KB User's Guide - Document Edit Screen Overview
- Introduction
- Main Edit Screen
- Workflow Options
- Preview Menu
- Options Menu
- Document Settings
- Video Overview
Introduction
The document edit screen is where group space editors and administrators create and manage documents for their target audience. This guide provides an overview of the options and features available within the edit screen.
Note: Certain elements of the edit screen may vary based on the document's status and the permissions of the user editing it. For example, the image below shows a new, unsaved document. Features such as the "Creating a New Document" screen, the "Create from a Template" dropdown, and the "Create Draft" button are specific to the brand new document creation experience. These elements will differ when editing an existing document.
Main Edit Screen
The main workspace on the edit screen contains several fields for creating your document. Except for "Create from a template," all fields are required. Completing them improves document searchability and enhances the experience for your target audience.
Create from a template
A document can be created based on a previously-created template, allowing certain recommendations and settings (discussed later in this document) to be already defined. This allows a document editor to focus specifically on the content and not so much on the various needed settings values for a document.
Note: This dropdown will only appear for brand new documents that have not been saved yet. Once a new draft is saved and created, this dropdown will no longer appear.,
Title
The title serves as the first way of informing your audience what the purpose and general content of your document is. Titles should be easily scannable, concise, but informative. They also serve as keywords for searching for your documents.
Keywords
Keywords are the default way that users can use the KnowledgeBase to search for documents within your group space. It is important to review keywords not only when creating your document, but also after you have added the main content. Try to anticipate which terms your users will associate with your documents, as well as using data collected by your KnowledgeBase statistics to react to trends.
Summary
The summary section provides a way for you to provide a general overview of what a user can expect to learn or achieve after reading the full contents of the document. A summary should speak to the intended audience; use clear and concise language; provide a general guidance to the purpose of the document. For example, a “how-to” document would provide learning objectives in the summary field.
Body
The body field is where the document’s full content will be entered and edited. The body should contain the information you wish to convey to your audience. As you prepare to edit the body of your document, you should be aware of the options available to you through the document editor.
The KnowledgeBase uses a third-party editor called TinyMCE. The primary editing interface for TinyMCE is a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor, aka a rich text or design mode editor. TinyMCE also includes a "Source Mode" feature that allows you to edit the HTML of your document directly. For more information on the options available in the editor, please see KB User's Guide - Documents Tab - Guide to TinyMCE Editor Buttons.
Workflow Options
The activities of publishing, saving drafts, or archiving documents is done by the options presented in the upper right of the document edit screen.
Create / Save Draft
A document’s initial status when it is being created is as a draft. The Create Draft option appears when a document is first being created; after its first save, the document option changes to Save Draft as edits continue to be made. Drafts of documents can be accessed from the Draft page of the Documents tab.
Status Dropdown
The dropdown menu that appears next to the draft button provides several other options to set the status of this document. The current document status(es) will also be displayed below this dropdown.
Note: Some of the options described below are only available to users with publish permissions, so the menu you see may contain fewer options if you do not have publish permissions in your group space.
Publish
The publish option will activate the document for the intended audience to be able to access it. It will be published to the site(s) you selected under the "Access" section. You will only see this option if you have publish permissions in your KB space.
Submit for review
Submitting a document for review will give this document the Pending review status, meaning that another editor or administrator will have the opportunity to look at the document and publish it.
Note: The admin(s) in your group may not be immediately notified that your document is awaiting review. If your request for review and publishing is time-sensitive, we recommend using the Request to publish... option instead.
Revert to draft
This option will mark a document that has been submitted for review back to a draft status. It can be published or resubmitted for review if desired. If your document is not currently awaiting review, this option will be grayed out in the menu.
Archive
An archived document is no longer visible to or accessible by the audience of your group space live site. The document will still be accessible from the Archive page of the Documents tab. You will only see this option if you have publish permissions in your KB space.
Move to trash
This option moves the document to the Trash section of the Documents tab. Trashed documents are hidden from your group space audience.You can restore and re-publish a document from the Trash unless it has been permanently purged. This option is only visible if you have publish permissions in your KB space.
Schedule publish...
