Knowledge Article Fields

The Subject field is used to enter a short description of the knowledge article. When the knowledge article is used to register a new request, this short description is entered in the Subject field of the new request.

The Problem field shows the problem for which the instructions of the knowledge article offer a workaround.

The Status field is used to select the current status of the knowledge article.

The available options are:

• Work In Progress – The knowledge article has been added, but is not yet ready for use.
• Not Validated – The knowledge article is available to all specialists of the account, but has not yet been validated.
• Validated – The knowledge article has been reviewed and is available to the people selected in the visibility options.
• Archived – The information in the knowledge article is no longer relevant and is no longer available to specialists, key contacts or end users.

Specialists can create and update knowledge articles with the status “Work In Progress” or “Not Validated” and select either of these status options. A person who has the Knowledge Manager role of the account in which the knowledge article is registered can update any knowledge article regardless of its status and select any status option.

The Archive date field is used to select the date on which the knowledge article should no longer be offered to anyone. At the start of this day, the status of the knowledge article is automatically updated to “Archived”.

The Created by field displays the name of the person who created the knowledge article.

The Created field displays the date and time at which the knowledge article was originally created.

The Updated field displays the date and time at which the knowledge article was last updated.

The Internal specialists box is checked when the knowledge article needs to be available to the people who have the Specialist role of the account in which the article is registered.

The Covered specialists box is checked when the knowledge article needs to be available to the people who are a member of the support team of one of the service instances that are selected in the Coverage section of an active SLA for the service that is linked to the article.

The Key contacts box is checked when the knowledge article needs to be available to the people who have the Key Contact role of the customer account of an active SLA for the service that is linked to the article.

The End users box is checked when the knowledge article needs to be available to anyone who is covered by an active SLA for the service that is linked to the article.

The Public box is checked when the knowledge article needs to be available to anyone, without the need to log in to 4me. After saving, a public link is generated from which the article is accessible.

The Service field is used to select the service for which the knowledge article is made available.

The Service instances field is used to select the instances of the service for which the knowledge article is relevant. Leaving this field empty assumes that the article is relevant for all people who are covered by an active SLA for any instance of the service.

Selecting one or more service instances ensures that the article can be found only by people who are covered for one of these service instances, provided that the visibility options provide them access, plus the specialists who support them.

The Knowledge manager field displays the name of the person who is selected as the knowledge manager in the service for which the knowledge article was written.

The Language field is used to select a language in which the text in the Subject, Keywords, Description and Instructions fields needs to be translated. The text in these fields is, by default, stored in the language of the account. Additional translations can be added for people whose language preference is different from the language of the account. When someone’s language preference is different from the language of the account and any of the knowledge article’s translations, then the knowledge article will be provided for this person in the language of the account.

Translations can be added for an article by clicking on the Actions button in the header bar (the button with the cog wheel) and then selecting ‘Translations…’. This will take the user to the right knowledge article in the ‘Translations’ section of the Settings page. From there, translations for any supported language can be created or removed.

The Keywords field is used to add words that are not included in the service name, subject, description or instructions of the knowledge article. The keywords that are added allow users to find the knowledge article when they execute a search using these words.

The Description field is used to describe the situation and/or environment in which the instructions of the knowledge article may be helpful. This field can also be used to add terms to optimize the knowledge base search results by adding words or phrases that specialists or end users may use to look for the knowledge in this article.

This field allows basic text formatting.

The Instructions field is used to enter instructions for the service desk analysts, specialists and/or end users who are likely to look up the knowledge article to help them with their work or to resolve an issue. When the knowledge article is applied to a request, the instructions are added to the request’s Note field.

This field allows basic text formatting.

The Attach file… link is used to attach a file to the knowledge article. Multiple attachments can be added to a knowledge article.

The Times applied field displays the number of times that the knowledge article was applied to a request that was completed in this account in the past 90 days.

The Positive feedback field displays the number of people who pressed the thumbs up icon below the knowledge article in the past 90 days.

The Negative feedback field displays the number of people who pressed the thumbs down icon below the knowledge article in the past 90 days.