The Guides widget appears on the Knowledge Base Dashboard page template in communities that use the KB Guides feature. The KB Guides feature also enables you to turn on or off guide navigation (table of contents) on the Knowledge Base Article template. To learn more about KB Guides, refer to About KB Guides.

Type

The KB Guides feature enables you to organize your content either by Guides or by Manually-sorted Articles.

• Guides: Create a hierarchical structure for listing and ordering articles into Guides and Chapters to enhance organization, improve navigation, and provide a more structured learning experience for users.
• Manually-sorted Articles: Manually sort knowledge base articles on the KB board in Manage Content > Guides by dragging and dropping them into the desired order. This enables members to view and navigate the content in the sequence you prefer.

Layout

If you choose Guides for the Type, you can select from the following Layout options:

• List
  
• Card
  

If you choose Manually-sorted Articles for the Type, you can select from the following Layout options:

• Detailed list
  
• List
  
• Card
   

Configuration options

List style

The available List style options for Detailed list and List include:

• Space: Uses whitespace to create space between items.
• Divide: Adds a horizontal line to divide items.
• Border: Creates a border that separates items into individual boxes.

Card size and text alignment

If you select Card as the Layout type, you can set the Card size (Small, Medium, or Large) and the Card text alignment.

Widget title

The Widget title sets the title that appears at the top of the widget. If the Visible only to screen readers toggle is enabled, the title remains hidden to most visitors; however, the title information is still relayed to visitors using screen readers.

Number of items

Use the slider to indicate how many articles or guides (up to 20) can be displayed on the widget.

List item/card elements

 
Elements are additional pieces of information that can be displayed along with each item in the widget. The list of available elements changes depending on which layout you've selected.

Guides Layout options

• Description: Description of the KB Guide defined in Manage Content > Guides for the knowledge base
• Avatar: (Card only) Knowledge Base content type avatar or avatar defined in site structure

Manually-sorted Articles Layout options

• Author: Username of the author of the article
• Body preview/teaser: (Detailed list and Card) Preview text for the article
• Image preview: (Detailed list only) A preview of any image(s) in the article
• Centered card content: (Card only) Article content is centered on the card
• Media preview: (Card only) Preview of any media included in the article
• Place: (Detailed list and Card) Board where the article lives
• Reply count: (Detailed list and Card) Total number of replies to the article
• Tags: (Detailed list and Card) Any tag(s) associated with the article
• Timestamp: Time and date the article was published
• Unread message indicator: (Detailed list only) Total number of unread posts or comments on the article (for example, "1 unread").
• View count: (Detailed list and Card) Total number of views the article has received
• Like count: (Detailed list and Card) Total number of likes the article has received
• Author rank: (Detailed list and Card) Rank of the author of the article

Detailed list and List layouts have an additional Lead with drop-down menu. It enables you to choose to display the item author's Avatar, discussion style Icon, or None along with the item in the widget.

Max lines of description text

The Max lines of description text slider gives you control over how many lines of text from the post are displayed along with the post in the widget. After the set number of lines, an ellipsis (...) is used.

More options

Additional options are available at the bottom of the Edit Widget panel.

• Hide if empty: Hides the widget if there are no articles or guides to be displayed.
• Include “More Guides” link: Adds a link to the bottom of the widget to enable visitors to display additional items once the Number of items has been reached.
• Optimize page-load time: Uses lazy loading to load images as the member scrolls down the page.

Configuring the Knowledge Base Article content widget

In communities that use the KB Guides feature, the Knowledge Base Article widget on Knowledge Base Article templates can be configured to show the guide navigation.

To configure the Knowledge Base Article widget for KB Guides:

1. In Designer, go to the Knowledge Base Article template where you want to adjust the widget.
2. Locate the Knowledge Base Article widget and select Settings (gear icon).
3. In the Edit Widget panel, below Guides, turn on or off Show guide navigation.
   

With Show guide navigation on, guides appear on the article page within the widget.

With Show guide navigation off, the widget appears as though you do not have the KB Guides feature enabled and does not show a table of contents.