Lightning Knowledge Guide

Lightning Knowledge Guide
Salesforce, Spring ’24
@salesforcedocs
Last updated: January 12, 2024
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CONTENTS
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Plan Your Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Knowledge Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Compare Lightning Knowledge with Classic Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Lightning Knowledge Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Knowledge Limitations in the Salesforce Mobile App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Set Up Lightning Knowledge with a Guided Setup Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Set Up and Configure Lightning Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Enable Lightning Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Record Type Considerations for Lightning Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Lightning Knowledge Home and Record Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Lightning Knowledge User Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Article History Tracking (Lightning Experience) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Define Validation Status Picklist Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Set Up Actions to Insert Articles into Channels in Lightning Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Set Up Actions to Share Article URLs in Channels and Case Publishers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Use Your Lightning Knowledge Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Search for Knowledge Articles in Lightning Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Use the Lightning Knowledge Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Report on Salesforce Knowledge Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Import Articles to Salesforce Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Create a .csv File for Article Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Set Article Import Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Create an Article .zip File for Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Article and Translation Import and Export Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Support Articles in Multiple Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Work with Articles and Translations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Publish Articles and Translations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Translate Articles in Lightning Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Archive Articles and Translations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Set Up Primary Article and Translation Side-By-Side View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Define Data Categories for Your Lightning Knowledge Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Work with Data Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Create and Modify Category Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Add Data Categories to Category Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Contents
Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Data Category Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Sharing for Lightning Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Choose the Sharing or Access Model for Lightning Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
CREATE A KNOWLEDGE BASE WITH SALESFORCE
KNOWLEDGE
Give website visitors, customers, partners, and service agents the ultimate support tool. Create a
EDITIONS
knowledge base of articles that can be securely shared.
Your Salesforce Knowledge base is built from knowledge articles, which are documents of Available in: Salesforce
information. Articles can include information on process, like how to reset your product to its Classic (not available in all
defaults, or frequently asked questions, like how much storage your product supports. orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Experienced service agents and internal writers write the articles. The articles are then published
and can be used internally or externally in a range of channels. You can publish articles in customer Salesforce Knowledge is
and partner sites and public websites or share articles in social posts and emails. Control where and available in Essentials and
what information is published or shared based on the article page layouts, user profiles, actions, the Unlimited Edition with
and other settings. Service Cloud.
You can use Knowledge in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience. Orgs new to Knowledge Salesforce Knowledge is
use Lightning Knowledge, which is generally available. If your org already uses Knowledge in available for an additional
Salesforce Classic, consider using the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool and switching to Lightning cost in: Professional,
Knowledge. Enterprise, Performance,
and Developer Editions. For
Note: Enabling Lightning Knowledge changes your org's data model to use record types more information, contact
rather than article types. After you enable Lightning Knowledge, you can't disable it. Before your Salesforce
enabling Lightning Knowledge, orgs with multiple articles types require data migration to representative.
consolidate article types. Test in a sandbox or trial org before enabling in production.
Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources

Find the information you need about Salesforce Knowledge. Explore help documentation, developer documentation, and Trailhead
modules.
Plan Your Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience
It's important that you consider your individual company’s needs while you develop a strategy for capturing and publishing your
support team’s expertise. With a robust knowledge base, customers receive service faster or even solve their own issues.
Knowledge Scalability
Every Salesforce Knowledge article can have several versions: one draft, one published, and several archived versions, and each of
these versions can have multiple translations. Thus, the total number of article versions in an org can be much higher than the number
of articles. When scaling your org, pay attention to both the total number of article versions and edition-specific limits on articles.
Compare Lightning Knowledge with Classic Knowledge
Review the differences between Knowledge in Salesforce Classic and Knowledge in Lightning Experience.
Lightning Knowledge Limitations
Welcome to your handy guide to the way things work—or don’t—in Lightning Knowledge. Keep these considerations in mind
whether you’re starting fresh or making the switch to Lightning Knowledge.
Knowledge Limitations in the Salesforce Mobile App
Knowledge articles are available in the Salesforce apps for Android version 8.0 or later and iOS, version 10.0 or later. Learn what's
different or not available in the app.
1
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge
Set Up Lightning Knowledge with a Guided Setup Flow

The Lightning Knowledge setup flow is a quick way to get your knowledge base started. Whether it’s a secure customer portal, part
of your public site, or integrated into a public customer Experience Cloud site, your knowledge base is an extension of your service
website. Enable Lightning Knowledge, choose article authors, and make a few data category groups. Build the momentum by
configuring page layouts, record types, and processes.
Set Up and Configure Lightning Knowledge
Enable Lightning Knowledge, create Knowledge record types, customize your record type page layouts, set access for Knowledge
users, and create a Lightning Knowledge process.
Use Your Lightning Knowledge Base
Search articles, author and manage articles, use the Knowledge component in the Lightning Service Console, and create Knowledge
reports.
Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
Import external articles or an information database into Salesforce Knowledge. To move content from Classic to Lightning Knowledge,
use the migration tool.
Support Knowledge Articles in Multiple Languages
Reach a wider audience by providing knowledge articles in any Salesforce-supported languages. Translate articles in-house or work
with a localization vendor.
Define Data Categories for Your Lightning Knowledge Articles
Create data categories and data category groups to help Knowledge users and customers find what they need. Some data category
information doesn’t apply to Lightning Knowledge.
Sharing for Lightning Knowledge
Control access to knowledge articles in Lightning Experience with organization-wide defaults, owner role hierarchy-based access,
and sharing rules.
SEE ALSO:
2
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources

Find the information you need about Salesforce Knowledge. Explore help documentation, developer
EDITIONS
documentation, and Trailhead modules.
Available in: Salesforce
Classic (not available in all
Overview of Salesforce Knowledge orgs) and Lightning
• Salesforce Knowledge Experience
• Plan Your Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience
Salesforce Knowledge is
• Plan Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic available in Essentials and
• Lightning Knowledge Guide Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
• Salesforce Knowledge Guide (Classic)
available for an additional
Set up Lightning Knowledge cost in: Professional,
Enterprise, Performance,
• Enable Lightning Knowledge and Developer Editions. For
• Set Up and Configure Lightning Knowledge more information, contact
• Record Type Considerations for Lightning Knowledge your Salesforce
representative.
• Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
• Lightning Knowledge Home and Record Pages on page 17
• Lightning Knowledge User Access
Use Salesforce Knowledge in Lightning Experience

• Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge on page 27
• Search Articles in the Global Search Box and the Knowledge Component on page 26
• Use the Lightning Knowledge Component on page 30
• Sharing for Lightning Knowledge on page 82
Migrate from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Knowledge

• Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool
• Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool Features and Considerations
Set up Classic Knowledge

• Build Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic
• Knowledge Article Types
• Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
• Classic Knowledge User Access
• Workflow and Approvals for Articles
3
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources
Use Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic

• Search Articles and External Sources on the Knowledge Tab
– Find Knowledge Articles in Salesforce Classic
– Articles or Knowledge Tab
– For searching and viewing Salesforce Knowledge Articles on your Android device, see Access Salesforce Knowledge Articles with
Salesforce for Android (no longer beta) and Salesforce App Differences from the Full Salesforce Site
• Create and Edit Articles

• Publish Articles and Translations
Trailhead
• Knowledge Basics (Lightning)
• Knowledge Basics (Classic)
• Knowledge Search Basics (Classic)
Define Data Categories for Your Salesforce Knowledge Articles

• Work with Data Categories
• Create and Modify Category Groups
• Add Data Categories to Category Groups
Translate Salesforce Knowledge Articles

• Work with Articles and Translations
• Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
• Translate Articles in Salesforce Classic
• Export Articles for Translation
• Import Translated Articles
• Set Up Primary Article and Translation Side-By-Side View
Share Your Salesforce Knowledge Base

• Find, Attach, and Email Articles with the Case Feed Articles Tool (Classic)
• Enable Salesforce Knowledge in Your Community (Classic)
• Use Knowledge with Chat (Classic)
Knowledge and the Salesforce Mobile App

• What’s Available in Each Version of the Salesforce Mobile App
• Customer Service Features: What’s Not Available in the Salesforce Mobile App
4
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Plan Your Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience
Develop with Salesforce Knowledge

• The Salesforce Knowledge Developers Guide has specific development information for Salesforce Knowledge along with tutorials
and examples.
• The REST API Developer Guide has information on supporting articles with the REST API.
• The SOAP API Developer Guide has information on the Knowledge, including guidelines, objects, and calls.
• The Metadata API Developers Guide has information on Salesforce Knowledge Metadata API objects.
• The Visualforce Developers Guide has information on Salesforce Knowledge Visualforce components.
• The Lightning Platform Apex Code Developers Guide has information on the Apex
KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController Class.

It's important that you consider your individual company’s needs while you develop a strategy for
EDITIONS
capturing and publishing your support team’s expertise. With a robust knowledge base, customers
receive service faster or even solve their own issues. Available in: Lightning
Experience
Consideration Further Information
What types of articles and information do you Set Up and Configure Lightning Knowledge.
available in Essentials and
want to include in the knowledge base? Record Type Considerations for Lightning
Unlimited Editions with
Knowledge, Page Layout Considerations for
Service Cloud.
Lightning Knowledge, Custom Fields on Articles
Who can write the articles? Who needs access Lightning Knowledge User Access, Authoring available for an additional
to read the information? Actions in Lightning Knowledge cost in: Professional,
Do you need to categorize your information? Work with Data Categories, Data Category and Developer Editions. For
Visibility more information, contact
Do you need to enhance search? Improve the Article Search Experience, Enable your Salesforce
representative.
Topics for Articles
Do you need workflow or approval processes Workflow and Approvals for Articles, Validation
to manage article creation and publication? Rules
Do you have an existing Knowledge base or Import Existing Information into Salesforce
documentation that you need to import? Knowledge
Are you supporting more than one language? Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base
Do you need agents to follow articles in Chatter? Feed Tracking
Do you need to share your knowledge base Give Customers Access to Your Knowledge Base
externally? Through Help Center
Do you need guidelines, resources, and current Salesforce Knowledge is "KCS Verified" by the
discussions on the evolving world of knowledge Consortium for Service Innovation, which
orientated service? recognizes best practices in customer support
methodologies. By implementing
Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) features,
5
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Plan Your Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience
Consideration Further Information

you can create more efficient collaboration within your team and
provide pertinent and accurate information to your customers.
Consider the following tips when planning and using Salesforce Knowledge:
• Create synonym groups in Salesforce Knowledge. Synonyms are words or phrases that are treated as equivalent in article searches,
letting you optimize search results.
• Before setting up data categories, carefully plan your category groups and their hierarchies. Also, consider how your category hierarchy
maps to your role hierarchy. For more information, see Data Category Visibility.
• Create custom reports on your Salesforce Knowledge data. You can also install the Knowledge Base Dashboards and Reports app from
the AppExchange to receive over two dozen helpful reports.
• Multiple agents can edit the same article at the same time. If that occurs, your changes can be overwritten by a colleague without
warning, even if you save your work frequently. To avoid accidental data loss, instruct all users who edit articles to edit only the
articles they're assigned.
• Review your usage regularly to avoid storage shortages: from Setup, enter Storage Usage in the Quick Find box, then select
Storage Usage.
• Public knowledge base users cannot rate articles.
• Salesforce Files allows agents to attach documents to articles.
• You will lose your data if you convert a custom field on an article type into any other field type. Do not convert custom fields unless
no data exists for the field.
• When renaming Salesforce Knowledge labels note that standard field names, like Title and URL Name, are fixed. You can’t change
the labels for these fields on the article create and edit pages. If the organization is set to another language, these fields remain in
the fixed label for that language.
• The Salesforce Knowledge search engine supports lemmatization, which is the process of reducing a word to its root form. With
lemmatization, a search can match expanded forms of a search term. For example, a search for running matches items that
contain run, running, and ran.
• Make sure that you have a clear understanding of how record types affect your knowledge base, and how to use them to display
different layouts for different articles. For more information, see Record Type Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
• Determine if you need to create automation for some of your record types. Automation can include quick actions, process builder,
or flows. For example, you can create a rule that sends an email to an article manager when an agent creates an article from a closed
case.
• Determine if you need to create approval processes for some of your record types. For example, if you have a type of article that
must have legal and management approval before it can be published externally, create an approval process for the article type. For
more information, see Workflow and Approvals for Articles.
Knowledge Base Allocations by Edition

The following table lists the total minimum number of languages, articles, and versions per article permitted for each Salesforce edition
by default. Each Salesforce edition also has a default maximum number of languages, articles, and versions per article, as well. You can
view the default maximum limits here. For orgs created before the Spring '18 release, the default limit for all editions is 16 languages.
To request an extension for these allocations, contact Salesforce support.
Note: If you require more than the allocated default maximum, you can ask Salesforce Support to increase the article limits.
6
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Knowledge Scalability
Edition Article, Version, and Language Allocations

Essentials 500 articles, 10 versions per article, 1 language
Professional 500 articles, 10 versions per article, 1 language
Enterprise 50,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 5 languages
Developer 50,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 5 languages
Unlimited 150,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 10 languages
If you require more than the allocated default maximum, you can ask Salesforce Support to increase the article limits. Limits on versions
retained per article don’t include versions linked to objects such as cases, work items, and undeletable lookup fields. So, for example, an
article might have 25 versions, even if the default limit is 10 versions per article, if 15 of those versions are linked to cases. However,
versions attached to objects such as cases count towards the total number of versions per org.
SEE ALSO:
Every Salesforce Knowledge article can have several versions: one draft, one published, and several
EDITIONS
archived versions, and each of these versions can have multiple translations. Thus, the total number
of article versions in an org can be much higher than the number of articles. When scaling your org, Available in: All Editions
pay attention to both the total number of article versions and edition-specific limits on articles.
Each Salesforce edition has its own limits on Knowledge articles, versions, and language translations.
Also, all editions share a maximum limit of total article versions allowed. Keep all of these limits in mind when scaling your org.
The total number of Knowledge articles in an org is calculated as follows.
Total # of versions = (# of articles) x (# of retained1 versions per article) x (# of translations per version)
For example, if you have 100,000 articles, each with a total of 5 versions (1 draft, 1 published, 3 archived), and 5 translations of each of
those versions, you have 2,500,000 total article versions.
So in calculating your capacity needs, and determining which edition you need, think versions. Do you have a multilingual customer
base with lots of translations? Do you have a rigorous editing process with many drafts? Do you keep archived versions of articles around
for a long time?
Knowledge Base Allocations by Edition

The following table lists the total minimum number of languages, articles, and versions per article permitted for each Salesforce edition
by default. Each Salesforce edition also has a default maximum number of languages, articles, and versions per article, as well. You can
view the default maximum limits here. For orgs created before the Spring '18 release, the default limit for all editions is 16 languages.
To request an extension for these allocations, contact Salesforce support.
Note: If you require more than the allocated default maximum, you can ask Salesforce Support to increase the article limits.
1
“Retained” articles can include not just versions you’ve created, but versions attached to other objects, such as cases or work items.
7
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Knowledge Scalability
Edition Article, Version, and Language Allocations

Essentials 500 articles, 10 versions per article, 1 language
Professional 500 articles, 10 versions per article, 1 language
Enterprise 50,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 5 languages
Developer 50,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 5 languages
Unlimited 150,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 10 languages
If you require more than the allocated default maximum, you can ask Salesforce Support to increase the article limits. Limits on versions
retained per article don’t include versions linked to objects such as cases, work items, and undeletable lookup fields. So, for example, an
article might have 25 versions, even if the default limit is 10 versions per article, if 15 of those versions are linked to cases. However,
versions attached to objects such as cases count towards the total number of versions per org.
Monitoring Article and Version Counts

To see how many versions and articles you have:
• Go to Settings.
• In the Search box, type Storage Usage.
• Select Storage Usage.
The total number of versions in the org is listed under “Knowledge Versions.” The number of articles in the org is listed under “Knowledge.”
SEE ALSO:
8
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Compare Lightning Knowledge with Classic Knowledge
Compare Lightning Knowledge with Classic Knowledge

Review the differences between Knowledge in Salesforce Classic and Knowledge in Lightning
EDITIONS
Experience.
Lightning Knowledge has changed the way Knowledge works in Salesforce. For example, standard Available in: Salesforce
record types replace article types, and the Knowledge component for Lightning Service Console Classic (not available in all
replaces Knowledge One for the Service Console in Salesforce Classic. orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Let’s compare Knowledge in Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.
Feature Classic Knowledge Lightning Knowledge available in Essentials and
Access and permissions CRUD, profile permissions, page CRUD, profile permissions, and Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
layouts, and custom article page layouts
actions per public group Salesforce Knowledge is
Files Files are attached in custom file Files are stored in the standard cost in: Professional,
fields Files object and attached in the Enterprise, Performance,
Files related list and Developer Editions. For
more information, contact
Object home Knowledge One and Article Knowledge home page with
your Salesforce
Management tab list views
representative.
Page layouts Fields only, per article type and Fields, actions, and related lists,
user profile per record type and user profile
Record home (articles) Custom record home Default Record Home and
Record Home that is
configurable via the Lightning
App Builder
Setup Salesforce Classic Setup Lightning Knowledge Setup
Sharing Sharing by data category Standard Salesforce sharing is

also available
Types of articles Article Types Standard Record Types
Use Knowledge in the console Add Knowledge One to the Add the Lightning Knowledge
Service Console component via the Lightning
App Builder
SEE ALSO:
Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool
9
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Lightning Knowledge Limitations
Lightning Knowledge Limitations

Welcome to your handy guide to the way things work—or don’t—in Lightning Knowledge. Keep
EDITIONS
these considerations in mind whether you’re starting fresh or making the switch to Lightning
Knowledge. Available in: Salesforce
Knowledge in Lightning Experience works differently than Knowledge in Salesforce Classic. Enabling Classic (not available in all
Lightning Knowledge changes your Salesforce org’s data model to use record types rather than orgs) and Lightning
article types. After you enable Lightning Knowledge, you can’t disable it. Experience
To move from Classic Knowledge to Lightning Knowledge, use the Lightning Knowledge Migration Salesforce Knowledge is
Tool. Before running the migration tool in your production org, test the migration in a recently available in Essentials and
refreshed full-copy sandbox. Verify all customizations and integrations to Knowledge. A carefully Unlimited Editions with
prepared migration plan minimizes the impact on production during migration. Service Cloud.
Important Considerations for Enabling Lightning available for an additional
cost in: Professional,
Knowledge Enterprise, Performance,
• To move your knowledge base from Classic Knowledge into Lightning Knowledge, use the more information, contact
Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool. Keep in mind that the migration process requires manual your Salesforce
steps and verification. It’s possible that some of your data doesn't migrate over. To enable the representative.
migration tool in sandbox or production, contact Salesforce support.
• Permissions and user access work differently in Lightning Knowledge. See Lightning Knowledge
User Access. When Lightning Knowledge is enabled, user profile permissions replace article actions with public groups. For Knowledge
in Salesforce Classic, you can assign independent object permissions for each article type. In Lightning Knowledge, article types are
consolidated in the Knowledge object. You can use sharing for Lightning Knowledge to assign independent permissions based on
the record type to user profiles.
• To delete archived articles in a Lightning Knowledge–enabled org, you must have the Modify All permission.
• After you enable Lightning Knowledge, the Article Type field is no longer accessible via SOQL or the API, which affects custom code
that queries for the ArticleType.
• Delete any installed packages that contain article types before enabling Lightning Knowledge.
• Lightning Knowledge doesn't support federated search. Switch to Salesforce Classic.
• Lookup searches in Classic find Knowledge records (articles) of any Publish status: Draft, Published, or Archive. But in Lightning,
Lookup searches find only published Knowledge records.
• If your org currently has a Visualforce tab named Knowledge, you get an Insufficient Privileges error when trying to access the
Knowledge tab in Lightning Knowledge. To avoid this error, rename or delete your existing Visualforce tab or rename your Knowledge
object.
• Files in custom File fields in Salesforce Classic aren’t supported in Lightning Experience. Instead, use the Files related list in Lightning
Experience. Use the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool to move Files from File fields to the Files object and related lists in Lightning
Experience.
• URL formats for articles differ between Classic and Lightning Knowledge. In Lightning Knowledge, the URL contains the Knowledge
Article Version ID and other parameters. In Classic Knowledge, the URL contains the Knowledge Article ID.
• You can’t use the Public Knowledge Base package (PKB) in Lightning Knowledge. You can share Lightning Knowledge articles in
Experience Cloud and Salesforce Sites. Use Help Center to share articles with unauthenticated users.
• You can have up to 100 links to different Salesforce Knowledge articles in one rich text field.
10
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Lightning Knowledge Limitations
General Usage Limitations for Lightning Knowledge

• Some authoring actions work differently or aren’t available in Lightning Knowledge.
– You can’t remove a published article while editing it. Instead, the article remains published while you edit the new version as a
draft. You can archive the article to remove it, then restore and edit a draft.
– Archiving can’t be scheduled for a future date. You can create a Flow to periodically archive articles based on a date field.
– Articles don't contain a notification when you schedule publication for a future date. You also can’t see a list of articles that are
scheduled for publication in Lightning Knowledge, and you can't cancel a scheduled publication.
• The Printable View action isn't available in Lightning Knowledge.

