Use this guide to learn how to create,

edit, and manage knowledge base

articles in the KnowledgeOwl software

How to Use
KnowledgeO
wl
An introduction to creating
and editing articles
Turner McCulley
Ziwen Chen
Stephanie Nash
Willie Roach

TABLE OF CONTENTS
About KnowledgeOwl.....................................................................................................................1
How to Login to KnowledgeOwl....................................................................................................1
How to Search for an Article...........................................................................................................3
How to Create an Article.................................................................................................................4
How to Make your Article More Searchable...................................................................................8
Find Articles You That May Need Better SearchabilIty..............................................................8
Making the Article More Searchable...........................................................................................9
How to Edit an Article...................................................................................................................10
How to Set Security Features.........................................................................................................11
Configure Your Site For Restricting Access..............................................................................11
Assigning Group Roles To your Knowledge Base....................................................................12
Creating New Readers and Assigning Them Access roups.......................................................13
Restricting Catagories to Groups...............................................................................................15
Restricting Articles to Groups...................................................................................................16

ABOUT KNOWLEDGEOWL
KnowledgeOwl is an easy-to-use knowledge base software that is web based and powerful. It
allows for the creation and sharing of how to articles. It allows employees to share the
knowledge they have obtained with others in the company. Search KnowledgeOwl to find
solutions to your issue and create articles to instruct others how to resolve issues you have
researched! Document and share your knowledge with KnowledgeOwl to save time and help
others!

HOW TO LOGIN TO KNOWLEDGEOWL

1. Navigate to https://www.knowledgeowl.com/

2. Click Login at the top right

3. Enter your email and password then click Login

4. You are now logged into KnowledgeOwl!

HOW TO SEARCH FOR AN ARTICLE

1. Navigate to the knowledge base home page at http://wsuwrtg402.knowledgeowl.com/
2. Enter your login username and password.
3. Navigate to the Search bar in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage.

4. Enter a keyword pertaining to the article or information you are looking for. In this case,
we will try searching for the term Java to look for articles relating to the program Java.

5. Click on the search icon or hit enter to bring up your search results. A list of articles will
display that are relevant to your keyword search!

HOW TO CREATE AN ARTICLE

Creating a great looking instructional article is easy with KnowledgeOwl. To create an article:
1. From the login home page, click the knowledge base you would like to create the article
in

2.

Click Add Article

3. Fill in a title for the article you are creating

4. Chose one of the below options:

a. Create a new article. This option gives you a blank starting point for you to
create an article from
b. Create from existing. This option allows you to copy an existing article and use
it as a template for creating a new article.
c. Link content to existing article. This option allows you to create a new entry
and links the new entry to another existing article.

5. Click the Add and Edit button

6. This brings you to an HTML editor for you to write your article. Use the Format dropdown to select the type of text you would like to enter. This allows you to choose from
differing heading options and normal text

7. To insert a numbered list, choose the numbered list button and then start typing you list

8. To add a link to a web page:

a. Click the Link button in the toolbar

b. Insert the URL into the URL field and click OK

9. To insert an image:
a. Click the Add File / Image button

b. Select Upload New File

c. Browse to your file, highlight it, then click Open

d. Click the Insert File button

e. Your image is now in the document

10. You can bold, italicize or underline from the toolbar

11. Once you have filled in all your instructions, scroll to the bottom and assign the article
tags. These tags will help people search for the article. Tag any item that this article is

about. After each tab hit the enter or tab key.

12. Fill in the Search Phrases entry with any phrase someone might use to find this article.
Hit the enter or tab key after each phrase to start a new one.

13. Once you have completed your article you will need to publish it
a. Scroll to the top and find the Publishing Status drop-down at the top right 3

b. From the Publishing Status drop-down, select Published

c. Click the Save button

14. You have now created and published your article!

HOW TO MAKE YOUR ARTICLE MORE SEARCHABLE

If people are having a hard time finding your article, you can add tags and search phrases to help
people more easily find your article.

