Overview

Tabs split your Help Center into sections in the top bar. Each tab has its own sidebar, so readers see only the content of the tab they are on. For example, use tabs to separate product guides, developer guides, and training material.

You manage tabs, top-bar links, collections, and articles in the Help Center editor, as described in Managing articles & collections. Sidebar icons and collapsing are in Help Center settings.

How tabs work

• Without tabs: Readers see one sidebar with every collection

• With tabs: Each tab is a top-bar entry with its own sidebar, and each collection belongs to one tab

• Not in a tab: Collections that no tab holds are hidden from readers. The editor lists them under Not in a tab

• Home page: The home page shows the collections of the first tab in the top bar

Tabs hold top-level collections and can also hold articles directly. Sub-collections stay inside their parent collection and move with it. An article sits in one place: in a collection, directly in a tab, or in neither, as a standalone article that readers cannot find in the sidebar.

Set up tabs

Create your first tab

1. Go to Help Centers

2. Click + beside Tabs in the sidebar

3. Under Icon & Label, choose an icon and enter the new tab's name

4. Under Your current collections become, name the tab that will hold your existing collections. The default is Documentation

5. Click 'Create tab'

This creates two tabs: the first holds your existing collections, and the new tab starts empty. Readers see a tab in the top bar once it holds content they can open, such as a published article.

Add more tabs

1. Click + beside Tabs and choose 'New tab'

2. Choose an icon, enter a name, and click 'Create tab'

Move collections into a tab

• Drag: Drag a collection from the sidebar or the article list onto a tab row in the sidebar

• Menu: Open the collection's ••• menu, choose 'Move to tab', and pick a tab. 'New tab…' creates a tab and moves the collection into it

New collections you create while a tab is selected go into that tab.

Edit, reorder, or delete a tab

Open the tab's ••• menu in the sidebar:

• 'Edit tab': Change the name and icon, or use Position in top bar to move the tab left or right

• 'Move up' and 'Move down': Change the tab's place in the top bar. You can also drag tab rows

• 'Delete tab': Remove the tab. Its collections and their articles are kept and move to Not in a tab. Articles placed directly in the tab become standalone articles

Deleting the last tab removes the top bar. Every collection then shows in one sidebar again, including the ones that were not in a tab.

Name tabs in other languages

When your Help Center has more than one language, the New tab and Edit tab popups show a language menu beside Icon & Label. Choose a language and type the tab's name for it.

A language without its own name shows the default language's name to readers. The sidebar marks such tabs with the language code they fall back to. To add languages, see Help Center in multiple languages.

Add articles directly to a tab

Put a few key articles, such as a getting-started guide, directly in a tab instead of in a collection. Readers see them at the top of the tab's sidebar, above its collections, in the order you set.

Create an article in a tab

Open the tab's ••• menu in the sidebar and choose 'New article in tab'. The article opens as a draft at the end of the tab's articles, and readers see it after you publish it.

While a tab is selected, a new article that you create outside a collection also goes into that tab, for example with 'New' → 'New article' in the article list.

Move an article into a tab

• Drag: Drag an article onto a tab row in the sidebar. While an article is open, you can also drop it in the tab's Articles section in the sidebar

• Article menu: For an article that is not in a collection, open its ••• menu, choose 'Move to tab', and pick a tab. In the article editor, use the Tab row of the ••• menu

• From a collection: Open the article's ••• menu, choose 'Move to collection', and then 'No collection'. The article joins the articles of its collection's tab

You cannot place articles directly in the API reference tab.

Reorder or remove tab articles

Drag a tab's articles within its Articles section, or use 'Move up' and 'Move down' in an article's ••• menu.

To take an article out of its tab, open its ••• menu, choose 'Move to tab', and then 'None (hidden from readers)'. The article stays saved as a standalone article. To keep it visible, move it into a collection instead.

What readers see

• Readers see only the published articles they have access to

• Clicking a tab opens the first article in its sidebar, so the first article directly in a tab becomes the tab's landing page

• The collection cards on the home page do not include articles placed directly in a tab

Add links to the top bar

Top-bar links sit next to your tabs and open a page, such as your status page or website. You need at least one tab before you can add a link.

1. Click + beside Tabs and choose 'New link'

2. Under Icon & Name, choose an icon and enter the link's name

3. Enter the URL. Use an address that starts with https:// or mailto:, or a path that starts with /

4. Click 'Create link'

Links to other sites open in a new browser tab. To change a link, open its ••• menu and choose 'Edit link', 'Move up', 'Move down', or 'Delete link'. You can also drag a link among the tabs.

Move the API reference tab

When you publish an API reference, its tab appears in the top bar with your other tabs. Move it like any tab, by dragging or with 'Move up' and 'Move down'. Without other tabs, it sits after Documentation, which holds your collections, and cannot be moved.

To rename the tab, change its icon, or set its start page and guide sections, see Organizing the API reference tab. 'Manage API reference' in its ••• menu opens its settings.

Adjust the sidebar

The Sidebar section of Settings → Help Center → General has two options:

• Sidebar icons: Choose which sidebar rows show their icon: Top level (the default), Nested items, or Both

• Collapse top-level sections: Turn on to show top-level sections collapsed. A section opens when a reader visits a page inside it

Click 'Save changes' to apply them.

Shape the end of each article

Featurebase builds the end of every article from the sidebar, so there is nothing to set up. From top to bottom, readers see:

• Was this helpful?: A rating row, when the article has a reaction survey. See Get quick article feedback with reactions

• Related articles: Up to four other articles from the same sidebar section, without the previous and next articles. The heading names the section, such as More in Appearance, or reads More articles at the top level of the sidebar

• Previous and Next: Cards for the articles directly before and after this one in the sidebar

• Still need help?: A link to your portal's request form, such as Ask the team or Share an idea, when customers can send requests

The previous and next cards follow the tab's sidebar from top to bottom: articles placed directly in the tab first, then each collection in order. The last article of one collection leads to the first article of the next.

To change what readers see, reorder articles and collections in the editor, or move an article to another collection or tab. An article in no collection and no tab is not in the sidebar, so it shows no related articles and no previous or next cards.

FAQs