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Allow articles to be posted to multiple sections
Posted Jun 29, 2012
It would be super awesome if we had the ability to post a single article to multiple sections. We have a number of different "buckets" that our customers fall into that each have their own specific section. We often times write articles that are german to more than one group of customers but not all groups of customers. As it stands currently we have to write the article, post it to one section, copy it, navigate to a different section and post the article, navigate to a different section and post the article, navigate to a different section and post the article, and then navigate to a different section and post the article. This is also a huge pain because that one article now has 5 different URLs and becomes a nightmare for updating and linking in our marketing materials and / or website. It would be much easier and efficient if we could choose to post an article to multiple sections (even if it were still separate URL's for each).
474
459 comments
Nicole Saunders
Hi all -
The Guide development team is highly aware of this request. They're in the process of evaluating and outlining everything that would need to happen/change/be developed in order to create this functionality, and it's a somewhat complex problem to solve. But it is currently being looked into, and we will continue to update you here as decisions and/or progress are made.
You're welcome to continue to share use-cases, vote, and follow this thread. Thank you for your feedback and participation - your voices are being heard!
0
Kristin Sours
I'm unsure why this isn't a function because I can't think of any business where this wouldn't come in handy. For us, we have an online subscription and our support guide is made up of 6 categories. Each category or "help topic" has sections that would have the same answer as another one...the problem is we don't always know how our clients are going to start searching for that answer.
While it might seem like our "Getting Started" page is the best place to find our template, someone else might start with our "Maximizing your Subscription" page instead (as an example) The fact that I can't put 1 article in more than 1 place seems almost strange to me. Is there anyone who doesn't need this?
It also doesn't seem like it should be a hard thing to allow but I'm not going to pretend that I understand. I'm loving your product so far but this is very limiting.
THIS IS A #1 for us and PLEASE DO THIS ASAP!!!!!
1
Nicole Saunders
Hey Kristin -
Thanks for the feedback. The Product Team remains highly aware of this request and they're continuing to lay the groundwork for developing a solution to this problem.
We'll continue to update this thread as we hear more.
-1
Tony Roma
Thanks to the team for wrestling with this. Deciding how to handle breadcrumbs with something like this is a tough challenge. It never worked very well when we were using WordPress.
0
Thomas Augustine
Add my vote for this feature. We just started into ZenDesk from SalesForce and are starting to realize the things ZD doesn't have that SFDC does, and this is one of them.
1
Nicole Saunders
Thanks Thomas. The Guide team is working on several issues around publishing this year, and this request is high on the radar.
1
adele tailby
Yes, please! This would be super-helpful.
This would save a lot of time both in editing and having to remember where all the articles are.
0
Malene Tidemann
We moved to Zendesk late last year and are now putting a lot of resources into building and structuring a knowledge base. We really like Zendesk in many ways, but posting articles in multiple sections is a must for us and we're quite disappointed to discover that this key feature is missing.
Our use case: We're a software company supporting the same product in 3 versions: a web based solution, an API version and a Windows/SQL version installed in the customer's own server environment. While some articles clearly belong to each version there are also many that fits into all. For example, there are add-on components and flows that are the same for 2 or all 3 platforms.
From the beginning we were hoping to start using Answer Bot as soon as we have enough articles in the knowledge base. However, it doesn't work well with duplicated content, so we don't want to copy-paste articles. We tried making a few separate categories with sections for features that are shared by all our platforms, but many customers naturally go searching for answers inside the category and section belonging to their version of the software and thus can't find the right articles.
On top of this, we're supporting 5 languages in our knowledge base, so if we were to copy-paste the same article into 3 sections, we would need it in 15 versions! Total nightmare to make a small update to 1 article if it has to been done in 15 places every time.
We will follow updates to this closely and also let our Zendesk consultant know how much this feature is needed.
3
Gui-Berlin
@ Malene
Hey there, I don't want to be a pessimist but that threat was opened the 30th of June 2012...
Gui
2
Malene Tidemann
@ Gui-Berlin - yes, I saw this and actually read the entire thread. I'm just hoping that if people continue to put pressure on this they will listen eventually. I know most people wouldn't spend the time on writing on such an old thread and it's probably in vain but I simply had to give it a go to let Zendesk know that it's still relevant 6 years later...
