Create Articles with Microsoft Word Add-in - is it working for you?

[Jayne Loh]

We are looking at ways of improving how we can involve authors in Knowledge Authoring, one challenge we constantly face is the the ease of use of the text editor and very often articles are authored in Word Doc and uploaded by the knowledge managers. 

If you have this add-in enabled, how is this working for you? Is it effective and easy to use? 

Any disadvantages of using this add-in?

[Mike Van Vooren · Accepted solution]

@Jayne Loh - I agree that the limitations and ease of use with the TinyMCE editor are one of the low points working with knowledge articles. There are plugins that the TinyMCE product offers, including one that allows copying and pasting from Word a lot better, which ServiceNow does not use. 

As for the Word add-in, we have been unable to use it.  It is a great concept but has some dealbreaker limitations for us.  First, you must use Word Online (not locally installed Word).  That may have changed, but I believe that is still the case.  Second, you must always use the add-in if you want to make updates to the article.  You are not able to use the native Editor on the platform once you have created an article using the add-in.  Finally, you are limited to using the "Standard" template for your articles.  In our case, we use the "KCS Article" and "FAQ" templates for a majority of our articles.  The add-in does not support using those.  

[stuartrtroy]

Very helpful response. Thank you.

[Jayne Loh]

Thank you Michael, this is very helpful - I think the fact that we can't switch between Word and the Native Editor is a dealbreaker for us. It sounds like the current practice where we draft and review articles in Word prior to publishing it may still be a better way forward. 

[DavidBReynolds]

We now have the Word add-in for ServiceNow enabled. I'm likely the only person using it because we need to update the workflow but it works as intended for longer articles.

I'm using it for runbooks, SOPs and the like and creating them in Word Desktop. Editing and updates are done in word online but article creation is done with the desktop version. 

In terms of editing and updating content, so long as you click Open in Word, it works perfectly.

The biggest potential hurdle I can see is where the original Word doc is stored. Since we backup everything in OneDrive, the original article and updates are stored on the author's OneDrive. That isn't a problem when only the author edits it but will be an issue when they are reassigned, leave, etc.

We need to find a way to store the original Word doc on a SharePoint drive where others have access to it as well. Once we get that documented, and automate a way to give people access to the add-in, we will be in great shape.