

Written By... Rachel Garton
Rachel Garton is a Lead Consultant at Vicasso, a Salesforce Partner.
The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Salesforce Knowledge
As you probably know, Salesforce Lightning has “struck” almost everywhere, and Salesforce Knowledge is no exception. Lightning Knowledge is a major reworking of the Classic Knowledge features and is more than just a change in UI. This blog introduces you to the basics of Lightning Knowledge so you can plan your roll-out and know somethings to expect whether you’re migrating from Classic or rolling things out for the first time!
Key Points – What you need to know
1. lightning knowledge migrations from classic knowledge, 2. licensing, 3. access considerations, content management, the knowledge lifecycle and versioning.

Approval Processes

Knowledge Features

Data Categories

Case Deflection

Using Apex with Knowledge
Keep learning.

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24 thoughts on “ the ultimate guide to setting up salesforce knowledge ”.
July 19, 2016 at 5:36 am
Very interessting article, thanks !
By any chance do you have the same for Solution :p ? I have now a situation with a KB/Solution requirements, and basically I’m not sure what to suggest, how should I decide which solutions to use? Basically in this project we won’t create a community, it will be internal only by using the service console.
Thx in advance!!
Eric van Horssen
July 21, 2016 at 5:31 am
Solutions, being the predecessor of Knowledge, is no longer being developed. Choose Knowledge in stead.
July 21, 2016 at 5:30 am
July 22, 2016 at 8:09 am
It’s a great feature but due to limited reporting and validation options not yet mature enough for SMB. Hope the next release (Winter ’17) improves knowledge reporting (including the ability to query) and identical customization options to all the other objects within salesforce.
Stephanie Flouris
July 27, 2016 at 12:19 am
Hi Ben, What is the best way to export articles and keep the formatting ?
Thanks Steph
Arise Johns
August 31, 2016 at 12:18 pm
Greate post for Salesforce professionals. Salesforce is too broad to explain in one post but you did it really beautifully. Licencing, channels, methods and payment terms are really important to understand for being Salesforce development professional.
September 30, 2016 at 11:14 pm
Excellent Article. Keep up the great work.
December 21, 2016 at 6:00 pm
Great job! This post gives a high level overview that is better than anything I’ve found published by Salesforce.
February 2, 2017 at 2:28 pm
This is a great article and provides a very nice high level overview for those that are exploring this to determine the best knowledge management options available. Thank you!
Randi Thompson
February 10, 2017 at 3:35 pm
Best article on Knowledge I’ve found so far! Thank you!
Leah Sandell
November 6, 2017 at 8:45 pm
Hi! Does anyone know if it’s possible to create a knowledge article from the resolution on a case? I found the following article: Example Apex for Submitting Articles from Cases https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=knowledge_caseclose_apex.htm&type=0 however, the apex code is not working. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
November 6, 2017 at 8:46 pm
Hi! Does anyone know if there is a button or simple way to create a knowledge article from the resolution on a case? I found the following article: Example Apex for Submitting Articles from Cases https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=knowledge_caseclose_apex.htm&type=0 however, the apex code is not working. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
December 7, 2017 at 10:34 am
what happens if 2 users with permission edit the same article at the same time?
February 17, 2018 at 5:09 am
February 26, 2018 at 9:45 pm
Can a force.com App Subscription user have Knowledge tab to view? I gave all general permissions required for the user but still cannot have Knowledge Tab
May 1, 2018 at 9:36 am
Could you please share with us any link or Solution to apply Salesforce Knoweldge app in Lightning. Moreover, if you could please let me know how to Add Video as an Article in Salesforce Lightning.
Thanks in advance Khushboo
May 1, 2018 at 9:37 am
Thanks for such a wonderful article.
July 2, 2018 at 1:14 am
We currently use Desk, which allows you to embed Google Docs into support/knowledge article using an iframe. Essentially, the Google Doc is the support/knowledge article.
Using a Salesforce Knowledge article, is their a way to do something similar? It seems that the “source” option in a rich-text field does not support iframes. How can I embed a Google Doc into a Salesforce Knowledge article?
October 23, 2018 at 7:19 pm
Hi – nice article, I see the section about “creating articles from cases” but I’m having trouble finding exactly how this is done.
In my org, I found in the Knowledge Settings area the option to “Allow users to create an article from a Case”. I have turned this option on but I’m not seeing any place on a Case where I have an option to create a Knowledge article. Any help on how this is done would be done without code would be great
February 27, 2019 at 8:14 pm
Using Salesforce Communities for an intranet implementation. Has anyone used SF for this kind of site?
March 18, 2019 at 11:00 am
I have question. When user opens an published Knowledge Article in edit mode and then clicks on cancels without making any changes, a draft version of the article is created. Why so?
Muralidharan Kandasamy
July 25, 2019 at 11:40 am
Very informative article about articles.
July 28, 2019 at 5:31 pm
do knowledge base use AI? thanks
February 16, 2021 at 7:15 am
Thanks for sharing this Ben. Really good article.
Question for you: Do we need Content Management license (costs USD 10K/month), or is the Lightning Knowledge + Service Cloud license sufficient for managing and publishing articles?
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About 20 mins
Learning Objectives
Who sees each article, remove a visibility setting, who sees or changes a specific field.
- Challenge +100 points
Configure Article and Field Visibility
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Define who sees an article.
- Control article visibility to determine who sees what article.
- Configure who sees and interacts with individual fields in an article.
Whenever Ada publishes an article, she considers her intended audience. Some articles are relevant to all readers, but other articles aren’t. For example, if an article contains proprietary information for employees only, Ada doesn’t want customers to see it.
Ursa Major uses an article’s visibility settings to determine who sees it. Here are the different audiences.
- Visible in Internal App. Internal users see these articles. Other readers don’t. All published articles are visible in the internal app for agents and admins. Ursa Major has an article tagged as visible internally called “How to Deal with Angry Customers.” Articles with proprietary information are also often tagged internal only.
- Visible to Customer. Authenticated users assigned a Customer profile see these articles. Customers can view articles by logging into a self-service site, so it’s important to set up their site correctly. To learn how, check out Experience Cloud Basics and Build an Experience Cloud Site with Knowledge and Chat . Ursa Major tags many procedure articles as visible to customers, such as “How to Test Your Solar Panel.”
- Visible to Partner. Authenticated users assigned a Partner profile see these articles. Customers don’t. Just like customer-visible articles, partner articles can appear in sites that partners log into. These articles contain information specific to partners, such as “How to Install Solar Panels for Ursa Major Customers.”
- Visible in Public Knowledge Base. Readers see these articles without being authenticated. Ursa Major tags most FAQ articles as visible in the public knowledge base. For example, “How Much Will I Save if I Install a Solar Hot Water Heater?” is visible to everyone.
Remember when Maria created the page layouts for procedure articles? She placed the visibility settings at the bottom of the page. Since all articles are visible in the internal app, that box is always checked. Ada wonders, if it’s always supposed to be checked, why is it on the page at all? She asks Maria to remove the Visible in Internal app checkbox from the articles she and her team write: FAQs and Procedures.
Here’s what Maria does.

