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Help center

Write help articles

Every help article is one WordPress post of the type Help articles. Find them in WordPress under Cliedesk → Help articles. Because they are normal WordPress posts, revisions, authors and Tools → Export work as usual.

Write an article

  1. Go to Cliedesk → Help articles and choose Add help article.
  2. Pick a template, or start empty. The templates are How-to, Troubleshooting, Policy, Release note and Questions and answers.
  3. Write in the block editor. Headings, images, tables, code and YouTube videos work. Pasted Markdown turns into blocks. WordPress saves a backup copy every 60 seconds.
  4. Use the Help center panel in the sidebar to set who can read it and the Search keywords.

To add your own templates, create a pattern in the Help article templates category. On a category screen you can tick Templates. Then articles in that category must start from a template, or publishing is refused.

Reuse text in many articles

Put shared text in a WordPress synced pattern. When you edit the pattern, every article that uses it changes. A pattern that articles still use cannot be deleted; a notice lists those articles.

You can also type these tokens in an article: {site.name}, {site.url}, {help.url} and {support.email}. They show the current value.

Who can read it

Set Who can read it in the Help center panel:

  • Everyone
  • Agents only (internal): only people with Read internal articles see it. Agents, supervisors, collaborators and admins have it. Internal articles show in the inbox article picker, but never for customer replies.

A category can also have Who can read it. Its articles and sub-categories are at least that private. Articles for signed-in customers only, or for anyone with the link, are available with Cliedesk Pro.

Review and publish

Articles go Draft → Pending review → Scheduled → Published. People without Publish articles can only Submit for review. The Reviewer set in the sidebar gets a notification. If no reviewer is set, everyone who may publish the article is notified (up to 20). The Owner keeps the article up to date; empty means the author.

Keep articles current

Each published article gets a review date. Set Review articles every (months) in Settings → Help center (12 by default, 0 turns it off). When the date passes, the owner gets a task Review article: …. Select articles in Help articles and use the bulk action Verify (still correct) to set a new date and close the task.

Turn a conversation into an article

In a conversation, agents who can write articles choose Create article. Cliedesk makes an article for review from the customer’s question and the public answers. If a published article has almost the same title, you get a draft named Proposed update: … for that article instead. AI-written drafts are available with Cliedesk Pro.

Delete an article

Deleted articles go to the trash first. You can restore them with their revisions and categories. The trash empties after 30 days (the WordPress default). Deleting from the trash needs Delete articles for good (admins).

Knowledge roles

The knowledge permissions are Read internal articles, Write articles, Publish articles, Manage help categories, Manage the help center and Delete articles for good. Ready-made knowledge roles (Knowledge admin, editor, contributor and viewer) are available with Cliedesk Pro. See Team and permissions.

To limit a role to some categories, use Settings → Help center → Who edits which categories. Sub-categories are included. People in that role cannot edit, publish or delete articles in other categories.