Turn on Required Reading

To turn on Required Reading, you'll need to make several changes. The steps vary depending on when your knowledge base was created. Follow the Standard setup instructions unless:

• Your knowledge base was created before 5 October 2023.
• Your knowledge base was created by copying a knowledge base that was created before 5 October 2023.

If either of those conditions is true, follow the instructions for Older knowledge base setup.

Standard setup

Follow these instructions to set up Required Reading in your knowledge base:

1. Go to KB settings > Required reading. The Required Reading Options page opens.
2. Check the Required Reading box to Enable Required Reading.
3. Save your changes.
4. Optional: Use Customize Text to update any of the wording that appears in the Required Reading sections, pages, or lists to better fit your audience.
5. Optional: Add the Required Reading article list to your homepage or another page in your knowledge base for quick access.
6. Optional: Add a URL redirect category or article to your table of contents to help your readers jump quickly to the Required Reading page.
7. Optional: Review the placement of the Required Reading flag at the top of articles and the acknowledgements section near the bottom. If you're happy with the placement, no changes are needed. If you want to move them around a bit, refer to Add the Required Reading flag to your article template and Add the Acknowledgements section to your article template for inspiration.

Once you're done with your setup, follow the Add or remove required articles instructions to start marking articles as required and tracking your readers' acknowledgements!

Older knowledge base setup

Follow these instructions if your knowledge base was created before 5 October 2023 or was created by copying a knowledge base created before that date:

1. Update Customize > Style (HTML & CSS) > Custom HTML > Article to include the Required Reading flag merge code. Refer to Add the Required Reading flag to your article template for more detailed instructions.
   1. Optional: If your knowledge base uses the Right Column layout, refer to Add the Required Reading flag to your Right Column template instructions instead.
2. Update Customize > Style (HTML & CSS) > Custom HTML > Article to include the Required Reading acknowledgement merge code. Refer to Add the Acknowledgements section to your article template for more detailed instructions.
3. In KB settings > Required reading, check the box to Enable Required Reading and Save.
4. Optional: Use Customize Text to update any of the wording that appears in the Required Reading sections, pages, or lists to better fit your audience.
5. Optional: Add the Required Reading article list to your homepage or another page in your knowledge base for quick access.
6. Optional: Add a URL redirect category or article to your table of contents to help your readers jump quickly to the Required Reading page.

Once you're done with your setup, follow the Add or remove required articles instructions to start marking articles as required and tracking your readers' acknowledgements!