1
Steve Wiseman
There is a solution. Paligo have an integration with Zendesk so you can author and manage your content in Paligo (including reusable topics, variables, conditioning content, etc) and then push that content into Zendesk. The Zendesk authoring solution is excellent obviously but there are times where a technical documentation team will need more functionality such as you will find in a CCMS (Component Content Management System). Paligo is a cloud-based CCMS. The Zendesk integration is an important part of the offering, and a frequently used feature.
www.paligo.net for more details.
Company samples of existing integrations are available on request.
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Nicole Saunders
Hi all -
We're aware that communication in the Product Feedback topic has been sub-par for some time, resulting in things like threads open for 5+ years. We're working hard to fix that, but it takes time.
The good news is that your requests have been heard. As mentioned before, the Guide product development teams are working on several publishing solutions around the challenges presented in this thread, and are tentatively targeting Q3 of this year for those to begin rolling out. We will continue to update here as things progress.
Thanks for your participation in the Zendesk Community!
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Brittany Houser
+1
We have our content divided out into topics about our software and sometimes (~25% of the time) there is a bit of overlap in topics.
Like a new announcements feature we released - it's really communication based (which we have a section for) but the content is also displayed in an area that is accessed by an end-user rather than our customers (an area which is covered in great detail with instructions in a different section). The article really needs to be displayed in both places.
Publishing 2 articles is a maintenance concern if there are future changes to the feature. And using a work-around to enter a manual link to the same article in the section navigation page for a different section is a hassle (particularly when this isn't a rare occurrance).
Seems like using a multi-section checklist approach when creating the article would be the best of both worlds. Can't wait for it to become a higher priority over there. Would save us a lot of time and debate when managing content.
0
Owen Skarpness
To any new commenters on this thread, though it isn't an ideal solution, redirecting articles works as a nearly equivalent workaround. This article describes the process for "deleted" help center articles, but works identically for active ones: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/217958367-Redirecting-traffic-from-deleted-Help-Center-articles
With redirects in place, you can simply create two articles in different categories, complete with tags, then redirect one to the other. You'll only need to make edits to the landing page, and the redirected page can be blank or retain historical information. This has done pretty well for us to mimic the functionality of having individual articles in multiple places.
1
The Original DKNY
This is one of the most requested/ upvoted enhancements and there appears to be no acknowledgment from a Zendesk representative on this nearly 6 year old request. Alex, I will take things that negatively impact NPS score for $400.
2
Andrew Hoover
+1, Hard to believe this wasn't a minimum viable product feature
0
Nicole Saunders
Hi Dave and Andrew -
As I mentioned in my comment on April 23, this functionality is currently in development. We will continue posting updates as things progress, but the rough ETA (with the caveat that timelines change and this is no guarantee) is that it will begin to be rolled out by the end of this year.
1
Paul Dandurand
+1 Vote for sections and articles living in multiple places with an update one, updates it's doppelgänger.
0
Meghan
+1
0
Micheal O'Neill
+1
0
Rich Andersen
+ 1.
We have 6 main groups of customers and many articles that are applicable to multiple categories.
1
Meredith Brogan
+1
We have several products (categories) and need some of the same articles represented in those product categories.
0
Gaëtan Tobie-Echeverria
hello Nicole.
no red sign ? are we still on track for the end of year?
thank you in advance
0
Alex Clausen
Seems like we're finally getting the articles in more than one section.
https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360002083608
What are Management Permissions?
We’ve heard requests from many customers around
2
Tina Burkhart
+1 from us. Reuse same content for different user types (2B, 2C, several sub groups). our entry page channels user journey by user type. however, much content is the same for different user types
0
Colin
I have been informed that this is now scheduled for early 2019
0
Dorian Kröhl
+ 1 since this has been long overdue...
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Nicole Saunders
@Gaetan - Early 2019, as Colin says. Apologies for the delayed response; I was ooo for a couple of weeks.
@Dorian - it's on it's way!
We'll be sure to update here as things become available!
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Bogdan Andrei Sturzoiu
Hey everybody,
as mentioned above, we're aiming for an EAP in Q1 2019 for posting articles to multiple sections.
7
Heather Rommel
Awesome, thanks Bogdan!
1