- Click Object Manager and select Knowledge .
- Click Page Layouts .
- Click Procedure - Reader .
- Scroll down to the Properties section.

- Click Save .
Maria repeats this process for the Procedure - Author, FAQ - Reader, and FAQ - Author page layouts. Now the field doesn’t show up on any page layouts Ada and her team use. The next time Ada creates an article, she’s happy to see that the field is gone.
You can control who sees or interacts with any field in an article by using field-level security. Use this setting to hide or show fields based on user profile. You can even choose to make a field visible to everyone, but limit interaction with the field to only users with a specific profile.
Ada and the other agents want to track internal-only comments in a custom field called Internal Comments. That information might be confidential or confusing to customers. So she wants to make sure that this field is only visible to people using the Agent profile.
Maria implements this requirement using field-level security on the Internal Comments custom field. Let’s see how.

- Click Fields & Relationships .
- Click New .
- Select the data type and click Next . Maria selects Text Area (Rich) .
- Enter the field label and click Next . Maria enters Internal Comments .
- Establish field-level security. Maria selects Visible for the Agent profile and deselects Visible for the other profiles.
- Click Next .
- Maria adds the field to all page layouts and clicks Save .
Maria adds the new field to the correct page layouts.
Maria and Ada control who sees what article and even who sees or interacts with different fields in an article. They’re confident the right users see the right stuff. Now they’re ready to start using those articles to help Ada do the most important part of her job: close cases!
- Salesforce Help: Enable Salesforce Knowledge in Your Experience Cloud Site
- Trailhead: Experience Cloud Basics
- Trailhead: Build an Experience Cloud Site with Knowledge and Chat
- Salesforce Help: Page Layout Considerations for Lightning Knowledge
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Activity › Forums › Salesforce® Discussions › How to create, enable and publish knowledge article on Salesforce community?
Tagged: App Launcher , Knowledge Articles , Salesforce Community
How to create, enable and publish knowledge article on Salesforce community?
- App Launcher
- Knowledge Articles
- Salesforce Community

