Steve Wiseman

@Maxime. There are often multiple uses for content in an article. Why cannot you just link to the article each time you need it for each feature. I don't believe this reduces the customer experience as linking is acceptable. I think it's preferable to repeated content. 

Please explain why this would not be applicable to your requirements. I'm happy to think this through with you if you want - swiseman@contextengage.com. 

@Jonathan. Same comment to you. 

Our app mentioned in my comment above allows a lot more "advanced" content solutions such as variables, conditional text, PDF delivery and the reusable content (that us being discussed here). Link is above if you want to look.

I have a few comments on this thread.

1. @Sue. We have created an app to integrate Zendesk and Madcap Flare. Please see https://sales.contextengage.com/hc/en-us/articles/212287945. App is in beta but will be released soon. I honestly think the combination gives the best of both worlds - authoring and the delivery to the full support ecosystem
2. I have been a tech writer for 20 years before becoming a Zendesk partner. The majority of the cases where customers want to use the same article in multiple areas can normally be avoided. It's not good practice. Sometimes a better HC structure and some creative thinking can avoid this use. Even if Zendesk were to allow duplicating articles, I would be recommending against it. 
   
   Don't forget it also makes Search less useful for a customer when the same content appears multiple times. I'm happy to help people think thru their structure to try to avoid it.
   
   Even when you have restricted content, I still think there is nearly always a better way than duplicated content.
3. @Maxime. If you need to copy the same article 5 times, I really think there must be a better structure.
4. @Jimmy. If I understood your use case properly, there is a solution to your Search request. I'd need to speak to our developers but between regular Search, Labels and coding, it's possible you can get exactly what you want. 

If anyone wants to reach out to me, please engage chat on www.contextengage.com. 

Re the discussion on Zendesk HC features. I agree with Tony that Zendesk is possibly not going to compete with the Flare's of this world in terms of an endless list of authoring features. Actually, I think the old world of authoring was more concerned with the authoring experience than the customer experience. That is changing, and Zendesk is part of that.

An authoring solution gives you the singularity of publishing your content online. With Zendesk, you get a bunch of other features that you won't get with Flare or the other types of apps, as the figure below shows (a picture we use in our presentations). As with everything else Zendesk, you can integrate with other apps if you want additional features. I personally don't have a problem with that. In fact, it's a positive as you can enhance your solution as much as you want. 

The widget, and now especially it's content sensitive, is a real "biggy". I push these ideas because I really think they take the content industry to a different level in terms of CX. And isn't that what it's all about?

(I emphasize that I'm not part of Zendesk, but I am genuinely excited by the content side. I wouldn't be talking like this if I wasn't). 

@Patrick.

I don't understand still why you need to C&P articles. Many companies have introduction material that is applicable for trial and paid users.

An example initial idea. Why can't you create a Getting Started section that is applicable to trial and paid users. They both start from the same place in understanding the basics of your product. Nothing wrong, IMHO, for having a link to different content for both paid and trial users at the end of Getting Started.

(Additionally, providing trial users access to all the content can maybe wet their appetite for the full product offering.)

@Chris.

I was just trying to help find a solution to your issues. And we are service company. Forgive me. But the solutions we try and create are meant to save companies money by doing tasks automatically, rather than manually. 

But according to what you said, any additional costs I mentioned are much less than a full-time employee. That's the point I was trying to make. 

You have a very involved content structure. It would be challenging in any product. Zendesk at least allows us the flexibility to find solutions for more complicated use cases. 

@Christian.

Thx for the response. Actually I think we are lucky having Christian leading the HC. I shoot him a lot of questions and he's very responsive and understanding. I appreciate no one ever gets everything they want.

Regarding reusable content (RC) or dynamic content, it's a feature that's existing in authoring products for over 15 years. The professional authors, writing in Zendesk, would probably put that down as a critical feature.

In terms of use cases, often RC is used to bring in paragraphs, not whole articles. For example, you have reports and you have an article with a table that lists the fields in each report. You could use RC to put the explanations of repeating fields. You have to write the content anyway so it has no effect on analytics (or the same effect if you did it manually). 

@Chris.

I understand. Talk to me offline, I may have some solutions for you.

1. We have an app, that isn't on the marketplace yet, that does backup of your HC. It's meant for translation so it uploads into existing articles. If there's a need, we can modify it so it could create new articles in your branded HCs.
2. The other app we are working on takes from a product call Flare and puts into Zendesk. This could be a solution for you.

I honestly think I can help you bring your full-time work to just a few hours a year. I'm being serious. Contact me swiseman@contextengage.com. Let people know later if I achieve that. 

@Michael

Great explanation. That's similar to how I was thinking, except you properly thought out the "how". Easy for us tho. Now it's up to Zendesk. But at least you did all the thinking legwork ;) 

I'd like to talk to you offline. We think similarly. Also, we are presently creating a Madcap Flare to Zendesk app to author in Flare and push to Zendesk. We want to made addons that people find useful for the HC.

swiseman@contextengage.com if you want to get in touch. 

@Michael. Good stuff you wrote. 

I'm not part of Zendesk (but official resellers) so you can't conclude possible Zendesk features from my response.

Personally, I'd prefer all content to be managed only from the HC. I think it would be complicated for authors to use Dynamic Content. If it's like a mini article, you can format the content as you would in any HC. For DC, that would be much harder to add bullets, images, etc. You would need to know how to write directly in HTML (or a long workaround of creating in an article, copying the HTML output and then not saving) .

However, if that's the only short term solution, it's better than nothing. And, as I said, would solve the duplicated articles issue. 

I have read the threads and Christian's explanation from Aug 2015. I'm a "content expert". Often we have customers asking to reproduce content in different sections. However, after analysis it's normally unnecessary once it's thought through. Even when we have created content in other systems, we have avoided duplicate topics. Normally, a good structure and links are a good solution.

I'd like to understand why some of you feel you need the duplicate articles. You would create such a problem with Search and Breadcrumbs (that Christian mentioned) that I'm not sure it's worth it.

I guess there will be some cases where you prove it's necessary. My suggestion is to analyze again and possibly find a better way.

I would like to see reusable content. You store content in a central place (not an official article) that you can use in multiple articles. For examples, snippets of text for putting in multiple articles. Not sure that's in the roadmap but it would probably solve most people's problems. 

If anyone wants me to help them think this through, please feel free to reach out.