FIND ARTICLES YOU THAT MAY NEED BETTER SEARCHABILITY

You can use the reporting dashboard to see searches that did not return results. You can use this
to identify articles you need to create and use it to link these search terms to an existing article.
1. From the top menu, click on Reporting then select the Dashboard option

2. Scroll to the bottom of the reporting dashboard and find the section Searches with no
Results. This contains a list of searches that the user did not find an article for. If there is

an article that already exists for this issue, it will need better tags and search phrases

3. Use this view to create a list of tags and phrases that should be attached to the article. In
this example, the tag Mini-tab and Minitab should be added to the installing Minitab
article
MAKING THE ARTICLE MORE SEARCHABLE
1. Click on the wrench icon next to the article you would like to edit

2. Scroll to the bottom of the edit page until you see the Tags and Search Phrases entries
3. Input tags for the item. After each tag hit the tab or enter key to input another one. These
tags should contain the popular search terms for the item

4. Go to the search phrases section and input any search phrases someone may use to look
for the article. Hit the tab or enter key after each phrase to start a new one

5. Scroll to the top of the page and click the Save button at the top right

6. If a user uses these tags or phrases they should now find the article!

HOW TO EDIT AN ARTICLE

You can edit articles that have been added to your KnowledgeOwl knowledge base. Articles that
you have access to can be edited.
1. Select the article in your knowledge base that you would like to edit. In the bottom lefthand corner, click on the Edit in App button.

2. This will bring you to the edit page, where you can add to, delete from or edit your
article.

3. Once you are done editing your article, click

HOW TO SET SECURITY FEATURES

By default, new articles are visible to everyone that has access to your KnowledgeOwl
knowledge base. You can set security settings on Articles and Categories to restrict these items to
only certain users.

CONFIGURE YOUR SITE FOR RESTRICTING ACCESS

To edit the security settings of an individual article:
1. Click on Settings from the top menu and then select Security

2. Change the access security to one of the below levels that will restrict access
a. None no article security can be set. All people can access all knowledge base
articles
b. Restrict by reader logins -You can restrict articles to certain logged in users
c. Restrict by IP address or shared password Restrict the articles so only certain
IP addresses can access articles or force the user to use a password to access the
article
d. Remote Authentication this advanced feature allows the use of your existing
login infrastructure. More information can be found at
http://support.knowledgeowl.com/help/article/link/remote-authentication
3. For the purpose of this tutorial, the Restrict by reader logins will be used. Select this
option

4. Now set your sites settings to Inclusive or Exclusive. For the purpose of this article, we
will select inclusive.
a. Inclusive Readers only need to be in one of the groups the article is in, not
every single group on the list. For instance, if the article is set for the groups IT
Technicians and End Users the reader will only need to be in one or the other
groups.
b. Exclusive The user must be in every single group the article is designed for. For
instance, if the article is set for the groups IT Technicians and End Users the
reader will need to be in both of these groups to access the article.

5. Scroll to the bottom of the settings page and click the Save button

ASSIGNING GROUP ROLES TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE BASE

After configuring your site to restrict the site per user login, you will need to set roles for your
users. This will allow you to restrict access to only users with the correct group.
1. From the top right of the website, click Your Account then select Readers

2. Now select the Groups tab

3. Select Add Group

4. Input the name of the security group you would like to create. Examples: IT Technicians,
Finance Team, Sales Team, End User.

5. Click the Create Group button

6. Repeat for each group you would like to create

CREATING NEW READERS AND ASSIGNING THEM ACCESS ROUPS

1. From the top right of the website, click Your Account then select Readers

2. Click the Add Single Reader button

3. Fill in the below attributes for the new user

a. Login/Username
b. First Name
c. Last Name
d. Password

4. Check the groups the user is a member of

5. Check the site that you want the user to have access to

6. Click Save

7. You have now created a user and added him to security a group
RESTRICTING CATAGORIES TO GROUPS
Categories are like folders that can contain many related articles. You can restrict access to all
articles a folder.
1. From the knowledge base page, click the wrench icon next to the category you want to
edit

2. From the right column, select the groups you would like to have access by checking the
box next to the group

3. Click the Save button at the top right to save this setting

4. The security setting for the category has now been set! Only users with the selected group
assigned will be able to access articles in the category unless the security has been set for
the article individually.
RESTRICTING ARTICLES TO GROUPS
If an Article is not inside a category, or you wish to override the categorys security, you can set
the security on the article individually.
7. Click on the wrench icon next to the article you
would like to edit

Remember
If you set your site to Exclusive, the
person will need to be in all the
checked categories to have access.
If you set your site to Inclusive,
then the user will only need to be in
one of the checked groups to have
access

8. From the right column, under Restrict to Groups check the security group(s) you would
like to have access to the article. You can also set this at the time you create the article.

9. Click the Save button

Note
10. You have now set the articles security permission!

Any setting besides

None/Inherit will override
the category setting.
If None/Inherit is checked
the article will take its
permissions from the
categorys permissions.