Content blocks are segments of text that are grouped and reused across one or more articles in your help center. You can create a content block from your help center or from within an article where you want to use the content block. In both cases, the content block appears in the content block list, where you canview the content blockand where it is used,edit the content block, orremove the content block from your help center.
Guide admins can create and insert content blocks on any article that is enabled for content blocks. Agents can only create and insert content blocks in articles that they have permission to edit. Guide admins or agents withpermission to updatecontent blocks can edit and update content blocks in published articles that include those blocks.
Creating a content block from the help center
When you create a content block from the help center menu, the content block is added to the content blocks list and is available to insert into any article where you want it to appear. SeeInserting a content block into an article.
Content blocks created from the help center take on the default locale of the help center, regardless of the language used within the content block itself. For example, if you create content blocks from a help center where thedefault languageis American English, the content block locale will also be English, even if the body of the content block contains Spanish text.
To create a content block from the help center
- In your help center or Guide admin, clickAddin the top menu bar, then selectContent block.
- Give the content block a meaningful name, so you can easily identify it when you reuse it in other articles. This is an internal name that identifies your content block on the content blocks list. It is not visible to end users.
- 使用工具栏和自动套用格式选项at the content within the content block as needed, for example, adding bold, creating a bulleted list, or inserting a link or media (such as video). SeeHelp center article editor reference.
Formatting the content in a content block affects all articles that use this content block.
- ClickCreate.
The content is now a content block and is stored independently for reuse by other articles. You canedit the content blockor return to the content block list to perform other management tasks.
Creating a content block from an article
You can create a content block from a single unit of content, for example, a paragraph, a section heading, a code block, or a bulleted list. You can also create a content block from multiple (consecutive) sections of content in an article, or even from the text of an entire article. You can useone or many content blocks within an article, alongside regular text. In this sectionregular textrefers to any article text that you create that is not in a content block.
从一篇文章假设创建内容块article’s locale, regardless of the language used within the content block itself. For example, if you create a content block from a Spanish article, the content block’s locale will also be Spanish, even if the content of the block contains English text.
After you enable your article for content blocks, you can start creating reusable content.
To create a content block
- In your article, select the content you want to make into a reusable content block.Note:If you select a fragment of text, for example, one sentence within a paragraph, the whole paragraph will be included in the new content block. A paragraph or section heading is the smallest fragment of content that you can include in a content block.
- On the top toolbar, click thecontent block(
) icon.Note:When you are creating a content block from within an article, the article remains open in the background. To return to the article without saving the content block, click the breadcrumb in the upper left corner of the window. - Give the content block a meaningful name, so that you can easily identify it when you reuse it in other articles.
- 使用工具栏和自动套用格式选项at the content within the content block as needed, for example, adding bold, creating a bulleted list, or inserting a link or media (such as a video). SeeHelp center article editor reference.
Formatting the content in a content block affects all articles that use this content block.
- ClickCreate.
The content is now a content block and is stored independently for reuse by other articles. In the article, the text appears with a shaded background. You don't need to save the article to create a content block.
Inserting a content block into an article
After you haveenabled your articlefor content blocks, you can insert reusable content.
To insert content from a content block
- In your article, click where you want to add reusable content.
- On the top toolbar, click thecontent block() icon.
A list of available content blocks appears.
- Choose the content block that you want to add.Refine your results by:
- Specifying part of the content block name. Only the content block name is searched, not the content block body.
- Sorting by edited date or created date.
- Sorting alphabetically.
- Click a content block to preview the content.
- ClickInsert.
内容块插入ed into the article and appears with a shaded background.
In the source code view (
If your cursor is above a content block and you click the source code view, you will only see the HTML code for the text above the content block. To see the HTML code below the content block, place your cursor below the content block, then open the source code view.
), you won't see any HTML code for content blocks, only for your regular text. This is because content blocks live independently in the help center. Additionally, you'll only see the HTML code for the chunk of regular text where your cursor is placed, between content blocks.
50 Comments
@Camila Ribeiro Leao Santos
Bom dia. Talvez seja porque você está usando o sandbox e não uma conta zendesk típica. Você já criou um tíquete com a equipe de suporte do Zendesk? Boa sorte.
Hello ZenDesk Team,
We would like to use images in the Content Blocks. Looks like it's not supported currently.
Any plans of adding this ability in Content Blocks?
Rather, can all the formatting options in Content Blocks be the same as the ones provided with the main Source Code Editor?
Thank you.
Hey Sanket,
I double checked with our Product Managers and it looks like images are planned to be added to content blocks some time in spring :) Keep in mind timelines are subject to change but I can confirm it's on their roadmap.
Cheers!
Hey, I just wanted to set up some content blocks, but with the current implementation, it's completely useless for any Help-Center which is doing stuff beyond the WYSIWYG Editor
It's a bit disappointing that this is not considered a use-case for an Enterprise feature.
1) custom HTML is ignored
2) Source code view is divided
This means you do not see the whole source code anymore, it's depending on your mouse cursor. For example, if you add 3 content blocks in an article, you have 4 different parts of the source code.
Hope this helps you to understand more complex Help-Center implementations in combination with Content Blocks.
