the mcgill knowledge baseknowledgebase.mcgill.ca/media/pdf/kb-service.pdf · a knowledge base is...

The McGill Knowledge Base Last Updated: February 17, 2016

McGill IT Customer Services Last Updated: February 17, 2016

Table of Contents Page 1 of 34

Table of Contents ................................................................................................ 1

How to create and maintain articles in the Knowledge Base ................................ 2

Overview ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Support .................................................................................................................................................................. 2

Exploring the KB Admin Control Panel Home page ..................................................................... 3 Personalizing the Home page ................................................................................................................................ 4

Creating a new article .................................................................................................................. 5 Adding the properties ............................................................................................................................................ 8

Article Management .................................................................................................................. 14 Editing an article ........................................................................................................................ 15 Publishing an article ................................................................................................................... 16 Adding/ editing an expiration date ............................................................................................ 17 Viewing the history .................................................................................................................... 18 Web File Manager ...................................................................................................................... 19 The Attachment Library ............................................................................................................. 20

Upload a new version of a file ............................................................................................................................. 20

FAQ Management ...................................................................................................................... 21 Creating a FAQ ..................................................................................................................................................... 21 Managing FAQ categories .................................................................................................................................... 22

Glossary ..................................................................................................................................... 23 Adding a term to the Glossary ............................................................................................................................. 23

Adding content .......................................................................................................................... 24 Adding an image .................................................................................................................................................. 24 Adding an anchor ................................................................................................................................................. 25 Adding a link to a related article .......................................................................................................................... 26 HTML code ........................................................................................................................................................... 27

Paragraph tags ................................................................................................................................................. 27 Breaks .............................................................................................................................................................. 27 Basic HTML tags ............................................................................................................................................... 27 HTML code for myMcGill and myCourses software ......................................................................................... 29 Links to various types of files ........................................................................................................................... 29 Hyperlinks ........................................................................................................................................................ 30

Article Subscription .................................................................................................................... 31 Adding subscribers ........................................................................................................................................... 31 Adding to the list of articles which a subscriber has subscribed to .................................................................. 31 Sending an e-mail to subscribers ..................................................................................................................... 32

Table of Contents

McGill IT Customer Services Last updated February 17, 2016

How to create and maintain articles in the Knowledge Base Page 2 of 34

A knowledge base is like an online file cabinet or a library. It is a centralized repository of information about particular subjects and the resources related to that information. The information is organized in a meaningful way and is easy to find with a search engine.

The portal

The end users have access to the knowlegbase content by accessing the portal. For example, the portal for McGill IT Services is called the McGill IT Knowledge Base. It can be accessed at http://www.mcgill.ca/it. There are a number of other portals developing at McGill.

The KB Control Panel

It is the interface to:

• Create/edit the articles. • Categorize the articles. • Add related links (to other articles, files, web sites). • Create FAQs. • Enter keywords and questions for easy search. • Publish the articles.

Accessing the KB Admin Control Panel

• URL: http://kb.mcgill.ca:1133 • Login: McGill username and McGill password

Support

IT Services phone: (514) 398-3398 email: [email protected]

How to create and maintain articles in the Knowledge Base

Overview

http://www.mcgill.ca/it




mailto:[email protected]



4

5

Modules displaying on the home page are controlled through User Permissions. For example, the module Articles to Approve will not display if you do not have the rights to approve articles.

1 3 2

Here is a description of the various toolbars and icons in the KB Admin Control Panel:

1 Links to individual sections of the Control Panel

2 Quick links for frequent tasks

3 Search box: enter words or an article number to find articles by title or number

4 View icon

5 Edit icon

Exploring the KB Admin Control Panel Home page



Personalizing the Home page

You can choose what to display on the home page, in what order and in which location.

• Click Personalize.

• Remove/add a check mark in front of a module to remove or add it to your Home page.

• To move a module to the left or right column, select Left or Right in the dropdown list in the Align column.

• To move the module up or down, use the blue arrows.