To create the Knowledge article:-
- Click the App Launcher and select Knowledge.
- For Title, enter "ABC"
- Click in the URL Name field to generate the URL Name from the title.
- For Text, enter "Hopefully this summer!"
- Under Properties, select Visible to Customer.
- Click Save & New.
To Publish the knowledge article:-
- Click the *Knowledge tab [1] at the top and change the list view to Draft Articles [2].
- Check the box next to all three article titles and then click Publish.
- Ensure Publish Now is selected.
- Click Publish.
Log In to reply.
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Stack Exchange Network
Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.
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Q&A for work
Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.
How to share Knowledge Articles with external clients [duplicate]
I'm looking for suggestions on how to share Knowledge Articles with external clients.
I have searched web and one way seems to be to setup a Community and then share articles by check marking which channel the article is shared (Internal, Partner, Customer, public knowledge).
Looking for detailed steps on how this, or other options, are done; so any info would be much appreciated.
other info - we are currently running Salesforce classic but we plan to move to Lightning soon - so not sure how that might affect my approach
- You can find resources on this anwer as how you can proceed building a KB and exposing those through Community. The guides are comprehensive and should provide you with a good starting point towards building this. – Jayant Das Nov 2, 2018 at 19:26
You want to do this through Community Sharing Sets. See the trailhead here to work through an example of this: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/content/learn/modules/community_rollout_impl/community_rollout_impl_sharing
You will need to enable the Knowledge object and configure it to match permission requirements for these clients.
- 2 Sharing Sets are used to share records within the Community Users. You cannot share a Knowledge Article using Sharing Sets. – Jayant Das Nov 2, 2018 at 19:52
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RESOURCE CENTER
How to build a knowledge base that empowers customers, take these 5 steps to create a valuable self-service option for customers.
January 2021 - 3 minutes
A comprehensive knowledge base empowers customers to find the information they need quickly. It may include frequently asked questions (FAQs), user forums, a glossary, troubleshooting, how-tos, articles, case studies, and even cover common issues and offer step-by-step guidance. And since customers help themselves, agents are able to devote their time to more complex issues rather than repeat issues.
Below are the five essential steps to building a knowledge base for your customers.

Step 1: Review your data before building a knowledge base
Ensure you’re focused on the right customer questions and pain points. Make sure to represent a diverse range of vantage points in your initial research, planning, and design process.
Consult your customer service agents to understand the questions and issues they encounter the most. Check your keyword search volume to see what service-related terms come up frequently, such as “return policy” or “shipping options.” Review all digital channels, social media, and other feedback areas to ensure you see the full breadth of customer concerns.
Focus on building a knowledge base that tackles the needs of the greatest number of people. You can start by defining your “minimum viable product,” which delivers the highest return relative to risk and maximizes the amount of learning at the lowest possible investment level.
Enlist a strong writer to make sure your copy is powerful and empathetic and retain a programmer to create the best experience with a conversational user interface in your knowledge base.

Step 2: Determine your taxonomy and content plan
Make sure that your content categories align with your long-term vision. In other words, you’ll want to set up a taxonomy that can grow with your business over time. As you plan your content, take the following steps:
- Organize the content into groupings, such as the most popular topics
- Link pieces that are related or offer additional relevant information
- Determine how your content will grow or change over time
You can expand on your early research to analyze and synthesize your content into your knowledge base.

Step 3: Outline your technology plan
Once you have a comprehensive list of features and solution requirements, choose the technology that’s right for your business, use case, and customers. You might be tempted to consider a homegrown solution that you build and maintain on your own, but an out-of-the-box solution allows you to scale quickly. As you scope out technology partners, be sure to consider:
- Security and compliance considerations from your IT and legal teams
- Must-have features from team members
- Ability to share, analyze, and export data
- System integration and connected platforms
- FAQ capabilities
- Self-service features
- Built-in maintenance
Your technology should adapt to your needs and, most important, be sustainable from a UX, feasibility, and maintenance standpoint.

