Knowledge article headings - what to do?

[Magnus Hovik]

I recently tried to figure about something similar but I'm not sure the one answer there is correct, so I'm just going to try again: Re: Formatting multiple resolutions in the resolut... - ServiceNow Community

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In this article: Guidance on Knowledge Article Authoring Best Practices for Now Assist in Virtual Agent - Support and... 

ServiceNow says:

​Now Assist parses KB articles as HTML + text, not visual layout. ServiceNow's KB Content Style Guide stresses simplicity, white space, and semantic formatting for both human and AI consumption.
- Recommended Tags
<h2>, <h3> for sections
<p> for paragraphs
<ul><li> for lists
<strong> for emphasis 

In this article: Best practices to use your knowledge articles with... - ServiceNow Community

 

ServiceNow says:

Formatting best practises

Use a clear structure with titles, subtitles and steps: 

Write knowledge articles in a clear and structured manner, with well-defined sections or headings that organize the information logically. This structure helps the generative AI model understand the content hierarchy and generate coherent responses. Utilize headings, subheadings, and bulleted lists to break down complex information into digestible chunks. 

Questions 

1. Are there any recommended approaches to this? Not just "utilize headings and subheadings" but actual concrete and practical recommendations? That can be written explicitely in a Content Standard. When to use h2, h3, h4...
2. Are there any ways to globally change the font size of a heading? I found this Knowledge headings and formatting - ServiceNow Community. Which doesn't have an answer. Because it looks very off in the knowledge article when "Issue"...."Resolution".... or other fields are smaller than subheadings within a field. It looks like a bad template.
3. When I inspect a knowledge article it says that the fields (Issue..Resolution...) are h3. Does that mean the content subheadings should be h4, or am I thinking about that wrongly?
4. If a Resolution field has more than one resolution in it, should each one have a heading (H2/H3), or is a bold title correct? This is the same question I had here: Re: Formatting multiple resolutions in the resolut... - ServiceNow Community

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For example, I'm writing an article about knowledge blocks where in the "Resolution" field I have this: 

Create a knowledge block (h3)

Solution 1 - Create a knowledge block backend  (regular paragraph)

1. Do this
2. Then this

Solution 2 - Create a knowledge block when you write a knowledge article  (regular paragraph)

1. Do this
2. Then this

Edit a knowledge block (h3)

Solution 1 - Edit a knowledge block backend (regular paragraph)

1. Do this
2. Then this 

Solution 2 - Edit a knowledge block while creating a knowledge article (regular paragraph)

1. Do this
2. Then this
3. Then this

Is this correct? 

Sorry for the longer post.

[MaryG · Accepted solution]

Really well-researched post — these are the right questions and they don't get answered concretely enough anywhere in the docs. Let me go through each one.

**Q1: Concrete heading hierarchy for a Content Standard**

Here's a practical framework you can write explicitly into a Content Standard:

- H2: Do not use inside article fields. Reserve for page-level structure if ever needed outside the template.
- H3: Major sections within a field when the field contains distinctly different topics or task groups (e.g. "Create a Knowledge Block" vs "Edit a Knowledge Block" within Resolution)
- H4: Sub-sections within an H3 group, but only when genuinely needed. In practice, bold text + paragraph is often cleaner than H4 because H4 renders poorly in most SNow themes
- Bold: Solution labels, sub-task names, emphasis within steps
- Numbered lists: Sequential steps only
- Bulleted lists: Non-sequential items, options, or reference lists

The guiding rule: use the lowest heading level that creates meaningful section boundaries for AI parsing. Now Assist treats headings as content boundaries — so H3 tells it "this is a distinct resolution scenario."

**Q2: Globally changing heading font sizes**

Not supported OOTB through configuration. You'd need a CSS override in the KB article stylesheet, which is a customization and carries upgrade risk. The honest answer is the platform doesn't give you a clean knob for this, and it's a known pain point. The workaround most teams land on is building a Knowledge Block that contains a styled header template — consistent but not a true global fix.

**Q3: Fields render as H3 — should content use H4?**

Your instinct is semantically correct. If the field label (Issue, Resolution) is H3 in the DOM, content sub-sections should be H4 to maintain hierarchy. The problem is H4 renders nearly identically to bold text in most ServiceNow themes, so it looks visually flat. The practical recommendation for a Content Standard: use H3 for major groupings within a field, and bold for anything below that. Accept the semantic impurity in exchange for visual clarity. Now Assist cares more about H3 boundaries than H4.

**Q4: Multiple resolutions — your example structure**

Your example is correct and I'd use it as the template in your Content Standard. H3 for task groupings (Create, Edit), plain paragraph bold label for solution variants (Solution 1, Solution 2), numbered steps underneath. This is exactly the structure Now Assist handles well — it can identify "Create a knowledge block" as a distinct resolution scenario and return the appropriate steps rather than the entire field.

One small addition: if Solution 1 and Solution 2 represent different audiences or conditions, make that explicit in the label. "Solution 1 - Admin access" or "Solution 2 - No backend access" gives Now Assist a better signal for which resolution applies to the user's context than "Solution 1" and "Solution 2" alone.

[Magnus Hovik]

Thank you!! 🙏 Exactly the clarity I was searching for.