To create a new article:

1. Click New Article.

2. In the Knowledge Base dropdown list, select your department or faculty knowledge base.

3. Select a Method:

a. Select Option 1 to create the article online.

b. Select Option 2 if you want the article to be link to a file. A Browse button will appear. Click on it to locate the file.

4. If you selected Option 1 above, select a template created for your department or faculty in the Article Template dropdown list.

5. Enter the Article Title.

6. Expiration (optional): set an expiry date. The article will not be published anymore after that date but it will stay in the list of articles in the KB Control Panel. An email is sent to the author of the article notifying him that the article is expiring.

7. Include Notes (optional): enter internal notes not viewable on the portal. If you choose Yes two fields will display allowing to enter a subject and notes.

Creating a new article



8. Enable subscription. If checked off, it allows sending email to subscribers to notify them that the content of an article was modified.

9. Click the Next >> button, the Article Bodies window appears.

10. Click in a box under a heading to display the content editor. You may have more than one heading depending of the template you selected. Click under each heading to enter the content.

11. Text is required under each heading. Use the icons on the toolbar to format your text, paste text from Word, insert images, add a link to another KB article, add hyperlinks or insert a table. For more details, go to the section Adding content. Click to view and edit the HTML code. See the HTML code section of this document for more details about HTML. Click to return to the editor.



12. Click Save or Save and Check in to enable other internal users to edit the article.

The new article appears in the Content section of the Control Panel under Article Management.

• An article has an ID number and a status.

• A new article does not show on the portal (not available to users). Its status is ‘New’. To publish an article, see the section Publishing an article.

Article ID number

Article status

A number of properties may be added to an article (see Adding the properties for more details). • Categories • Attributes • Attachments • Keywords • Links to related articles • A question that will appear in the FAQ section of the KB

Portal view

List of categories

Category

Attribute



Adding the properties

To add a property

1. Click the Properties link of the article under Content > Article Management. A list of properties will appear.

2. Click in a property’s box to add of modify a property. 3. See below the instructions for each property.

Article Groups: not used

Categories

A list of categories may have been created by the KB manager of your department/faculty (done in Content > Category management).

If you assign a category to an article, the article will appear under that category on the portal. To assign a category to an article:

1. Click in the Categories box. The list of categories appears.

2. To select a category, click a category in the left panel. 3. A message appears asking to confirm. Click OK. The category will appear in the right panel. 4. Click Back to go back to Article Management.



Priority keywords:

Keywords give weight to the article if a user searches for any of the keywords. The article will be listed first in the search results.

1. Click in the Priority keywords box in the Properties list.

2. Enter words with a space between each one. Enter not only words from the body of the article but synonyms. For example, an article about “email” and “blackberry”, you could add the keyword “mobile” even if it is not in the article.

3. Click Save.

4. Click Back to go back to Article Management.

Related articles

You can add links to other KB articles in the right panel on the portal. The end user has to click “Related Articles” to see the list of articles.

Portal view

To add related articles

1. Click in the Related Articles box in the Properties list. 2. In the New Related Article Number field, enter the related article number or click Browse

to find the related article.

3. Click Add.

McGill IT Customer Services Last Updated: August 19, 2014



Attributes An attribute is a tag to provide additional information. It appears below the article title on the portal. Attributes are created by the KB manager going to Content > Article attributes.

Portal view

To assign an attribute to an article:

1. Click in the Attributes box in the Properties list. 2. To select an attribute, click an attribute in the left panel. 3. A message appears asking to confirm. Click OK. The attribute will appear in the right panel. 4. Click Back to go back to Article Management.



Attachments

You can add a link to a file in the right panel on the portal. It will appear under ‘Attachments’.

Portal view

To add an attachment:

1. Click in the Attachments box in the Properties list.

2. Click Upload Attachment to upload a file. Locate your file. The file will appear in the files list.

3. Check off the file in the list.

4. Click Add Checked. The file will appear in the Current “Attachments” section at the bottom, below the files list.

To remove an attachment: check off a current attachment and click Remove Checked.