• For articles with more than 30 versions, the versions above 30 show in Salesforce Classic but not in Lightning Experience.
• Data categories don't show in Knowledge list views in Lightning Experience or Salesforce Classic. As a workaround, you can create
reports that filter articles by data category.
• You can see vote information in the ratings component only if there’s a published version of the article. So you can’t see votes for
archived articles because no published version exists.
• When articles are exported for translation, the files attached to them aren’t exported. Files are also not imported as attached Files
when Articles translations are reimported after translation is complete.
• The Tab and Table of Contents article views aren't supported.
• Hovering on the status of a translation doesn't show related information such as the date submitted.
• You can't unlock article records that are in an approval process.
• You can't use macros with Knowledge articles.
• Before December 2017, when knowledge articles were authored with images in Lightning Experience, only the author could view
the images. Other users with Read permission enabled for Knowledge articles didn’t see the images. As of December 2017, the issue
was remedied. Photos uploaded from December 2017 forward are visible to all users with Read permission enabled. Photos uploaded
before December 2017 must be uploaded again.
• Star ratings aren’t supported in Lightning Knowledge. Currently, only thumbs up and thumbs down ratings are supported in Lightning
Experience. Star ratings in existing Salesforce Classic orgs are automatically converted to thumbs up ratings in Lightning Experience.
Ratings of 3, 4, and 5 stars become a thumbs up, and 1 or 2 star ratings become thumbs down.
• You can't remove a published translation while editing it. Instead, the translation remains published while you edit the new version
as a draft.
Limitations for Lightning Knowledge with Cases

• The option to create an article when closing a case is available only in Salesforce Classic. In Lightning Experience, you can create an
article from the Knowledge component. You can also create a quick action that makes a draft and maps fields from the case into
the new article. Then, you add the quick action to the case layout.
• Articles created from the Knowledge component don't link to the case automatically.
• When a case's subject changes, the update must be saved before the suggested article list in the Knowledge component refreshes.
• The case feed in Lightning Experience doesnt support Knowledge actions. As a workaround, use the actions from the related list of
articles or from the suggested articles list in the Knowledge component. Actions don't show if the related list is in a narrow column,
but you can click View All.
• The action that attaches a PDF of an article to a case email isn’t available in the Knowledge component in Lightning Experience.
11
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Knowledge Limitations in the Salesforce Mobile App
Console Limitations for Lightning Knowledge

• The Knowledge footer isn’t in the Lightning Service Console. Instead, add the Knowledge component to any object's record home
page. You can also create a global action or an object-specific quick action to create a knowledge article from any object. However,
suggested articles and related actions are available only with cases.
• You can't pop out the Knowledge component and drag it to a new screen.
Limitations in Salesforce Classic After Enabling Lightning Knowledge

These items aren’t available in Salesforce Classic after enabling Lightning Knowledge.
• Knowledge list views are available only in Lightning Experience.
• Search for article types isn’t available in Lightning Experience or Salesforce Classic because record types replace article types.
• Setting a default record type for new articles. The default setting works in Lightning Knowledge. In Salesforce Classic, users can
change the record type manually.
• Filtering a search by Knowledge record types is available only in Lightning Experience.
• Filtering a search by Archived Articles is available only in Lightning Experience (except through Article Management, which is available
in Salesforce Classic only).
• Files in the Files related list in Lightning Experience aren’t displayed in Salesforce Classic.
• The following items aren’t available on the Knowledge article record page in Salesforce Classic:
– Page layout selections for actions and related lists
– Two-column page layouts
– Some actions, such as Change Record Type
• Picklist values assigned to only one record type in Knowledge objects aren’t visible on records in Salesforce Classic.
Limitations for Using Lightning Knowledge with Other Salesforce Products

• Knowledge articles can’t be inserted into macros.
• If you use Salesforce for Android or iOS, recent articles aren’t displayed on object home.
• Because Title and URL Name fields are required, you can't remove them from a page layout. Experience Cloud sites use page layouts
to display Lightning Knowledge articles, so you can’t remove required fields from Experience Cloud sites.
Knowledge Limitations in the Salesforce Mobile App

Knowledge articles are available in the Salesforce apps for Android version 8.0 or later and iOS, version 10.0 or later. Learn what's different
or not available in the app.
Articles are supported in the Salesforce for Android apps version 8.0 or later and in the Salesforce for iOS apps, version 10.0 or later, with
these limitations:
Issue Android iOS

Downloadable Downloadable
App, v8.0 or App, v10.0 or
later later
Only published articles are available—not draft or archived articles.
12
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Set Up Lightning Knowledge with a Guided Setup Flow
Issue Android iOS

Downloadable Downloadable
App, v8.0 or App, v10.0 or
later later
Articles can't be created, edited, translated, or archived.
Articles can't be linked to cases. (But links that are set up from the desktop site can be viewed
on the Related tab.)
Smart links aren’t supported.
Article ratings aren’t supported.
Tables are sometimes cut off on the right side when included in article rich text fields.
Compact layouts display the article type API name instead of the article type name. So users
see the article type API name in the highlights area when viewing an article.
When searching from the Articles home page, only articles in the user’s language are returned
and only if that language is an active Knowledge language (from Setup, Customize >
Knowledge > Knowledge Settings). To see articles in another language, users can change
to an active Knowledge language. From My Settings, use the Quick Find search box to
locate the Language & Time Zone page.
In global search, search results show articles in the language specified for the device,
regardless of the active Knowledge language.
Filtering search results by data categories, article type, validation status, or language isn’t
available.
In global search, articles don’t appear in the list of recent records.
In global search results, search highlights and snippets don’t appear.

These features are available in all versions of the Salesforce mobile app when searching
from the Articles home page.
Knowledge articles aren’t available when accessing Experience Cloud sites via the Salesforce
mobile app.
Set Up Lightning Knowledge with a Guided Setup Flow

The Lightning Knowledge setup flow is a quick way to get your knowledge base started. Whether
EDITIONS
it’s a secure customer portal, part of your public site, or integrated into a public customer Experience
Cloud site, your knowledge base is an extension of your service website. Enable Lightning Knowledge, Service Setup is available in
choose article authors, and make a few data category groups. Build the momentum by configuring Lightning Experience
page layouts, record types, and processes.
Available in: All editions with
You can embed Lightning Knowledge in the console so that your support agents can easily find,
the Service Cloud
access, and deliver the right answers to customers. Agents can also contribute to the knowledge
base, ensuring that the best answers are always accessible to the whole team.
Important: After you enable Lightning Knowledge, you can’t disable it.
13
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Set Up Lightning Knowledge with a Guided Setup Flow
Where to Access the Setup Flow

This flow is available from Service Setup in Lightning Experience. You can get to Service Setup by clicking and selecting Service
Setup.
In Service Setup, you can find recommended setup flows, content, and tips based on what you’ve set up already. If you don’t see the
setup flow you’re looking for, you can click View All to see the full list.
Select the tile to launch the flow.
What Does This Flow Do?

In this setup flow, we walk you through:
• Enabling Lightning Knowledge
• Choosing knowledge article authors
• Creating data categories and data category groups
Tip: Data Category Groups help you classify and find articles. You can use data categories to control access to a set of articles,
questions or ideas.
We also turn on several things in the background during the setup flow.
• Enabling Lightning Knowledge
We enable Lightning Knowledge during the flow, which can’t be undone. Don’t worry about this if you’ve never used Knowledge
before and you’re ready to dive in on Lightning Experience.
Lightning Knowledge is different from Salesforce Knowledge in Salesforce Classic, so if you already use Salesforce Classic, some
planning is required. Make sure that you know and understand what changes and what works differently when you switch.
• Default Page Layouts and Record Types

A default FAQ page layout and record type is auto-enabled in the setup flow. The page layout determines how the articles are
displayed. By doing this step, you are associating the page layout and record types. After completing the flow, you can go to the
Object Manager to create or modify your page layouts.
Note: If you created a page layout and record type before starting the Lightning Knowledge setup flow, we don’t create new
ones in the setup flow. The integrity of your initial settings isn’t altered.
• Knowledge Permission Sets

Your selected authors get full read, write, and publishing access through the Knowledge LSF permission set, and access to the
Knowledge Object.
The setup flow auto-enables the page layout and record type for these profiles. Everyone whom you designate an author gets a
Knowledge User License.
The setup flow grants data category visibility to profiles selected on the Choose Author screen.
14
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Set Up and Configure Lightning Knowledge
Set Up and Configure Lightning Knowledge

Enable Lightning Knowledge, create Knowledge record types, customize your record type page
EDITIONS
layouts, set access for Knowledge users, and create a Lightning Knowledge process.
Available in: Lightning
Enable Lightning Knowledge Experience
Enable Lightning Knowledge to use your Knowledge base in Lightning Experience. After you
enable Lightning Knowledge, you can’t disable it. Salesforce Knowledge is
Record Type Considerations for Lightning Knowledge Unlimited Editions with
Different content has different needs. For example, your FAQ pages are different from your Service Cloud.
tutorials, which are different from your policy statements. A record type controls an article’s Salesforce Knowledge is
content and layout. Create different record types to distinguish Knowledge articles. In Lightning available for an additional
Knowledge, standard record types replace custom article types. cost in: Professional,
Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge Enterprise, Performance,
A page layout determines which fields agents can view and edit when entering data for an and Developer Editions. For
article. It also determines which sections appear when users view articles. You can customize
your Salesforce
the fields, actions, and related lists for each record type and user profile with page layouts.
representative.
Lightning Knowledge Home and Record Pages
Search, view, create, and manage articles on the Knowledge home page in Lightning Experience.
You can perform several authoring actions without leaving Knowledge home. For example, you can restore, archive, delete, publish,
and submit articles for translation or approval.
Lightning Knowledge User Access
Give your knowledge agents access to articles in Lightning Knowledge. Specify which agents in your company are Salesforce
Knowledge users and can create, edit, archive, and delete articles. Create user profiles with the appropriate user permissions, and
then assign users to these profiles.
Article History Tracking (Lightning Experience)
Track the history of certain fields in articles. If you have history tracking enabled, open an article and click Version to see a version
history list. You can also set tracking for the article type and track the full history of an article and its versions. Article events are tracked
for up to 18 months.
Define Validation Status Picklist Values
When the Validation Status field is enabled on the Knowledge Settings page, you can create picklist values that show the
state of the article. For example, values could be Validated, Not Validated, or Needs Review.
Set Up Actions to Insert Articles into Channels in Lightning Knowledge
With the Lightning Knowledge component and related list actions, agents can directly embed article content into the body of
customer emails and in social, chat, and messaging conversations. Create a communication channel mapping to choose which
article fields are included for each record type and channel. Your customers can access article summaries without going to a website.
With permissions, some agents can choose to share internal articles—so they don't have to copy and paste articles that aren't
published or are used internally—, while other agents share only published, external articles.
Set Up Actions to Share Article URLs in Channels and Case Publishers
Agents can insert links to articles from a Salesforce Site or Experience Cloud sites into the case feed. In Lightning Experience, your
agents can share article URLs in email, social posts, and chat and messaging conversations. In Salesforce Classic, your team can send
article URLs in the email, social, and Experience Cloud publishers.
15
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Enable Lightning Knowledge
Enable Lightning Knowledge

Enable Lightning Knowledge to use your Knowledge base in Lightning Experience. After you enable
EDITIONS
Lightning Knowledge, you can’t disable it.
Note: If Knowledge in Salesforce Classic is already enabled in your org, use the Lightning Available in: Lightning
Knowledge Migration Tool instead of enabling Knowledge here. Experience
1. From Setup, enter Knowledge in the Quick Find box and click Knowledge Settings. Salesforce Knowledge is
2. On the Knowledge Settings page, click Edit. available in Essentials and
3. Select Enable Lightning Knowledge. Service Cloud.
Note: To enable Lightning Knowledge, you must have one article type. After you enable Salesforce Knowledge is
Lightning Knowledge, you can’t disable it. available for an additional
4. Enable any other Knowledge settings that you want. Enterprise, Performance,
5. Click Save. and Developer Editions. For
After Lightning Knowledge is enabled, Knowledge appears in the Object Manager. This is where your Salesforce
you control your Lightning Knowledge settings and page layouts. representative.
Whenever you change the name and API name of your Knowledge Base in Object Manager, we
recommend that you do a hard refresh of your browser to avoid server errors. Changing the
USER PERMISSIONS
knowledge base name also affects customizations, Apex, and SOQL queries.
To view Knowledge Settings
Important: Enabling Lightning Knowledge changes your Org's data model to use record
in Setup:
types rather than article types. Orgs with multiple articles types require data migration to
• Knowledge User license
consolidate article types before enabling Lightning Knowledge. Remember, after you enable
Lightning Knowledge, you can't disable it. Test in a Sandbox or Trial org before enabling in
production.
Record Type Considerations for Lightning Knowledge

Different content has different needs. For example, your FAQ pages are different from your tutorials,
EDITIONS
which are different from your policy statements. A record type controls an article’s content and
layout. Create different record types to distinguish Knowledge articles. In Lightning Knowledge, Available in: Lightning
standard record types replace custom article types. Experience
When you build your knowledge base, plan how to get the most from your record types by
customizing profiles, page layouts, and other features. Salesforce Knowledge is
• Create record types Unlimited Editions with
• Customize Page Layouts Service Cloud.
• Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge Salesforce Knowledge is
• Lightning Knowledge User Access available for an additional
SEE ALSO: and Developer Editions. For
Tailor Business Processes to Different Record Types Users more information, contact
Create Custom Fields your Salesforce
representative.
16
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge

A page layout determines which fields agents can view and edit when entering data for an article.
EDITIONS
It also determines which sections appear when users view articles. You can customize the fields,
actions, and related lists for each record type and user profile with page layouts. Available in: Lightning
You can use a page layout to customize fields, actions, and related lists for each record type and Experience
user profile. For example, when sensitive data is involved, you can customize a page layout by user
profile. Then only agents assigned the user profile can see sensitive fields in the article. Salesforce Knowledge is
Consider these tips when you configure page layouts for Knowledge. Unlimited Editions with
• Authoring actions that you add to the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions Service Cloud.
section of the page layout appear in the highlights panel on record pages in Lightning Experience Salesforce Knowledge is
and the Salesforce mobile app. available for an additional
• To use inline edit with Knowledge, add the Publication Status field to your standard page layout. cost in: Professional,
The Publication Status field must be in the standard page layout, not in a compact layout. Enterprise, Performance,
However, the field can appear in both the standard and compact layouts. and Developer Editions. For
Tip: If the Publication Status field is in a collapsed layout section, you must expand the your Salesforce
section to load the edit icons before you can use inline editing. To increase the accessibility representative.
of inline editing, add the Publication Status field to a layout section that is likely to always
be open.
USER PERMISSIONS
• The Title and URL Name standard fields are required. You can’t remove them from the layout.
To customize page layouts:
• To control which audiences can view an article, add these fields to the page layout: Visible in
• Customize Application
Internal App; Visible to Customer; Visible to Partner; and Visible in Public Knowledge base. The
fields appear as checkboxes in the record.
SEE ALSO:
Page Layout Tips
Lightning Knowledge Home and Record Pages

Search, view, create, and manage articles on the Knowledge home page in Lightning Experience.
EDITIONS
You can perform several authoring actions without leaving Knowledge home. For example, you
can restore, archive, delete, publish, and submit articles for translation or approval. Available in: Lightning
Note: Create and customize the Lightning Knowledge home page to access Knowledge in Experience
Lightning Experience. If you turned on Lightning Knowledge in Spring '17 or later, the Lightning
Knowledge home page is created for you.
Knowledge Home Service Cloud.
Lightning Knowledge home uses the same list views that you enjoy elsewhere in Salesforce. By
default, you have list views for drafts, published articles, and archived articles. Don’t forget to
customize your list views to select which fields you want to display and sort with. For custom list
views, you can’t choose fields that aren’t on the article record. So data categories, ratings, view and Developer Editions. For
count, and cases aren’t available fields for your list views. more information, contact
your Salesforce
representative.
17
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Lightning Knowledge Home and Record Pages
By default, list views in Lightning Experience show all available languages. When Lightning Knowledge is enabled, list views in the Article
Management tab in Salesforce Classic show articles in the user's language by default, or the primary language for Knowledge if the user’s
language isn’t available.
Article Record Pages

Use the Lightning App Builder to configure the default record page to match your users' workflow. Your Lightning page consists of
article page layouts and the components you choose for your users.
In addition to standard components, you can use components built by partners and developers from AppExchange. You can even build
your own components. With Lightning pages, you can move the ratings, versions, data category, and translation components to the
areas of the page that work best for your users.
You can add these components to your record pages.
• Article Data Categories—Users with permission to manage data categories can change an article’s categories.
• Article Thumb Vote (Ratings)—Collect feedback with thumbs-up and thumbs-down ratings. Automatically enabled.
• Article Version Comparison—Compare two versions of an article to see the differences.
• Article Versions—Select Track Field History and Set History Tracking in the Object Manager. These options make the article version
history and field changes available for Knowledge users to view in the Article Versions component.
• Files—Add the Files related list in your record type page layout.
• Translation Primary Article—Show the primary article and translation in the same page layout to assist translators. You can set
visibility conditions so only translators and knowledge base managers see the side-by-side view.
• Translation Switcher—Give translators and administrators an easy way to switch between draft and published versions of an article
in all languages.
SEE ALSO:
Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge
18
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Lightning Knowledge User Access

