Articles

The Articles page lists all your articles, with an overview of their category, status, and any translations.

On this page you access functions to create a new article, manage categories, and view and edit existing articles.

Create an article

To create a new article in your knowledge base, on the Articles page, click New article and you’ll be taken to the article editor.

The article editor is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) type editor so you can easily see how your article will look when it’s published.

To start, add a descriptive title. The title you create will become the slug part of the URL for your article, for example: https://example.us.talkkb.com/getting-started.

Then, add a description for your article. The description won’t be shown in your article when it’s published, because it’s used for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes.

The description should provide a clear overview of what the article is about so a user knows if the article contains the information they’re looking for. Learn more about article SEO below.

Write the body of your article in the editor. Double-click on the text to access formatting options, including headings, alignment, and to add a link.

Click the add icon to access a menu of content components to insert, including:

• Image — Upload an image, or drag and drop an image, to add it to your article. The supported image types are: .jpeg, .gif, .png, .webp, .tiff, .tif, and .bmp.
• Video — Input the link to a video hosted on YouTube, Vimeo or similar.
• Table  — Click the + icons to add columns and rows. Toggle on/off header columns and rows. Click and drag borders to resize columns and rows.
• Callout — Ideal for adding admonitions for which you can specify the type using text and color, e.g. blue for a NOTE, green for a TIP, red for important information or a WARNING.
• Button — Ideal for a call-to-action. Add a link and set the position as required.
• Code — Add blocks of code and create syntax highlighting by choosing the relevant language from the drop-down option.
• Accordion — Allow users to show/hide content they want to read. Accordions are ideal for containing content which is relevant for different users, for example, placing region-specific information within different accordions.
• Divider — These help to visually separate content into themes, hierarchies, or sections.

Once you’ve finished creating your article, click Publish changes.

When you’re ready to show the article in your knowledge base, exit the editor to return to the article view. Then switch the article ON.

Text formatting

The text formatting options (e.g. bold, italics, link, list) are shown when you highlight some or all of the text you want to format.



In addition to using the formatting menu options, you can use some basic Markdown syntax to create different heading levels, blockquotes, and ordered and unordered lists.

For example, to create headings, use a relevant number of # symbols before the heading text:

• # Heading 1,
• ## Heading 2,
• ### Heading 3, and so on.

A blockquote is created by preceding the text with a >. To escape the blockquote formatting, press the down arrow on your keyboard to start a new line.

Create lists like so:

• Use *, or - for unordered list items. For example:
  • * Item 1
  • * Item 2
  • * Item 3, and so on
• Use numbers for ordered list items. For example:
  • 1. Item 1,
  • 2. Item 2,
  • 3. Item 3, and so on

In a list, create multi-level or indented list items by clicking the Tab key on your keyboard (or Shift+Tab to un-indent an item).

Undo and redo

Undo and redo actions are available at the top-left of the article editor.

You can also use keyboard shortcuts:

• Undo: Cmd+Z / Ctrl+Z
• Redo: Shift+Cmd+Y / Ctrl+Y

Version history

Click the version history icon in the top-right corner of an article to access a list of the article’s versions.

When you click on a particular version of an article. Having Show changes in article selected will enable you to see the differences from the current version highlighted in green (for additions) and red (for deletions). You’ll then have the option to restore the current version to the selected version.

Heading anchor links

Each heading in an article has an anchor link which you can use to reference in your text.

To capture a heading's anchor link:

• Click in or next to the heading.
• When the link icon appears, click it and the anchor link will be copied.
• Select the text you want to link to the heading:
  • Click the link option in the formatting menu.
  • Paste the anchor link.
  • Click the link icon to save the link.

Import articles

You can import existing articles hosted by a third-party data source, such as Intercom, Zendesk or Help Scout.

To import articles to your knowledge base:

1. On the Articles page, click the … more icon > Import articles.
2. You'll be taken to the knowledge base setup wizard. Make any content and style changes required then click Next.
3. Select the data source you wish to import from.
   • If importing from Intercom or Zendesk, you'll need to connect it as a data source before you can proceed.
   • If importing from Help Scout, you don't need to connect it as a data source, but you will need to supply the Docs API Key from your Help Scout account. You can find the key in your Help Scout profile at Authentication > API Keys > Docs API.
4. Click Import to proceed.
5. The importer will bring your articles and categories into your Ortto knowledge base.

Once your articles and categories are imported, you can edit and manage them as needed within your knowledge base.

View an article

From the Articles page, click on an article’s title to access it’s view. In the article’s view, you can see its status, translations (if enabled), key details and SEO, a preview, and a report.

Show or hide the article from your knowledge base using the ON/OFF toggle. Switching an article OFF will make it unavailable to users (it can’t be accessed via the navigation menus, search function or via URL).

To make changes to the article, click Edit to access the article editor and publish your changes.

In the article’s Preview, if you have translations enabled you can view the different language versions of the article by clicking the language drop-down menu.

Click the Report tab to see the count of:

• Pageviews — how many times the article has been viewed.
• Conversations — shows you the number of conversations created where the customer gave a "No"; response to the article feedback widget and started a conversation with an agent to resolve their issue.

In the article's report, you'll also see a visualization of feedback from readers about whether the article resolved their issue, and a snapshot of the top reasons a customer's issue was not resolved, with a link to the relevant conversation.

Edit an article

When viewing an article, click Edit to access the editor. Make any changes required then click Publish changes to save your edits.

Archive an article

When viewing an article, click the …​ more icon to access the archive option.

Article SEO

The title and description you type into an article will become it’s Page title and Page description for SEO purposes.

The article’s URL will become available when the article is switched ON.

When a user reads the article in your knowledge base, the page title will be visible, however the page description will not (as it is designed to be used by search engines).

If a user performs a search via a search engine (like Google) that returns one of your knowledge base articles as a result, the page title will be shown and the page description may also be shown (but not always), so it’s important to write clear and descriptive page titles and page descriptions to help your users easily identify if an article contains the information they need.

Article translations

Learn more about article translations under Knowledge base translations.

Article feedback and connecting to Talk agents

When your article is published it will automatically have a feedback widget added at the bottom of the page. This lets your customer tell you whether or not the article resolved their issue.

If a customer clicks No on the feedback widget, it will give them the opportunity to describe their issue and start a conversation with a support agent to resolve it.

In the resulting conversation, the agent will be able to see the article the customer provided feedback on, and their feedback message.