Downloading articles

[Maciek_H]

Hi,

I just joined and have a question on downloading/exporting KBAs.

I know the only way OOTB to export an article is to 'print' it as a PDF. But what if we wanted to have an editable - docx - copy? Has anyone successfully implemented a customisation that would put a 'Download' button in the standard article view? Additionally, an option to do a multiple download from a list view.

Thanks in advance 🙂

[Prasad Dhumal]

Hello Maciek,

Hope below link will be useful to you:

Enable downloading of the source Microsoft Word document for a knowledge article (servicenow.com)

Regards

Prasad Dhumal

[Maciek_H]

Yes, I know that link, but our articles are not created based on Word docs, so I don't think it would work. Thanks anyway 🙂

[Kim27]

Hi, we download to a PDF and then use Adobe to convert to Word. It usually works out pretty well, it's just a lot of extra steps. 

 
As to your second question - I don't believe there is a way to do multiple downloads from a list. 

[Lauren Methena]

Hello! Given that you usually need special software (such as Adobe Acrobat) to export a PDF into another format, such as .docx, I'm going to guess that there's no way to load a PDF attachment to a ServiceNow article and then have it download in a format that is different from the original format.

Best practices are:

- Provide the attachment in the format in which the user will need it.

- Base the action of the document (i.e., when you click on the attachment link, does the document download or appear in the browser [if you have document viewer turned on]) on what the user needs to do with the document. (If the user will need to "USE" the document or fill out a form, we have it download automatically so it's ready to use for the user. If it's just additional info to read, such as a marketing brochure or FAQs, we'll have it open in a new tab in the browser.)

Have you thought about converting the document in question into Word and then attaching it to your KA? Why would the doc need to be provided as a PDF but then used as a Word doc? (In the RARE cases where we've had multiple versions, we just provide the links to both and label them with the format they're in.)

I hope this helps! Feel free to reply with questions.