Questions (FAQ)

You can add a question linking to the article in the FAQ section of the portal.

Portal view

To add a question to the FAQs:

1. Click in the Questions (FAQ) box in the Properties list.

2. Enter the question in the New Question text box.

3. Make sure Add to FAQ? is ‘Yes’

4. Click Add Question.


Related links

You can add web links in the right panel on the portal. The end user has to click ‘Related Links’ to see the list of web links.

Portal view

To add a web link:

1. Click in the Related links box in the Properties list. 2. Enter the URL.



3. Click Add.

Subscription

Enabling Article Subscription allows sending an email to subscribers to notify them of a change in the content of the article.

To enable the subscription:

1. Click in the Subscription box in the Properties list.

2. Check off Article Subscription.

3. The subscribers email addresses are listed under Email. To add subscribers, see Article Subscription.

4. Click Save.

An envelope icon will appear in the Subscription box in the list of Properties.

To send an email, click on the envelope.

The message will look like this:



To access the list of all articles:

• Click Article Management under the Content tab. The list of articles appears.

• You can sort the articles by clicking a column heading: e.g. sort by Article # or by Author. • You can check off an article and use the tools on the toolbar.

New article: create a new article Check in: used to stop other users from editing the article. Copy: copy an article to another knowledge base Status: change the status of an article. For example, change the status to ‘Published’. The article will appear on the portal. Categorize: assign a category to an article. Group: not used Delete: delete the article. This cannot be undone.

• To access the article properties page, click on its title. A list of all versions of the article appears.

• You can download ( ), view ( ) or delete ( ) a version.

Article Management



• To search for an article:

1. Enter the title or part of it, or the article number, in the Search box at the top right corner.

2. Click . The search results will appear.

To modify the content of an article:

1. Go to Article Management under the Content tab. Find the article in the list (see Search for an article).

2. Click on the article title to access the article properties page.

3. To change the title, click on it in the Title field. A Save icon will appear. 4. To view/add/remove a property, click Properties. 5. To modify the content, click New Version. A new window will appear. Click Browse to select

the version that you want to update.

Editing an article



To make an article available on the portal and accessible to end users:

1. Find the article in Content > Article Management. 2. Click on the article title to access the article properties page. 3. All versions of the article are listed. In the Status column, click the status of the version that

you want to publish. A window will pop-up.

4. Select ‘Published’ in the Status dropdown list.

Publishing an article



5. Click Save.

At the time of the creation of an article, an expiration date can be added. To add or change the expiration date of an existing article:

1. Find the article in Article Management. 2. Click on the Expiration field value. A date field will appear. 3. Select the date field and choose a date. 4. Click Save.

Adding/ editing an expiration date



You can see a log of all changes made to an article.

To view the history:

1. Find the article in Content > Article Management. 2. Click Properties. 3. Go to Article History

Viewing the history



The Web File Manager is a space to upload and store files. You can add a link to a file in the content of an article.

To access the Web File Manager, go to Content > Web File Manager

The content is accessible to all control panel users. Each department creates its own folders.

To upload a file:

1. Find you department’s folder (do not use other’s folder) and double click on it to open it. 2. Click to locate your file and upload it. The file will appear in the list of files.

If you click on a file name, the path to the file appears in the window next to the upload icon. See the HTML code section of this document about using the path and add a link to the file.

Web File Manager



The Attachment Library shows the list of all files attached to the KB articles.

You can download or view a file.

Click on the file name to see to what article the file is attached to.

Upload a new version of a file. You can upload a new version of a file to replace the current one.

To upload a new version:

1. Click New Version.

2. Locate your file.

3. Make sure to make the file Active.

4. Click Upload.

The Attachment Library



FAQs are questions pointing to articles. Creating FAQs can be used to prioritize your articles. They can be grouped into categories and be displayed on the portal under category headings.

On the portal, the FAQ section has its own tab next to the Browse tab.

Creating a FAQ There are two methods to create a FAQ.

