Writing your own help articles
The articles you're reading in this help centre are written by Schoolwati. But your institution can also write its own — school-specific guides for things like "How do we register for the annual day" or "Where to find the lunch menu". This article shows how.
Who can write articles
Anyone with the kb:author permission. Typically the school's docs team or a couple of admins.
Where to find the editor
From the menu: Communication → Help Articles. You'll see a list with status badges (Draft / Published / Archived).
Creating an article
- Click + New Article.
- The editor opens with two panes — your markdown on the left, the live preview on the right.
- Fill in:
- Title — clear and action-oriented ("How to download your child's report card"). - Slug — auto-derived from the title. Locks after first save. - Category — pick one. - Summary — one sentence shown on the help-centre listing. - Body — written in markdown. The preview updates as you type.
- Click Save to draft.
Markdown supported
Headings (# H1 through ###### H6), bold (bold), italic (italic), inline code, code blocks, ordered and unordered lists, links, tables.
To link to another article use /help/<slug> — the link works on the public help page and in the chatbot.
Draft and publish
- Draft — invisible to everyone except authors.
- Published — visible to the audience the article is scoped to.
- Archived — kept but hidden.
You need the kb:publish permission separately from kb:author — so writers can iterate without publishing by mistake.
Versions
Every time you edit a published article, a new version is recorded. The version-history panel shows who edited it and when. You can roll back to a previous version with one click.
Who sees your articles
- Your school's articles are visible only to your school's users.
- Schoolwati's platform-wide articles are visible to everyone.
- The help centre browser shows both lists merged for your users.
Writing tips
- Lead with the answer. Parents skim — the first sentence should tell them what the article does.
- Use H2 headings to break up sections. Walls of text hide the answer.
- Add a "Related articles" section at the end with
/help/<slug>links. - Don't paste screenshots — they get stale. Describe the navigation in text ("Click Setup → Branches").