Create a knowledge document

User roles: KCS I, KCS II, KCS III, KM Admin, System Administrator

You contribute a knowledge document by authoring knowledge articles or using external documents that are uploaded into a knowledgebase. When you author a document, you will be asked to specify a document type. Knowledge documents can be saved as drafts before they are complete. You can also preview a document while you are creating it.

As part of the task to create a knowledge document, you need to assign it to a document category or several document categories, depending upon the topic of the knowledge document. After you have created the knowledge document, you need to either submit it for approval or publish it for either internal or external viewing. In the out-of-box system, a user with a KCS II profile can immediately publish a document for internal viewing and a user with a KCS III profile can immediately publish a document for an internal or external audience.

To create a knowledge document, follow these steps:

1. Click Knowledge Management > Contribute Knowledge.
2. Double-click the document type from the list.
3. Type a title and summary for document.
4. (Optional) Specify an expiration date for the document.

5. (Optional) If you selected the "Reference" document type, you can specify a document subtype as appropriate. By default, the following subtypes are available:

   • Service Design Package (a document that provides the initial outline of a service agreement and denotes what agreements will be required, who the signatories shall be, and other process oriented details).

   • Service Quality Plan (SQP, a long term quality improvement plan for a service agreement)

   • Service Improvement Plan (SIP, a limited short term improvement plan for a service agreement)

   • Business case (provides a business justification for a change proposed by a formal Change Proposal)

   • Project Information (provides information about the project proposed by a formal Change Proposal)

   • Availability Plan

6. In the Locale list, choose the locale to be used by the search engine when searching and indexing the document. By default, the language code matches the language you logged in as. Changing this field overrides the Knowledgebase default locale setting.
7. Assign the document to a category.

   All documents in the knowledgebase are assigned to a document category. Categories for knowledge documents are ordered into hierarchies.

   Note When you contribute a new document, a draft document does not require a document category assignment, but any document that is going to be submitted for approval or published immediately must be assigned to at least one document category or subcategory.

   1. Click the Categorization / Flags tab.

   2. Click Add to display a list of document categories.
   3. Double-click the document category.

   4. Double-click the subcategory or click Skip to end the category or subcategory selection.

      Note If you assign the document to the wrong category, you can remain in the edit mode, select the category you want to delete, click Remove, and then click Add to assign the document to a new category.
      

8. If needed, repeat the steps until you are finished adding all the categories for the document.
9. Use the rich-text editor to enter text for the document.
10. If needed, add a file attachment to the document.

    1. Click the Attachments tab.
    2. Add a file by doing one of the following:
    • For Web-tier clients: click Add File, type the full path of the file in the File location text field or browse to the file, and then click OK.

    • For Windows clients: right-click in the blank area of the attachments list, click Add, browse to the file, and then click Open.

      Note If you are editing an attachment for an existing knowledge document, you must send the document to the workflow. You can then save the attachment to your desktop, make the necessary updates, save the changes, and then re-upload the attachment to the knowledge document.
      

11. If needed, insert a link to the attached file.

    1. Click in the rich-text editor, place the cursor where you want to insert the link, and then click the Insert a link toward an attached file icon on the rich-text editor toolbar.
    2. Type the name of the attached file in the Filter Text field, or leave the field blank so that all the attachments are listed for selection.
    3. In the Link Text field, specify the Alt Text for the link.
    4. Click Next and then double-click the name of the attached file from the list of files.
12. If needed, insert a link to another knowledge document.

    1. Click in the rich-text editor field to position the location for the link.
    2. Click the Insert a link toward another record icon on the rich-text editor toolbar. The message "Document saved to allow attachment linking" appears.
    3. Click Knowledge Document in the Select Link Type wizard and edit the Link Text label.
    4. Click Next and then type the document ID. The document must be a published document in the database, and you must have view access to at least one of the categories to which the document belongs.
    5. Click Finish and then click Preview to view your document and the new link.

    6. Click the link to verify that it links correctly.

       Note The link does not open until the document in which you are trying to add the link is either published internally or externally.

    7. Click Back, and then click Back again.
13. If needed, insert an image to the document.

    Note The html toolbar that allows you to insert an image is not visible if you select the document type as External.

    1.  If your document does not yet have the image as an attached file, attach the image as described above.
    2. Click the Insert an image icon on the rich-text editor toolbar.

    3. Type the name of the image file in the Filter Text field, or leave the field blank so that all of the image files listed on the Attachments tab are included in the selection wizard.

       Note You can attach only .jpg and .gif format images.

    4. In the Link Text field, specify the Alt Text for the image.
    5. Update the default Image Height and Image Width as required.
    6. Click Next.
    7. Double-click the image file name in the list.
14. Click the Preview button to view the document.
15. Click Back.
16. If you want to save the document as a draft, click Save Draft.
17. Click Save or click the applicable button to submit the document for approval or to publish the document immediately if you are a KCS II or KCS III for the document category.

To delete a draft knowledge document you created:

1. Click Knowledge Management > Draft Documents.
2. Click Search. A list of draft documents display.
3. Select the document you want to delete.
4. Click Delete.
5. Click Yes in the confirmation window.