Customize the public portal

The public help center is composed in the layout builder. You drag blocks onto a canvas for each of the three page types (homepage, category, article), tweak each block’s settings, and save. There’s no compile step — the public site picks up changes within a few seconds.

1. Open the layout builder

Go to Settings → Knowledge → Design. The builder takes the full screen with three areas:

• Block palette on the left — every block you can drop onto the canvas.
• Canvas in the middle — the page you’re currently editing.
• Settings panel on the right — the selected block’s config, or page-level settings if nothing is selected.

2. Pick the page you’re editing

The builder has tabs at the top for Homepage, Category page, and Article page. Each is its own block stack. Most teams start with the homepage and circle back to the others later.

3. Pick a layout shell

Click anywhere on empty canvas to deselect blocks, then look at the settings panel. The Layout dropdown picks the shell:

• Full-width — edge-to-edge, no sidebar.
• Left sidebar — persistent left nav.
• Centered — constrained column.

Pick one. The shell applies to all three pages. You can change it later but it’ll shift the visual rhythm of the whole site.

4. Drop blocks onto the canvas

From the block palette, drag a block onto the canvas. It snaps into a new row. Drag it up or down to reorder.

Common homepage stacks:

• Hero search → Category grid → Featured article → Recent articles → Contact CTA — the classic shape.
• Hero search → Quick links → Section bar → Section grid → System status — when you have curated sections you want featured.
• Compact search → Announcement → Category list → Contact CTA — minimal, doc-style.

The category page typically wants: heading + article list. The article page is usually content + table of contents + related articles.

5. Configure each block

Click a block on the canvas. The settings panel on the right fills with that block’s config:

• Heading — what the section title says. Keep it short.
• Description — optional subtitle under the heading.
• Block-specific — varies. A Featured Article block has an “article picker”; a Section Grid has a “section picker”; a Recent Articles block has a “limit” setting.
• Image / icon — optional, depending on the block.

Save changes — the canvas updates immediately.

See the Portal blocks reference for every block’s settings.

6. Edit the chrome (header, sidebar, footer)

The header, sidebar, and footer are configured separately from page blocks. Look for the Header, Sidebar, Footer tabs in the builder.

• Header — logo position, navigation items, search bar visibility.
• Sidebar — only relevant if you picked the left-sidebar shell. Lists categories, sections, or both.
• Footer — links, copyright text, social icons.

7. Preview

The Preview button at the top opens your help center as a customer would see it, in a new tab. It’s the live site — the public URL — so the URL also goes to anyone who visits it.

If you want to preview without making changes public, set unfinished blocks’ visibility to off via the block-level toggle, save, then enable them only when you’re ready.

8. Save and ship

Save explicitly via the Save button. The site is live. Refresh the public URL to see the changes.

There’s no “publish” step distinct from save — the builder writes directly to the live config. If you want a staged rollout, work on the staging tenant first (see your environments setup).

Common patterns

• Add a featured article for a launch. Drop a Featured Article block on the homepage near the top, point it at the launch article, save. Pull the block when the launch is no longer relevant.
• Surface a known issue. Add an Announcement block at the top of the homepage with a heading like “Outage notice” and a link to the relevant article. Remove it when the issue is resolved.
• Highlight a section. If you’ve created a “Most popular” section, drop a Section Grid block, point it at that section, set a 6-article limit. The grid updates automatically as views shift.

Reverting a change

The builder doesn’t have explicit version history. Save creates a new active config; the previous one is overwritten. If you want to experiment, make a screenshot of the layout you like before changing anything significant.