# Write and format Help Center articles Section: Help Center Description: Create a Help Center article and format it with headings, lists, links, images, videos, tables, anchors and Markdown shortcuts. Verified against Tidio panel 12.304.0 Last updated: 2026-10-30 Source: https://help.tidio.com/articles/write-articles/ Good help articles are easy to scan: clear headings, short steps, a screenshot where it helps. Tidio's Help Center editor gives you everything you need for that - headings, lists, links, images, videos, tables, code blocks and a table of contents - without writing any code. **In this article, you'll learn:** - [How to create a new article]() - [How to add a title and a summary]() - [How to format your text]() - [How to add images, videos and tables]() - [How to use anchors and a table of contents]() - [How to use Markdown shortcuts]() - [How to save your article]() [Video]() Silent walkthrough. Write and format Help Center articles. ## Creating a new article Head over to the **Help Center** section, open your Help Center, and stay on the **Content** tab. Click on the **Add content** button on the right of the search bar, and choose **Add article**: ![The Content tab with the Add content menu open on the right of the search bar, and Add article highlighted]() Already know where the article belongs? Use **Add article** in the three-dots menu of a category (or the **Add article** button inside an empty category), and the new article is filed in that category from the start. The **New article** panel opens on the right. Here's what you'll find in it: - **At the top:** the language you're writing in, the **Save draft** and **Publish** buttons, and the close button. - **On the left:** the article's title, its summary, and the editor with its formatting toolbar. - **On the right:** the sidebar. Its **Help Center** section holds **Article visibility** and **Category**, the **Lyro AI** section decides whether Lyro (the AI agent) and Copilot use the article, and the **Data** section shows the article's history once it's been saved. ![The New article panel with a title and summary typed in, a heading and a short list in the editor, the toolbar above them, and the sidebar on the right showing the Help Center and Lyro AI sections]() Visibility is covered in [Publish, preview and manage articles](), the **Lyro AI** section in [Use Help Center articles with Lyro and Copilot](), and languages in [Run your Help Center in several languages](). ## Adding a title and a summary Click on **Untitled article** at the top and type your title. Below it, add a short summary - as the field says, it's shown in search results, so aim for 1-2 sentences. The summary is optional, stays on one line and can be up to **260 characters** long. While you type, a counter shows how many characters you have left. If you go over, the counter drops below zero and the article won't save until you shorten it ("That summary is too long. Shorten it to 260 characters to save."). ## Formatting your text Click into the editor (it says **Start writing....**) and write away. The toolbar above the text has everything you need - hover over any button to see its name: ![The editor toolbar in full, with the tooltip "Insert table of contents" showing on one of the buttons]() - **Bold**, **Italic**, **Underline** and **Inline code** for single words or phrases. - **Heading 1**, **Heading 2** and **Heading 3** (the H1, H2 and H3 buttons) for your sections. Your article's title sits above all of them, so **Heading 1** is the biggest heading inside the text. - **Bullet list** and **Numbered list**, with **Indent list item** and **Outdent list item** to nest a step under the one above it (pressing **Tab** in a list works too). - **Code block** for longer snippets. Inside one, **Enter** starts a new line; press **Enter** on two empty lines in a row to leave the block. - **Align left**, **Align center** and **Align right** for paragraphs, headings, images and videos. - **Undo** and **Redo**. - **Emoji**, to drop an emoji where your cursor is. ### Adding a link Select the text you want to turn into a link, and click on the **Link** button. Type the address into the field and hit **Apply**: ![The link editor open under a selected phrase, with https://example.com typed in the URL field, the Section in this article picker below it, and the Apply and Cancel buttons]() A link can point to a web address, an email address, a phone number, or a section of the same article - pick one from the **Section in this article** list (it appears once your article has headings or anchors). To change or remove a link later, click into it and use the **Link** button again. ## Adding images, videos and tables ### Images Click on the **Image** button and pick a file - or simply paste an image, or drag it from your computer into the editor. You can use **PNG**, **JPG**, **GIF** and **WebP** images up to **5 MB**. Click on an image to select