Create and Manage Docs Articles

Articles are key to the structure of your Docs site. We will discuss how to create and manage articles within your Docs site(s).

By default, all Help Scout users have access to edit, publish, and delete articles. Account Owners and Administrators can change the permission settings to restrict this access. See User Roles and Permissions for more on those settings.

Create a New Article

1

Choose Docs from the top navigation menu and choose the Collection in which you'd like to add an article. Select Create Article from the Create (+) drop-down list on the bottom of the sidebar.

2

Give your article a title and a URL slug. The slug is part of the URL or link to the article, and you cannot use spaces here — use a hyphen between words instead. If you have an HTML, markdown, or text file you would like to start with, upload that here.

If you're choosing to import an HTML or markdown file, you'll want to make sure to review the results and use the editor to reformat anything that might need to be reset.

3

Start writing! You can use the built in options to format your content, or add an HTML block if you want to get fancy with your own code. For more information on the editor overall, including tips and tricks on how to do specific things, take a look at About the Docs Editor. 

Expand the Categories panel on the right side of your screen to select a category (or categories) for your article. 

4

Click Preview to view your article as it will appear on your Docs site. We highly recommend taking this step before you publish, especially if you've used CSS or JavaScript to customize your Docs site as that customization will affect the final appearance.

The preview version will open in a new tab. Close that tab and click Preview again to load any changes you make.

The View in Help Scout button only appears to Help Scout users — your customers will not see that button!

5

When you're happy with your preview, click Publish and celebrate. You've just published an article! 🎉

Edit an Existing Article

When it's time to update an article that is live, there are 2 ways to get back to the editor. Hop in using either of these methods, make your changes, take a look at the Preview to make sure you're good to go, then Publish again when you're ready.

If you have not yet published the article or have unpublished it, you will only be able to access it from within Help Scout.

From within Help Scout

1

Click Docs from the top navigation menu and choose the Collection that holds the article you want to edit.

2

Select the article you want to edit by clicking on the article name. You can select a category from the left navigation menu to narrow down the results, or choose to search the entire collection from the top search bar.

From your Docs site

1

Log in to Help Scout, then navigate to your Docs site. Find the article that you wish to edit, either by navigating to the Collection and Category it belongs to or by searching. Remember that you will only be able to find published articles this way.

2

Click View in Help Scout to open the editor in a new tab. This button is only available to your team when viewing the Docs site when logged in to Help Scout.

Manage Article Content and Data

Manage different pieces of your article's data using the menu at the top of the editor. 

Edit

Edit is the default landing spot when you click into the editor, and where you manage the content of your article that is shown to your customers through your Docs site and/or Beacon serving Docs articles. 

The article's URL slug (the words that are a part of the article's web address) and the article title are at the top. Click into either field to edit them. 

The rest of the article content is below and open for you to compose and design. For more help on the options for formatting your content, head over to About the Docs Editor. 

Related Articles

Choose related articles from the same collection to appear as links at the bottom of the published article. 

History or Revision History

You'll find the previously published versions of the article here (if any exist). Click the magnifying glass to view the previous version, or the arrows to restore the article to that version. 

Keywords

Enter keywords that will help your customers find the information they're looking for, even if they might phrase it differently than you do. 

Move an Article to a Different Collection

Head to the editor using either of the methods above. Click the dropdown to the side of the Update button (the button will be Publish on an unpublished article), select Move, and choose the Collection where you'd like to move the article. Articles can belong to multiple Categories within a Collection, but can only reside in a single Collection.

Unpublish or Delete an Article

To remove an article from your Docs site, you may choose to unpublish it, or to delete it. 

• Unpublishing the article will retain the article, along with the revision history, within Help Scout and is only visible within the app to your team. 
• Deleting an article permanently removes it from both your Docs site and the Help Scout app. There is no method to recover a deleted article within Help Scout.

Unpublish an article

Open the article within the editor. Click the dropdown to the side of the Update button and select Unpublish. You'll see a green confirmation popup.

Click Publish to publish the article again.

Delete an article

Head to Docs in the top menu and select the collection that houses the article you wish to delete. Select the category from the side menu to narrow the list down, or find the article in the list of All Articles. Click Delete (the trashcan) from the buttons on the right side of the article, and a confirmation modal will appear. Click Delete to confirm you want to delete the article completely.

Note: There is no method for you to recover a deleted article, category, or collection in Docs. If you find that something has been deleted in error, reach out to our support team for an assist. We'll need as much information about the article, category, or collection you can remember — full titles and previous URLs are really helpful!