If you want to publish this document at a specific date and time, use the Schedule publish option. This opens a calendar where you can choose a publication date and set the corresponding time. The Schedule publish option is only available to users who have publishing permissions in their KB space.
Request to publish...
This option allows you to send an immediate notification to your group admin(s) that you would like your document to be reviewed and published. Selecting this option will open a modal window with a form, where your group's designed approver(s) will be populated in the "To" field and the document owner will be entered in the "Cc" field. You can specify additional recipients as needed, and you can also enter any relevant information in the "Note" field. Upon submitting the form, your document will have the Pending review status, and the email will be sent. You (the requester) will then receive an email notification when your document is published.
Request to archive...
If you feel a document is no longer needed, you can request that the document be archived by the document owner. A modal window will appear with the To field populated with the document owner’s email address, as well as options to add a Cc, Bcc, and Note field.
Preview menu
The preview menu provides options to view what your document will look like when it is published. These options will open in a new browser window.
Internal view
This will preview the document as though it is being viewed on your internal site. This allows you to see your document with your internal site styling, as well as check that any inline content restrictions appear as expected, for example, that external-only content is hidden.
External view
This will preview the document as though it is being viewed on your external site. This allows you to see your document with your external site styling, as well as check that any inline content restrictions appear as expected, for example, that internal-only content is hidden.
Options menu
The options drop down menu provides a number of additional tools and actions that are useful when editing documents.
View activity log
The activity log (formerly Comments and Events) will show the document’s history of changes, including status changes, revision creation, ownership transfers, and system notifications that were sent.
Version history
The version history (formerly Revisions) will show all of the document’s saved revisions. From this screen, you can view individual revisions, compare two or more revisions, and restore from past revisions. See KB User's Guide - Documents Tab - How To View a Document's Version History for more information on this feature.
Draft vs. published
This option (formerly Draft vs. Active) displays a side-by-side comparison of the current (published) version of the document can be compared to the version that is being worked on (draft).
Doc attachments...
The document attachment folder can be accessed through this menu.
Shared attachments...
The group space’s shared attachment folder can be accessed through this menu.
Add comment...
This option opens a modal that allows you to add a comment for the document, which will be logged in the document's activity log. You also have the option to copy the document’s owner and/or the group space’s administrator, which will also send your comment as an email notification.
Mark as reviewed...
Select this option to mark the document as reviewed. This will defer monthly review reminders for 180 days. If the document is expiring within the next 180 days, selecting this option will also extend the document's expiration by 180 days from the current date.
Save as...
This option allows you to copy and save the current document as a new document, with the option of copying the content only or the content and attachments.
Quick Info...
This option opens a modal that allows you to view "at a glance" information about your document, such as:
- Access settings
- Search priority
- Topics
- Activation and expiration timestamps
- Owner and last updater
- Most recent update and review dates
- Links to view the document on your internal and/or external sites
Linked from...
This option opens a modal window that performs a search for any published KB documents that have links to the document you are editing.
Scan for broken links...
This option opens a modal that scans your documents for external (non-KB) hyperlinks and reports any URLs that appear to be unreachable.
Document Settings
The document settings are listed below the publish options and are separated into different sections. These sections contain various additional controls for your document, as well as optional fields.
Access
The Access section contains the following settings:
- Site access
- Campus access
- Read access
- Edit access (formerly Write access)
Searchability
The Searchability section contains the following settings:
Activation and Expiration
The Activation and Expiration section contains the following settings:
- Activation (date and time)
- Expiration (date and time)
Related Documents
The Related Documents section contains the following settings:
- See also
- Guided navigation (formerly Up, Previous, and Next)
Header and Footer
The Header and Footer section contains the following settings:
Notification Settings
The Notifications section contains the following settings:
- Owner
- Change notification
- Change notification threshold
- Send user comment to (formerly Feedback To)
- Toggles to:
Advanced
The Advanced tab section contains the following settings:
- JavaScript / CSS
- Custom / redirect URL
- Document type
- Group note and Group note position
- Toggles to:
- Use HTML source editor (formerly HTML Only Mode)
- Allow internal discussion (formerly Blog)
Video Overview
View this video in its original location (opens in a new browser window).