How to create static text/footer?

[Keszia]

Hi all

I'm new to ServiceNow and was wondering how we can create static text/footers for articles? We have a footer that we want to be the same across all articles - can Knowledge Blocks work in this way? Or is there another way?

Currently the footer is part of the article which means that if something within the footer changes, the whole article needs to be checked out and updated - multiply that by all the articles we have.

We're currently using San Diego, but will be moving to Utah soon.

[Lauren Methena · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can use knowledge blocks this way. And that would be a relatively easy way to let knowledge managers have access to make updates.

However, what might work better would be to:

- Consider making customizing your knowledge form to include the footer always. One drawback being your admins/developers will probably have to make updates, which could cause delays, depending on how your team works.

- Look at using knowledge templates. You could create a template where the only customization is that footer - giving you free reign for the rest of your knowledge article.

Depending on how your system is set up, I would think a customized knowledge template would be better/easier than knowledge blocks, because it takes one more step out of the equation. It's just "there" instead of having to remember to add in a block.

My second choice would be a knowledge block probably. That's the fastest/easiest (the way our set up is), but it's going to have a bit more maintenance - not a lot, but some. (Now that you can retire knowledge blocks as of Tokyo, which removes the knowledge blocks, even if they're in a published article, this helps a bit, too, so that you could get rid of a block without having to go into individual articles and delete the blocks.)

Here's a link to product documentation about knowledge article templates. https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/rome-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/concep... 

I hope this gives you some ideas! Good luck! And please mark helpful if you find it so. 🙂

[Gregg Grose]

We use Knowledge Blocks for footer information on our articles, it helps if there is a verbiage or link update within our footer boilerplate so we only need to update one block vs. hundreds of articles.

Because we don't have the ability to insert blocks into a template, I first create a test article and then copy that article body source code into a template, quickly outlined here...

1. Create all necessary Knowledge Blocks
2. Create a test Knowledge Article and insert all text and Knowledge Blocks that will be used by the Template
3. Once test Article looks perfect, click the Source code button and copy all article body source code
4. Create a new Template, click the Source code button and paste all copied article body source code
5. Return to test Article, save or refresh it, then select the new Template and ensure all is well