it. You can then: - Drag its handles to resize it. - Use the alignment buttons in the toolbar to place it on the left, in the center or on the right. - Click on the **Open full size** button on the image, so your readers can click it to see it full size. This is off for every new image. - Press **Backspace** to remove it. ![A selected image in the editor with its resize handles, the Open full size button on the image showing the tooltip "Readers can click this image to open it full size.", and the drag handle on its left]() ### Videos Click on the **Video** button, paste a link into the **YouTube or Vimeo link** field, and hit **Add video**. The video plays right inside the article. Just like images, a selected video can be resized and aligned. ![The Add a video window with a YouTube watch link pasted into the YouTube or Vimeo link field, and the Add video button]() ### Moving images and videos Hover over an image or a video, and a **Drag to move** handle appears on its left - grab it and drop the block wherever you like in the article. Prefer the keyboard? Select the image or video and press **Alt+Shift+Up** or **Alt+Shift+Down**. ### Tables Click on the **Insert table** button and pick a size from the grid - up to 8 rows and 6 columns. The first row is the table's header row. ![The table size grid open under the Insert table button, with 3 × 4 highlighted]() ## Using anchors and a table of contents Every heading you write gets an anchor automatically - a name that links can point to, made from the heading's text. It stays the same even when you edit the heading later, so links you've already shared keep working. Click on the **Anchor** button to manage anchors: - **With the cursor in a heading**, the **Section anchor** window lets you rename that heading's anchor. Keep in mind that links already shared with the old name stop working. - **Anywhere else**, the **Add an anchor** window drops a named marker at the cursor. Type an **Anchor name** and hit **Add anchor**. The marker shows in the text as a small chip, where you can rename or remove it. ![The Add an anchor window with "refund-policy" typed in the Anchor name field, the \#refund-policy preview below it, and the Add anchor button]() Writing a long article? Put the cursor where you'd like a table of contents - usually at the top - and click on **Insert table of contents**. Tidio adds a list of links to all your headings, nested by level. 💡 **Please note:** the table of contents is a snapshot of your headings at the moment you insert it. If you add or rename headings afterwards, delete it and insert it again. The button stays disabled until the article has at least one heading. ## Using Markdown shortcuts If you like typing more than clicking, the editor understands a few Markdown shortcuts. Type them at the start of a line (or around a word, for text styles), and the formatting is applied as you type: Type | You get ` # ` and a space | Heading 1 ` ## ` and a space | Heading 2 ` ### ` and a space | Heading 3 ` - `, ` * ` or ` + ` and a space | Bullet list ` 1. ` and a space | Numbered list ```` ``` ```` and **Enter** | Code block `` `code` `` | Inline code ` **bold** ` or ` __bold__ ` | **Bold** ` *italic* ` or ` _italic_ ` | *Italic* ` ***both*** ` | ***Bold and italic*** ## Saving your article Once your article has a title and some content, hit the **Save draft** button in the top-right. You'll see the "Article created successfully." message, and the article appears in your list with the **Draft** tag. Drafts are never shown to your customers. ![The top of the New article panel with the language field, the Save draft and Publish buttons, and the Draft tag above the title]() If you close the panel (or press **Esc**) with changes you haven't saved, Tidio asks first. In the **Unsaved changes** window, you can **Keep editing**, **Discard changes**, or - when the article has a title and content - **Save draft**: ![The Unsaved changes window over the article panel, with the text "Leaving now discards everything you changed since the last save." and the Keep editing, Save draft and Discard changes buttons]() After the first save, the sidebar's **Data** section shows when the article was created, when it was last edited and published, and by whom (**Edited by**, **Published by**). The **Author** column of the article list shows the teammate behind the version you're looking at - there's no separate author field to fill in. 💡 **Please note:** very long articles can't be saved - you'll see "This article is too long to save. Split it into shorter articles." Writing articles also needs the **Help center content** permission set to **Able to edit**. Teammates who are **Able to view** can open articles, but not change them. ## What's next - [Publish, preview and manage articles]() - [Organize articles into categories]() - [Use Help Center articles with Lyro and Copilot]() - [Run your Help Center in several languages]()