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Build your own Help Center

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In Tidio, you can create your own Help Center - or multiple Help Centers! It can serve as a resource for your users and customers, as well as a source of knowledge for your Lyro AI agent and Copilot.

 

In this article, you will learn:

 

 

Creating a Help Center

 

To start creating, navigate to the Help Center section inside your Tidio project - it's available in the lower-left:

 

 

 

In there, you can manage any existing Help Centers that you may have already added. To create a new one, use the Create Help Center button. This will show you two options:

 

 

 

The Create from scratch option allows you to create a brand new Help Center manually, while Import existing content lets you share what options you'd like to see in the future - e.g. the ability to import your existing Zendesk or Notion articles, or more.

For now, only the Create from scratch option is relevant for the current version of the Help Center builder.

 

 

 

In the popup, you'll be asked to give your Help Center a name. You will also need to select the default language from the list. Additionally, you can add multiple supported languages for your Help Center (from the list of available options). This lets your visitors see the Help Center in different versions, and lets you customize the different versions separately a well. Lastly, you can choose the main categories for your future articles, as well as create custom ones.

 

Once you've confirmed your choices, the newly-created Help Center will become visible in your Help Center section - along with its title, URL, default language, and publication status:

 

 

 

By default, the Help Center is not published and unavailable to users. Once your Help Center is ready to publish, you can change its status and make it public to visitors. First, however, you need to create your articles and configure everything to your liking.

 

 

Adding and editing articles

 

When you open the Help Center you've created, you'll be taken to the Content tab. Inside, you'll see the list of categories you've chosen earlier. They are currently empty, as you have no articles yet:

 

 

 

We'll cover the Appearance and Setup tabs later in this article.

General content management options will also be covered in more detail later on.

 

When you click on a category's options menu on the far right, you'll be able to edit the category, delete it entirely, or add a new article to it:

 

 

 

You can also use the Add content button in the upper-right to create new categories or articles:

 

 

 

Adding a brand new article

 

When you hit either of the Add article options, you will see the article creator:

 

 

 

Notice that any new article is labelled as a draft, which you can see in the top-left.

In the panel on the right, you can see options for article visibility (set to unlisted by default):

 

 

 

... as well as category assignment options (along with the ability to create a new category):

 

 

 

You can also see the options to allow Lyro and Copilot access to the article - it then servers as a source of knowledge for your project's AI. You can also specify custom audiences for this purpose:

 

 

 

Writing and formatting

 

At the bottom of the article editor you can see various icons, which stand for different formatting and content otpions:

 

 

 

These options include the following:

  • Basic text formatting, list options, and alignment
  • Three heading sizes
  • Adding links and anchors
  • Automatic table of contents generation
  • Creating simple tables
  • Inserting images, videos, and emojis

 

Your article is comprised of a title, summary, and body.

The title is how users will identify the article, while the short summary can help them understand a little more about the article's purpose - it appears at the beginning of your article. The body of the article is where you compose the main content.

 

 

 

Please note that you can select the language version of the article you want to write or edit (at the top of the editor). The available versions are based on the languages you've selected for this particular Help Center.

 

 

 

Apart from the basic text formatting, there are several options you may find especially useful. Let's go through them below.

 

Headers and hyperlinks

If you've added some headers in your article, they become available for creating internal hyperlinks. When using the link button, you get two options: to insert a URL or select an existing section header from the article.

 

 

 

Inserting anchors

In addition to headers, you can insert invisible anchors into your article. Anchors are not associated with any specific element in your article, only a specific place - and you can use these anchors as hyperlink targets, similarly to headers. Each anchor needs a unique name, which also lets you easily identify it in the list later:

 

 

 

Inside the article editor, you can see the anchor clearly - but it won't be visible in any way to your readers once published.

 

 

 

Indenting list items

If you've created a list (either bulleted or numbered), you can further modify it with the Indent/Outdent list item option:

 

 

 

This allows you to create up to three different levels for your lists, which may be visually helpful for more complex needs. Note that bullet lists and numbered lists result in different formatting:

 

 

 

Generating a table of contents instantly

You can use the Insert table of contents button to automatically generate a list of all your article headers, already with hyperlinks included. The list is bulleted by default, but you can change it with the usual formatting options at the bottom. Please note that this generated list will include all of your existing headers, so you may need to modify the list to your needs (you can also freely change the text to your liking).

