repeated types of announcement articles we created, and I want staff to be able to use a template for this.
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Joe McPherson
I'm in the same boat as everyone else. We have a series of templates our support staff can leverage when creating knowledge articles from Knowledge Capture on the ticket, but you can't leverage them when creating knowledge outside a tickets. Pretty limiting if you want knowledge created from teams outside support.
I'm interested in how people are working around this? So far the only option seems to be: "Currently, we have to open a previously created article, copy the HTML, and the past it into the new article. "
Has anyone found a more elegant way around this?
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Diego Garcia
Hy Everyone.
I had the same question, but I think I found the answer.
There are two types of templates.
1. The templates that are used in the HC Knowledge Capture and that you create according to https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002374987-Creating-templates-for-the-Knowledge-Capture-app- Guide-Professional-and-Enterprise-
2. The theme templates, which unlike the previous ones, are edited through the theme code. https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001948367-Adding-multiple-article-section-and-category-templates-to-your-theme
The drop-down list when creating an article refers to the second, so it is not a content template. It is a template for editing the way an article is displayed in the help center.
At the moment, our solution will be to create articles with editing restrictions and ask the writers to duplicate them.
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Kristjan Praks
Hi
We also recently asked about this from ZD live chat support, but all I got was basically "go create feature request".
Our use case is pretty straightforward - there are many support articles we want to create before the questions come up through tickets (where the knowledge capture thing could be used). Because of the KC functionality, the template selection field is even already there. Why on earth can't they build this feature?
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Sam
This would be beneficial to our team as well. It would be nice to maintain a repo of templates within Zendesk instead of having to keep a list in Google, etc. or copying another article. We have various bits of source code each article needs (and can't be put into a traditional article template, since it is part of the body) and it would save our agents time and confusion from trying to remember, or having to perform, the process each time a new article is created.
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Sara Gardinier
Hi all,
Any movement on this?
We have a need for using templates outside the knowledge capture app as well. We plan on having several articles with the same structure and these are articles that we would create in advance of getting tickets, like for a new product release or a feature change.
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Ryan McGrew
Hey All,
Thanks for the feedback here. We are currently full steam ahead on Content Blocks. While this doesn't directly answer the need for templates right now, it does introduce some underlying changes and ability to reuse content between articles. We intend to build better template support on top of this foundation, likely in 2022.
Thanks!
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000000 Danjoint
We have a HUGE focus on our Knowledge Content and just hired a Knowledge Content Manager. We have a tremendous need to use the templates directly in Guide as we are bringing articles over from a 3rd party app, standardizing the format and cleaning up each article prior to publishing them. Our KCM does not work in the Support app, so it's a bit frustrating when he can't access the templates he created directly in Guide. I hope to see this improve in the near future. Thanks!
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Brandon Tahquette
My KCM needs to be able to leverage the templates that he's created without having to find/copy/paste every time he or one of his cross-functional partners needs to create new content. He works outside of the Support app and I'd like to keep it that way since he has very little need to work in/on Support cases. Even if he was more involved with tickets, giving him the ability to use those templates in both places makes the UX that much better and would give us the ability to be more efficient/scaled in his process.
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Antonio Maninha
This knowledge module is very incomplete...
Reminds me of having four flat tires but only one is changed... Car still runs but three tires are still flat and the road to the destination will be treacherous...
From a KCS perspective that is not acceptable.
Zendesk has a great Case management interface and Metrics but the Knowledge piece is lacking some serious attention.
Is it possible for a Zendesk Product Manager share the roadmap for Knowledge and what features are you guys wanted to release this year?
Thank you!
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Antonio Maninha
Any updates on this Ryan McGrew?
Are any KCS features being worked on?
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Maring
A feature like this would be a game changer, for all of the reasons already mentioned (announcements/updates, general management, new HC builds, etc) + there's a real push lately from many companies looking to reorganize their Help Centers. I've found myself trying to clone articles like we can triggers or macros a few times, so even that functionality would be hugely helpful?
Use example for cloning:
Obviously cloning could at least remove copy/pasting for structure, but in many instances, we find that an article would benefit from breaking into two very similar but slightly different topics or articles (for a general restructure, but also based on an increase in certain types of tickets or new features).
Being able to clone something for the content as well as the article settings would really helpful to reduce the time to draft the new article + ensure that the settings and even labels align. I find it a lot easier to edit or remove certain settings than to start from scratch each time, especially when doing this on a large scale.
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Kasper Sørensen
Hi everyone,
Thank you for all the great feedback. We're still interested in developing a better feature for article templates. However, at the moment there are a few higher priority projects (many which also improves the content authoring experience).
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Antonio Maninha
Kasper Sorensen
Dear zendesk
It makes me really sad and disappointed that you guys don't really listen to the customer:
Sorry for the venting Zendesk but some of your actions and explanations do not make any sense from a KM and CM point of view.
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Kasper Sørensen
Hi Antonio Maninha - I'm sorry to hear your frustration. And your message confuses me a bit, I have to admit. What KCS feature has been removed in your mind? Because in my mind there hasn't been anything removed. We're talking in this thread about adding additional features, which just hasn't been prioritized yet.
Rest assured that whatever priorities may take precedence are always informed by listening to customers. It's never an easy choice to prioritize between several appealing directions and in this case the teams are simply fully occupied by working on content authoring capabilities that we think will have an even bigger impact. I was only trying to give you an update to let you know that we haven't forgotten about this request, but on the other hand also haven't found capacity in our plans to address it yet.
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Antonio Maninha
@...
Thank you for the reply.
Kasper, I participated in the beta feature and those requirements when I worked for another company, and the KCS module that allowed the transfer of ticket notes to whatever Knowledge article template was chosen was a reality and did exist. Zendesk completely pulled the plug on that module and came up with something else that kind of works but really does not. You are allowed to create an article from a ticket but no ticket notes are transferred - it adds quite a bit of time to the support agent when creating content from their notes.
What about now that we have article templates but we are unable to use them when creating a new article? Why? They are present on the knowledge capture app why can't we use them when creating a new article from scratch?
I think that these are fair questions...
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Kasper Sørensen
Hi Antonio Maninha - I don't think that what you're describing was ever possible through any app developed by Zendesk. But I wonder if maybe it is offered via a third party app in the app marketplace.
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