Give your knowledge agents access to articles in Lightning Knowledge. Specify which agents in
EDITIONS
your company are Salesforce Knowledge users and can create, edit, archive, and delete articles.
Create user profiles with the appropriate user permissions, and then assign users to these profiles. Available in: Lightning
User permissions control access to different tasks in Salesforce Knowledge. By default, all internal Experience
users with Read permission can read published articles. Assign permissions to agents and authors
who publish, archive, delete, and manage articles. Salesforce Knowledge is
Use permission sets or custom profiles to give agents, authors, and other users the Knowledge Unlimited Editions with
access they need. For example, you can create a permission set named Article Manager that includes Service Cloud.
the permissions to create, edit, publish, and assign articles. You can then create a Knowledge Base
Manager profile with permission to archive and delete articles.
To see categories associated with Draft articles, standard Users must have permissions for Knowledge cost in: Professional,
User and Manage Article. Enterprise, Performance,
Tip: Lightning Knowledge uses user profile permissions or permissions sets to give agents
access to authoring actions. In contrast, Knowledge in Salesforce Classic uses public groups your Salesforce
and article actions. representative.
Note: To do more than read articles, agents need the Knowledge User license.
• From Setup, enter Users in the Quick Find box, then select Users. USER PERMISSIONS
• Click Edit next to the user’s name, or click New to create a user. To create or edit users:
• If you’re creating a user, complete all the required fields. • Manage Internal Users
• Select Knowledge User. To assign Knowledge
• Click Save. permissions:
This table lists the required profile and object permissions for authoring tasks. For permissions in AND
Salesforce Classic, see Classic Knowledge User Access.
Manage Salesforce
Table 1: Lightning Knowledge Permissions Knowledge
Lightning Knowledge Task User Permissions Knowledge Object

Permissions
Read and search published Allow View Knowledge Read
knowledge articles
Read and search draft Allow View Knowledge, View Read

knowledge articles Draft Articles
Read and search archived Allow View Knowledge, View Read

knowledge articles Archived Articles2
Attach or detach published Allow View Knowledge Read on Knowledge, Read and
articles to objects and search Edit on objects to which you
articles attach or detach the article
Create articles Manage Articles Create, Read
2
The View Archived Articles permission controls access only to articles where the latest or current version is archived. Read
permission for Knowledge allows users to view past archived versions associated with articles currently in Published status.
19
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Lightning Knowledge User Access
Lightning Knowledge Task User Permissions Knowledge Object Permissions

Edit draft articles Manage Articles Read, Edit
Delete draft articles Manage Articles Read, Edit, Delete
Change the record type Manage Articles Create, Read, Edit
Change the article owner Manage Articles Read, Edit
Be an article owner View Draft Articles Read, Edit
Publish articles Manage Articles, Publish Articles Create, Read, Edit, Delete
Archive articles Manage Articles, Archive Articles Create, Read, Edit, Delete
Restore archived articles Manage Articles, Archive Articles Create, Read, Edit
Delete archived articles Manage Articles, Archive Articles Modify All
Assign articles Manage Articles Read, Edit
Edit published articles Manage Articles Create, Read, Edit
Submit articles for translation Manage Articles, Article Translation–Submit Create, Read, Edit
for Translation
Delete draft translations Manage Articles Read, Edit, Delete
Edit translations Manage Articles, Article Translation–Edit Read, Edit
Publish translations Manage Articles, Article Translation–Publish Create, Read, Edit, Delete
Import articles Manage Salesforce Knowledge, Manage Create, Read, Edit, Delete
Articles, Manage Knowledge Article
Import/Export
Import and export articles for translation Manage Salesforce Knowledge, Manage Create, Read, Edit, Delete
Articles, Manage Article Import/Export
Create data categories Manage Data Categories, View Data None

Categories in Setup
20
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Article History Tracking (Lightning Experience)
Article History Tracking (Lightning Experience)

Track the history of certain fields in articles. If you have history tracking enabled, open an article and
EDITIONS
click Version to see a version history list. You can also set tracking for the article type and track the
full history of an article and its versions. Article events are tracked for up to 18 months. Available in: Salesforce
The system records and displays field updates, publishing workflow events, and language versions Classic (not available in all
for the primary article and any translations. When you track old and new values, the system records orgs) and Lightning
both values as well as the date, time, nature of the change, and the user who made the change. Experience
When you track only the changed values, the system marks the changed field as edited. It doesn't
record the old and new field values. This information is available in the Version History list, and the Salesforce Knowledge is
fields are available in the Article Version History report. available in Essentials and
the Unlimited Edition with
Article history respects field, entity, and record-level security. You must have at least Read permission Service Cloud.
on the article type or the field to access its history. For data category security, Salesforce determines
access based on the categorization of the online version of an article. If there is no online version,
then security is applied based on the archived version, followed by the security of the draft version.
1. From Setup, go to the Object Manager. Enterprise, Performance,
2. Select Knowledge.
3. On the Knowledge object home, click Edit. your Salesforce
4. Check the Track Field History checkbox. representative.
5. Save your changes.

Salesforce begins tracking history from that date and time. Changes made before that date and time aren’t tracked.
21
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Define Validation Status Picklist Values
Define Validation Status Picklist Values

When the Validation Status field is enabled on the Knowledge Settings page, you can
EDITIONS
create picklist values that show the state of the article. For example, values could be Validated,
Not Validated, or Needs Review. Available in: Salesforce
Note: In Salesforce Classic, validation status picklist values aren’t retained when you export Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
articles for translation. Articles with picklist values can be imported, however, and their values
Experience
are retained as long as the values exist in your organization.
1. From Salesforce Classic Setup, enter Validation Statuses in the Quick Find box, Salesforce Knowledge is
then select Validation Statuses. available in Essentials and
2. On the picklist edit page, click New to add new values to the validation status field. You can
Service Cloud.
also edit, delete, reorder, and replace picklist values.
When you replace a picklist value, the system replaces it in all versions of the article, including
any archived versions.
3. Add one or more picklist values (one per line) in the text area. Enterprise, Performance,
4. To set the value as the default for the picklist, be sure to select the Default checkbox.
5. Click Save. your Salesforce
representative.
SEE ALSO:
Validation Rules USER PERMISSIONS
To create or change
validation status picklist
values:
22
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Set Up Actions to Insert Articles into Channels in Lightning
Knowledge
Set Up Actions to Insert Articles into Channels in Lightning Knowledge

USER PERMISSIONS EDITIONS
To administer Salesforce Knowledge and Customize Application Available in: Lightning

create, edit, and delete page layouts: AND Experience and all editions
with Knowledge except
Manage Salesforce Knowledge Essentials.
To send article content in emails: Edit on cases Salesforce Knowledge is

AND
Unlimited Edition with
Read on knowledge articles Service Cloud.
To send article content in social, chat, and Edit on cases AND Edit on the social, chat, available for an additional
messaging channels: or messaging object cost in: Professional,
AND Enterprise, Performance,
Read on knowledge articles
your Salesforce
To share internal articles externally: Share internal Knowledge articles representative.
externally under Administrative Permissions
With the Lightning Knowledge component and related list actions, agents can directly embed article content into the body of customer
emails and in social, chat, and messaging conversations. Create a communication channel mapping to choose which article fields are
included for each record type and channel. Your customers can access article summaries without going to a website. With permissions,
some agents can choose to share internal articles—so they don't have to copy and paste articles that aren't published or are used
internally—, while other agents share only published, external articles.
Ensure that these setup requirements are met.
• To share articles in emails, Email-to-case must be enabled. The case page layout has the SendEmail action. HTML Body or Text must
be in the SendEmail layout.
• To share articles in social posts, Social Customer Service is enabled. You have a social account, and the Social channel is in the case
page layout.
• To share articles in chat or messaging conversations, configure Chat or Messaging and add the channel to the page layout.
Note: If the lightning page has a CaseArticle related list, the page reloads while using the Insert Article into Email action, which
can cause the email publisher action to reload and lose unsaved email content. To avoid this problem, you can either remove the
Case Article related list from the lightning page, or attach the article first and then start the email publisher action.
Note: This feature isn’t available in Essentials edition because record types must be enabled to configure communication channel
mappings.
1. From the Object Manager, choose the Knowledge object.
2. Under Communication Channel Mappings, click New.
3. Enter a label and name.
4. Add the desired channels to the Selected Channels list.
23
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Set Up Actions to Insert Articles into Channels in Lightning
Knowledge
Each channel has a different context. Create communication channel mappings for multiple channels only when those channels
have the same content needs. For example, you can share rich text fields in emails but not other channels. We recommend choosing
or creating text fields designated for channel use.
5. Add the fields to include when the article is shared.

• Only plain text is supported in social, chat, and messaging. If you insert rich text fields, styles and formatting are removed and
only the text is inserted.
• You can’t include smart links or embed videos in emails. HTML iframes are removed before the email is sent.
• The following fields aren’t supported in communication channels:
– isDeleted
– Language
– MultiPicklist and picklist fields
– Publication Status
– Source
– Validation Status
6. Choose whether to include field labels and related files with inserted articles.
By default, field labels are included with inserted articles in all channels and related files are attached to emails. When Files are
attached, agents can still detach files before they send the email.
• To hide field labels, select Omit field labels.
• To skip file attachments, select Don't attach related files to emails.
7. Click Save.
The appropriate action appears in the Knowledge component and article related lists in cases when you save a communication
channel mapping for the channel.
8. (Optional) To let users share the contents of internal articles, enable Share internal Knowledge articles externally under App
Permissions for the profile or permission set.
Your agents can now send article contents in case emails, social posts, and chat and messaging conversations. And agents can change
article contents before sending. If the article wasn't attached to the case previously, using these actions adds it to the related list.
24
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Set Up Actions to Share Article URLs in Channels and Case
Publishers
Set Up Actions to Share Article URLs in Channels and Case Publishers

Agents can insert links to articles from a Salesforce Site or Experience Cloud sites into the case feed.
EDITIONS
In Lightning Experience, your agents can share article URLs in email, social posts, and chat and
messaging conversations. In Salesforce Classic, your team can send article URLs in the email, social, Available in: Salesforce
and Experience Cloud publishers. Classic (not available in all
To share article URLs from Salesforce Sites or Experience Cloud sites in the case feed, you must have orgs) and Lightning
the Knowledge component in your Lightning page or, in Salesforce Classic, in the Service Console. Experience
You must also have either a Salesforce Site or Experience Cloud set up.
Your org must have the relevant channel configured, such as email, Social Customer Service, or available in Essentials and
Chat. Unlimited Editions with
1. From Setup, enter Knowledge in the quick find box, then select Knowledge Settings. Service Cloud.
2. Click Edit. Salesforce Knowledge is

3. Under Share Article via URL Settings, select Allow users to share articles via public URLs. cost in: Professional,
4. In the Available Sites list, select which Salesforce Sites and Experience Cloud sites you want Enterprise, Performance,
agents to see when they share article URLs. Add them to the Selected Sites list. and Developer Editions. For
5. Click Save.
your Salesforce
Your agents can now use these actions in the Knowledge component and in Lightning Experience representative.
list views to send links in the case feed.
USER PERMISSIONS
To administer Salesforce
Knowledge:
AND
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
To share article links in the

case feed:
• Edit on Case
AND
Read on Knowledge
25
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Use Your Lightning Knowledge Base
Use Your Lightning Knowledge Base

Search articles, author and manage articles, use the Knowledge component in the Lightning Service
EDITIONS
Console, and create Knowledge reports.
Available in: Lightning
Search for Knowledge Articles in Lightning Experience Experience
In Lightning Experience, find Knowledge articles faster by performing a Knowledge search. You
can search for articles from the global search box at the top of every page or from the Knowledge Salesforce Knowledge is
component for the Lightning Service Console.
Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge Service Cloud.
Use authoring actions like edit, publish, and restore to manage articles from the Knowledge Salesforce Knowledge is
home and article record pages. Administrators, agents, and internal employees with the correct available for an additional
profile permissions can perform the actions. cost in: Professional,
Use the Lightning Knowledge Component Enterprise, Performance,
The Knowledge component keeps your team connected to your knowledge base everywhere and Developer Editions. For
in Salesforce. Your teams and support agents can use Knowledge in the service console with
your Salesforce
cases and other objects. Your team can search for and attach articles, or follow and unfollow
representative.
articles. In cases, agents can see suggested articles for a case as they view it, or they can search
in the component to find more articles.
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles
Link between articles or embed links to articles in external websites and resources. With smart links, your users always get to the
right version because the links are automatically updated based on the article channel, version, and URL name.
Report on Salesforce Knowledge Articles
Use Salesforce Knowledge custom reports to track how articles are created, maintained, and delivered.
Search for Knowledge Articles in Lightning Experience

In Lightning Experience, find Knowledge articles faster by performing a Knowledge search. You can
EDITIONS
search for articles from the global search box at the top of every page or from the Knowledge
component for the Lightning Service Console. Available in: Lightning
Knowledge search is available in the global search box and the Knowledge component. You can Experience
refine your article search results using the advanced search for Knowledge. Advanced search lets
you prefilter your results by language, publishing status, validation status, record type, or data Salesforce Knowledge is
category group. available in Essentials and
Note: If you configure search filters for Knowledge in Setup, the advanced search filters for Service Cloud.
Knowledge in global search don’t change. Salesforce Knowledge is
1. Select Knowledge in the dropdown list next to the global search box. You can also type available for an additional
knowledge at the top of the dropdown list, then select Knowledge. cost in: Professional,
2. Optionally, click Advanced Search at the bottom of the results list. If Einstein Search is enabled,
select Filters next to the search box to access the Advanced Search page. From the Advanced
Search page, select from the available filters to see more relevant search results. your Salesforce
3. Enter your search terms, up to 100 characters. If you enter more than 100 characters, the search representative.
uses only the first 100 characters.
4. To run the search, press Enter.
26
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge
You can also search for articles using the Knowledge component for the Lightning Service Console. Advanced Search for prefiltering
searches is also available with the Knowledge component.
SEE ALSO:
How Einstein Search Works
Authoring Actions in Lightning Knowledge

Use authoring actions like edit, publish, and restore to manage articles from the Knowledge home
EDITIONS
and article record pages. Administrators, agents, and internal employees with the correct profile
permissions can perform the actions. Available in: Lightning
Authoring actions appear in Knowledge home and in record pages. Administrators, agents, and Experience
internal employees with the correct profile permissions can perform these actions.
Actions in Knowledge Home Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
In Knowledge list views, including Knowledge home, you can quickly perform record actions that
affect one or multiple records. In Knowledge home, actions appear if the user has the permission Salesforce Knowledge is
to use them. Use bulk actions (1) to quickly update multiple records at once. Use the dropdown available for an additional
next to each article (2) to choose record-level actions. cost in: Professional,
your Salesforce
representative.
27
Actions in Record Pages

For article record pages, you can control which authoring actions are available with page layouts and user permissions. The actions that
appear also depend on the article’s publishing status.
You add authoring actions in the page layout editor.
When Are Lightning Authoring Actions Available?

In Lightning Knowledge page layouts, actions are shown or hidden based on the article’s publication status. In Knowledge home,
bulk actions appear on all list views for users with the appropriate permission.
SEE ALSO:
When Are Lightning Authoring Actions Available?

In Lightning Knowledge page layouts, actions are shown or hidden based on the article’s publication
EDITIONS
status. In Knowledge home, bulk actions appear on all list views for users with the appropriate
permission. Available in: Lightning
An article's publication status, along with user permissions, determines the availability of knowledge Experience
actions.
Action Description Record Status available in Essentials and
New Create an article. Knowledge home only Service Cloud.
Edit Edit a draft article. Draft Salesforce Knowledge is

Edit as Draft Create a draft from a published Published cost in: Professional,
article. If a draft exists, you don’t Enterprise, Performance,
see this button. and Developer Editions. For
Assign Change the Assigned To field Draft your Salesforce
for an article or translation. representative.
Publish Publish a draft article. When Draft
you publish a
primary-language article, any
translations in the publication
queue are also submitted.
Delete Draft Permanently delete drafts of Draft

primary-language or translated
28
Action Description Record Status

articles. You can’t recover deleted drafts.
Delete Article Delete an archived article. Archived
Change Owner Set the article version's owner. The owner Draft
can be a user or a queue. Owners must have
permission to read articles.
Change Record Type Assign a new record type. This action can Draft
affect the page layout and available fields.
Archive Archive a published article. Archive Published

translations by archiving the
primary-language article.
Restore Restore a draft from an archived article. You Archived

can restore the latest version of an archived
article. You can also restore past versions of
published articles from the record page
while viewing the version you want to
restore.
Submit for Approval Send the article for approval and assign an Draft
approver. Approvals must be enabled.
Submit for Translation Submit the article to the translation queue Draft, Published
or assign to a user. Multiple languages must
be enabled.
These bulk actions are available in Knowledge home:

• Assign
• Archive
• Delete Draft
• Delete Article
• Publish
• Restore
• Submit for Translation
29
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Use the Lightning Knowledge Component
Use the Lightning Knowledge Component

The Knowledge component keeps your team connected to your knowledge base everywhere in
EDITIONS
Salesforce. Your teams and support agents can use Knowledge in the service console with cases
and other objects. Your team can search for and attach articles, or follow and unfollow articles. In Available in: Lightning
cases, agents can see suggested articles for a case as they view it, or they can search in the Experience
component to find more articles.
The Knowledge component is automatically added to your sample Lightning Service Console. You Salesforce Knowledge is
can add the Knowledge component to a custom Lightning console app. Add the Knowledge available in Essentials and
component to your console's Lightning pages using the Lightning App Builder. Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
Tip: The Knowledge component isn’t limited to the console—you can add it to apps with Salesforce Knowledge is
standard navigation, too. Add the Knowledge component to a record's page using the available for an additional
Lightning App Builder. cost in: Professional,
The Knowledge component helps agents quickly find relevant Knowledge articles for their cases. Enterprise, Performance,
It also helps perform some basic actions, such as attaching an article to a case. and Developer Editions. For
• Article Suggestions your Salesforce
Suggest relevant articles to agents right in the Knowledge component. Choose between two representative.
article suggestion tools:
– Suggested Articles uses keyword-based search to find relevant articles. It’s automatically
enabled when Lightning Knowledge is enabled.
– Einstein Article Recommendations analyzes past cases and case-article attaches to find relevant articles. It relies on artificial
intelligence (AI) features like term overlap, and continually refines its recommendations based on agent feedback and new case
data. When it’s activated, all Lightning Knowledge users see article recommendations.
Suggested articles are delivered right to the Knowledge component, so agents can find relevant articles without running a search.
Suggested articles are automatically enabled when Lightning Knowledge is enabled. To show intelligent article suggestions based
on historical case and article data, turn on Einstein Article Recommendations.
• Search and Sort Your Results
Use the search box in the component to perform a Knowledge search. You can also use Advanced Search for pre-filtering to narrow
the search results you see.
To sort your search results, click the sort icon and select a sort option from the list. You can sort your search results by relevance,
publish date (for published articles), last modified date (for article drafts), A to Z, and Z to A. Sorting doesn’t apply to suggested
articles.
By default, articles are sorted by relevance. If you go back to the suggested articles or go to a new case, the sort order is reset to
relevance.
• Attach and Remove Articles in the Knowledge Component