Step 4: Implement the right analytics
Without the right infrastructure and analytics, your knowledge base can quickly become unwieldy. If you’re not sure where to invest your time and attention, focus on impact. Take on initiatives that will help you expedite more processes and solve customer pain points faster.
To make this happen, look no further than your data. Choose metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to track over time. Examples include:
- Time to problem resolution
- Decrease in customer wait times
- Increase in customer satisfaction levels
- Increase in case deflection numbers
By focusing on a few essential variables, you can better assess the impact of your company’s investments and ensure your knowledge base evolves with your company.

Step 5: Focus on continuous improvement
Once your knowledge base is live, examine how your customers use it. Do internal site search patterns change over time? What parts of your knowledge base do customers engage with most? The answers to these questions will help you identify opportunities for improvement, including new topics, feature sets to introduce, and methodologies to better tag your content.
Remember that a knowledge base continually changes over time. Your technical infrastructure should support that.
Share knowledge across your organization
Building a knowledge base for customer self-service is a smart investment. Besides satisfying customers and ramping up efficiencies for your company, your knowledge base also attracts new visitors to your site. Impress them with your content to build relationships and revenue.

How to Make Your User Interface a 2-Way Conversation

How to Scale Your Customer Service with Chatbot

Build Your Dream Customer Service Team
Get more information on how to build a knowledge base.
See how to:
- Deliver consistent answers so customers can help themselves fast
- Maximize agent productivity
- Streamline knowledge management
More Resources

How to Develop Challenging (Yet Realistic) Customer Service Goals

The Importance of Customer Self-Service Portals

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IMAGES
COMMENTS
Enter Knowledge Settings in the Quick Find box and select Knowledge Settings. Ensure Activate Validation Status Field is enabled. (It should already be selected.) Create a Validation Status Notice there are two different validation statuses already in the system—Validated and Not Validated.
Create Public Groups for Knowledge Help Home Products Contact Support My Cases Home Contact Support My Cases MFA Auto-Enablement for Salesforce Orgs Begins with the Spring '23 Release Read More Service Cloud Content Service Cloud What's Service? Service Setup Case Management
Create a Public Knowledge Base A comprehensive guide to creating a public knowledge base Format: Individual Session (Exclusive to Premier and Signature Success Plan customers) Time Commitment: 3-4 hours, spread over 3 weeks Get started with Public Knowledge Bases.
How to make Knowledge Articles Visible to Customers Service / Knowledge 1) Click the Setup Gear in the top right. Press Setup. Search for Object Manager in the quick find box. image 2) Search for the Knowledge object and click into it image 3) Go to Page Layouts and choose the Knowledge Author layout image
A Knowledge Base is simply a collection of articles with relevant information about your products and services, to encourage a self-service model for your customers to solve their own queries, which leads to case deflection (and as a result, hiring less service agents, and increasing customer satisfaction).
1. Go to Setup> Develop > Sites 2. Clieck on the Site Label and then, naviagate to 'Public Access Settings' page 3. Then in the profile screen, navigate to the appropriate knowledge article type and enable 'Read' access 4. Also, allow read access for the custom fields (if you have added any and want to show to public users) 5. Save and Test.
Click Object Manager and select Knowledge. Click Page Layouts. Click Procedure - Reader. Scroll down to the Properties section. Hover over the Visible in Internal App field. Click the button. Click Save. Maria repeats this process for the Procedure - Author, FAQ - Reader, and FAQ - Author page layouts.
Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.. Visit Stack Exchange
Call Search.suggest (searchText, objectType, options) to return a list of Salesforce Knowledge articles whose titles match a user's search query string. To return suggestions, enable Salesforce Knowledge. See Salesforce Knowledge Implementation Guide for more information on setting up Salesforce Knowledge. This Visualforce page has an input ...
To Publish the knowledge article:- Click the *Knowledge tab [1] at the top and change the list view to Draft Articles [2]. Check the box next to all three article titles and then click Publish. Ensure Publish Now is selected. Click Publish. Log In to reply. Top Salesforce Analytics Cloud Consultants SALESFORCE INDUSTRY EXPERTISE
I have searched web and one way seems to be to setup a Community and then share articles by check marking which channel the article is shared (Internal, Partner, Customer, public knowledge). Looking for detailed steps on how this, or other options, are done; so any info would be much appreciated.
Step 1: Review your data before building a knowledge base Ensure you're focused on the right customer questions and pain points. Make sure to represent a diverse range of vantage points in your initial research, planning, and design process. Consult your customer service agents to understand the questions and issues they encounter the most.