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.

Using the rich-text editor

You can use the rich-text editor to author documents, and you can add documents as attachments that can include images, text files, Word files, or PDFs. The rich-text editor allows you to author documents in a WYSIWYG environment. It provides an embedded, rich-text editor in the Contribute New Knowledge function, and it provides most of the standard features available for authoring and editing knowledge documents. You can also use the editor to create new document views.

Its features include:

• Standard text formatting
• Font formatting
• Table creation
• Spell checker
• Supports paste from Word documents
• Support links and anchors

The rich-text editor toolbar contains many of the common icons and editing functions available with most word processors. For example, with the rich-text editor you can cut, paste, and copy text. You can search for a text string within the text. You can select from a small group of font types and size to stylize the text in the document you are authoring. There is a table wizard you can use to add a table to your document.

In addition to the standard functions of a word processor, you can also use the rich-text editor to add links in your document to other documents that are either document attachments for the document you are authoring or links to other documents in the knowledgebase. There is also a Source button that displays the HTML code used in the document. This is particularly useful when you are creating particular document views for the document types.

Attachments to knowledge documents

Knowledge document attachments consist of shared content and document- or record-type attachments. Shared content usually consists of company logos or other branding elements used in the knowledge documents stored in the knowledgebase. The document- or record-type attachments are files or records attached to a particular knowledge document or several documents. These attachments include summary documents with links to more detailed documents, a knowledge document with a link to a particular incident or known error record, error logs, screen shots, and policy or procedure documents to which many other documents refer. Generally, shared content has a one-to-many relationship with a document and linked attachments have a one-to-one relationship with a document.

When knowledge document attachments need updates, users must send those knowledge documents into the workflow. Editors can then view, edit, save, and re-upload updated attachments for knowledge documents.

Attachments maybe indexed for searching on a per-knowledgebase basis. Consult your Knowledge Management administrator to determine if attachments are indexed for the Knowledge Library knowledgebase.

To create a knowledge document, follow these steps:

1. Click Knowledge Management > Contribute Knowledge.

   A list of document types is displayed. The out-of-box document types are:

   • Error Message/Cause
   • External
   • Question/Answer
   • Problem/Solution
   • Reference

2. Select the document type you want from the list.

3. Complete the mandatory and optional fields on the form.

   Field	Description
   Title	A general or descriptive heading for this knowledge document. This is a mandatory field. Note If you install and enable the latest Smart Analytics for your Service Manager, the content in the Title field of this knowledge document is used as the search string for context-aware search. Depending on your Smart Search configurations, context-aware search can be either automatically triggered as you type in Title, or manually triggered by clicking the Context-aware search icon. You can also put the cursor in the Title field, and press Shift + Enter to trigger a context-aware search.
   Summary	A brief statement that presents the main points of the Knowledge document in a concise form. If this field is empty, the search engine may provide a dynamically generated summary.
   Expiration date	The date when this Knowledge document should be flagged as retired, for example, when the document may be out-of-date and require a review. A retired document can also be seen from the Knowledge KPI (Global) dashbard. After viewing such a report, a KCS II. KCS III, or an administrator can search for a retired document by id or title, review the document, and elect to send the document through a workflow for revision.
   Legislation	A drop-down field that you can modify to include specific legislation and regional requirements. Out-of-box options are listed as HIPAA, ISO/IEC 20,000, and SOX.
   Confirmed legal rights to publish this material	A check box that you must select to confirm that you have the legal rights to use the data contained within the document. If this option is not selected, when you attempt to publish the document, the system prompts you to confirm your legal rights to publish this document.
   Tags	Enter free-form tags (keywords or terms) of this document. The tags you enter are searchable and can be used as keywords to highlight important knowledge information.
   Document ID	This is a system-generated unique identification number for this document. Note This field is read-only.
   Document type	This read-only field indicates the document type you selected.
   Document subtype	Note Available only when you selected the Reference document type. You can optionally specify a document subtype as appropriate. By default, the following subtypes are available: Agreement: a document describing a formal understanding between two or more parties. An agreement is not legally binding unless it forms part of a Contract. 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 Service Improvement Plan: SIP, a limited, short-term improvement plan 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: a plan to ensure that existing and future availability requirements for IT services can be provided cost effectively Process Documentation: a storage of process related documentation, including Standard Operating Procedures, Organizational Charts & Responsibilities, Escalation Procedures, Contact Lists, Work Instructions, Process Schedules, and so on.
   Status	This read-only field indicates the current status of the document based on the pre-defined knowledge management workflow.
   Locale	In the drop-down 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.
   Reason for information	This text field can be used for describing the reason for this document or for additional copyright information.
   Associated Services	Click the Fill Field Associated Services icon to select one or multiple business services that are associated with this document. Specifying an associated service will cause this knowledge document and the service record to be linked to each other in their Related Records tab and Related Documents respectively. Once this knowledge document is published, it is listed in the Related Documents section of the service records. After you select the services, the Notify Service Subscribers on Publish option is displayed. Select this option if you want to notify users who have subscribed to this service once the document is published. To view subscribers to the services, click the View Subscribers icon. A list of users and departments actively subscribed to the selected services is displayed. Click the subscription ID link of a department to see users in that department.

4. 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.

   5. If needed, repeat the steps until you finish adding all the categories for the document.
   6. If you want to create this document as hot news, select the Hot News check box. For more information, see Contribute hot news.

   7. In the Associated CIs field, you can specify the CIs that are associated with this knowledge document if needed.

      Note Once the knowledge document is published, it is listed in the Related Documents section of each associated CI record.

      Note The Associated CIs field is available for the Reference document type only.

5. Use the rich-text editor to enter text for the document.

6. If needed, add a file attachment to the document.

   1. Click the Attachments tab.

      Note Administrators can define supported attachment file types. See .

   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.
     

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.
10. If needed, click the Link icon to insert a hyperlink to an external web site.

11. Click the Preview button to view the document. The following information is also displayed:

    • Document Id
    • Document Type
    • Document subtype (available only for the Reference type)
    • Summary
    • Creation Date
    • Expiration Date
    • Author
    • Associated Services (if selected)
    • Tags
    • Related Documents
12. Click Back.
13. If you want to save the document as a draft, click Save Draft.

14. 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.

    Once the document is published, the following information is also displayed to users: Document Id, Document Type, Document subtype, Summary, Creation Date, Expiration Date, Author, Tags, Associated Services, and Related Documents (Document subtype is available only for the Reference type).

To delete a draft knowledge document you created:

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

Related topics

Knowledge documents
Submit a document for approval