Get oriented in the app

Here's a quick guide to getting around the KnowledgeOwl app:

Dashboard

When you first log in, you'll be taken to the app dashboard. This dashboard displays:

  1. A tile for each of your knowledge bases in the main pane. You can click anywhere in the tile to open that knowledge base in the app.
  2. A KnowledgeOwl News section. In the News section, we always display our 3 most recent Release Notes, so you can see what updates have been made to KO recently. Clicking any of these links will open a new browser tab to the release note in our support knowledge base.
  3. Below that, we also display 3 recent Blog Posts we think might be useful for you. Clicking any of these links will open a new browser tab to the blog post on our public website.

When we have critical announcements such as planned site outages, you'll see an Announcements section at the very top of the News panel:

Top navigation

On every page in the app, you'll see the same navigation bar across the top.

In our support documentation, instructions to open a top navigation menu will display the top navigation menu title followed by an arrow and the item you'll select. So a document referencing Settings > Basic is telling you to open the Settings menu in the top navigation and to select the "Basic" option from that menu.

Here are some quick highlights of what each top navigation option contains, from left to right:

  • Linus owl icon: this will take you back to the app dashboard.
  • Knowledge base name dropdown: If you have multiple knowledge bases, you can use this dropdown to select a different knowledge base.
  • Knowledge Base menu: This menu contains most of the content creation and auditing menu options: Articles, Manage, Home Page, Glossary, Contact Form, Exports, and Import. These are the menu items most content authors need most often: Articles and Manage.
  • Tools menu: This menu is a recent addition to our top navigation. It contains tools you can use to optimize your knowledge base. Currently this includes one tool:
    • the Broken link checker & report: creates a CSV export identifying internal and external links that throw HTTP status codes above the 200-level
  • Library menu: This menu contains all the libraries where we store itemsthat are used or referenced by your content. Generally you'd only access these libraries if you needed to create, edit/update, or delete some of these objects. These libraries include:
    • the File Library: where all images, videos, and files you upload to KnowledgeOwl are stored
    • the File Labels Library: where we store all the file labels you've added to files in the File Library
    • the Snippets Library: where you can create reusable code or text snippets to add to content or other areas
    • the Synonyms Library: used for identifying synonyms that search should use
    • the Tags Library: for all tags you've added to articles/categories
  • Settings menu: This menu contains various features or settings that you may need to configure. Generally these are set once initially and might be occasionally updated thereafter.
  • Reporting menu: This menu contains KnowledgeOwl's reporting functionality for the knowledge base overall (Reporting Dashboard), the Contact Form, and the Contextual Help Widget. It's also where you'll view, approve, and delete Comments.
  • View KB: You can select this option to view your knowledge base as it appears to readers, in a new tab.
  • Help: This option will open our Contextual Help Widget, powered by our support knowledge base. It will recommend help materials for the page you're currently viewing in the app, allow you to search our entire support knowledge base, and allow you to contact our support team. If you'd like to set up something similar from your own knowledge base, see Contextual Help Widget (2.0).
  • Your Accountmenu: This menu contains information for anything that applies to your account overall rather than an individual knowledge base. The options you'll see here will depend on your permissions, but it can include:
    • Account: where you can see and update your billing/subscription information.
    • Knowledge Bases: directs you back to the app dashboard, just like the Linus icon in the upper left.
    • Change Password: lets you update the password you use to log in to app.knowledgeowl.com
    • Authors: opens the Authors management page
    • Readers: opens the Readers management page
    • API: displays and lets you create, edit/update, and delete API keys for your account
    • Webhooks: lets you create, configure, and delete webhooks for integrations with other software
    • Logout: logs you out