Creating a knowledge article template using the HTML TinyMCE v4 editor

[jackiewai]

Instance: Jakarta instance - HR non-scoped application

There are many benefits to combining knowledge with case management. However, a major deterrent of using the ServiceNow knowledge base solution is the limited ability to format your article if you don't know HTML.

The recommend optioned to overcome this seems to be creating the article in MS Word and then copy and paste the article to the knowledge base article template and ensure Keep Formatting is selected. However, the downside is that there are many basic styles and elements that would not copy over correctly (e.g., unordered (aka bullet list) and ordered list (aka numbered list). There is also the issue of updating the article. If you ever need to edit or make changes to the article, you must edit the original word document and override the existing article by copying over the new article.

Personally, I feel that the best way to encourage agents (who don't have any knowledge of HTML) to create knowledge articles, would be to use the HTML TinyMCE v4 editor but there are many downsides to this editor. Below are the downsides that I would like to overcome with what I found could be potential solutions but need your feedback and expertise. If you have a better solution, I would love to hear it.

• Adding section headings to structure an article's text to the editor toolbar: TinyMCE v3 had this but it's not available in v4. I believe to add it back, you have to add in formatselect to add section headings button to the toolbar. Is that the correct solution? Article link to reference is Adding section headings via TinyMCE
• Adding a Table of Contents plugin to the editor toolbar: TinyMCE editor has an optional plug in code (Table of Contents Plugin) to help users create a basic table of contents (TOC). Is it possible to add this plug in without touching an OOB codes so that we won't have any issues when upgrading to a newer instance?
• Adding Imaging Tools plugin from the editor toolbar: The current insert image functionality in the v4 toolbar require a user to either resize an image in advance to uploading image or provide the pixels for the width and height of an image. Works for someone who needs more advance image editing but most users just want to see the image resize handlers when they click on an image to resize or align. TinyMCE editor has an option plug in code (Image Tools Plugin) that I think may allow for this but I'm not sure. Does this plugin add additional imaging tools like resizing an image and can it be added without touching an OOB codes so that we won't have any issues when upgrading to a newer instance?

• Adding a custom CSS style sheet to consistently format html styling elements: I would like to provide some standard styles to help our HR agents create knowledge articles easier. We have a structured template style that specifies the section heading colors and size, and determines how a unordered list or ordered list should be positioned. Is it possible to use this Custom CSS to create a custom CSS style and apply it only to the HR Knowledge Article new article template? If possible, would doing this potentially cause issues when we upgrade our instance? 

[Goran WitchDoc · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Sadly there isn't so much we can modify/configure the TinyMCE without major customizations. There isn't a option to add plugins and I would have love to see the ToC to be there, since it very useful in the articles. I have even a customer who we built there own custom ToC for the editor to use. But with that kind of customization comes also a big chunk of administrator etc. with upgrades and so. So not always is it worth all the time around it for what you get.

About TinyMCE, there are a few configurations you can do, not sure if you have seen them. You can find them here Configure a field editor for the HTML field | ServiceNow Docs.

For templates, you could use the OOB templates to setup how you want to structure to be in a HTML field as well. Would also be possible for you to e.g. load different templates automatically depending on other fields like category/knowledge and so on. So if they choose knowledge base = IT and category = Email. Then a specific template is loading into the html field.

//Göran

[jackiewai]

Thanks for your response. Is there a reason why ServiceNow refuses to add basic functionalities like the TOC to make it easier for agents to actually create an article from the html editor? Adds like Knowledge Blocks are great but with continue focus in maintaining knowledge and communication articles in ServiceNow, you would think that basic functionalities should also be improved and easy to add.

[Goran WitchDoc]

Hmm.. I was like a year ago I talked to ServiceNow about the missing ToC button for the TinyMCE, don't remember the right answer. I would sadly point to ServiceNow and ask them directly. The more that asks for the feature, the bigger the chance is that we see it. 🙂 But you got my vote for it. It feels like a very good and simple improvement for the end users that shouldn't be so hard to add (without knowing all the facts).

//Göran

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[jackiewai]

I've raised it to ServiceNow a few months ago. Guess we will see where it goes. Is there is a forum to vote on enhancements customers want to see?