Articles are the core of your help center. This guide shows you how to create, edit, and publish your first one.
Creating a New Article
- Open Help Center > Articles from the dashboard navigation (use the menu button on smaller screens)
- Click the New Article button
- Enter a title — this also generates the URL slug automatically
Start with a title and short description. The URL Handle identifies the article’s address.
Using the Editor
Helpdesky gives you two ways to write:
- Markdown mode — write using standard Markdown syntax. Great if you are comfortable with Markdown and want full control.
- Visual mode — a rich text editor powered by Tiptap with a toolbar for formatting. Works just like a word processor.
You can switch between modes at any time. Your content is preserved when switching.
Visual mode shows your formatted text and provides buttons for headings, lists, links, and images.
Adding Structure
Good help articles are well-organized. Use headings to break your content into sections:
## Main Section Heading
Content goes here...
### Subsection
More details...
Headings (h2 and h3) are automatically used to generate a Table of Contents sidebar on your published article. This helps readers navigate long articles quickly.
Setting a Category
Find the Category card and choose a category from its dropdown. Depending on your screen width, the card may appear beside or below the editor. This determines where the article appears in your help center navigation. If you have not created categories yet, visit the Categories section first.
Choose a category and check the Published switch before saving. The switch is off in this example.
Adding an Excerpt
Enter your excerpt in the Description field near the top of the editor. It is a short summary shown in article listings and search results. Keep it concise — one or two sentences that describe what the article covers.
Publishing
When you are ready for customers to see your article:
- Turn on the Published switch in the Publish card
- Click Save
Your article is now live on your public help center.
Unpublished articles will not appear on your public help center or in search results. Use this to work on drafts before making them available.
Editing the Slug
The URL slug is auto-generated from your title, but you can customize it. Edit the URL Handle field below Description to change it. If you change a slug after publishing, Helpdesky automatically creates a 301 redirect from the old URL so existing links keep working.
For illustrated upload instructions, see Uploading Images.