Agents can attach Knowledge articles to cases and remove articles from cases using the dropdown next to any article.
• Follow and Unfollow with the Knowledge Component

Agents can follow and unfollow an article from the component using the dropdown next to the article. Following articles helps
agents save articles that they want to read later.
Administrators, agents, and internal employees with read access to Knowledge can follow articles, and they can follow articles in
any state, such as published or draft. To let Knowledge users follow and unfollow articles, enable feed tracking in Setup > Chatter >
Feed Tracking.
30
• Share Articles in Case Emails and Other Channels

Help customers by inserting article text into emails, social posts, and conversations. Or, insert article links from your Salesforce Sites
and Experience Cloud sites.
Share Articles in Channels in Lightning Knowledge

Share the contents of an article in an email, Social Post, Chat, or Messaging conversation. Close cases by inserting article summaries
or text snippets in case interactions across channels.
Share Article URLs in Channels
Insert links to articles from a Salesforce or Experience Cloud site into the case feed. In Lightning Experience, you can share article
URLs in emails, social posts, and chat and messaging conversations. In Salesforce Classic, you can send article URLs in the email,
social, and Experience Cloud publishers.
Share Articles in Channels in Lightning Knowledge

Share the contents of an article in an email, Social Post, Chat, or Messaging conversation. Close
EDITIONS
cases by inserting article summaries or text snippets in case interactions across channels.
To share article contents in channels, you must have the Knowledge component available in your Available in: Lightning
Lightning page. Experience and all editions
with Knowledge except
Your org must have the relevant channels set up, such as email, social, or chat, in the case feed.
Essentials.
You can’t change channels on an article translation and then publish the article. Doing so generates
an error. Salesforce Knowledge is
When you change channels on an article, make sure that the channels on the article’s translations
Unlimited Edition with
match the new channels. Also, publish translations before you publish the primary language version.
Service Cloud.
1. From the Knowledge component or articles related list, select one of these actions:
a. To insert the article to social media, click Insert Article into Social Post. available for an additional
The case origin must be a social post to use this action. cost in: Professional,
b. To insert the article in an email, click Insert Article into Email. and Developer Editions. For
c. To insert the article to a Chat or Messaging conversation, click Insert Article into more information, contact
Conversation. your Salesforce
representative.
2. Click Insert.
For Email and Social Post, if an article wasn't attached to a case, these actions add it to the case’s USER PERMISSIONS
related list. The article contents are inserted at the cursor position. You can also use Insert Action
on the Social Post record home to attach an article to the Social Post record (not the case record). To share article contents in
the case feed:
However, for Chat and Messaging, the article is not attached to the case, even if the article was • Edit on cases
created from a case.
AND
Read on knowledge
SEE ALSO: articles
Set Up Actions to Insert Articles into Channels in Lightning Knowledge To share internal articles in
the case feed:
• Allow user to share
internal knowledge
articles externally
31
Share Article URLs in Channels

Insert links to articles from a Salesforce or Experience Cloud site into the case feed. In Lightning
EDITIONS
Experience, you can share article URLs in emails, social posts, and chat and messaging conversations.
In Salesforce Classic, you can send article URLs in the email, social, and Experience Cloud publishers. Available in: Salesforce
To share Salesforce or Experience Cloud site URLs for articles in the case feed, the Knowledge Classic (not available in all
component must be in your Ligntning page or, in Salesforce Classic, in the Service Console. You orgs) and Lightning
must also have either a Salesforce Site or an Experience Cloud site configured. Experience
Your org must have the relevant channel configured, such as email, social, or chat. Salesforce Knowledge is
1. From the Knowledge component or articles related list, select one of these actions: available in Essentials and
a. To insert URLs in Salesforce Classic, select Attach and share article or Share article for
Service Cloud.
the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site you want. Email is the default action, but you can
switch to the social or Experience Cloud action in the case feed before inserting the URL. Salesforce Knowledge is
b. To insert URLs in emails Lightning Experience, select Insert URL into Email and then cost in: Professional,
choose the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site. Enterprise, Performance,
c. To insert URLs in chat and messaging conversations in Lightning Experience, select Insert and Developer Editions. For
URL into Conversation and then choose the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site. more information, contact
your Salesforce
d. To insert URLs into social feeds in Lightning Experience, select Insert URL into Social Post
representative.
and then choose the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site.
The article link is inserted at the cursor position.
USER PERMISSIONS
2. Click Insert URL.
To share article links in the
Keep these considerations in mind:
case feed:
• Articles must be published. These actions aren’t available for draft and archived articles. • Edit on Case
• Articles must be shared publicly, meaning they are visible in the Public Knowledge Base, or to AND
customers or partners. Read on Knowledge
• You can post an article link from any Salesforce or Experience Cloud site in the selected list,
even if the article isn’t visible in the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site or if the customer doesn’t
have access. The agent must confirm that the article is available in the Salesforce or Experience Cloud site before sharing it with the
customer.
• If the article wasn’t attached to the case previously, using these actions adds it to the related list.
32
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles
Smart Links to Salesforce Knowledge Articles

Link between articles or embed links to articles in external websites and resources. With smart links,
EDITIONS
your users always get to the right version because the links are automatically updated based on
the article channel, version, and URL name. Available in: Salesforce
Insert Smart Links into Articles orgs) and Lightning
Smart links go to the right article and version, even when a new version is published or the URL Experience
name changes. You create smart links in your article’s rich text fields, so rich text fields must be
enabled.
Create Persistent Links to Lightning Knowledge Articles Unlimited Editions with
You can manually create a permanent link to a Lightning Knowledge article. The link, called a Service Cloud.
permanent or static link, points to the latest version of an article in the user’s preferred language. Salesforce Knowledge is
You can embed an article link in external sites and documents to provide your users with access available for an additional
to the latest version. cost in: Professional,
your Salesforce
representative.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create articles:
• Manage Articles
AND
Read and Create on the
article type
33
Insert Smart Links into Articles

Smart links go to the right article and version, even when a new version is published or the URL
EDITIONS
name changes. You create smart links in your article’s rich text fields, so rich text fields must be
enabled. Available in: Salesforce
1. Edit an article. Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
2.
Experience
In the rich text editor toolbar, click the Smart Link icon .
3. Optional: Choose the publication status and, if your knowledge base has multiple languages, Salesforce Knowledge is
choose the language. available in Essentials and
4. In the Link to Article list, select an article.
Service Cloud.
your Salesforce
representative.
USER PERMISSIONS
To create articles:
• Manage Articles
AND
Read and Create in the
user profile
5. Optional: To specify how the smart link opens in public sites and Salesforce Classic, select the target from the dropdown.
6. Optional: To specify how the link opens in Lightning Experience apps and consoles, select the Lightning target.
7. Click Insert Link.
Smart links use more characters than what is displayed in the editor. If you see an error that you have surpassed the character limit,
have your administrator increase the limit.
Target Behavior for Smart Links

You can specify how smart links open using the different types of target options. Understand the behavior of each option and how
smart links created in Salesforce Classic behave in Lightning Experience.
Smart Link Considerations
Keep these considerations in mind when you use smart links.
34
Target Behavior for Smart Links

You can specify how smart links open using the different types of target options. Understand the
EDITIONS
behavior of each option and how smart links created in Salesforce Classic behave in Lightning
Experience. Available in: Salesforce
Target Options orgs) and Lightning
Experience
The target corresponds to the link’s target attribute in the source HTML. This target determines
how links open in Salesforce Classic and outside Salesforce, like in your Salesforce and Experience Salesforce Knowledge is
Cloud sites. available in Essentials and
• Not set—If you don't choose a target, the system sets the attribute to _blank when you Unlimited Editions with
save the article. Service Cloud.
• Frame—Opens the linked article in a designated frame Salesforce Knowledge is

• New Window (_blank)—Opens the linked article in a new window or tab.
• Topmost Window (_top)—Opens the linked article in the full body of the window. Enterprise, Performance,
• Same Window (_self)—Opens the linked article in the same frame. and Developer Editions. For
• Parent Window (_parent)—Opens the linked article in the parent frame.
your Salesforce
representative.
Lightning Target Options
The Lightning target corresponds to the link's data-lightning-target attribute in the
source HTML. This target determines how links open in Lightning Experience apps and consoles.
• Not set—When the Lightning target isn't set, the system uses the default behavior, _blank, which opens a new browser tab
• Lightning App Default (_new)—Opens a new workspace tab or subtab in console apps, depending on the user's context. Opens
a new browser tab in apps with standard navigation.
• Same Tab or Workspace (_self)—Opens a new workspace tab or subtab in console apps, depending on the user’s context. Opens
in the same tab in apps with standard navigation.
• New Browser Tab (_blank)—Opens a new browser tab.
• New Workspace (_workspaceTab)—Opens a new workspace tab in console apps. Opens a new browser tab in apps with
standard navigation.
• New Subtab (_subtab)—Opens a new tab in console apps. Opens in the same tab in apps with standard navigation.
What Happens in Lightning When the Lightning Target Isn’t Set?

If the target attribute isn’t set, a smart link opened in Lightning opens in a new browser tab. The data-lightning-target
attribute is assumed to be _blank.
When target is specified but not the Lightning data-lightning-target, the system uses this default behavior for links
opened in Lightning Experience.
• If the target is set to _blank, the Lightning target uses the Lightning App Default (_new).
• If the target is _self, _top, or _parent, the Lightning target is Same Tab or Workspace (_self).
• If the target is a custom frame name, the Lightning target is New Browser Tab (_blank).
35
Smart Link Considerations

Keep these considerations in mind when you use smart links.
EDITIONS
• Smart links use more characters than what is displayed in the editor. If you see an error that you
have surpassed the character limit, have your administrator increase the limit. Available in: Salesforce
• Smart links in Experience Cloud sites must use the Article Content component. Smart links don’t Classic (not available in all
resolve properly when using custom components. orgs) and Lightning
Experience
• If you don’t select a language, Salesforce returns articles in your org’s default language when
you search for an article to link. Salesforce Knowledge is
• For legacy Knowledge subscriptions, smart links are based on the channels they’re in. Therefore, available in Essentials and
legacy customers can’t add a smart link to an article in another channel. For example, an article Unlimited Editions with
on a public knowledge base can’t link to an article published only on internal channels. For new Service Cloud.
Knowledge customers, every article is part of an internal channel, so this qualification doesn’t Salesforce Knowledge is
apply. available for an additional
your Salesforce
representative.
36
Create Persistent Links to Lightning Knowledge Articles

You can manually create a permanent link to a Lightning Knowledge article. The link, called a
EDITIONS
permanent or static link, points to the latest version of an article in the user’s preferred language.
You can embed an article link in external sites and documents to provide your users with access to Available in: Lightning
the latest version. Experience
When publishing a link to a Knowledge article, it’s important that the link continues to work when
a new version of the article is created. To add a link to a Knowledge article within Salesforce, use Salesforce Knowledge is
Smart Links. When you want to publish a link in an external resource, use the format described here available in Essentials and
to create a static article link. A static link persists across versions and is based on the article’s URL Unlimited Editions with
name, your Salesforce domain, and a few other pieces of information. Service Cloud.
Warning: If you change the URL name in the article record, you must update any links using available for an additional
the original URL name. cost in: Professional,
1. Open a text file to construct the URL. Enterprise, Performance,
2. Open the article that you want to create a link for.
3. In the browser window with your article, copy your Salesforce domain from the address bar your Salesforce
into the text file. representative.
For example, in the URL
USER PERMISSIONS
To view articles:
• Lightning Knowledge
User
AND
Read on the Knowledge
Base object
AND
Read on URL Name field
https://example.lightning.force.com/lightning/o/Knowledge__kav/list?filterName=00BB00028DpSU,
the domain is example.lightning.force.com.
4. In the text file, append the path for the Lightning Knowledge article after your domain.
For example, after your domain string, add /lightning/articles/KnowledgeBaseName/, where the Knowledge base
name is the label for the object that contains your articles. By default, the label is Knowledge.
If your domain ends in .com, your URL now looks like this:
https://example.lightning.force.com/lightning/articles/Knowledge/
5. In the article record, locate the URL Name field, and copy the contents to the end of your new URL.
Note: The article URL is case-sensitive, so confirm that the /lightning/articles/KnowledgeBaseName/ portion
of the URL and the capitalization of your article’s URL name is correct.
The static URL looks something like this:
https://cunning-elephant.lightning.force.com/lightning/articles/Knowledge/My-knowledge-article
6. Optional: Specify the article’s language using the ISO code.
The format for adding the language parameter string is:
37
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Report on Salesforce Knowledge Articles
SalesforceDomain/lightning/articles/KnowledgeBaseName/URLName?language=xx_XX
For example, if the URL name is shipping-faq and you want to link to the version in French, your static URL looks like this:
https://cunning-elephant.lightning.force.com/lightning/articles/Knowledge/shipping-faq?language=fr_FR
If the URL name is different for each language, use the version-specific name and don’t add the language code.
7. Add the static article URL to your external document or page.
Report on Salesforce Knowledge Articles

Use Salesforce Knowledge custom reports to track how articles are created, maintained, and
EDITIONS
delivered.
As an administrator, you can create custom report types so agents can create reports on Salesforce Available in: Salesforce
Knowledge articles. Custom report types are the only way to make reports about articles available Classic (not available in all
for your readers. Salesforce does not provide sample article reports or a standard report folder for orgs) and Lightning
articles. Experience
Tip: The Knowledge Base Dashboards and Reports AppExchange package provides over two Salesforce Knowledge is
dozen reports that help you monitor the knowledge base and analyze usage metrics. available in Essentials and
Service Cloud.
Create a Folder for Article Reports
Create a public folder where you can store article reports for your users. Salesforce Knowledge is
Create a Report Type for Article Reports cost in: Professional,
Create a custom report type to report on Salesforce Knowledge article data. Enterprise, Performance,
Create an Article Report and Developer Editions. For
Run your custom report on your Salesforce Knowledge articles and save them to your article
your Salesforce
reports folder.
representative.
Fields Available on Salesforce Knowledge Reports
The fields you can use in a knowledge report depend on the type of information you are reporting
USER PERMISSIONS
on.
To create or update custom
report types:
• Manage Custom Report
Types
To create a public reports
folder:
• Manage Public Reports
38
Create a Folder for Article Reports

Create a public folder where you can store article reports for your users.
EDITIONS
1. In the Report Folder section of the Reports tab, click Create New Folder.
2. Enter Article Reports in the Folder Label field.
3. Optionally, modify the Group Unique Name. orgs) and Lightning
4. Choose a Public Folder Access option. Experience
Select read/write if you want users to be able to add and remove reports.
5. Choose a folder visibility option. available in Essentials and
6. Click Save. Service Cloud.
Reports you store in this folder are available on the Reports tab. Salesforce Knowledge is
your Salesforce
representative.
USER PERMISSIONS

report types:
Types
To create a public reports
folder:
• Manage Public Reports
39
Create a Report Type for Article Reports

Create a custom report type to report on Salesforce Knowledge article data.
EDITIONS
1. From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Report Types then select Report Types.
2. Click New Custom Report Type.
See Create a Custom Report Type. orgs) and Lightning
3. In the Primary Object dropdown menu, select the article-related object you want to report on. Experience
Primary Object Related Objects Description
Knowledge Compare information, such as creation Unlimited Editions with
• Knowledge Versions
(Lightning dates, audience visibility, and the Service Cloud.
• Feed: Knowledge
Knowledge) number of associated cases across record Salesforce Knowledge is
types. To access history and custom available for an additional
fields, add Knowledge Versions as a cost in: Professional,
secondary object. Enterprise, Performance,
If you changed the name of your
knowledge base, the custom label shows
your Salesforce
here.
representative.
Knowledge Articles • Knowledge Article Report on information about individual

Versions published articles, such as their creation USER PERMISSIONS
date and published channels. When you
• Article View Statistics To create or update custom
build this custom report type, you can
• Article Vote Statistics report types:
include article view statistics, article vote
• Case Article statistics, and case associations. In
Types
reports using the Knowledge Articles
– Articles To create a public reports
primary object, each article has five
– There are many folder:
records (rows), one for each channel (All
additional • Manage Public Reports
Channels, Internal App, Customer,
relationships from Partner, and Public Knowledge Base).
Case Article, including
Work Orders and Case
Comments.
Knowledge Article • Article View Statistics Compare information about individual

Versions versions and translations, such as their
• Article Vote Statistics
creation date, published channels, and
• Case Article number of associated cases. If you
– Articles choose this custom report type, you can
also include article view and vote
– There are many
statistics.
additional
relationships from
Case Article, including
Work Orders and Case
Comments.
40
Primary Object Related Objects Description

Article types (Knowledge in • Article Type Versions Compare information, such as creation dates, published
Salesforce Classic) channels, and number of associated cases, for your
You can then choose a relationship to custom article type, such as an FAQ. To access version
Article history and custom fields, add the article type’s version
Type_DataCategorySelection. as a secondary object.
If you have multiple article types, each is listed separately,
for example FAQs, Issues, and Procedures.
Report types for the search, view, vote, and version history objects don’t have secondary relationships.
Table 2: Report Types for Search, Views, Votes, and Version History
Primary Object Description
Knowledge Search Activity • Analyze the number of searches per day, month, or year for
each channel and language.
• For each search, see the date, ID, and title of the article that
was clicked.
• See which keywords users are looking for in your knowledge
base.
• For each keyword, see the average number of results, and
articles that appear in the search results.
• For each article, see the average number of clicks, and unique
users who clicked it.
Knowledge Keyword Search See which keywords users are looking for in your knowledge
base. Keyword data is only available for Salesforce Classic.
Article Version History Compare information about individual article versions, such as
their creation dates, published channels, and number of
associated cases.
Knowledge Article Views Analyze the number of views per day, month, or year for each
channel and role.
Knowledge Article Votes Analyze the number of votes per day, month, or year for each
channel and role.
Knowledge Article Searches Analyze the number of searches per day, month, or year for each
channel and role. Searches aren’t differentiated between internal
and external, and all searches are logged as Internal App. Searches
in Experience Cloud sites aren’t checked.
Knowledge Article Searches’ report results are limited to searches
performed using Classic Knowledge.
4. Complete the required fields and click Save.
41
In the Store in Category dropdown menu, we recommend choosing Customer Support Reports or Other Reports. This category
is where users find the custom report type on the Reports tab.
5. Make your choices on the Define Report Records Set page.

