Adding and editing knowledge bases

Creating an additional knowledge base

You can have more than one knowledge base on your account. Content can be synced across knowledge bases, but settings (including theme), libraries (files & snippets etc) and reporting is all kept separate for each knowledge base. 

To add a new knowledge base, click + New Knowledge Base from your dashboard (you can get to the dashboard by clicking on the owl in the top left of the navigation bar or going to Your Account > Knowledge Bases).

If you don't see the option to add a new knowledge base, you probably don't have another knowledge base available on your account. Click on Your Account > Account to upgrade to a plan with more KBs, or contact us for help.


Copy a knowledge base

If you have room on your account, you can create a copy of an existing knowledge base for a variety of purposes: testing/troubleshooting, translating, new versions of software, and as a template.

The following items will NOT copy over:

  • File library and labels (all images and files in the content of the new, copied knowledge base will link to the original source knowledge base's file library)
  • Synonyms
  • Revisions
  • Related Articles
  • Shared content relationships (though the articles/categories will be copied in full, just no longer linked) See Synced content in copied knowledge bases for steps in how to audit and re-create shared content

To copy your knowledge base:

  1. Go to Your Account > Knowledge Bases or click on the little owl in the top left of the navigation bar.
  2. Click on the gear icon in the top right of the knowledge base you want to copy.
    Note: if you do not have a gear icon, you do not have permission to copy a knowledge base. Contact your knowledge base administrator. If you see the gear but don't see the Copy option, your account does not have any available knowledge bases and you'll need to upgrade your subscription to make a copy.
  3. Click Copy.
  4. Give the copy a new name and URL. Leave the option to sync all the content unchecked unless you are sure you want to do this (see below).
  5. Click Copy Project.

You'll see a progress bar while the knowledge base is copied--larger knowledge bases take longer to copy. You'll receive a confirmation message once the copy is complete.

Once a copy exists, it will take longer for these features to become available:

  • All content to be fully indexed for search: usually within 1-2 hours
  • All article PDFs to be generated: these get split into small batches and run over the next 2-24 hours, depending on the size of the knowledge base

So if you view the knowledge base right after the copy finishes and search doesn't seem to be fully work an article PDF doesn't load, don't panic--this is normal!

If you've taken a copy of a knowledge base and would like to delete the original and move its files/update content links to files to the new knowledge base, please contact us to help!

What does "sync all content" do?

Sync all content will create each top-level category in your new knowledge base with the existing top-level category in the source knowledge base. This effectively synchronizes all content changes between the two knowledge bases, so that updating content in one knowledge base (such as creating or deleting articles, editing article content, and so on) will also automatically update the synced knowledge base. See Synced knowledge base for how these syncs work.

In most cases, synchronizing all content is not the option you want to choose when copying a knowledge base. All copies will take a point-in-time copy of the original source knowledge base. If you leave "sync all content" unchecked, the two knowledge bases remain independent moving forward: edits to one will not impact edits to the other. Only check "sync all content" if you want the two knowledge bases to continue to mirror each other's content moving forward permanently.

If you've accidentally synced all content and did not mean to, please contact KnowledgeOwl support to fully unlink the knowledge bases.

Delete a knowledge base

You can delete a knowledge base you are no longer using.

  1. Go to Your Account > Knowledge Bases or click on the little owl in the top left of the navigation bar.
  2. Click on the gear icon in the top right of the knowledge base you want to copy.
  3. Click Delete.
  4. Once you click delete, a pop-up will open asking you if you're sure you want to delete the knowledge base, and list its name. Click OK to delete this knowledge base.

If you accidentally delete a knowledge base, please contact us for help retrieving it.