Creating Knowledge Base Topics
Knowledge base solutions are organized by a hierarchy of topics and subtopics. When you publish a topic, you also publish its subtopics and the solutions attached to these subtopics.
Administrators must assign the Knowledge Base permission to a user before they can create and publish a knowledge base article, setting the level to Full. For information on how to assign permissions, see Using the Global Permissions Feature.
To create a topic:
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Go to Cases > Customer Service > Topics > New.
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In the Title field, enter a name for this topic that solutions and subtopics can be organized under.
For example, if you will be entering several solutions on fixing the sound quality of your speakers, create a topic titled Speaker Sound Quality.
This title shows in the Topics list, in a published knowledge base and as a choice on the Topics subtab of solution records.
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If this topic is a subtopic of a more general topic, select the parent topic in the Subtopic Of field.
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In the Brief Description field, enter a description for this topic.
The brief description shows with the title on the Topics list and wherever this topic is published.
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In the Detailed Description field, enter a longer and more specific description of this topic and its contents.
The detailed description shows when the topic title is clicked.
You can enter HTML and javascript in this field.
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Click Save.
After saving the knowledge base topic, four subtabs are added to the topic record:
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SubTopics - create additional subtopics and reorder list.
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Solutions - append solutions to the topic and reorder list.
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Notes - add notes relating to the topic and view the system notes.
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Publish - edit which knowledge base the topic belongs to and where it appears in the topic hierarchy.
For more information about publishing topics, see Publishing a Knowledge Base.
When a topic is published, you can click the Publish subtab of the topic's record to see where it is published.
When you have created your topics and subtopics, you can create solutions to place in these topics. Enter new solutions at Cases > Customer Service > Solutions > New. For more information about creating solutions, see Creating Knowledge Base Solutions.
If solutions or subtopics are placed in a topic, you cannot delete that topic, but you can inactivate it.
When you inactivate a topic:
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The topic's subtopics are inactivated.
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It no longer appears in the Topics list.
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You can not select the topic on Solution records.
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Its subtopics and solutions are removed from the tabs and categories they are published to.
Solutions on inactive topics can still be published in other active topics.