6. Click Save.
7. As needed, remove, and rearrange fields from your report layout.
To learn which fields are available on each primary object, see Fields Available on Salesforce Knowledge Reports on page 44.
Note: An article’s score is calculated slightly differently in the API than it is in a custom report. We recommend standardizing on
one or the other and not attempting to use both.
Limitations and Considerations
• It takes 24 hours for a report to generate.
• Based on relevancy, your report only shows up to 300 results daily and up to the past 30 days of the current month. See How Search
Results are Ordered.
– After a new month, past daily data aggregates to the top 300 results per month for the current year. After a new year, past
monthly data aggregates to the top 300 results per year.
• Fields and custom report types are supported for Knowledge Search Activity. See Fields Available on Salesforce Knowledge Reports
• You can add and remove fields in custom reports. See Design the Field Layout for Reports Created from Your Custom Report Type
42
Create an Article Report

Run your custom report on your Salesforce Knowledge articles and save them to your article reports
EDITIONS
folder.
Using your custom report types, create article reports and save them to your article reports folder. Available in: Salesforce
1. On the Reports tab, click New Report.
orgs) and Lightning
2. Choose the category where your custom report types are stored, for example, Customer Experience
Support Reports or Other Reports.
The Cases with Articles report is available by default in the Customer Support Reports folder. Salesforce Knowledge is
3. Find your report type and click Create. Unlimited Editions with
4. When viewing your report, click Save As and save it in the new Article Reports folder to make Service Cloud.
the report available to other users. Salesforce Knowledge is
Note: cost in: Professional,
• In reports using the Knowledge Article custom report type, there are at least five rows Enterprise, Performance,
per article, one for each channel, including All Channels. and Developer Editions. For
• Daily values are reported independently for the last 90 days and monthly values for the
your Salesforce
last 18 months. After those time periods, use the monthly aggregate and yearly aggregate
representative.
values, respectively.
• In reports using the Knowledge Article Votes, Knowledge Article Views, or Knowledge
Article Searches custom report types, each row represents a day, channel, and role USER PERMISSIONS
combination. For example, if a user with the Kingmaker role views articles in the internal
app and the next day the same reader views more articles in the internal app, the Article report types:
Views report has two rows: one for each unique date. • Manage Custom Report
• In reports using Knowledge Article Version (KAV), except Knowledge Article Version Types
History, you can filter by data category. You can add up to four filters and set their logic To create a public reports
to AT, ABOVE, BELOW, or ABOVE OR BELOW. The logic between filters is OR. You can use folder:
the same category group multiple times,but you must use the same operator each time. • Manage Public Reports
• To report on Approval Processes for Knowledge Articles, use Process Instance and
Process Instance Node when creating a custom report type. Then filter the report on
object type, which is the article type.
• You can create a custom report type for a Case by cross-filtering for Cases with and without
articles. If you do, then when you archive an article, case records linked to that article no
longer list the article information in the report. This limitation happens if the user doesn’t
have access to all the data categories in the category group.
43
Fields Available on Salesforce Knowledge Reports

The fields you can use in a knowledge report depend on the type of information you are reporting
EDITIONS
on.
Important: Where possible, we changed noninclusive terms to align with our company Available in: Salesforce
value of Equality. We maintained certain terms to avoid any effect on customer Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
implementations.
Experience
The following tables list the available fields by primary object for Salesforce Knowledge reports.
Fields Available on Article types (Knowledge in Salesforce Classic) Reports the Unlimited Edition with
The Article Type primary object allows you to add a secondary object of the article type version. Service Cloud.
Table 3: Article Type Report Primary Object Fields
Field Description cost in: Professional,
Archived By User who archived the article.
Archived Date Date the article was archived. more information, contact
your Salesforce
Article Number Unique number automatically assigned to the article. representative.
Article Type ID The ID associated with the article type.
Case Association Number of cases attached to the article.

USER PERMISSIONS
Count To create or update custom
report types:
Created By User who created the article.
Created Date Date the current article version was created. If the article has been Types
published more than one time, Created Date is the latest draft To create a public reports
date. To create reports that use the original article creation date, first folder:
create a Custom Report Type that joins the Knowledge Article (__ka) • Manage Public Reports
and Knowledge Article Version (__kav) objects for a given article type
to allow for use of the created date on the record in the Knowledge
Article object, rather than the one for the Knowledge Article Version
record.
Custom fields Any custom fields created on the article types. Add the article type's
version as a secondary object to access any custom fields for the
article type.
First Published Date the article was originally published.

Date
Knowledge Article The article's version number.

Version
Last Modified By User who changed the article most recently.
Last Modified Date the article was last changed. The last modified date of a draft
Date article is the time the draft was saved. The last modified date of a
published article is time the article was most recently published.
44
Field Description
Last Published Date Date the article was last published.
Next Review Date The date when the article must next be reviewed for accuracy.
Primary Language The original language of the article.
Note: Currently you can’t use Knowledge Article Version and Last Modified Date in the same report.
Table 4: Article Type Report Secondary Object Fields

Field Description
Article Type The article type associated with the article.
Created Date Date the current article version was created. If the article has been published more than one
time, Created Date is the latest draft date. To create reports that use the original article
creation date, first create a Custom Report Type that joins the Knowledge Article (__ka) and
Knowledge Article Version (__kav) objects for a given article type to allow for use of the created
date on the record in the Knowledge Article object, rather than the one for the Knowledge
Article Version record.
Custom fields Any custom fields created on the article types. Add the article type's version as a secondary
object to access any custom fields for the article type.
File fields aren't supported for reports and report types with Knowledge.
Is Latest Version Indicates if the article is the most recent version.
Is Primary Language Indicates that the article is not a translation, but the original article.
Knowledge Article Unique ID automatically assigned to the article translation.

Version ID
Language The article's language.
Last Modified Date Date the article was last changed. The last modified date of a draft article is the time the draft
was saved. The last modified date of a published article is time the article was most recently
published.
Out of Date Indicates that the primary article has been updated since this translation was published.
Publication Status Indicates whether the article or translation is in progress (draft), published, or archived.
Summary Description of the article provided by the author.
Title The article's title.
Translation Completed Date the translation was completed.

Date
45
Field Description
Translation Exported Date the article was exported for translation.
Date
Translation Imported Date the translation was imported.

Date
URL Name Text used as hyperlink for the article.
Validation Status Indicates if the article is valid or not.
Version Number The version number of the article.
Visible in Customer Indicates that the article is published in the Customer Portal.
Visible in Internal App Indicates that the article is published in the internal app (Articles tab).
Visible in Partner Indicates that the article is published in the partner portal.
Visible in Public Indicates that the article is published in the public knowledge base.
Knowledge Base
Fields Available on Knowledge Articles Reports
Field Description
Article Number Unique number automatically assigned to the article.
Case Association Count Number of cases attached to the article.
First Published Date Date the article was originally published.

Version ID
published.
Last Published Date Date the article was last published.
46
Field Description
Published Version Owner The user or queue that owns the published version of an article.
Knowledge Base
Fields Available on Knowledge Article Searches Reports
Field Description
Channel The channel that’s applicable to the article. Possible values are All Channels, Internal
App, Customer, Partner, and Public Knowledge Base.
Count The number of article searches applicable to the duration shown (day, month, or year).
Cumulative Count The total number of article searches for the history of the record.
Date Last date on which an article search took place for the record. All rows represent a date, channel,
and role combination.
Duration The time period the search count is applied to. Possible values are Daily, Monthly, and
Yearly. For example, a record where the Count is 70 and the Duration is Monthly indicates
that 70 searches took place over the past month. Totals are aggregated daily for the current
month, monthly from the past full month through the past full year, and yearly beyond that.
Related Role Name of the role that applies to the record. Each row in the report represents searches per
channel per role.
Fields Available on Knowledge Article Versions Reports
Field Description
Archived Date Date the article was archived.
Article Number Unique number automatically assigned to the article.
47
Field Description
Case Association Count Number of cases attached to the article.
External Reference The ID of the article in the external system
First Published Date Date the article was originally published.
Is External Data Indicates that the article came in from (or: was sourced from) an external system.
Is Primary Language Indicates that the article is not a translation, but the original article.

Version ID
Language The article's language.
published.
Date the article was last published. Date the article was last published.
Next Review Date The date when the article must next be reviewed for accuracy.
Primary Language The original language of the article.
Out of Date Indicates that the primary article has been updated since this translation was published.
Owner The user or queue that owns a published, draft, or archived version of an article.
Publication Status Indicates whether the article or translation is in progress (draft), published, or archived.
Translation Completed Date the translation was completed.

Date
Translation Exported Date the article was exported for translation.

Date
48
Field Description
Translation Imported Date the translation was imported.
Date
Knowledge Base
Fields Available on Knowledge Article Views Reports

You can add up to six of these eight fields.
Field Description
Count The number of article views applicable to the duration shown (day, month, year).
Cumulative Count The total number of article views for the history of the record.
Date Last date on which an article view took place for the record. All rows represent a date, channel,
Related Role Name of the role that applies to the record.
Score The article's average view rating. Scores take into account a half-life calculation. Every 15 days,
if an article has not been viewed its average rating moves up or down. This calculation ensures
that over time, older or outdated articles don't maintain artificially high or low ratings compared
to newer, more frequently viewed articles.
Total Views Number of times a published article has been viewed.
49
Fields Available on Knowledge Article Votes Reports
Field Description
Count The number of article votes applicable to the duration shown (day, month, year).
Cumulative Count The total number of article votes for the history of the record.
Date Last date on which an article vote took place for the record. All rows represent a date, channel,
Related Role Name of the role that applies to the record.
Fields Available on Knowledge Keyword Search Reports

Knowledge Keyword Search reports are designed for use with the Salesforce Knowledge in Salesforce Classic data model. These reports
include searches from the Knowledge One widget.
Field Description
Count The number of keyword searches applicable to the duration shown (day, month, year).
Date Last date on which a keyword search took place for the record. All rows represent a date, channel,
Found Indicates whether the keyword shown was found during a search of the knowledge base.
Keyword Search term used to search published articles in the knowledge base.
Fields Available on Knowledge Search Activity Reports
Field Description
Average Click Rank The order in which the article appeared in search results when results are sorted by relevance
and when readers clicked it from the list of results.
50
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
Field Description
Clicked Article Title The title of the clicked article taken when the search results are sorted by relevance by the reader.
Activity totals are collected nightly and aren’t in real time.
Language The language filter that’s applied to the reader’s search.
Number of Results The number of search results that were returned for the search term. If Duration is also included,
this value is aggregated based on the time period specified.
Number of Searches The number of searches for the duration that’s shown (day, month, or year).
Number of Users The number of individual users who clicked the article.
Search Date The date of the search.
Search Term The first 100 characters of the search term that was used to search published articles in the
knowledge base.
Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge

Import external articles or an information database into Salesforce Knowledge. To move content
EDITIONS
from Classic to Lightning Knowledge, use the migration tool.
Note: If you are looking for instructions on importing translated articles that you've sent to Available in: Salesforce
a localization vendor, see Import Translated Articles on page 68. Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Consider these best practices and requirements as you prepare your articles for import. Experience
• Test your import using a small set of articles.
• Sort your articles by information type. In Classic, import each article type individually. In Lightning
Knowledge, you can import articles of multiple record types at once.
• Ensure that each information type has a corresponding record type or, in Salesforce Classic, an Service Cloud.
article type that matches its structure and content. Create a list of fields available in each article
or record type, and verify that your article contents match the structure of each type. available for an additional
• Verify that the article's field-level security settings allow you to edit the fields. cost in: Professional,
• Use rich text fields to import HTML content. Prepare the .html files with the content for each Enterprise, Performance,
rich text area field. Ensure that the HTML is compliant with the tags and attributes supported and Developer Editions. For
in the rich text area field. more information, contact
your Salesforce
• The article importer does not support subfields. If you have fields within fields, adjust your representative.
structure and content before importing into Salesforce Knowledge.
51
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Import External Content into Salesforce Knowledge
Create a .csv File for Article Import

The import file maps the article contents to Knowledge article fields. For example, map a Title column in your .csv file with the
standard Title field to import each article's title.
Set Article Import Parameters
Specify import parameters in a property file using key names and corresponding values. For example, use the key DateFormat
to specify that a date custom field appears in the DateFormat=dd/MM/YYYY format. Or, specify the character encoding and
field separator used for the import file.
Create an Article .zip File for Import
To complete your article import, create a .zip file with your parameters, .csv, and .html files, and upload them to Salesforce Knowledge.
Article and Translation Import and Export Status
You can monitor the status of your article imports and exports.
52
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Create a .csv File for Article Import
Create a .csv File for Article Import

The import file maps the article contents to Knowledge article fields. For example, map a Title
EDITIONS
column in your .csv file with the standard Title field to import each article's title.
Important: Where possible, we changed noninclusive terms to align with our company Available in: Salesforce
value of Equality. We maintained certain terms to avoid any effect on customer Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
implementations.
Experience
1. Create a .csv file to import articles.
Note: In Salesforce Classic, you import each article type separately, so you create a .csv
file for each article type. In Lightning Knowledge, you can import articles of different types
in one .csv file and set the record type during import. Service Cloud.
• There can only be one .csv file and one .properties file. Salesforce Knowledge is
• The .csv file and the .properties file must be in the root directory. available for an additional
• The compression process must preserve the folder and subfolder structure. cost in: Professional,
• The .zip file name can’t contain special characters.
• The .zip file can't exceed 20 MB and the individual, uncompressed, files within the zip file more information, contact
can't exceed 10 MB. your Salesforce
• .csv files can't have more than 10,000 rows, including the header row. Therefore, you can representative.
have a maximum of 9,999 articles and translations.
• .csv file rows can't exceed 400,000 characters. USER PERMISSIONS
• .csv file cells can't exceed 32 KB.
To import articles:
• Each article in the .csv file can't have more than 49 translations. • Manage Salesforce
Knowledge
2. In the first row, specify the article's fields and metadata, such as title, language, data categories,
and channels. AND
Manage Articles
Enter one item in each column. You can use the following fields and metadata to import content.
AND
Field or data Description Manage Knowledge
Article Import/Export
isMasterLanguage Identifies the article as a primary (1) or
AND
translation (0). Required to import articles with
translations, however, Read, Create, Edit, and
Delete on the article type
isMasterLanguage can’t be in a .csv
file to import articles without translations. A
translation must follow its primary article so
that it’s associated with the primary article
preceding it.
Title The article or translation's title. Required for

all imports.
Record Type Indicates an article’s record type, for example,

FAQ. Article import requires the 15-character,
case-sensitive ID format.
Standard and custom fields Refer to an article type's standard fields using
field names and refer to custom fields using
53
Field or data Description

API names. If the related article type field is mandatory, leaving
a row cell empty can cause your articles to be skipped.
Rich text area field Use the rich text area custom fields to import .html files or images.
Refer to an article type's rich text area field using its API name.
File field Use the file custom fields to import any file type (.doc, .pdf, .txt).
Refer to an article type's file field using its API name.
Data category groups To categorize the imported articles, use category groups. Refer
to a category group using its unique name prefixed with
datacategorygroup.. For example, use
datacategorygroup.Products to specify the category
group Products.
Channel To specify where the imported articles are available, use the
keyword Channels.
Language Specify the articles' language. Required to import articles with

translations. Optional to import articles without translations. If
you don't include this column, the articles automatically belong
to the default knowledge base language and you can't import
translations along with the primary articles.
3. In subsequent rows, specify the articles you want to import.

Use one row per article, and enter the appropriate information in each field or metadata column. You can leave a column blank to
skip importing data. For example, if some fields only appear in certain record types, enter values only for the appropriate articles of
those types.
Important: All file names are case-sensitive and must exactly match what is in the .csv file.
Consideration Notes
Standard or custom fields Enter the articles' data for each field, except for rich text area
fields where you must enter the relative path to the
corresponding .html file in your .zip file.
The article importer does not support subfields. If you have fields
within fields, adjust your structure and content before importing
into Salesforce Knowledge.
Rich text area field Always enter the .html file path relative to the location of the
.csv file. Never enter raw text. If the specified path doesn't exist,
the related article isn't imported. Note the following information
about importing HTML and images.
• We recommend that you create one folder for the .html files
(for example, /data) and another for images (for example,
/data/images).
54
Consideration Notes
• To import images, include the images in an .html file using

the <img> tag and src attribute. Ensure that the src
value is a relative path from the .html file to the image folder.
• Images must be .png, .gif, or .jpeg files.
• Each image file can't exceed 1 MB.
• If you have multiple rich text area fields, create a separate
.html file for the contents of each field.
• .html file contents can't exceed the maximum size for its
field.
• If a date doesn't match the date format specified in the
property file, the related article isn't imported.
• If an .html file references a file that isn't allowed, the related
article isn't imported.
• If an .html file references an image that's missing, the related
article is imported without the image.
File field In Lightning Knowledge, custom file fields are replaced with
Salesforce Files.
Enter the path relative to the file's location. If the specified path
doesn't exist, the related article isn't imported. Note the following
information about importing files.
• We recommend that you create a folder for your files (for
example, /files).
• Each file must not exceed 5 MB.
Category groups Use unique category names to categorize articles. Use the plus
symbol (+) to specify more than one category. For example,
Laptop+Desktop. Note the following information about
data category groups.
• Leaving the cell row empty causes your article to be set to
No Categories.
• If you specify a category and its parent (for example,
Europe+France) the import process skips the child category
France and keeps the parent category Europe, because
application of a parent category implicitly includes the
category's children.
• When importing articles with translations and associated
data categories, only the primary article retains the data
categories. The article translations have no associated data
category upon import.
55
Consideration Notes
Channels Specify articles' channels using the keywords.
• application for Internal App. If you don't specify a
channel, application is the default.
• sites for Public Knowledge Base.
• csp for Customer.
• prm for Partner.
Use the plus (+) symbol to specify more than one channel (for
example, application+sites+csp to make an article
available in all channels).
When importing articles with translations and associated
channels, only the primary article retains the channels. The article
translations have no associated channels upon import.
Example: The following example shows .csv files to import product offer articles. The first file imports articles without translations.
The second .csv file imports articles with translations. The .csv files contain titles, summaries, and descriptions. They also classify
the articles in the category group Products and make them available for specific channels. The description__c field is a
rich text area and only supports paths to .html files. The summary__c field is a text field and only supports raw text. The summary
field is optional, and summary__c is left blank for some rows. The RecordTypeId sets the Product Offer record type for
two of the articles, and the “Best Desktop Computer Deals” article is an FAQ. Example articlesimport.csv file:
Title,summary__c,description__c,datacategorygroup.Products,Channels,RecordTypeId
Free Digital Camera Offer, Get the new Digital
Camera.,data/freecam.html,Consumer_Electronics,application+csp,012RM0000002Q5M
Best Desktop Computer Deals,,data/bestdeals.html,Desktop,application+csp,012RM0000002Q5g
Free Shipping on Laptop and
Desktops,,data/freeship.html,Laptop+Desktops,application+csp,012RM0000002Q5M
Example articlestranslationsimport.csv file:
isMasterLanguage,Title,summary__c,description__c,datacategorygroup.Products,Channels,Language,RecordTypeId
1,Free Digital Camera Offer,Get the new Digital
Camera,data/freecam.html,Consumer_Electronics,application+csp,en,012RM0000002Q5M
0,Libérer l'Offre d'Appareil photo digital,Obtenir le nouvel Appareil photo
digital.,data/freecam/fr.html,,,fr,012RM0000002Q5M
0,Liberte Oferta Digital de Cámara,Consiga la nueva Cámara
Digital.,data/freecam/es.html,,,es,012RM0000002Q5M
1,Best Desktop Computer
Deals,,data/bestdeals.html,Desktops,application+csp,en,012RM0000002Q5g
0,Meilleures Affaires d'ordinateurs de
bureau,,data/bestdeals/fr.html,,,fr,012RM0000002Q5g
0,Mejores Tratos de ordenadores,,data/bestdeals/es.html,,,es,012RM0000002Q5g
1,Free Shipping on Laptop and
56
Desktops,,data/freeship.html,Laptops+Desktops,application+csp,en,012RM0000002Q5M
0,Libérer Affranchissement sur Portables et
Ordinateurs,,data/freeship/fr.html,,,fr,012RM0000002Q5M
0,Liberte Franqueo en Laptops y Ordenadores,,data/freeship/es.html,,,es,012RM0000002Q5M
Title summary__c description__c datacategorygroup Channels RecordTypeID