 

 

 

Adding simple tables

You can create basic tables for your article as well, up to 6 columns wide and 8 rows long:

 

 

 

While there are no additional table formatting or resizing options, it can still serve as a quick way of organizing important data efficiently. Note that the columns change size dynamically, based on the amount of text you type into the cells:

 

 

 

Inserting images and embedding videos

You can easily drag-and-drop images into the article (or use the Image button).

 

 

Apart from resizing, relocating, and aligning the image, you can also allow your readers to open the image in its full size:

 

 

 

Using the Video button, on the other hand, lets you embed a video directly into the article (from YouTube or Vimeo):

 

 

 

The resulting thumbnail can also be resized, relocated, and aligned.

 

 

 

Saving and publishing the article

 

When working on a new article, or simply editing an existing article, you can use the Save draft button in the top-right to save your changes anytime. Once you're happy with your content, use the Publish button to remove the draft label from the article:

 

 

 

You can also use the options menu to the right, and preview your draft in a new window. The option to delete the article is also available there, and the option to view the live article becomes available once the article is published and listed.

 

 

 

Note that you cannot publish an article that doesn't belong to any category yet - make sure you assign it properly first:

 

 

 

By default, a new article will be published as unlisted - which keeps it invisible from your readers. If you'd like to make it available right away, make sure to change the article visibility to public as well. Of course, you can change this visibility anytime.

 

 

 

If you make changes to an article (even if it's already public), they will be pending as a draft - until you decide to save these change as the final version and re-publish the article. You will see the draft changes status for that article in your Help Center:

 

 

 

When you open such an article, you will initially see the current public version. However, you will also be informed about its draft state, as well as get the option to edit or preview the draft:

 

 

 

Managing your content

 

Once you have several categories and articles in your Help Center, you're able to re-organize that content or manage its visibility as needed.

 

 

Publishing and previewing

 

If your Help Center is already published (which means it has at least one category with at least one public article), you can use the Preview Help Center button in the top-right:

 

 

 

This basically opens your live Help Center and lets you browse it; it's the same as opening the Help Center through its dedicated address. Note that you can preview unpublished drafts of articles individually through the article creator.

Of course, you can unpublish your Help Center anytime as well, making it unavailable to visitors:

 

 

 

While it's technically possible to publish your Help Center without any public articles at all, you cannot show any of your categories yet. Before a category can become visible inside your (published) Help Center, it requires at least one article that's public:

 

 

 

When you create a new article, it's possible for it to be unassigned - which means it doesn't belong to any category yet. It will be listed at the bottom of your Help Center, under your existing categories:

 

 

 

This is only possible with drafts. Once you publish an article (even if you keep it unlisted), it needs to be assigned to a category. If you start drafting new changes in the article, you can once again remove it from any categories and have it unassigned once again, if you like.

You can access the options menu for each article on the far-right. This give you the option to edit the article, remove it from the current category (only possible with drafts), or delete the article:

 

 

 

You can freely re-assign articles to different categories when needed from inside the article editor. However, you can also simply drag the articles (and even categories) from the general Help Center view!

 

 

Moving articles and categories

 

You can quickly move your articles into different categories whenever needed, and change the order of your articles that way a well. When you hover your mouse pointer over an article in your list, you will see an additional indicator appear on the far-left; you can click on that indicator, drag the article into its new spot, and drop it there:

 

 

 

You can do the same with entire categories; move your mouse over the category you want to move, click on the indicator that appears on the left, and drag the category where needed:

 

 

 

Adding and editing categories

 

Use the Add content button in the top-right to create a new category.

 

 

 

In the window that pops up, you can choose an icon for the category, its language version, it name, and a short (optional) description:

 

 

 

When choosing an icon, you can select from a list of existing options - or upload your own image. You can later decide if these icons should be visible in your Help Center at all.

 

 

 

Browsing your categories and articles

 

At the top of your Help Center's Content tab, you can use the search tool to find articles by their title inside the current language version.

 

 

 

You can switch between any language versions you've added as well:

 

 

 

You are also able to view the articles based on their status (public, unlisted, or draft):

 

 

 

Naturally, any other Help Centers you may have created will be listed in the top-left, in the main Help Centers section of your Tidio project:

 

 

 

Managing language versions

 

You can create multiple language versions of your articles to accommodate different users.

