Create an article template

Templates are reusable starting points for articles. If your team writes a lot of “Troubleshooting” articles with the same scaffold — symptom, cause, fix, related — a template saves everyone the typing and keeps the shape consistent across the help center.

Before you start

• A user role that can edit Knowledge Base settings.
• A clear idea of the article type you want to template. Templates work best when the same structure repeats four or more times in your KB.

Steps

1. Open Settings → Knowledge and click the Templates tab.
2. Click Add Template.
3. Fill in:
   Name — what authors will see when picking a template. Examples: How-to, Troubleshooting, Release Notes, Feature overview.
   Description — a one-liner reminding authors when to reach for this template. Optional but helpful when you have several templates.
   Content — the actual structure of the template, written in the same rich-text editor used for articles. Include section headings, placeholder prompts (“Describe the symptom here”), and any boilerplate that should appear in every article of this type.
4. Click Save.

The template appears in the Templates list. Edit or delete it later via the same tab.

How authors apply a template

When creating a new article in the in-app editor:

1. A template selector appears near the top of the article body. Authors choose None (start blank) or one of the saved templates.
2. Picking a template prefills the article body with the template’s content.
3. If the author has already typed content into the body, they’re asked to confirm before the template replaces what they’ve written.

Authors can edit the prefilled content freely — the template is a starting point, not a constraint. Changes to the template don’t propagate to existing articles.

What templates are good for

• How-to — “Before you start”, “Steps” (numbered), “Verify it worked”, “Troubleshooting”, “See also”.
• Troubleshooting — “Symptom”, “Cause”, “Fix”, “Prevention”.
• Release notes — “Date”, “What’s new”, “What changed”, “Known issues”.
• Feature overview — “What it does”, “When to use it”, “How to set it up”, “Limitations”.

The template’s job is to remove the staring-at-a-blank-page tax. Authors who’d otherwise improvise structure now start with the shape your team has agreed on.

What templates are not

• They don’t enforce structure. Authors can delete the section headings or skip steps. Templates suggest; they don’t lock.
• They don’t auto-apply. A template only fills in when the author explicitly picks it. New articles default to blank.
• They don’t update existing articles. Changing the template’s content doesn’t ripple out. Articles already created from a previous version of the template keep their existing content.
• They aren’t multi-language. Templates are stored in your default language. Translations of articles produced from a template translate as normal.

When templates pay off

Templates are worth setting up when:

• You write four or more articles per month with the same shape.
• Multiple authors contribute and you want the help center to feel consistent.
• New authors join occasionally and a template shortens their ramp.

If you have one author writing occasional articles, templates are usually overkill — the author already knows the shape they prefer.

Common gotchas

• The template selector appears in the editor for new articles. Existing articles don’t get a “apply template” button — templates are a starting-state choice, not an ongoing one.
• Authors must confirm before overwriting. If they’ve started typing and pick a template, the editor prompts to replace existing content. Saying yes overwrites; saying no keeps what they had.
• Templates aren’t versioned. Editing a template changes future article starts; previously created articles aren’t affected.
• Deleting a template doesn’t affect articles already created from it. Their content is independent.

See also

• Create an article
• What is the Knowledge Base?
• The article lifecycle