the words people are most likely to search for. More advanced systems will let you nominate keywords in a separate field and classify the article with category or issue-type tags. Always choose the most relevant tags, and if it doesn’t exist see if you can create it.
Easy to Read Formatting
There’s nothing worse than squinting your way through an article with multiple colours, multiple fonts and crazy formatting.
Careful formatting and adequate white space between chunks of text makes your article easier to read.
Stick to one style of font in black and opt for one other colour to highlight important points.
Blockquote a command list to set it apart from informational text.
Don't just cut and paste haphazardly. Invest the time to reformat it.
Break it Down
Many procedures involve several steps. Depending on your reader, consider how granular those steps need to be. Break them down accordingly, and define each step clearly.
STAYING UNDER CONTROL
You’ve caught up with the backlog of information, and it’s all now documented in your knowledge base. Phew! Now you can go out to lunch. But before you do, you need to know a bit about maintenance so you can hit the ground running when you get back.
Knowledge Base Articles Have a Life Cycle
To begin with, articles are in progress; a problem exists without a solution. When you have the solution and the information, you draft an article. Depending on your
organisation’s hierarchy it may need to be approved. Then it’s published, and it can be used by your team and/or viewed by users or customers. Finally, a new development or product is released and it’s no longer an issue—the article is obsolete and can be archived.
In progress → Draft → Approval → Publish → Obsolete
Check your articles regularly, and archive any that have become obsolete. This ensures all published information is current, but archived articles can still be referred to.
Track Feedback
Feedback on your documentation is useful. Your system may have features that let you track it with comments, ratings on individual articles, or both. If it doesn’t, it’s worth creating a short survey to give users the chance to comment.
If you are part of a problem-solving team, or you expect others in the organisation to create knowledge base articles, consider creating a style guide. A style guide lays out the set of standards for designing and writing documents. It ensures consistency within the organisation, and makes creating and maintaining documentation much easier. Sitepoint has a terrific article about developing a style guide.
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