• By adding a question to the property Questions (FAQ) to an existing article. • By going to Content > FAQ Management.

1. Click New FAQ.

2. Enter a question in the FAQ Question field.

FAQ Management

Last Updated: August 19, 2014 Page 22 of 34

3. In the FAQ Answer field, select

• Option 1 to select and existing article. Click Browse to locate and select the article.

• Option 2 to add the answer.

4. Click Save.

Managing FAQ categories Go to Content > FAQ Management. The list of FAQ categories will appear.

To create a new category:

1. Click

2. Enter the name of the category.

3. Click Save.

To categorize a FAQ:

1 Click the category name in the left panel. The list of existing questions will appear: the questions already under that category and all the other questions.

Questions under a category

All existing FAQ questions

2. Check off the question that you want to add to that category.

3. Click Add Checked to Category.

McGill IT Customer Services How to create and maintain articles in the Knowledge Base



The glossary is an unlimited alphabetical list of terms and their definition easily accessible through the portal. The glossary has its own tab on the portal.

Adding a term to the Glossary

You must have the permission to create a glossary term.

1. Click New Glossary Term.

2. Select your KB’s glossary (it is created by the KB manager by going to Content > Glossary.) 3. Click Next. 4. Enter the Term Name. 5. Enter the Term Definition. 6. Set the Status. 7. Click Save.

Glossary



Adding an image In the web editor, put your cursor where you want to add your picture and click . A new window will pop-up. A list of files uploaded in the past appears in the left panel.

• To upload a picture, click the Upload button to locate and upload the file.

• To insert a picture, click on a file in the list of picture files and click the Insert button.

Adding content

Uploaded files



Adding an anchor You can add links to different sections of an article. Each section must be marked with an anchor.

• To add an anchor:

1. Put your cursor at the beginning of the section.

2. Click the anchor icon . A pop-up window will appear.

Give a name to the anchor and click the Insert button.

A flag will appear where you inserted the anchor.



• To add the hyperlink:

1. Type the text, highlight it and click , a window will pop-up. 2. Check off Select a named anchor in the current page.

3. Click on the anchor name.

4. Click OK.

Adding a link to a related article

You can add hyperlinks to other KB articles in the article body.

To add a link to a KB article,

1. Type the text, highlight it and click . A pop-up window will appear.



2. Type the article number in the ArticleID field. 3. Click Insert.

HTML code

HTML tags are used to display and format the content of a web page. They are used in pairs to alert the software to initiate and then terminate any given command. Each tag has the same general structure with all commands enclosed within angle brackets (<>). Tags which initiate a command usually only have a letter or alphanumeric code for the command enclosed within the brackets (e.g. <h3>). Tags which terminate a command will have the same letter or alphanumeric code preceded by the forward slash (e.g.</ h3>). A number of parameters can be enclosed in a tag (e.g. <p style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman”>).

Usually the letters enclosed in the HTML tags are lower case. In the McGill Knowledge Base, the letters are capital letters.

Paragraph tags

To create a paragraph, text must be enclosed within paragraph tags (<P>.... </P>). It looks like this: <P> paragraph text</P>

Parameters can be included in the tag. See this example of a paragraph tag including a parameter to set the margins of the paragraph:

<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt”>paragraph text</P>

These tags separate each block of text with a line break.

Breaks The break tag (<BR>) does not needtwo tags to initiate or terminate the command. It functions by itself. It adds a line break or leaves a line space blank. It can be used repetitively to increase spacing in the content or the article.

Basic HTML tags The table below shows a list of some basic code with examples of the results.