.Products
Free Digital Camera Get the new Digital data/freecam.html Consumer_ application+csp 012RM0000002Q5M
Offer Camera. Electronics
Best Desktop data/bestdeals.html Desktop application+csp 012RM0000002Q5g

Computer Deals
Free Shipping on data/freeship.html Laptop+Desktops application+csp 012RM0000002Q5M

Laptop and
Desktops
siMasterLanguage Title summary__c description__c datacategorygroup Channels Language RecordTypeId

.Products
1 Free Digital Camera Offer Get the new Digital data/freecam.html Consumer_ Electronics application en_US 012RM0000002Q5M
Camera. +csp
0 Libérer l'Offre d'Appareil Obtenir le nouvel data/freecam/fr.html fr 012RM0000002Q5M

photo digital Appareil photo digital.
0 Liberte Oferta Digital de Consiga la nueva Cámara data/freecam/es.html es 012RM0000002Q5M

Cámara Digital.
1 Best Desktop Computer data/bestdeals.html Desktops application en_US 012RM0000002Q5g

Deals +csp
0 Meilleures Affaires data/bestdeals/fr.html fr 012RM0000002Q5g

d'ordinateurs de bureau
0 Mejores Tratos de data/bestdeals/es.html es 012RM0000002Q5g

ordenadores
1 Free Shipping on data/freeship.html Laptops+ Desktops application en_US 012RM0000002Q5M

Laptops and Desktops +csp
0 Libérer Affranchissement data/freeship/fr.html fr 012RM0000002Q5M

sur Portables et
Ordinateurs
0 Liberte Franqueo en data/freeship/es.html es 012RM0000002Q5M

Laptops y Ordenadores
Specify your import parameters in a property file using key names and corresponding values.
57
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Set Article Import Parameters
Set Article Import Parameters

Specify import parameters in a property file using key names and corresponding values. For example,
EDITIONS
use the key DateFormat to specify that a date custom field appears in the
DateFormat=dd/MM/YYYY format. Or, specify the character encoding and field separator Available in: Salesforce
used for the import file. Classic (not available in all
1. Create a file with required parameters, as described in this table. orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Key Description Default Value
DateFormat Format of the date to read in yyyy-MM-dd available in Essentials and
the .csv file Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
DateTimeFormat Format of the date and time yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
to read in the .csv file Salesforce Knowledge is
CSVEncoding Character encoding used to ISO8859_15_FDIS cost in: Professional,
read the .csv file Enterprise, Performance,
CSVSeparator .csv field separator , more information, contact
RTAEncoding Default encoding used for the ISO8859_15_FDIS your Salesforce
HTML files (if not specified in representative.
the charset attribute from
the HTML meta tag). USER PERMISSIONS
Salesforce does not support
To import articles:
UTF-32 character encoding.
• Manage Salesforce
We recommend using UTF-8. Knowledge
If you use specify UTF-16
AND
character encoding, ensure
that your HTML files specify Manage Articles
the right byte-order mark. AND
Manage Knowledge
Article Import/Export
Note: Specify only Java date formats. Make sure that the date format is not misleading. AND
For example, if you choose the format yyyy-M-d, a date entered as 2011111 can be Read, Create, Edit, and
interpreted as 2011-01-11 or 2011-11-01. Specify at least: Delete on the article type
• Two digits for month and day format (MM, dd)

• Four digits for year format (yyyy)
If a date in the .csv file does not match the date format specified in the property file, the
related article is not imported.
2. Save the file with the .properties extension.
Example: Example offerarticlesimport.properties property file:
DateFormat=yyyy-MM-dd
DateTimeFormat=yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
CSVEncoding=ISO8859_15_FDIS
58
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Create an Article .zip File for Import
CSVSeparator=,
RTAEncoding=UTF-8
Create a .zip file and import into Salesforce Knowledge.
Create an Article .zip File for Import

To complete your article import, create a .zip file with your parameters, .csv, and .html files, and
USER PERMISSIONS
upload them to Salesforce Knowledge.
To import articles:
Important: Where possible, we changed noninclusive terms to align with our company
value of Equality. We maintained certain terms to avoid any effect on customer Knowledge
implementations.
AND
1. Create a .zip file containing:
Manage Articles
• The .csv file. AND
• The folder containing the .html files to import. Manage Knowledge
• The folder containing the image files referenced in the .html files. Article Import/Export
• The .properties file. AND
Read, Create, Edit, and
Important: The import .zip file must meet the following requirements:
• There can only be one .csv file and one .properties file.
• The .csv file and the .properties file must be in the root directory.
• The compression process must preserve the folder and subfolder structure.
• The .zip file name can’t contain special characters.
• The .zip file can’t exceed 20 MB and the individual, uncompressed, files within the
zip file can’t exceed 10 MB.
• .csv files can’t have more than 10,000 rows, including the header row. Therefore, you
can have a maximum of 9,999 articles and translations.
• .csv file rows can’t exceed 400,000 characters.
• .csv file cells can’t exceed 32 KB.
• Each article in the .csv file can’t have more than 49 translations.
2. From Setup, enter Import Articles in the Quick Find box, then select Import Articles.
3. Then:
a. In Lightning Knowledge, select Knowledge Base from the dropdown.
b. In Salesforce Classic, select the appropriate article type for the imported articles.
4. To select the .zip file, click Browse, and then click OK.
5. If your import contains translations, select Contains translations?.
Note: When this option is selected, your .csv file must contain the isMasterLanguage, Title, and Language columns. If this
option isn’t selected, your .csv file can’t contain the isMasterLanguage, but it must contain the Title column. The Language
column is optional when importing articles without translations.
6. Click Import Now.
59
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Article and Translation Import and Export Status
When the import is complete, you receive an email with an attached log that provides details about the import.
Check the status of your import on the Article Imports page.
Article and Translation Import and Export Status

You can monitor the status of your article imports and exports.
EDITIONS
To check the status of your imports and exports, from Setup, enter Article Imports in the
Quick Find box, then select Article Imports. If you've enabled multiple languages for Salesforce Available in: Salesforce
Knowledge, you see one table for article and translation imports and another for exports for Classic (not available in all
translation. orgs) and Lightning
Experience.
The import information includes:
• Possible actions Salesforce Knowledge is
• .zip filenames available in Essentials and
• Who submitted the import and when Service Cloud.
• Status
• Started and completed dates available for an additional
• Article types cost in: Professional,
The export information includes:
• Possible actions more information, contact
• .zip filenames your Salesforce
representative.
• Who submitted the export and when
• Status
• Started and completed dates
Status Description Possible Action

Pending The import or export starts as soon as the You can click Cancel to cancel the pending
current import or export completes. import or export.
Processing The import or export is processing. If you want to stop the process, or if the
process has been stopped, call Salesforce
Support. Salesforce can stop an import or
export if a maintenance task has to be
performed or the import or export exceeds
one hour.
Stopping/Stopped Salesforce Support is stopping or has Contact Salesforce Support to restart the
already stopped the import or export. import or export, or click Cancel to cancel
an entry.
Aborted The import or export has been canceled. You can restart an import or export, delete
The articles that have already been an entry by clicking Del, or receive the
imported or exported successfully are completion email and check the details of
available in Salesforce. your import or export by clicking Email Log.
60
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Support Knowledge Articles in Multiple Languages
Status Description Possible Action

Completed The import or export is complete. This status doesn't mean the import or
Successfully imported articles are shown export is successful. Click Email Log to check
on the Article Management tab on the the details of your import or export.
Articles subtab. Successfully imported Click the exported .zip file to save or open
translations are listed on the Translations the file on your system.
subtab.
Support Knowledge Articles in Multiple Languages

Reach a wider audience by providing knowledge articles in any Salesforce-supported languages.
EDITIONS
Translate articles in-house or work with a localization vendor.
Before you add languages to your knowledge base, decide for each language whether you want Available in: Salesforce
to translate articles directly in Salesforce or export articles to a translation vendor. Communicate Classic (not available in all
your decision to the people involved in the translation process (authors, reviewers, translation orgs) and Lightning
managers, publishers). Different languages can use different translation methods. For example, you Experience
may want to export articles to a localization vendor for French translations, but assign articles to
an internal Knowledge user for Spanish translations. Salesforce Knowledge is
When adding a language to your knowledge base, keep in mind that it can't be deleted; however, the Unlimited Edition with
you can hide a language by making it inactive. Deactivating a language means it no longer appears Service Cloud.
as a choice in the New Article dialog or the Submit for Translation dialog. Also, if articles are already
published in the language, those articles are no longer visible to readers when the language is
deactivated. To hide translated articles for a specific language, deselect Active next to the language
on the Settings page. Enterprise, Performance,
Work with Articles and Translations more information, contact
The Article Management tab is your home page for working with articles throughout the your Salesforce
publishing cycle as they are created, assigned to collaborators, translated, published, archived, representative.
and deleted.
Publish Articles and Translations
Publishing articles and translations makes them visible in all channels selected. If you publish an article that has translations, all
translations of the article are published as well.
Translate Articles in Lightning Knowledge
If your organization supports a multilingual knowledge base, give agents and authors access to translated articles. Add authoring
actions to user profiles so your agents can access primary language versions and translation drafts.
Archive Articles and Translations
Archiving removes published articles and translations that are obsolete so they no longer display to agents and customers on your
organization's Salesforce Knowledge channels.
Set Up Primary Article and Translation Side-By-Side View
Look at a translated article and do a side-by-side comparison with the primary language version of the article. Admins can add a
primary article component to the page layout so authors can view the primary language version beside the translated article.
61
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Work with Articles and Translations
Work with Articles and Translations

EDITIONS

orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Service Cloud.
your Salesforce
representative.
62
The Article Management tab is your home page for working with articles throughout the publishing
USER PERMISSIONS
cycle as they are created, assigned to collaborators, translated, published, archived, and deleted.
Agent’s need the correct permissions on an article's article type and article actions to complete To create, edit, or delete
some tasks. For more information see, Assign Article Actions to Public Groups. articles:
• Manage Articles
To specify which articles appear in the list view, use the following options in the sidebar:
AND
• In the View area, select Draft Articles, Published Articles, or Archived Articles. You can filter draft Create, Read, Edit, or
articles by those assigned to you or those assigned to anyone (all draft articles for your Delete on the article type
organization).
To publish or archive
• If applicable, click the Translations tab in the View area, and select Draft Translations or Published
articles:
Translations. You can filter draft translations by those assigned to you, those assigned to a
• Manage Articles
translation queue, or those assigned to anyone (all draft translations in your organization).
AND
• To refine the current view, first select an article language filter and then enter a keyword or
phrase in the Find in View field. The Find in View field is inactivated for archived Create, Read, Edit, and
articles.
• In the Filter area, choose a category from a drop-down menu to filter the current view. To submit articles for
translation:
To modify which columns display, click Columns. The following columns are available depending
• Manage Articles
on what is selected in the view area:
AND
Column Description View Create, Read, and Edit
on the article type
Action Displays the actions available All articles and translations
for the article or translation. To submit articles for
approval:
All User Ratings Average ratings from users of Published and archived articles • Permissions vary
your internal Salesforce and published translations depending on the
organization, Customer Portal, approval process
partner portal, and your public settings
knowledge base.
Archived Date Date the article was archived. Archived articles
Article Number Unique number automatically All articles and translations

assigned to the article.
Article Title Click to view the article. All articles
Assigned to The user who is assigned work Draft articles and translations
on the article.
Assignment Details Instructions for the assignment. Draft articles and translations
Assignment Due Date Date to complete work on the Draft articles and translations
article. If the date has passed, it
displays in red.
Created Date Date the article was written. Draft articles and translations
Customer Ratings Average ratings from users on Published and archived articles
the Customer Portal and the and published translations
public knowledge base.
63
Column Description View

Language The language an article is translated into. Draft and published translations
Last Action The date and type of the last action taken Draft and published translations
on a translation.
Last Modified by Last person to update the article. Draft articles and translations
Last Modified Date Last date the article was edited. All articles and translations
Most Viewed by all Users Average views from users of your internal Published and archived articles and
Salesforce organization, Customer Portal, published translations
partner portal, and your public knowledge
base.
Most Viewed by Customers Average views from users on the Customer Published and archived articles and
Portal and the public knowledge base. published translations
Most Viewed by Partners Average views from users on the partner Published and archived articles and
portal and the public knowledge base. published translations
Partner Ratings Average ratings from users of your partner Published and archived articles and
portal and public knowledge base. published translations
Published Date Date the article was published. Published articles and translations
Source Article The original article before translation. Click Draft and published translations
the article title to view the article.
Translated Article The title of the translated article. Click the Draft and published translations
translation title to edit the translation.
Translation Status Status in the translation cycle. Hover over Articles submitted for translation
the icon to view the status for each
translation. If a translation has been
published, there are separate tabs for draft
and published translations.
Type The article's type, such as FAQ or Product All articles

Description, that determines what
information the article contains.
Validation Status Shows whether the content of the article All articles and translations, when enabled
has been validated.
Version The article’s version. Hover over the version All articles
number to view details about other versions
of the article.
On the Article Management tab, you can:

• Find an article or translation by entering a search term or using the category drop-down menu.
• Create an article by clicking New.
64
• Publish an article or translation by selecting it and clicking Publish.... If you have the “Publish Articles” article action and an approval
process is set up for an article, you see both Publish... and Submit for Approval buttons.
• Modify an article or translation by clicking Edit next to it.
• See how an article or translation appears for end users by clicking Preview next to it. From the Channel drop-down menu you
can choose any channel where an article is visible except the public knowledge base.
Note: Voting and Chatter information is not available when previewing a Knowledge article.
• See a list of an article’s or translation’s other versions by clicking its version number.
• Change the owner of an article or translation by selecting it and clicking Assign....
Note: All draft articles must have an assignee.
• Send an article or translation to the Recycle Bin by selecting it and clicking Delete.
• Archive a published article or translation by selecting it and clicking Archive....
• Submit articles for translation by selecting them and clicking Submit for Translation. You can set dues dates for each language
and assign it to another agent or a queue for export to a translation vendor.
• Go directly to the Setup pages for exporting and importing articles for translation with Export Articles for Translation and Import
Article Translations in the Related Links area.
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base

Reach a global audience by offering your knowledge base in multiple languages.
Export Articles for Translation
If your organization sends Salesforce Knowledge articles to a vendor for translation, use the Export Articles for Translation feature in
Setup.
Import Translated Articles
If your organization sends Salesforce Knowledge articles to a vendor for translation, use the Import Article Translations feature in
Setup. You can only import articles that have been exported from the same Salesforce organization. For example, you can't export
articles from your test or sandbox organization and import them into your production organization.
65
Support a Multilingual Knowledge Base

Reach a global audience by offering your knowledge base in multiple languages.
EDITIONS
1. In Setup, enter Knowledge Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Knowledge
Settings. Available in: Salesforce
2. Click Edit.
orgs) and Lightning
3. Select Multiple Languages and add the languages you want to include in your Experience
knowledge base.
Important: You can add the languages that your instance of Salesforce supports. But available in Essentials and
you can't remove any languages that have been added to your knowledge base. the Unlimited Edition with
Service Cloud.
4. Choose which settings you want to apply to language.
Setting Description available for an additional
Active Active languages appear in the New Article and Submit for Enterprise, Performance,
Translation dialog boxes. and Developer Editions. For
The active/inactive status determines whether a published more information, contact
article is visible. For example, if Spanish articles are published your Salesforce
representative.
to your partner portal and then you make Spanish an inactive
language, the articles no longer appear.
USER PERMISSIONS
Default Assignee The default assignee is automatically assigned articles
submitted for translation. The default assignee can be either To set up multiple
an individual person or a queue. languages for Salesforce
Knowledge:
Default Reviewer The default reviewer is automatically assigned finished • Customize Application
translations that are ready to be reviewed or published. The AND
default reviewer can be either an individual person or a queue.
Manage Salesforce
Knowledge

6. If you want, create queues to distribute and assign articles to groups of people who can either translate them or review the finished
translations. When setting up queues, use the Knowledge Article Version object.
66
Export Articles for Translation

If your organization sends Salesforce Knowledge articles to a vendor for translation, use the Export
EDITIONS
Articles for Translation feature in Setup.
Place the articles to be translated in a translation queue. To enable the article export feature, create Available in: Salesforce
one or more queues; authors and reviewers select the queue when they submit an article for Classic (not available in all
translation. Make sure that they know which queue to choose for which language. orgs) and Lightning
Experience
Note: You can have up to 50 exports in 24 hours and a maximum of 15 pending exports
(exports that have not entered a final state such as Completed, Failed, or Canceled). Salesforce Knowledge is
1. Create a translation queue with articles for translation. available in Essentials and
2. On the Article Management tab, select the articles you want to translate, and click Submit for Service Cloud.
Translation.
3. In the dialog box, indicate which languages to translate the articles into and assign the available for an additional
translations to their corresponding language translation queue. cost in: Professional,
4. From Setup, enter Export Articles for Translation in the Quick Find Enterprise, Performance,
box, then select Export Articles for Translation. and Developer Editions. For
5. Select the queue that contains the articles you're exporting. your Salesforce
6. Select either: representative.
• All articles to export every article in the queue.