Cheers,
Andreas
HiBrett Bowser,
Spring is here :)
Any news of adding image support to content blocks?
Cheers,
Botond
Hi@...,
Unfortunately, the images will take us a bit longer than initially expected. That is because to implement them right we need to rethink the whole architecture of attachments which is a complex task. But we are working on it :)
Best,
HiKatarzyna Karpinska,
How is the progress going? Or do you have a targeted schedule for implementing this function? We are really looking forward to this function. Adding images in content block is crucial to our articles.
Best regards,
Kennis
Hi@..., Thanks for your interest! Unfortunately we've have more delays in this field :( but we are not giving up! We hope to have more positive info at the end of the year.
Hi @katarzyna
Are there plans to add content blocks to article templates?
We want to use blocks to manage code snippets and instruction sets, adding these to the templates would be a massive efficiency.
Are we going to get at least formatting in the content blocks soon? Graphics would be awesome, too. I'm living in horror of the time a screen shot we use across multiple articles needs to be found and updated.
Hi@..., thank you for your feedback, we are not currently planning to add blocks to article templates but I'm curious how would you like to use them in templates. Could you let me know a little more?
@...we'll start working on improving the editor in content blocks later this quarter. Which of the formatting options are the most important for you? We are also planning to add image support in content blocks and we'll start development in that area at the end of the year.
We have steps that are very similar across articles for the first 3 to 5 steps and then the procedure varies. I would want ordered lists and unordered lists in that block. I would want to apply bold and perhaps code to the text in that block. I want to continue numbering steps from that block into the ordered list that follows it.
Graphics in a block would be huge. I'm dreading any serious updates to the UI in our products, as we must manually find all instanced and then update. That's going to be awful.
@..., Thanks so much for the details I've noted them down.
Both ordered and unordered lists should be already avilable in CBs, as well as bold and code block. I understand from your example that in for numbered lists you'd like to have the numbered order dynamically adjusting depending on the CB position in the article. This is a bit tricky to achieve at the moment but as I said we'll be upgrading our editing experience soon and we'll see if we could help with that.
Hi
Are there any news on pictures in the content blocks?
Our users rarely login, so most guides would include a how to log in with images to assist them. Images in content blocks would really make that easier
Louise Stolborg Vuorela,
We hope to have the support for images next spring :)
Hi,
I just created a small article with a one-sentence content block, or so I hoped. When I highlight the text, I don't see the icon you referred to. Do I need to enable content blocks for both the source article (containing the content block) and the target article (where I wish to insert the content block)? Thanks.
Stephen Kairys,
Thanks for a great question. Yes, content blocks have to be enabled on every article you want to use them in (both when it comes to creation and insert).
Thanks, Katarzyna.
Next question: Can I define a content block at one place in an article and use it in another place? I ask b/c I just discovered I have the same content in two different places and would rather not have to remember to update both instances when I need to make an edit. Thanks.
I'm not exactly sure how you define "place". But it is the core functionality of Content Blocks. To create them once and then insert them into multiple articles in different sections, categories and brands :)
Looks like I suffer from the same issues than Andreas Schuster...
When I enter a content block in an article where the HTML has been changed outside Guide to create a Table of Contents (another missing feature of Zendesk Guide) the article is left "defective" - headings are altered and a full part of the article is removed...
Content blocks should be:
This should be similar to transclusion in mediawiki:Transclusion - MediaWiki
HiKai Schmitte,
I'm sorry that you are experiencing issues with content blocks. Am I understanding correctly that when you place a CB inside an article that was customized (to create a table of contents) the article text disappears? Are you using Guide UI or API?
DearKatarzyna Karpinska,
Thanks for the quick reply!
What happens:
Below the picture the article is untouched.
Unfortunately this is internal content, therefore I currently can't quickly add a screenshot.
HiKai Schmitte,
I created a ticket for this issue so that we can discuss the problem more in depth.
HeyKatarzyna Karpinska,
Is there a way to create content blocks of a single word?
Currently we have a lot of articles with different commands, which ideally could be updated every time a new product version goes out. For example:
Ideally we would just update the content block, and it would update all commands in all articles at the same time. It looks like content blocks replace the entire line, which would, in the above example, not save any time compared to manually updating.
Is there a way just to have single words/short phrases update across all articles, or could content blocks please be updated to allow single words/short phrases?
Any chance of making tables available in content blocks? We have a number of tables we'd like to reuse in multiple places, and it would be much easier to manage each in a single place.
Peter Coleman,
Unfortunately, it's not possible to have a content block on an individual string level at the moment. We are aware of this need but at the moment we are focusing on building reusability for articles and for images, so it'll take some time before we'll be able to look into it. I'm definitely noting down your case for future reference.
Joel Sandi,
是的!当然!我们很快就会推出一个更新content block editor which will allow us to add more tools to create content in content blocks. Tables are very high on our list and we hope they'll land sometime later this year.
If you are interested in our roadmap you can always checkthis post.
any news on pictures in content blocks?
Are content blocks available for use in Macros as an alternative to Dynamic Content?
Content blocks can only be used for articles.
Hope this helps!
Pleasesign into leave a comment.