Build Your Knowledge Base

To access Salesforce Knowledge, think about tabs. You can always get to articles from the tab menu. But let’s make articles more accessible by adding the Knowledge tabs to the Service app.

1. From any app, click the plus sign at the end of the tabs. Notice that you now have the Article Management tab and Knowledge tab available. The tabs are listed alphabetically.
   
   
2. Click Customize My Tabs.
   
   
   
   
3. In the Custom App drop-down, select Service.
   
   
4. Select Article Management and Knowledge in the Available Tabs box.
   
   
5. Click the Add arrow to move it to the Selected Tabs box.
   
   
6. Optionally, you can move them up in the tab order and remove any unwanted tabs.
   
   
7. Click Save.
   
   

Now the Salesforce Knowledge tabs are easily accessible from the Service app!

When agents are busy working on cases in the console, suggested articles appear in the console's sidebar to help them close cases faster. But to create articles, agents have to go the Knowledge tabs outside of the console.

Article types, such as FAQs and procedures, provide a format, or structure, for agents to compose quality articles. An article-type is created for you to get started, but it has no fields for content. Let’s add a field so you can start capturing knowledge.

1. From Setup, type Knowledge into the Quick Find box.
   
   
2. Click Knowledge Article Types. If Lightning Knowledge is enabled in your org, you see Knowledge Object Setup instead.
   
   
3. Click Knowledge in the Label column.
   
   
4. Click New in the Fields section.
   
   
   
   
5. Select Text Area (Rich).
   
   
6. Click Next.
   
   
7. Name your new field ArticleBody.
   
   
8. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
9. Here’s where you can hide this field from user profiles to add more security. Since your profile is System Administrator, the field is visible to you by default. For now, let’s leave the default settings and click Next.
   
   
   
   
10. You must connect the article-type to a page layout. By default, the field is added as the last field in the first section, the information section. Let’s again go with the default settings and click Save.
    

The new field, ArticleBody, is added alphabetically to the article type detail page in the Fields section.

Great, so you’ve got easy access to the Salesforce Knowledge tabs but you don’t have any articles. Let’s get you some articles! As the system administrator, you can create an article from either the Knowledge or the Article management tab. Let’s do it from the Knowledge tab because it’s prettier.

1. Click the Knowledge tab.
   
   
2. Click Create Article.
   
   
3. Select the Knowledge article type.
   
   
   
   
4. Create a title for your article, such as “Our company address.”
   
   
5. Write a description, this goes under the title in the search results.
   
   
6. Put your company address in the rich text area field you created in the last unit. Notice that the article is available by default to your internal users.
   
   
7. Click Save.
   
   

Let’s get that article out to all the users in your organization!

1. If you’ve navigated away from the article you created, you can find it in either tab, Knowledge or Article Management, under My Drafts.
   
   
   
   
2. Click the Our company address draft. Notice that the article now has an article number and a publishing status.
   
   
3. Click Publish.
   
   
   
   
4. Determine if you want to publish now or at a scheduled time in the future. Let’s stick with the default once again and publish now.
   
   
5. Click OK.
   
   
   
   

Salesforce Knowledge takes you back to the Knowledge tab and your article is at the top of the list!

Also, when your agents are working on cases in a console, the article magically appears in the Knowledge sidebar, if it is relevant to the case.