• Updated articles to only export articles that have been modified or added. USER PERMISSIONS
7. Click Continue. To export articles:

8. Select the source and target language pairs you want to export. Salesforce creates a separate Knowledge
.zip file for every article type in each language pair. You must retain the .zip file structure for a
AND
successful import.
Manage Articles
9. To have the files reviewed or published after being translated, select a user or a queue.
AND
10. Select the file character encoding.
Manage Knowledge
• ISO-8859-1 (General US & Western European, ISO-LATIN-1) Article Import/Export
• Unicode To view articles:
• Unicode (UTF-8) default • Read on the article type
• Japanese (Windows) To create articles:
• Japanese (Shift_JIIS) • Read and Create on the
article type
• Chinese National Standard (GB18030)
• Chinese Simplified (GB2312)
• Chinese Traditional (Big5)
• Korean
• Unicode (UTF-16, Big Endian)
11. Select the delimiter for the .csv files. The delimiter is the separator for columns when the file is converted to table form. Your options
are tab (default) or comma.
12. Click Export Now.
67
You’re notified by email when your export is complete. You can also check the status of your export by viewing the Article Import and
Export Queue. From Setup, enter Article Imports and Exports in the Quick Find box, then select Article Imports
and Exports.
Unzip the exported files, but retain the file structure for a successful import.
Import Translated Articles

If your organization sends Salesforce Knowledge articles to a vendor for translation, use the Import
EDITIONS
Article Translations feature in Setup. You can only import articles that have been exported from the
same Salesforce organization. For example, you can't export articles from your test or sandbox Available in: Salesforce
organization and import them into your production organization. Classic (not available in all
1. From Setup, enter Import Article Translations in the Quick Find box, then orgs) and Lightning
select Import Article Translations. Experience
2. Choose how Salesforce handles translations after they're imported. Salesforce Knowledge is
Option Description the Unlimited Edition with
Service Cloud.
Review imported translations Add imported translations to a queue from
on the Article Management tab which agents can review them. Salesforce Knowledge is
before publishing available for an additional
Publish translations Publish imported translations without reviews. Enterprise, Performance,
immediately on import and Developer Editions. For
your Salesforce
representative.
3. Select the language of the articles you're importing.
4. If you chose to have articles reviewed before publishing, select to send the files to a user or a
queue. USER PERMISSIONS
5. Click Browse, choose the translation .zip file to upload, and click Open. To export articles:
You must place all the translation files (meaning, those exported from Salesforce and translated • Manage Salesforce
by your vendor) in a folder whose name is the same as the language code. For example, put Knowledge
French articles in an fr folder. Zip up this folder to create your import file. AND
Manage Articles
Important: To import translated articles successfully, verify that the file structure and
their extensions match the file structure and extensions of files exported from Salesforce AND
Knowledge for translation. For example, if the target language is French, the file structure Manage Knowledge
begins as follows: Article Import/Export
import.properties To view articles:

-fr • Read on the article type
--articletypearticlename_kav
To create articles:
---articlename.csv
• Read and Create on the
---[Article collateral, html, images, etc.]
article type
6. Click Import Now.

If you have more translated articles to upload, repeat steps four through six.
7. Click Finish.
68
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Publish Articles and Translations
An email notification is sent to you when your import finishes. You can view the status of your import from Setup by entering Article
Imports and Exports in the Quick Find box, then selecting Article Imports and Exports.
Publish Articles and Translations

Publishing articles and translations makes them visible in all channels selected. If you publish an
EDITIONS
article that has translations, all translations of the article are published as well.
You can publish an article or translation from the Article Management tab or the article’s or Available in: Salesforce
translation’s detail page. To publish in Classic Knowledge, you need the publish permission on an Classic (not available in all
article's article type and the “Publish Articles” or “Publish Translated Articles” article action to publish orgs) and Lightning
an article or translation. To publish in Lightning Knowledge, you need the associated User Profile Experience
perms.
When publishing articles keep the following in mind. available in Essentials and
• You can choose to publish directly or schedule publishing for a future date and, optionally, Unlimited Editions with
time. Articles you scheduled for publication later continue to appear in the Draft Articles filter, Service Cloud.
now with the pending icon ( ) next to the article title in Salesforce Classic. To see the publication Salesforce Knowledge is
date, hover over the icon. The pending icon ( ) isn’t available in Lightning Experience. available for an additional
Tip: To cancel a scheduled publication, click Cancel Publication on the article or
translation detail or edit page. and Developer Editions. For
• Publication times occur in 15-minute intervals, therefore we cannot guarantee publication will more information, contact
match the exact time you specify. your Salesforce
representative.
• A scheduled article’s pending icon ( ) isn’t supported for list views.
• The pending icon ( ) is shown only in Salesforce Classic’s Article Management tab.
• The Cancel Publication button isn’t available from a draft article in Lightning Experience.
• An article in an approval process might be sent to a queue to be published even if it is scheduled to publish immediately. This
happens when the article is very large, there are many active languages, or there are many other articles to publish at that time. To
mitigate performance issues, the article is sent to a queue until it can be published successfully, usually within minutes. Also, note
that the Last Modified By field shows Automated Process as the last user to modify the article.
• If the draft being published is a working copy of a currently published article, it is published as a new version of the original.
• For articles and translations that have already been published, select the Flag as new version checkbox to make the new
article icon ( ) display next to your article in the selected channels. Readers from these channels can see that this article has been
modified since the last time they’ve read it. This checkbox is not available when you publish an article for the first time, as the icon
displays by default for new articles.
• If you assign an article that is scheduled for publication, you also cancel the scheduled publication.
• Scheduling a publication removes any assignment information. The user who scheduled the publication is assigned to the article.
• Conflicts might occur when different agents perform actions on the same articles simultaneously. Depending on who performs the
action first, the articles will not be available for subsequent users though the articles still display momentarily in the articles list.
Performing an action on these articles results in a conflict error.
• If you have the “Publish Articles” article action and an approval process is set up for an article, you see both Publish... and Submit
for Approval buttons.
Table 5: Publishing Actions Available in Translated Articles

Action Translated Article Version Where Action is Exposed
Assign Draft Primary, Draft Translation
69
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Translate Articles in Lightning Knowledge
Action Translated Article Version Where Action is Exposed

Submit for Translation Draft Primary, Published Primary
Publish Draft Primary, Draft Translation
Archive Published Primary
Edit Draft Primary, Draft Translation
Edit as Draft Published Primary
Delete Draft Primary, Draft Translation
Change Record Type Draft Primary
Submit for Approval Draft Primary
Translate Articles in Lightning Knowledge

If your organization supports a multilingual knowledge base, give agents and authors access to
EDITIONS
translated articles. Add authoring actions to user profiles so your agents can access primary language
versions and translation drafts. Available in: Lightning
Depending on the status of your translation, and the authoring actions assigned to your user profile, Experience
you can do the following from the translation detail page.
Action Description Article Status available in Essentials and
Archive Archiving an article To archive a translation, archive Service Cloud.
permanently deletes its its primary article.
published translations, so available for an additional
obsolete articles don't display cost in: Professional,
to agents and customers on Enterprise, Performance,
your organization's Salesforce and Developer Editions. For
Knowledge channels. more information, contact
your Salesforce
Assign... Assigns changes to the owner Draft translations
representative.
of the translation
Delete Deleting a translation Draft translations

USER PERMISSIONS
permanently removes it from
the knowledge base. To work with translated
articles:
You can't undelete a draft
• Manage Articles
translation.
AND
Edit Editing modifies the Draft and published Create, Read, Edit,
translation's content or translations Delete, or Article
properties. Translation-Submit for
Translation (depending
on the actions assigned
to the user profile)
70
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Translate Articles in Lightning Knowledge
Action Description Article Status

Preview Previewing shows how the translation Draft and published translations
appears to end users.
Voting and Chatter information isn’t
available when previewing a Knowledge
article.
Publish... Publishing translations makes them visible Draft translations

in all channels selected.
Submit for Translation Creates translation drafts for the current

Primary Language Version
You can’t change channels on an article translation and then publish the article. Doing so generates an error.
When you change channels on an article, make sure that the channels on the article’s translations match the new channels. Also, publish
translations before you publish the primary language version.
When accessing a draft article with a translation via its URL, the article defaults to your org’s primary language. If no primary language
is set, the draft article is shown in the viewing user’s language, when available.
When you send a draft article out for approval, it gets locked and you cannot perform authoring actions.
To add authoring actions to a page layout created specifically for translations:
1. Click the Object Manager tab and select the Knowledge object.
2. Select a page layout from the Page Layout list. For example, a page layout that has already been created for translated articles.
3. From Mobile and Lightning Actions, drag Publish, Edit, Delete, Assign, and Submit for Translation actions onto the page.
71
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Archive Articles and Translations
Archive Articles and Translations

Archiving removes published articles and translations that are obsolete so they no longer display
EDITIONS
to agents and customers on your organization's Salesforce Knowledge channels.
You can archive published articles and translations on the Article Management tab. You can choose Available in: Salesforce
to archive either real time (now) or schedule the archival. Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Articles you're archiving now move directly to the Archived Articles view. Articles you scheduled
Experience
for archiving later continue to display on the Published Articles view, now with the pending icon
( ). Hover over the icon to see the archive date. On the archive date, the article automatically Salesforce Knowledge is
moves to the Archived Articles view. available in Essentials and
Note: Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
• Conflicts can occur when different agents perform actions on the same articles
simultaneously. Depending on who performs the action first, the articles will not be
available for subsequent users though the articles still display momentarily in the articles
list. Performing an action on these articles results in a conflict error.
• If you edit a published article that is scheduled for archiving, you also cancel the archiving. and Developer Editions. For
• If an article has a published translation with a draft version, on archive, the draft version more information, contact
is deleted. your Salesforce
representative.
• Archiving a Knowledge article in Lightning Experience also permanently deletes any
published translations of the article.
• You can't archive an article's primary version when it still has an associated draft version.
Tip: To cancel a scheduled archive, click Cancel Archive on the article detail page.
72
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Set Up Primary Article and Translation Side-By-Side View
Set Up Primary Article and Translation Side-By-Side View

Look at a translated article and do a side-by-side comparison with the primary language version of
EDITIONS
the article. Admins can add a primary article component to the page layout so authors can view
the primary language version beside the translated article. Available in: Salesforce
Important: Where possible, we changed noninclusive terms to align with our company Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
value of Equality. We maintained certain terms to avoid any effect on customer
Experience
implementations.
To set up Primary Version and Translated Article viewing: Salesforce Knowledge is
1. From Setup, select the Object Manager tab. available in the Unlimited
Edition with Service Cloud.
2. From the Object Manager, select the Knowledge object. Then select the Lightning
Record Page.
3. Click Edit, which takes you to the Lightning App Builder. cost in: Essentials,
4. Create a Translations tab in the right column and name it, Translations. Professional, Enterprise,
Performance, and
5. Drag the Translation Primary Article component onto the new Translations page. Developer Editions. For
6. Set component visibility filters, as needed. For example, if you set the filter to Is Primary more information, contact
Language Equal False, then the primary article component doesn’t show up. When your Salesforce
you are on the primary language record (and you are not viewing the same version of the article representative.
in both columns).
USER PERMISSIONS
To set up:
Knowledge AND
Manage Articles
To view articles:
• Allow View Knowledge
7. Save and activate the page.
73
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Define Data Categories for Your Lightning Knowledge Articles
Define Data Categories for Your Lightning Knowledge Articles

Create data categories and data category groups to help Knowledge users and customers find what
EDITIONS
they need. Some data category information doesn’t apply to Lightning Knowledge.
Work with Data Categories Classic, Lightning Experience
Data categories are used in Salesforce Knowledge (articles and article translations), Ideas,
Answers, and Chatter Answers to help classify and find articles, questions, or ideas. You can use Salesforce Knowledge is
available in Performance
data categories to control access to a particular set of articles, questions or ideas.
and Developer Editions and
Create and Modify Category Groups in Unlimited Edition with the
Category groups are used by Salesforce Knowledge (articles), answers (questions), or ideas. In Service Cloud.
all cases, category groups are containers for individual data categories. For example, a Contracts Salesforce Knowledge is
category group sometimes contains Fixed Price, Cost Reimbursement, and Indefinite Delivery available for an additional
categories. cost in: Professional,
Add Data Categories to Category Groups Enterprise, and Unlimited
Editions.
Once you have category groups, you can add data categories to help agents classify and find
articles, questions, or ideas.
Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping
Make suggested articles more relevant when solving cases. Map case fields to data categories to filter for articles assigned to those
data categories. For example, cases with a field for which product they are about can be mapped to the data category of that product.
Articles assigned that category or product, are filtered to the top of the suggested article list.
Data Category Visibility
Data category visibility can be set with roles, permission sets, permission set groups, or profiles. Data category visibility determines
the individual data categories, categorized articles, and categorized questions that you can see.
74
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Work with Data Categories
Work with Data Categories

Data categories are used in Salesforce Knowledge (articles and article translations), Ideas, Answers,
EDITIONS
and Chatter Answers to help classify and find articles, questions, or ideas. You can use data categories
to control access to a particular set of articles, questions or ideas. Available in: Salesforce
Note: Since the Summer '20 release, standard Salesforce sharing for Lightning Knowledge Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
is available. Switching to standard sharing changes how you work with data categories and
Experience
how users can access Knowledge articles. See Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
for more about sharing for Lightning Knowledge. Data categories are
The default maximum number of data categories is 100. If you require more than the allocated available in all editions with
default maximum, you can ask Salesforce Support to increase the data category limits for the number Knowledge except
Professional Edition.
of (active) data category groups, and the number of data categories within a group.
Salesforce Knowledge uses data categories to classify articles and make them easier to find. For Salesforce Knowledge is
example, to classify articles by sales regions and products, create two category groups: Sales Regions available in Essentials and
and Products. The Sales Regions category group could consist of a geographical hierarchy, such as Unlimited Editions with
All Sales Regions as the top level and North America, Europe, and Asia at the second level. The Service Cloud.
Products group could have All Products as the top level and Phones, Computers, and Printers at Salesforce Knowledge is
the second. available for an additional
Data Category Limits Details Enterprise, Performance,
Maximum number of data category groups and 5 category groups, with 3 active at a time
active data category groups
your Salesforce
Maximum number of categories per data 100 categories in a data category group representative.
category group
Maximum number of levels in data category 5 levels in a data category group hierarchy
group hierarchy
Maximum number of data categories from a 8 data categories from a data category group
data category group assigned to an article assigned to an article
Data category assignments for translated articles Data categories can be added only to the
primary article. Data categories for translations
are inherited from the primary article and can’t
be added.
In an answers zone, data categories help organize questions for easy browsing. Each answers zone supports one category group. For
example, if you're a computer manufacturer you might create a Products category group that has four sibling categories: Performance
Laptops, Portable Laptops, Gaming Desktops, and Enterprise Desktops. On the Answers tab, zone members can assign one of the four
categories to each question and then browse these categories for answers to specific questions.
Example:
Logical Classification of Articles
As a knowledge base administrator, you can organize your knowledge base articles into a logical hierarchy and tag articles
with the attributes that are significant to your business.
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Easy Access to Questions

As an answers administrator, you can choose which data categories are visible on the Answers tab. Zone members can tag a
question with a category, which makes finding questions and answers easier for other members.
Control of Article and Question Visibility
As a knowledge base or answers community administrator, you can centrally control the visibility articles or questions by
mapping roles, permission sets, or profiles to categories in the category groups. When an article or question is categorized,
users with visibility can automatically see it.
Article Filtering
As a support agent, when articles are classified into logical categories, you can quickly and easily locate the article you need
by filtering your organization's knowledge base. To ensure you see all relevant articles, filtering by category has expansive
results that include a category's upward and downward relatives in the category hierarchy. For example, if your category
hierarchy for products has the levels All Products > Computers > Laptops > Gaming Laptops and you are helping a customer
with a laptop problem, filtering by Laptops returns articles classified with Laptops as well as articles classified with Computers,
All Products, or Gaming Laptops. Effectively, you are made aware of useful related articles like a free shipping offer for all
products or an upgrade offer for gaming laptops. (To prevent irrelevant results, category filtering doesn't return nonlineal
relatives like siblings and cousins. Articles about Desktops, a sibling of Laptops, would not display.)
Article and Question Navigation
As an end user, you can navigate the categories on the Articles tab or Answers tab to find the information you need to solve
your problem.
Managing Category Groups for Articles and Questions
If your organization has Salesforce Knowledge and an answers community, you can create separate category groups or use
the same category group for articles and questions.
Data Categories in Articles
A category group is the container for a set of categories. In Salesforce Knowledge it corresponds to the name of the category
drop-down menus. For example, if you use the Data Categories page in Setup, (enter Data Category in the Quick
Find box, then select Data Category Setup) to create and activate a category group called Products, a Products menu
displays on the Article Management tab, the article edit page, the Articles tab in all channels, and the public knowledge base.
As an illustration, the figure below shows a knowledge base administrator's view of an article about laptop deals; using the
article edit page, the administrator has classified the article with Laptops in the Products category group, and USA in the
Geography category group.
An Article About Laptop Deals on the Article Management Tab
The next figure now illustrates an agent finding that same article published on the Articles tab; the agent has selected Laptops
and USA respectively in the Products and Geography drop-down menus to retrieve an article that is classified with both Laptops
and USA.
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An Article About Laptop Deals on the Articles Tab
When you add categories to a category group, you build a hierarchy that can contain up to five levels of depth and up to 100
categories total. Each category can have one parent, many siblings, and many children. A robust and well-organized category
hierarchy helps users find the articles that are relevant to them quickly and easily.
By default, all Salesforce Knowledge users have access to all categories; however, you can restrict category visibility by role,
permission set, or profile.
Data Category Implementation Tips
Consider the following information when planning and implementing data categories for your organization:
• You can create up to three category groups with a maximum of five hierarchy levels in each group. Each category group
can contain a total of 100 categories.
• If you want to use data categories with Answers, after creating your category group you must assign it from Setup by
entering Data Category Assignments in the Quick Find box, then selecting Data Category Assignments
under Answers. You can only assign one category group to an answers community. Salesforce Knowledge supports multiple
category groups.
• Category groups are hidden from users until they are activated. Do not activate a category group until you have finished
defining its categories and their access settings, including their visibility.
• When assigning categories to articles, you can choose up to eight categories in a category group.
• If an article has no categories, it displays only when you choose the No Filter option in the category drop-down
menu.
• When searching for articles or article translations, selecting a category automatically includes the parent and children of
that category and any grandparents, up to and including the top level. Sibling categories are not included. For example,
if a category hierarchy has the levels All Products, Switches, Optical Networks, and Metro Core, selecting “Optical Networks”
from the category drop-down menu returns articles assigned to any of the four categories. However, if the Switches
category has a sibling category called Routers, selecting “Optical Networks” does not return articles classified within Routers.
Category visibility settings may limit the specific articles you can find.
• Once visibility settings have been chosen for the categories:
– Users who are not assigned visibility can only see uncategorized articles and questions unless default category visibility
has been set up.
– For role-based visibility, Customer Portal users and partner portal users inherit the category group visibility settings
assigned to their account managers by default. You can change the category group visibility settings for each portal
role.
– If you only have access to one category in a category group, the category drop-down menu for that category group
does not display on the Articles tab.
• You can translate the labels of categories and category groups using the Translation Workbench.
77
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Create and Modify Category Groups
Best Practices for Data Categories

Consider the following tips when using data categories:
• To quickly manage data categories, use keyboard shortcuts.
• After creating or updating categories, set up category group visibility rules.
• Save your changes frequently. The more actions you perform before clicking Save, the longer it takes to save.
SEE ALSO:
Create and Modify Category Groups