Type HTML code Description Example

Heading <H1>Heading1</H1> font size is 6

Heading <H2 >Heading2</H2> font size is 5 and it is bold

Type HTML code Description Example

Heading <H3>Heading3</H3> font size is 4

horizontal line <HR> line running the width of the page

paragraph <P>paragraph with text</P> paragraph text and a line break

default font size is 3

line break <BR> line break

italic <EM>paragraph with text</EM> note: use sparingly

bold <B>paragraph with text</B>

underline <U>paragraph with text</U>

commented-out  [invisible] text

note: it will still be visible through "Source tab"

unordered list <UL>

<LI>item<L/I>

<LI>next item<L/I>

<LI>next item<L/I>

</UL>

ordered list <OL>

<LI>item<L/I>

<LI>next item<L/I>

<LI>next item<L/I>

</OL>



ordered list with a second level

<OL>

<LI>top level 1

<OL class=alphalow>

<LI>second level 1

<LI>second level 2</LI>

</OL>

<LI>top level 2

<OL class=alphalow>

<LI>second level 1

<LI>second level 2</LI>

</OL>

<LI>top level 3</LI> </OL>

HTML code for myMcGill and myCourses software

Code for the McGill portal’s name ‘myMcGill’:

<SPAN class=myMcGill>my</SPAN><SPAN class=myMcGill2>McGill </ SPAN>

Example:

Code for the McGill learning management system’s name ‘myCourses’:

<SPAN class=myMcGill>my</SPAN><SPAN class=myMcGill2>Courses</SPAN>

Example:

Links to various types of files

The table below shows a list of file types and the code needed to add a link to the file in the content of your article. Replace file path with the file path copied in the Web File Manager and replace description with a description of the image.

Type of file HTML code

Image file <IMG SRC="file path" alt="description">

Word file <A class=word href="filepath" target=_blank>

Excel file <A class=excel href="filepath" target=_blank>

PPT file <A class=powerpoint href="filepath" target=_blank>

PDF file <A class=pdf href="filepath" target=_blank>



ZIP file <A class=zip href="filepath">

Flash movie or HTML page containing a movie

<A class=flash href="filepath" target=_blank>

Movie (not Flash) <A class=film href="filepath" target=_blank>

Web page (htm file) <A class=film href="filepath" target=_blank>

Hyperlinks

The table below shows a list of different type of links and the code needed to add them to the content of your article.

Type of link HTML code Instructions

Relative link to another article

<A class=internal href="/articleRedi- rect.asp?aid=articlenumber|" target=_parent>

Replace articlenumber with the number of the article you want to link.

Web page Link to a web page: <A class=external href="URL" target=_blank>

Replace URL with the web address (URL) of the page.

Link to a KB article from a different KB or from a web page

<A href=”http://knowledgebase.mcgill.ca/ article.asp?article=articlenumber&p=portalnumber”>Title</a>

• Replace articlenumber by the number of the article

• Replace portalnumber by the number of the portal (the portal number of the IT Knowledge base is 4).

• Replace Title with text.

http://knowledgebase.mcgill.ca/



Article Subscription allows adding subscribers to a list and managing the list of articles that they have subscribed to. Subscribers receive notifications by email that an article was updated. This process is done manually by the control panel users. It is not done automatically.

Adding subscribers:

1. Go to Content > Article Subscribers. The list of subscribers appears.

2. Click New subscriber. A windows pops-up.

3. Enter the subscriber’s e-mail address. 4. Click Save.

Adding to the list of articles which a subscriber has subscribed to:

1. For an e-mail address, click article on the right side to subscribe to an article or category to

subscribe to a whole category.

Article Subscription



2. Select articles and click Add to Subscription.

Sending an e-mail to subscribers

1. Find the article in Content > Article Management. 2. Click Properties. 3. Go to the Subscription section. 4. Click on the envelope. It shows if the subscription is enabled.

5. The message appears. 6. Click Send.



Image(s): Click on the image and then do steps as shown on the screenshot.

Here is an example.

To see where your old command used to be in Word 2003, go to Interactive: Word 2003 to Word 2007 command reference guidehttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx .

You can set the default to always save as Word 97-2003. This means whenever you use Word 2007 and you click Save from the Office Button, it will save as the previous version.

1. Click Office Button. 2. Click Word Options button. 3. Word Options window will appear and click on Save.

Tip

Not

e

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx

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