About the Docs Editor

NEW We're excited to offer up a new Docs editor experience! Our new editor makes editing articles a breeze for anyone, no coding skills necessary. This article covers the basics of using the Docs editor to create and edit your Docs articles. 

The Docs editor is available to all users and user roles with the Edit articles and categories permission. See User Roles and Permissions for more help on that.

Get Started

Click Docs in the top navigation menu and choose a collection to access the Docs administration area. Click into any article from any of those lists or start a new article, and you'll land in the Docs editor. Just add in your content — type it out there or paste it in from somewhere else, or any combination of the two.

And simple as that, you're editing Docs articles! 🎉

Format Article Content

Format your text as you enter it, or highlight content and format it after you've typed or pasted it all in. 

Format As You Type

Shortcut Menu Options

Click the + (plus sign) to the left of a new line, or type / (the forward slash) to open the shortcut menu and choose a formatting option to apply to what you're about to type. Type the name of the formatting option to search for it, and/or use the arrow keys and return/enter to navigate the list by keyboard, or select options with your mouse.

Blockquote

Create a quoted block of text. Hit return/enter to exit from the quote formatting.

Bulleted list

Start a bulleted list. Hit return/enter twice to end the list.

Callout

Choose the color to create a colored highlighted block of text. Hit return/enter twice to exit the callout.

Code

Creates a block of code formatted text. Hit return/enter twice to exit the code block.

Divider

Insert a horizontal rule, the same as the <hr> tag in HTML. 

Emoji

Choose from a list of emojis that are built in. You're not limited to just the emojis in this list, but these are some of the more popular ones for quick access. 

Heading

Create an HTML header element, H1 through H3. Return/enter exits the header, as HTML headers can only be a single line.

HTML

Enter your own HTML to get fancy. Check out Use HTML in the Docs Editor for a lot more information on this option. 

Image

Opens your computer's file dialog to upload and insert an image. Upload PNG, GIF, or JPG files up to 10 MB in size. 

Click on the image after uploading to make adjustments. The top toolbar allows you to align the image, add a link, or alt text. Click and drag from the bottom or left side to resize. Click Write a caption below the image to add a caption.

Numbered list

Start a numbered list. Hit return/enter twice to end the list.

Table

Insert a table. Click the 3 dots before a row or column to remove that row or column. Highlight the whole table and click the plus (+) to add a row or column, or delete the entire table. Click the 3 dots at the end of a row or column to delete it.

Video

All you need is the URL of a video from YouTube, Vimeo, Loom, or Wistia to add a video to your articles — no need for embed codes or extra formatting! 

If you want to embed a video that is hosted with some other source, you can do that with the HTML block. See Use HTML in the Docs Editor for a lot more information on this option. 

Markdown

The Docs editor supports the Markdown basic syntax as outlined here: Markdown Cheat Sheet: Basic Syntax

Markdown extended syntax is not available in the Docs editor.

Highlight and Format

Highlight text that's already in your article to change the formatting using the toolbar or keyboard shortcuts.

Toolbar Options

The text format button offers options to set a blockquote, code, and headings. 

Keyboard Shortcuts

Cmd means the Command key on Macs and Ctrl means the Control key on Windows PCs.

• Bold: Cmd + B / Ctrl + B
• Italic: Cmd + I / Ctrl + I
• Underline: Cmd + U / Ctrl + U
• Create Link: Just paste the link over the text, or Cmd + K / Ctrl + K to open the link dialog box

Header Links

Headers 1, 2, and 3 have anchor links added to them automatically allowing you to use a link to jump right to that section of the article. Apply the header format and you'll see a link icon appear whenever you mouse over it. Click that icon to copy the anchor link address to your clipboard. 

The link is automatically generated and will look something like this: https://jg-clothing-company.helpscoutdocs.com/article/19-shipping-timelines#Domestic-Shipping--N6vvt

Use that address to build a table of contents at the beginning of your article — create a bulleted list of the names of each section and link it to the header link. 

Use it to add a call to action to skip to that section from elsewhere in the article or another article. 

Use this link anywhere — not just in Docs articles. Pop it in emails to your customers to help them get right to the content they need, or link directly to that section from any other website. 

Drafts and Publishing

Article drafts are automatically saved as you work within the Docs editor, and you'll see a green check mark with the word Saved appear along the top. The auto-save function only updates the draft within the editor. 

Click Preview to view the article as it will appear on your Docs site while you're working on a draft. 

Click Publish from a new or unpublished article or Update from a published article to publish your draft to the Docs site.

Click the drop down arrow next to the Update button and choose Unpublish to remove the article from your site without deleting the content. 

Choose Discard changes from that same menu if you decide you do not want to keep the most recent draft. 

For more help on managing Docs in general, take a look at Create and Manage Docs Articles.