If a user visiting your Help Center has a different default language set in their browser, and this particular language version is available in your Help Center, they will be offered to switch to that language version. They can also switch manually anytime by using the language selector in the bottom-right of your Help Center:

 

 

 

 

When you switch to a different language version of your Help Center (using the drop-down menu at the top of the Content tab), you will see all the same articles listed in general.

 

 

 

Your articles exist for all language versions, but you need to translate and edit them individually.

If an article hasn't had any work done in the current language version you're viewing, it's marked as not translated:

 

 

 

When editing an article, you can switch between the different available language versions to modify them freely. The option is located at the top of the article editor:

 

 

 

These article versions are completely separate, and editing the content of one version does not affect the content of other versions. You can also change one version's visibility, and this will not affect the visibility of other versions. The category assignment stays the same for all language versions, however.

 

Note that categories themselves have separate language versions as well - you can edit a category and switch between the available versions:

 

 

 

This allows you to give a different name or description to each language version of that category. Selecting a category's language does not affect any of the articles within that category; it's just a way for you to modify the category's details.

 

 

Modifying the appearance

 

In addition to managing your articles and categories, you can also modify the general look of your entire Help Center and its different visual aspects. You can access all the available options in the Appearance tab:

 

 

 

Inside, you can see a number of different subsections with their associated options. Some subsections allow you to edit your language versions separately as well. On the right, you can see a practical preview of your Help Center as well.

 

 

 

The preview

 

Here you can monitor your appearance changes live. The preview also allows you to interact with the content!

You can select either the homepage, category, or article view:

 

 

 

You can also preview the different device versions (desktop, tablet, or mobile):

 

 

 

You also get the option to see the different available language versions, as some of their aspects can be customized separately:

 

 

 

Branding

 

Here you can customize your Help Center's accent color, select either a light or dark color theme, decide on the font, as well as upload a favicon:

 

 

 

Homepage

 

Here you can decide about the following aspects of the homepage:

  • Hero background type and color (or image);
  • Hero logo;
  • Heading text;
  • Subheading text;
  • Search bar visibility and its placeholder text;
  • General layout (grid or list).

 

 

 

Header

 

Here you can decide about displaying an additional header at the top of your homepage, and customize the following:

  • Header background type and color (or image);
  • Header logo and its optional hyperlink;
  • Additional links displayed in the header.

 

 

 

 

Footer

 

Here you can decide about displaying an additional footer at the bottom of your homepage, and customize the following:

  • Footer background type and color (or image);
  • Footer logo and its optional hyperlink;
  • Additional links displayed in the footer, including social media channels.

 

 

 

Category cards

 

Here you can decide whether your Help Center's category cards include their descriptions and article counts. You can also choose if each category should feature its own icon, image, or neither.

 

 

 

Article pages

 

Here you can decide whether each individual article features the following:

  • Breadcrumbs (your Help Center path);
  • Previous and next articles;
  • Related articles;
  • Estimated reading time;
  • The time of the last update;
  • The article's author;
  • A feedback option.

 

 

 

Configuring other settings

 

You can configure many additional and important settings in the Setup tab of your Help Center. You can see a number of subsections listed, some of which allow you to modify different language versions separately. At the very bottom, you also get the option to delete the current Help Center.

 

 

 

General

 

Here you can change the name of your Help Center.

 

 

 

Languages

 

Here you can decide on the default language of your Help Center, as well as add (or remove) the supported languages from a list of available options.

 

 

 

Domain

 

Here you can customize the address of your Help Center (which uses our default tidio.help domain), or connect your own custom domain (this presents you with the necessary DNS records and setup options, similarly to adding a custom domain for your Tidio ticketing via Settings > Email).

 

 

 

Embed Help Center

 

Here you can access your Help Center's embedding snippet, which you can use to insert into a web page you manage.

 

 

 

Chat widget

 

Here you can decide whether you'd like to display your Tidio widget inside the Help Center, which allows your readers to use the widget.

 

 

 

SEO & Search

 

Here you can decide if search engines should index your Help Center, and customize the associated SEO title and meta description. You can also see a preview of a possible search result.

 

 

 

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