Category groups are used by Salesforce Knowledge (articles), answers (questions), or ideas. In all
EDITIONS
cases, category groups are containers for individual data categories. For example, a Contracts
category group sometimes contains Fixed Price, Cost Reimbursement, and Indefinite Delivery Available in: Salesforce
categories. Classic (not available in all
1. From Setup, enter Data Category in the Quick Find box, then select Data Category orgs) and Lightning
Setup. Experience
2. To create a category group, click New in the Category Groups section. Data categories are
By default, you can create a maximum of five category groups and three active category groups. available in all editions with
To edit an existing category group, hover your cursor over the category group name and then Knowledge except
click the Edit Category Group icon ( ).
3. Specify the Group Name up to a maximum of 80 characters. This name appears as the title available in Essentials and
of the category dropdown menu on the Article Management and Articles tabs, and, if applicable, Unlimited Editions with
in the public knowledge base. The Group Name does not appear on the Answers tab. Service Cloud.
4. Optionally, modify the Group Unique Name (the unique name used to identify the Salesforce Knowledge is
category group in SOAP API). available for an additional
5. Optionally, enter a description of the category group. cost in: Professional,
6. Click Save. and Developer Editions. For
You receive an email after the save process completes. more information, contact
your Salesforce
Activating Category Groups representative.
When you add a category group, it's deactivated by default and only displays on the
administrative setup pages for Data Categories, Roles, Permission Sets, and Profiles. Keep your
USER PERMISSIONS
category groups deactivated to set up your category hierarchy and assign visibility. Until you
manually activate a category group, it does not display in Salesforce Knowledge or your answers To view the Data Categories
community. In addition to activating the category group, for answers communities you must page:
assign the category group to a zone before the categories are visible on the Answers tab. • View Data Categories in
Setup
To activate a category group so it is available to users, move the mouse pointer over the name
To create, edit, or delete
of the category group and click the Activate Category Group icon ( ). data categories:
You can now add categories to your category group. When you create a category group, Salesforce • Manage Data
automatically creates a top-level category in the group named All. Optionally, double-click All Categories
to rename it.
78
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Add Data Categories to Category Groups
Add Data Categories to Category Groups

Once you have category groups, you can add data categories to help agents classify and find articles,
EDITIONS
questions, or ideas.
Administrators can create data categories for Salesforce Knowledge articles, questions in a zone, Available in: Salesforce
or ideas to classify and find articles, questions, or ideas. You can also use data categories to control Classic (not available in all
access to articles, questions, and ideas. orgs) and Lightning
Experience
By default, you can create up to 100 categories in a data category group and have up to 5 levels in
a data category group hierarchy. To request more categories or hierarchy levels, contact Salesforce. Data categories are
available in all editions with
Note: On the Answers tab, only first-level data categories display. Therefore, when creating Knowledge except
data categories for a portal or community, ensure that the categories you want visible have Professional Edition.
a sibling relationship and not a parent-child relationship.
1. From Setup, enter Data Category in the Quick Find box, then select Data Category Salesforce Knowledge is
Setup. available in Essentials and
2. Click the category group name. Service Cloud.
3. Click a category that is directly above where you want to add a category (a parent), or at the Salesforce Knowledge is
same level (a sibling). available for an additional
4. Click Actions, then select an action: Add Child Category or Add Sibling Category. cost in: Professional,
5. Enter a category name up to a maximum of 40 characters. and Developer Editions. For
If possible, Salesforce automatically reuses the name you entered as the Category Unique more information, contact
Name, a system field which the SOAP API requires. your Salesforce
representative.
6. Click Add. Alternatively, press Enter.
7. Click Save.
USER PERMISSIONS
Save your changes frequently. The more actions you perform before clicking Save, the longer
it takes to save. To view the Data Categories
page:
Tip: By default, all Salesforce Knowledge users and zone members can see all categories • View Data Categories in
within an active category group. You can restrict category visibility after you have set up your Setup
data categories to ensure that users only access articles and questions that you want them To create, edit, or delete
to see. data categories:
• Manage Data
Categories
79
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping
Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping

Make suggested articles more relevant when solving cases. Map case fields to data categories to
EDITIONS
filter for articles assigned to those data categories. For example, cases with a field for which product
they are about can be mapped to the data category of that product. Articles assigned that category Available in: Salesforce
or product, are filtered to the top of the suggested article list. Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
Important:
Experience
• Filtering articles based on case information is only supported in text and picklist fields.
Data categories are
• Filters are applied to Knowledge results after the case has been saved.
available in all editions with
• Filters are applied after a Knowledge search and only to the articles returned in the search. Knowledge except
• Using Filters does not return a list of all articles that match the filter criteria. Instead, the Professional Edition.
filters are applied to the initial pool of article results returned.
• Results may be filtered after a search.
• A category group can only be used once in a data category mapping. Unlimited Editions with
• Suggested articles are returned if Suggest articles for cases Service Cloud.
considering case content is enabled. When suggested articles is disabled, Salesforce Knowledge is
search uses data category mappings. Case subject fields are used when there are no data available for an additional
category mappings. cost in: Professional,
To implement data category mapping, select which case fields map to which data categories and and Developer Editions. For
set a default data category for cases that have no value for the mapped fields. more information, contact
For information on data categories, see Work with Data Categories on page 75. your Salesforce
representative.
1. From Setup, enter Data Category Mappings in the Quick Find box, then select
Data Category Mappings.
USER PERMISSIONS
2. In the Case Field column, use the drop-down list to add a field.
3. In the Data Category Group column, use the drop-down list to map the information To map data category
from the lookup field to a data category. groups
4. In the Default Data Category column, use the drop-down list to assign a data category
AND
when the field value does not match any categories from the category group.
Manage Salesforce
5. Click Add. Knowledge
80
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Data Category Visibility
Data Category Visibility

Data category visibility can be set with roles, permission sets, permission set groups, or profiles.
EDITIONS
Data category visibility determines the individual data categories, categorized articles, and
categorized questions that you can see. Available in: Salesforce
Note: Since the Summer '20 release, standard Salesforce sharing for Lightning Knowledge Classic (not available in all
orgs) and Lightning
is available. Switching to standard sharing changes how you work with data categories and
Experience
how users can access Knowledge articles. See Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
for more about sharing for Lightning Knowledge. Data categories are
There are three types of visibility:With custom data category visibility, you can only see the data available in all editions with
categories permitted by their role, permission sets, or profile. Knowledge except
• All Categories: All categories are visible
• None: No categories are visible Salesforce Knowledge is
• Custom: Selected categories are visible
Visibility Setting Enforcement Service Cloud.
To ensure a wide range of relevant information, category group visibility is broadly interpreted. Salesforce Knowledge is
Setting a category as visible makes that category and its entire directly related family available for an additional
line—ancestors, immediate parent, primary children, other descendants—visible to users. For cost in: Professional,
example, consider a Geography category group with continents such as Asia and Europe at the Enterprise, Performance,
top level, various countries at the second level, and cities at the third level. If France is the only and Developer Editions. For
visible category selected, then you can see articles classified with Europe, France, and all French more information, contact
cities. In other words, you can see categories that have a direct vertical relationship to France your Salesforce
but you cannot see articles classified at or below Asia and the other continents. representative.
Note: Only the first-level categories in the category group are visible on the Answers
tab. In the Geography example, only the continent categories appear on the Answers
tab; therefore, if France is the category selected as visible in category group visibility
settings, zone members can see questions classified with Europe.
Category group visibility settings are enforced on the Answers tab, the Article Management tab, the Articles tab in all channels
(internal app, partner portal, Salesforce.com Community, and Customer Portal), and the public knowledge base. In the following
areas, users only see the categories that their visibility settings allow:
• On the Article Management tab, when creating or editing articles
• On the Article Management tab and the Articles tab, the category drop-down menu for finding articles
• On the Answers tab, the categories listed below the zone name
Initial Visibility Settings
If role, permission set, or profile data category visibility has not been set up, all users can see all data categories. However, if data
category visibility is set up, users who are not assigned data category visibility by a role, permission set, or profile, only see uncategorized
articles and questions unless you make the associated categories visible by default. Role, permission set, and profile visibility settings
restrict default visibility settings. For example, if a data category is visible by default, it is not seen by a user whose role restricts access
to that data category.
Note: If data category visibility is defined with roles, permission sets, and profiles, Salesforce uses a logical OR between the
definitions to create a visibility rule for each user.
81
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Sharing for Lightning Knowledge
Role-Based Visibility Setting Inheritance

Child roles inherit their parent role's settings and are kept in sync with changes to the parent role. You can customize and reduce
the child role's visibility, but you cannot increase it to be greater than that of the parent role. By default, Customer Portal users and
partner portal users inherit the category group visibility settings assigned to their account managers. You can change the category
group visibility settings for each portal role. Because high-volume portal users don't have roles, you must designate visibility settings
by permission set or profile before these users can view categorized articles and questions.
Categorized Article Visibility
User’s can see an article if they can see at least one category per category group on the article. For example, consider an article that
is classified with California and Ohio in the Geography category group and Desktop in the Products category group:
• If you have visibility on Ohio and Desktop (but not California), you can see the article.
• If you don't have visibility on either California or Ohio but do have visibility on Desktop, you do not see the article.
• If you have visibility on California but not Desktop, you do not see the article.
Revoked Visibility
Data category visibility can be revoked (set to None) for a particular category group. Users in the target role, permission set, or profile
can only see articles and questions that aren't classified with a category in that category group. For example, if a user's role has
revoked visibility in the Geography category group but visibility to the Products category group, he or she can only see articles that
have no categories in Geography and are classified with a category in Products. Because an answers zone can only be assigned to
one category group, if the Geography category group was assigned to the zone and a member's role visibility was revoked for that
group, the member could only see uncategorized questions.
For a detailed example, see Category Group Article Visibility Settings Examples.
SEE ALSO:
Sharing for Lightning Knowledge

Control access to knowledge articles in Lightning Experience with organization-wide defaults,
EDITIONS
owner role hierarchy-based access, and sharing rules.
Unlike Knowledge in Salesforce Classic, where article sharing is based on data categories, Lightning Available in: Lightning
Knowledge sharing is based on fields within the article. You can create rules to modify access to Experience
articles based on most standard and custom fields, including the record type field. For example,
allow one group of users to see only FAQs, but let other users see multiple record types like FAQs, Salesforce Knowledge is
product information, and training articles. Or, share articles with a team of reviewers when the available in Essentials and
Review Status field is “Needs Review”, if you have such a field. Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
Choose the Sharing or Access Model for Lightning Knowledge
The standard Salesforce sharing model contrasts with the default for Knowledge, which uses cost in: Professional,
data categories to control access beyond object permissions. When you use standard sharing, Enterprise, Performance,
data categories no longer control record access. Your knowledge base continues to use data and Developer Editions. For
categories to classify articles. Data categories affect searches and queries and can be used as more information, contact
filters. your Salesforce
representative.
82
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Choose the Sharing or Access Model for Lightning Knowledge

Sharing gives you control and flexibility to set access to articles with organization-wide defaults, owner-based sharing, and criteria-based
rules. Sharing is just one piece of the puzzle. It works with object permissions, app permission such as viewing draft articles,
administrator access, and whether the article is available internally, externally, or publicly. Keep these considerations in mind when
you plan your sharing model.
Choose the Sharing or Access Model for Lightning Knowledge

The standard Salesforce sharing model contrasts with the default for Knowledge, which uses data
EDITIONS
categories to control access beyond object permissions. When you use standard sharing, data
categories no longer control record access. Your knowledge base continues to use data categories Available in: Lightning
to classify articles. Data categories affect searches and queries and can be used as filters. Experience
To use the Salesforce sharing model for Knowledge:
1. From Setup, enter knowledge in the quick find box and select Knowledge Settings.
2. Click Edit. Unlimited Editions with
Service Cloud.
3. Under Sharing Settings, select Use standard Salesforce sharing.
your Salesforce
representative.

5. To view the sharing settings for Knowledge, from Setup, enter sharing in the quick find box and select Sharing Settings. By
default, the knowledge object uses Public Read/Write for internal users and Private for external access.
6. To add a sharing rule, click New under Knowledge Sharing Rules.
You can switch from Salesforce sharing back to data category sharing by deselecting Use standard Salesforce sharing in the Knowledge
Settings page. We recommend that you delete all sharing rules for knowledge articles before you switch back to data category sharing.
Before you can turn off standard sharing, make sure that the organization-wide default access for internal and external users is Public
Read/Write. Wait for any sharing recalculations to finish because you can’t change the sharing model while calculations are in progress.
83
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge

Sharing gives you control and flexibility to set access to articles with organization-wide defaults,
EDITIONS
owner-based sharing, and criteria-based rules. Sharing is just one piece of the puzzle. It works with
object permissions, app permission such as viewing draft articles, administrator access, and whether Available in: Lightning
the article is available internally, externally, or publicly. Keep these considerations in mind when Experience
you plan your sharing model.
Where possible, we changed noninclusive terms to align with our company value of Equality. We Salesforce Knowledge is
maintained certain terms to avoid any effect on customer implementations. available in Essentials and
Service Cloud.
How Do Data Categories Fit In? Salesforce Knowledge is
When you switch to standard sharing, data categories are still used for classifying, filtering, and available for an additional
searching for articles. With standard sharing enabled, data categories no longer control access, so cost in: Professional,
check whether you can simplify or remove any data categories. If you previously created groups of Enterprise, Performance,
data categories primarily to control access, not filter articles, consider whether to remove or deactivate
those groups. For example, sharing rules that use the article’s language or record type can replace
your Salesforce
groups of categories matching the article’s language, region, or record type.
representative.
Article Access with Salesforce Sharing

Changing the sharing model requires you to rethink your permissions and access strategy. Instead of data categories assigned to user
profiles, standard sharing uses ownership, defaults, and rules to determine who can see and edit articles.
Sharing and article versions

Sharing works at the level of the article version (the Knowledge__kav object) and not the primary article (the Knowledge __ka object).
You can configure rules and settings so that an agent or user can access some versions but not others. In contrast, because category
sharing affects the primary article, versions always have the same category-based access as that of the primary version. This difference
applies to language-based versions and consecutive versions.
For example, changing the value in a record between versions can change the result of a sharing rule and therefore grant or remove
access. In addition, a user can view only published articles unless their profile has the permissions to view draft and archived articles.
Object and app permissions

Knowledge object permissions to Create, Read, Edit, and Delete articles, granted via profile permissions, control baseline access. Sharing
settings refine access, but they can’t give access to articles the user can’t otherwise view or edit. Currently, object-level View All Records
and Modify All Records don’t grant more access.
Similarly, app permissions for Knowledge, such as View Draft Articles and View Archived Articles, are enforced regardless of sharing.
When the user doesn't have access to the Knowledge__ka object, any code involving Knowledge__kav throws an error. Before
you implement anything related to Knowledge__kav, use the Schema describe methods to check if the user has access to the
Knowledge__ka object. For example, Schema.sObjectType.Knowledge__ka.isAccessible() Learn More About
Enforcing Object and Field Permissions
84
Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge Sharing Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
Article owners and translations

The user who creates a knowledge article is the owner of the primary article and, by default, all versions. The user who submits an article
for translation is the owner of the translation version. When your knowledge base contains translations, make sure that your sharing
settings provide translators with access to translations and primary-language article versions. For example, if the sharing for a
primary-language article is set to Private, it can prevent translators from accessing the primary-language articles.
Access for article authors

Setting the organization-wide default to Public Read Only prevents non-owners from performing authoring actions such as editing or
restoring archived articles. Write access granted via sharing is required to use these actions: Edit, Publish, Delete Draft, Assign, Edit as
Draft, Archive, Submit for Translation, Restore, and Delete Archived Article. Admin users with Modify All Data permission, which overrides
sharing, can still edit articles.
Fields Available for Sharing Rules

You can create rules using custom fields and most standard fields as criteria. But you can’t use the following fields in sharing rules:
• Article Type
• Assignment Date
• Assignment Due Date
• Assignment Note
• File fields
• Is Latest Version
• Is Master Language
• Publication Status
• Translation Completed Date
• Translation Exported Date
• Version Number
The Article Type field differentiates articles in Knowledge for Salesforce Classic, while Lightning Knowledge uses Record Type.
Limitations
The following Sharing features aren’t available for Knowledge.
• Manual sharing
• Apex sharing
85
INDEX
A L
Articles Lightning Knowledge 73
export status 60
import status 60 R
Reports
E Salesforce Knowledge fields 44
Exporting
Salesforce Knowledge status 60 S
Salesforce Knowledge
I about multiple languages 61
Importing multiple languages 66
Salesforce Knowledge status 60 reporting 44
send article content in email 23
Smart Links 34
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Salesforce, Spring ’24

Create a Knowledge Base with Salesforce Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Filter Articles with Data Category Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources

Set Up Lightning Knowledge with a Guided Setup Flow

Salesforce Knowledge Help and Resources

Use Salesforce Knowledge in Lightning Experience

Migrate from Salesforce Classic to Lightning Knowledge

Set up Classic Knowledge

Use Your Knowledge Base in Salesforce Classic

• Create and Edit Articles

Define Data Categories for Your Salesforce Knowledge Articles

Translate Salesforce Knowledge Articles

Share Your Salesforce Knowledge Base

Knowledge and the Salesforce Mobile App

Develop with Salesforce Knowledge

Plan Your Knowledge Base in Lightning Experience

Do you need agents to follow articles in Chatter? Feed Tracking

Consideration Further Information

Knowledge Base Allocations by Edition

Edition Article, Version, and Language Allocations

Professional 500 articles, 10 versions per article, 1 language

Enterprise 50,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 5 languages

Developer 50,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 5 languages

Unlimited 150,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 10 languages

Knowledge Base Allocations by Edition

Edition Article, Version, and Language Allocations

Professional 500 articles, 10 versions per article, 1 language

Enterprise 50,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 5 languages

Developer 50,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 5 languages

Unlimited 150,000 articles, 10 versions per article, 10 languages

Monitoring Article and Version Counts

Compare Lightning Knowledge with Classic Knowledge

Setup Salesforce Classic Setup Lightning Knowledge Setup

Sharing Sharing by data category Standard Salesforce sharing is

Types of articles Article Types Standard Record Types

Lightning Knowledge Limitations

General Usage Limitations for Lightning Knowledge

• The Printable View action isn't available in Lightning Knowledge.

Limitations for Lightning Knowledge with Cases

Console Limitations for Lightning Knowledge

Limitations in Salesforce Classic After Enabling Lightning Knowledge

Limitations for Using Lightning Knowledge with Other Salesforce Products

Knowledge Limitations in the Salesforce Mobile App

Issue Android iOS

Issue Android iOS

Smart links aren’t supported.

Article ratings aren’t supported.

In global search, articles don’t appear in the list of recent records.

In global search results, search highlights and snippets don’t appear.

Set Up Lightning Knowledge with a Guided Setup Flow

Where to Access the Setup Flow

What Does This Flow Do?

• Default Page Layouts and Record Types

• Knowledge Permission Sets

Set Up and Configure Lightning Knowledge

Enable Lightning Knowledge

Record Type Considerations for Lightning Knowledge

Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge