KnowSystem is a universal knowledge management tool that might be configured to any business goal and any set of Odoo apps: helpdesk, marketing, IT, HR, project management, and so on. Typical use cases are:

Helpdesk - case solution might be recorded in KnowSystem for repeated usage by co-workers and self-service by clients.

Sales and CRM - salesperson helper to find information about products, offers, or frequently asked customer questions.

Project management - to keep and easily retrieve knowledge of existing solutions, tools, hints, and experiments.

HR - to prepare instructions, guidelines, learning tours and training, and any codified knowledge of routine in your company.

Marketing - to organize Odoo's online library of product use cases, expert knowledge, and well-structured documentation.

Legal issues - systematize your policies, contract, and approval management, keep the full classifier of trademarks or licenses Informational technologies, and share easy-reached manuals and configuration guidelines.

The app provides:

Here you can find all terms and add-ons icons that were used throughout all documentation.

Article - a piece of simple or styled text, that contains some sort of knowledge, distinguished by a title, preview text, section, tags, etc.

Article template - a ready sample of an article, that you can edit to create a new one preserving formatting.

Article revision - a version of an article, kept in history and can be restored.

KnowSystem section - articles' storage, that provides an opportunity to give access to user groups for all contained articles. Supports hierarchy and therefore can have a parent section and subsections.

KnowSystem tag - is a mark on an article, that helps to navigate and give access to articles to particular portal users.

Learning tour - a set of articles united by a common topic, with the learning purpose.

Documentation category () - a combination of documentation sections, that are similar in a way, for a structured layout.

Documentation section () - a set of articles, referring to the same topic and giving a full perspective of it.

Documentation version () - a product or system version, that documentation describes.

Mass action - an action that can be applied to several articles at once.

Article type () - an organizing KMS instrument.

Article custom field () - an extra field, that you can add to an article, that may contain different types of information of your choice.

Article attachment - a document that is assigned to an article.

Backend editor - an editor that supports simple templates and basic editing options to make it possible to update an email or a message body with an article's text.

Website editor () - an editor, with various advanced templates, perfect for displaying on a website.

HTML editor - a standard Odoo editor that supports standard styles and built-in commands.

Text editor - an editor that allows the creation of texts without styles.

Code editor - an HTML editor, for advanced users, who prefer to write code. An article, written in any editor (except for the Text editor), can be seen and edited in the code editor.

Internal user - a full-rights user linked to an employee.

Portal user - a user that is linked to a partner and has only portal accesses.

Public user - website visitor.

Single View Interface & Article interaction for internal users - the functional interface that internal users see, from which you can add and edit sections, tags, types (), tours, and apply mass actions to one or several articles at once.

KMS (Knowledge Base System) navigation for portal/public users () - the interface on a website, that portal and public users see, can look differently for different portal users based on the articles, sections, tags, and types that they have access to.

Documentation categories & documentation navigation for all users () - the documentation interface, that you see on a website, can look different for various users. If a person doesn't have rights to one or several articles of the documentation you can choose: not to show this article, show a warning that there is an article that you don't have access to or neglect access rights, and show the article anyway.

The innovative single-view interface is implemented in the knowledge base system. This allows you to manage articles, and see the preview from the same interface, without opening the article. When you open the app and click on an article, you see that your interface is divided into three parts: the main part with articles in the middle and two functional parts with sets of control elements on the sides of it.

The left navigation panel lets you sort articles according to various criteria, select all found articles, and manage sections, tags, types (), and learning tours.

You can sort articles by various criteria. By default, the available options are views, likes(difference between likes and dislikes), title, create date, write date, section, and author.

Simultaneously, you can add custom sorting options that you need. For that:

1. In the KnowSystem app, go to Configuration > Configuration

2. Scroll to the section 'Settings'

3. Find 'Custom and Default Sorting'

4. Click 'Add a line'

5. Click 'New'

6. Choose the field, that will be considered for sorting

7. Type the sorting name

8. Choose the sorting order (ascending or descending)

9. Click 'Save&Close'.

In the configuration, you can also turn on the default backend sorting, i.e. the one that will be applied as a user opens KnowSystem in the backend. You can choose from the default options or the custom ones that you have created. For that, the fields 'Default Backend Sorting By', and 'Sorting Option', or 'Custom Sorting Option' were introduced.

Even after choosing the default sorting option, you can always change the sorting criterion manually. To sort articles manually:

1. Open KnowSystem

2. Choose the sorting criterion

If you click on the 'Arrow' icon on the right side of the sorting criteria, then the sorting will be reversed.

You can search articles with the help of the search bar at the right top of the page. There are various search options available. In particular, you can search for matches in:

1. Contents (in headline and articles' body)

2. Titles only

2. Type ()

3. Author

4. Section

5. Tag

6. Documentation sections ()

If you have the add-on KnowSystem: Multi Languages and the option 'Multilingual Search' is turned on, then the search for the articles is done in all installed languages. Otherwise, the search is done in the current user language (see KnowSystem: Multi Languages).

You can filter articles by sections, tags, and types (). Find a particular section, tag, or type (​) quickly with the help of the section, tag, and type (​) search bars. To see all articles of one or several sections put a tick in the box by it. As sections and tags have a hierarchy: if you choose a parent section or a parent tag, you will see its subsections and subtags as well. You can do the same with tags and types () and choose different variations of them. You can edit sections, tags, and types (), and work with tours or launch them right from the same interface, by clicking on them with the right side of your mouse. Read more in 'Managing sections', 'Managing tags', 'Managing types' 'Learning tours'.

Click on a checkbox in the top right corner of an article to choose it. If you click on the 'Select all found' button, you will see the short auto preview of all these articles and possible Mass actions in the right navigation panel of the interface.

The main part shows the articles list, where you can see their titles, tags, date of creation, last edit, author's photo, and preview text. If an article has no preview text, it will be generated automatically as the plain text extracted from the beginning of an article. It might contain special symbols since the preview would represent an abstract of pure HTML.

To write a preview text:

1. Start creating or editing an article.

2. Find the field preview text (first field in the tab 'Content') and write your preview.

For preview text, you can use pure HTML tags. In particular, you can add pictures (however, be cautious: advanced HTML might spoil the preview appearance).

Add an article to favorites or remove it from favorites by clicking on a star in the right bottom corner. () Publish or unpublish an article by clicking on the earth icon. Put a like or a dislike to an article - you can always change it later by clicking on the green button.

Manage activities right from an article's card, for example, plan a revision of an article.

If an article is used in a documentation section (), then it is marked by a paperclip icon on the kanban card.

Select articles by ticking a box on the top right corner (you can also add all found articles by applying 'Select all' in the left navigation panel). When you switch between filters or apply a new search, the selection will not be cleared and that is very convenient when you want to open, print, or do another action on various articles at once.

The right navigation panel, the one to the right side, appears as you add any article to the selection.

As you choose articles by clicking on the box in the top right corner of an article, the right navigation panel appears. There you will see the list of all chosen articles. Click on an article's title to remove it from the list. Remove all articles by clicking on the icon () on the right side of 'Selected articles'.

On the right navigation panel, you can update selected articles in a batch with the help of available mass actions. You can select the mass actions to show only the ones that you need. To add a mass action:

1. Open the Knowsystem app and go to Configuration 

2. Find the section 'Mass actions' 

3. Click 'Add a line' 

4. Choose mass actions by ticking the box by the action 

5. Click 'Select' 

6. Click 'Save' 

After saving the changes in settings, the list of mass actions in the right navigation panel will be updated. 

To add the mass action 'Export', in Configuration, in the section Mass Actions, tick the option 'Export'. Keep in mind, that the additional global export right is required for a user to be able to export articles.

The available mass actions include:

On the form of each mass action, both newly added and existing ones, it is possible to choose the security groups that will be able to see and perform it. For that, just click on the mass action in the list of mass actions in configurations, then, go to the tab 'Security', click 'Add a line' and choose the group names.

Keep in mind, that some mass actions have preset security groups. So, make sure, that the users that should see those mass actions are included in those groups, or change the mass actions security settings.

In addition to the available actions, you can also prepare custom mass actions. Batch actions for articles are based on Odoo Server Actions. It means that you may add custom mass editing operations.

To create a new mass action:

1. Go to configuration and find the section 'Mass Actions'

2. Click 'Add a line'

3. Click 'New'

4. Type the name of the action

5. Choose the action type (according to the action, the list of further configurations will change)

6. Specify what should be done

7. Click 'Save&Close'

8. Click 'Save'

After that, it will appear in the list of available mass actions, from where it can be added to the right navigation panel. Just choose the articles and click on the action, to update them.

For example, let's create a mass action 'Preview Summary'. As the action type choose 'Update the Record'. After that, choose the field, which will be updated - 'Preview Summary'. And, in the line on the right side, write what you would like to use as the preview text, in our case 'Here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions'. Then, save the action. 

As we open the single view interface, in the right navigation panel we can find the new action 'Preview Summary'. Choose articles to apply the action. After that, on each selected article the value of the 'Preview text' field will be updated.

KnowSystem section is a supreme KMS object, an articles' storage, which is used for convenient navigation over articles and managing access to internal user groups. Each article should have a single linked section. Sections serve to fulfill the following tasks: 

1. To unite articles (you can add only one section to an article)

2. To restrict rights to articles (see. Access rights)

3. To navigate through articles and find them quickly, by putting a tick for the required section

Sections have a hierarchy. You can set a parent section and some subsections while editing or creating a section. You can also change the hierarchy by Drag&Drop. If a user group has access to the parent section, it would have access to all included sections (see. Access rights). It is also possible to print all available articles by a section (see KnowSystem in use).

If you have a lot of sections and sub-sections, then you may find it difficult to navigate through them and select the ones you need quickly. Thus, for extra convenience, the special search bar above the sections list was introduced. Just start typing the word and click 'Enter' or the search button and the matching results will be shown and marked red. Click the button 'Reset' on the right side of the search bar to empty the search.

If a child section is selected (both in the backend and on the website ()), its parents will be hierarchically highlighted by the border of dots around the name of the element. Thus, it is always clear that some choice has been made somewhere (even if the structure itself is closed).

You can create and edit sections right from the single view interface and the separate menu Configuration > Sections.

To add a new section through the single-view interface click '...add' and write the title. Right-click on a section to see all available actions:

1. Create (click to start creating a new section)

2. Rename (click to change the section's name)

3. Edit (click to edit a section)

4. Print (click to print all articles in a section and its subsections if any)

5. Archive (click to archive a section, its articles will remain active)

How to edit sections:

1. In the KnowSystem menu right click on a section, then choose 'Edit', or go to Configurations > Sections, choose the section, and click 'Edit'. 

2. Set the hierarchy by choosing the parent and sub-sections

3. Click the tab 'Restrict access' to set the groups of people who will be able to see the section and articles in it. Access to the parent section allows reading all articles in it and in its' sub-sections (see. Access rights)

4. In the tab 'Website and Portal' (), tick the option 'Show on Website' and choose the website, where the section should be published. This way public and portal users will be able to see and select the section on the left side from the articles list

5. Optionally, choose the website (​​) to show your section on, if you don't choose any and you have a tick 'Show tag on Website', it will be shown on all your sites

6. Optionally, add the description to the section

7. Click 'Save&Close'.

You can assign/change a section of an article in the field 'Section' as you create, or edit an article. You can also quickly change the section of all selected articles by dragging and dropping them to the required section.

KnowSystem tag is a critical KMS tool. A tag is a colorful mark on an article, that attracts attention. One article can have multiple tags. Tags serve for: 

1. Quick search and easy navigation

2. Attaching tags to partners, to give access to articles with a certain tag (see. Access rights)

3. Creating a clear, understandable knowledge base

4. Filter articles, for quick access all over Odoo

Tags also have a hierarchy. If you put a tick for the parent tag, you will see the articles from all tags that it includes. You can also print all available articles by tag.

If you have a lot of tags and sub-tags, then you may find it difficult to navigate through them and select the ones you need quickly. Thus, for extra convenience, the special search bar above the tags list was introduced. Just start typing the word and click 'Enter' or the search button and the matching results will be shown and marked red. Click the button 'Reset' on the right side of the search bar to empty the search.

If a child tag is selected (both in the backend and on the website ()), its parents will be hierarchically highlighted by the border of dots around the name of the element. Thus, it is always clear that some choice has been made somewhere (even if the structure itself is closed).

You can create and edit tags right from the single view interface and the separate menu Configuration > Tags.

To add a tag through the single-view interface click '...add' and write the title. Click on a tag with the right button of your mouse to see all available actions:

1. Create (click to start creating a new tag)

2. Rename (click to change the tag name)

3. Edit (click to edit a tag)

4. Print (click to print all articles in a tag and its subtags if any)

5. Archive (click to archive a tag; its articles will remain active)

How to edit tags:

1. In the KnowSystem menu right click on a tag, then choose 'Edit' or go to Configurations > Tags, choose a required record and click 'Edit'. 

2. Set the hierarchy by choosing a parent tag

3. In the tag 'Applied to', you can put a tick in the box 'Apply to all documents', then your tag would appear in all documents: sales orders, contacts, etc. Click 'Add a line' to add filters, to show the tag only to documents that match all the criteria.

4. Click 'Save&New' to add more filters to another model, otherwise 'Save&Close' 

5. In the tab 'Website and Portal' (), put a tick in the box 'Show on Website' (​), if you want to have these tags on the website. Choose allowed partners that will be able to see articles with these tags. Access to the parent tag allows reading all articles with it and with its' sub-tags (see. Access rights)

6. Optionally, choose the website (​) to show your tags on, if you don't choose any and you have a tick 'Show tag on Website', it will be shown on all your sites

7. Optionally, add the description to the tag

8. Click 'Save&Close'.

You can add/change tags of an article in the field 'Tags' as you create, or edit an article. You can also quickly add a tag to all selected articles by dragging and dropping them to the required tag.

Article types is an organizing instrument introduced by an optional add-on KnowSystem: Custom fields (). Types serve to fulfill the following tasks: 

1. To show properties only for suitable types. Thus, the set of attributes for 'user guidelines' and 'technical specifications' might be different (see. KnowSystem: Custom fields)

2. To organize articles and navigate through articles (an article may have only one type)

Types also support hierarchy. You can set parent types and subtypes while editing or creating a section or by Drag&Drop.

If you have a lot of types and sub-types, then you may find it difficult to navigate through them and select the ones you need quickly. Thus, for extra convenience, the special search bar above the types list was introduced. Just start typing the word and click 'Enter' or the search button and the matching results will be shown and marked red. Click the button 'Reset' on the right side of the search bar to empty the search.

If a child type is selected (both in the backend and on the website (​)), its parents will be hierarchically highlighted by the border of dots around the name of the element. Thus, it is always clear that some choice has been made somewhere (even if the structure itself is closed).

Create and edit types right from the single view interface or from the separate menu in Configuration > Types.

To add a type through the single-view interface click '...add' and write the title or click on a type with the right side of the mouse to see all available actions:

1. Create (click to start creating a new type)

2. Rename (click to change type's name)

3. Edit (click to edit a type)

4. Archive (click to archive a type, its articles will remain active)

5. Print (click to generate a pdf file with all articles in a type and its subtypes)

To edit types:

1. In the KnowSystem menu click on a type with the right side of the mouse, then choose 'Edit', or go to Configurations > Article types, choose the section, and click 'Edit'. 

2. Optionally, change the title

3. Choose a parent type

4. If you want the type to be visible on your site, tick the box 'Show on Website' ()

5. If you have several sites, you can choose one to show the type, or leave the field 'Website' () empty to show on all sites

6. Click 'Save&Close'.

You can assign/change a type of an article in the field 'Type' as you create, or edit an article. You can also quickly change the type of all selected articles by drag&dropping them to the required type.

Organizing a tour is a good way to combine the articles that a person needs to reach a specific goal. For example, you can organize a tour for newcomers, so they can learn all the nuances of working in your company. Learning tours allow you to:

1. Combine articles in a particular order with the possibility to move through them with the help of extra buttons '<Back' and '>Forward'

2. Restrict access to tours to particular user groups

3. Track users' progress and invite particular users to complete a tour

4. Add a description page before the articles.

You can manage learning tours in two interfaces: in the single view interface and in the separate menu Configuration > Tours. 

To organize articles in learning tours, make sure, that the option 'Learning tours' is enabled in KnowSystem configurations.

How to add a learning tour:

1. Start creating a tour through a single view interface by clicking on '...add', or by going to Configuration > Tours and clicking 'New'

2. In the single-view interface choose all the articles that you need by ticking the box in the top right corner of an article. In the left navigation panel choose the mass actions 'Add to tour'

3. Choose an existing tour and click 'Save&Close'

4. Click 'Add a line' to add some more articles to your tour. Choose an article and click 'Save&New' to add one more, or 'Save&Close' if you have already added the ones you need

5. Click on the tab 'Restrict access' to choose groups of users that will have access to the tour, if you leave the field empty, all internal users will see the tour. If you choose one group, then only this group will be able to start the tour

6. Click on the tab 'Description' to add some words about the tour. The page with this description would be the first one your users see as they open the tour

7. Drag&drop to change the sequence of the articles, and press the bin on the right side of an article to delete it from this tour.

You can also add all selected articles to the tour simply by dragging and dropping them to the required tour. And, you can add articles to the tour manually one by one by clicking on the button 'Add a line' as you create or edit a tour.

You can always edit your tours, either by clicking on them with the right side of the mouse or by going to Configuration > Tours.

In the editing mode you can also see the user's progress, just click on the tab 'Users Progress'. Here you can also invite separate users to complete the tour by clicking 'Add a line' and choosing a user.

To begin a tour. Open the KnowSystem single view interface, find tours in the left navigation panel, and click on a required one.

If a user doesn't have access rights to one or several articles in the tour, then he or she will not see those articles in the tour. Thus the same tour may look different for different users.

To start a learning tour:

1. Open a tour from the KnowSystem app

2. Click 'Start a tour' to start the tour from the beginning, or 'Continue' to start from the same place, where you stopped

3. Move through the articles. When you return to the previous article you do not lose your progress. You can close a tour and continue it again later. Then, you will start from the same place, where you stopped

4. At the end of a tour, you see a congratulatory alert 'Good job! The tour is over.'

Two user groups can create an article. Those are KnowSystem Admin and KnowSystem Editor.

To create an article:

1. Open the KnowSystem app

2. Click 'New'

3. Introduce the title and preview text

4. Optionally add the published title ( the title, that will be visible on the website)

5. Add tags, sections, type ()

6. In the tab 'Website', tick the box 'Show on Website' and choose the website to show the article on ( the article will not be visible on the site until you publish it. If you leave the field empty, then the article will be seen on all your websites after publishing)

7. Optionally, tick the box 'Website Pinned', to pin the article at the top of the articles list on the website ().

6. Optionally, attach files in the tab 'Attachments'

7. Optionally, set the access rights in the tab 'Access Rights'

8. Now you can fill the body of the article. For that, in the tab 'Content' choose one of the editors, then click 'Edit'

9. When you are ready, click 'Save'.

After choosing a certain editor and writing an article, the same editor should be chosen to edit it. This way, you will be able to avoid any inconsistencies or data loss, while some editors may adapt the styles/blocks of the articles.

An article may have two titles, an article's title, and a published title. If an article has a published title, then it will be used in:

1. Pdf's name. If you download a single article, that has a published title, the title will be used as the file's name.

2. Article name in pdfs. If an article has a published title, then it will be used in generated pdf instead of the article's title.

3. Article title on portal/website (). If an article has a published title, then this title will be shown on the portal/website both in the list of articles and as you open a particular article instead of the article's title.

4. Article header in documentation navigation + content (). If an article has a published title, then it will be used as the article's headers and in the navigation list instead of the article's title. 

The article's title is the title, which is used in the backend. If an article doesn't have a published title, then the article's title will be used in all the cases. 

You can also create an article from a template, to avoid losing time on adjusting blocks and styles (see Creating an article from a template).

There are several ways to edit an article. You can do that in the Backend builder, Website builder (), HTML editor, Text Editor, and Raw Code Editor. It is up to you which one to choose, according to your needs and preferences.

The backend builder is an editor that you see when you create or edit an article internally. It provides you with a set of simple and safe-for-the-backend blocks, which are compatible with printing and messaging layouts. There are three types of blocks: text blocks, special blocks, and image blocks. Each block has a grey intro box, where you see what it looks like.

Drag and drop building blocks to update an article's body. As you save the article the styles change to the ones that are safe for reading in the backend, printing, and adding to messages.

In the backend builder, you can choose text styles, make text bold, italic, or underlined, change font size, remove font style, add ordered and unordered lists, add checklists, align paragraphs, add tables, links, pictures, switch to the code view, and undo and redo actions.

You can also switch to the raw code view to update articles' HTML, by clicking on the button 'Edit source code' as you open an article.

The website builder is introduced by an optional KnowSystem add-on KnowSystem: Website and Portal (). It allows you to apply advanced styles and complex widgets by using Odoo's built-in website editor to make website-friendly articles. Numerous snippets, animations, style templates, and options will help you to prepare nice-looking portal knowledge pages. Avoid using that for internal or printing purposes: advanced styles often contradict printing and composer layouts.

How to edit an article in the website builder:

1. Open the article you want to edit

2. Choose the website builder, or set it as a default one and click 'Edit', then you will be redirected to the website page in the editing mode

3. Add blocks, choose various styles, and write an article

4. Click 'Save'

Another way to edit an article with the help of the website builder is to open the article on the website and click 'Edit' in the top right corner.

You can also start creating an article, write the title, text, add tags, a section, a type (), and choose the website to show the article on, click 'Save', and fill the article's body in the website builder, the same way as in 'How to create an article'. If you entered the published title in the backend builder, then, as you open the article through the website builder – you will see the published title. Even if the article is not published.

It is also possible, to create an article right from the website. For that, open the KnowSystem page in the editing mode, click the button 'New' in the top right corner, and choose the option 'Article'. In the pop-up window, you will be able to specify the details of the article: its backend and published title, section, tags, and preview summary. As you click 'Save', you will be redirected to the article's website page in the editing mode and will be able to add blocks, choose various styles, and write an article.

The backend builder and website builder have different purposes. Choose the backend builder, if you want to create articles for internal use, that you will be able to print and refer to when sending an email or a message. Choose the website builder, if you want to publish your articles on a website, share, or give access to some partners. In the website builder, the choice of blocks and styles is wider. You can also animate icons and some boxes to catch the reader's attention. It is possible to change the font's color and its background color.

The set of available blocks depends on the modules and themes installed in your Odoo system. For writing articles all the same blocks are available as when you create a website page. For example, Title, Text, Numbers, Picture, Text - Image, Image - Text, Columns, Accordion, Alert, etc.

There are a lot of tools to make your articles stand out by customizing building blocks. Try various styles, fonts, and font colors. Use the command '/' to call the additional instruments panel.

Code editor allows you to apply any simple and advanced HTML styles but requires certain technical knowledge. Articles that are written with the help of simple HTML might be compatible with printing and messaging layouts. Switch to raw code from the backend builder from time to time by clicking on the button 'Edit Source Code'.

You can switch to the raw code view to update articles' HTML regardless of the editor in which the article was written. The exception is the Text Editor, while the articles written in it represent simple text and have no code, that could be edited.

The editing of the raw code is done in the backend, even if the article was written in the Website Editor.

Creating an article from a template is a fast and convenient way to create new articles while keeping uniform styles. You can prepare new knowledge templates or save any existing article as a template. 

You can use any article as a template and use it for further articles. For that, open any article, find the gear icon above, choose 'Make template', write the reference, and change it the way you want.

You can also create a template in the configuration menu. To create a template, open the KnowSystem app, go to Configuration > Templates, click 'New', write a reference title, fill in the main body, and click 'Save'.

To create an article from a template:

1. Open the KnowSystem app

2. Click 'Create from template'

3. Choose a template

4. Click 'Create'

5. After that, the body of an article will be filled with the values of a template

6. Continue creating an article (see How to create an article).

As you open an article, you see the fields with the details of the article, various tabs, and the article body. You can change the details of the article, such as the title or preview text, right away. To change the article's body, click the 'Edit' button by the related editor. Here, from the article's page, as in the KnowSystem menu, you can create a new article from scratch and based on a template using the buttons in the top right corner. 

You can interact with an article through the tabs above its' body. As you save an article for the first time three more tabs are added. Those are the 'Discussion', 'Revisions', and 'Info' tabs.

As you open the 'Discussion' tab, you see the article's message thread. Any internal user that has access to the article can take part in discussing it. Here you can see, the notifications stating that the article was revised and other people's comments. Click 'Send message' to open the message typing field, add smiles, attach files, or open the message wizard to change the text style. 

You can also add a Log note or schedule an activity connected with an article, e.g. to revise it. All followers might receive notifications about revisions of an article (see Article revision and history of changes). Click 'Follow' to become a follower of the article, or unfollow, if it is not relevant. You can add followers, by clicking on a 'Person' icon, and selecting the recipients of the invitation.

Above the messages thread, you will find the links to share an article with internal or public/portal users. Keep in mind, that a user should have access to the article to see it, or it should be published.

Simultaneously, it is possible to share an article with any user neglecting access rights. For that, click on the button 'Share with Token'. The link with a special token would be generated. Copy the link and send it to a user. Anyone with the link will be able to see the article even if it is not published (​​). 

Between the links and the messages thread, you will find three icons. Click on the 'Star' sign, to add the article to your favorites, and put a like or dislike to the article. You can always change your mind and put a like instead of dislike or vice versa. The chosen icon will be grey, to change the answer click on the green one.

Click on the gear icon above to make a template, save it as PDF, duplicate, archive, or delete the article.

As you open the 'Revisions' tab, you see the list of editions with information about the date and the person who changed the article. You can click on any revision in the list, to see how the article used to look. If you like another variant more or the article was spoiled, you can click 'Restore this revision' and confirm your choice in the pop-up window to back up an article. Keep in mind, that this action will be written as a new revision and you still will be able to return to any previous state of the article (see Article revision and history of changes). 

As you click on the 'Info' button, you see all the available information about the article, including: 

1. The list of contributors who took part in creating and revising the article

2. The field 'Active till', where you can set the date after which an article will be auto-archived. With the help of the field, you can archive no longer relevant articles automatically. The articles are archived with the help of the scheduled job '[KnowSystem] Automatically archive articles'

3. The field 'Route Token' allows changing the 'Alternative Website URL' to share an article. By default, the route token is defined as a long set of characters, but you have the option to manually edit or remove it completely. When the 'Route Token' field is not empty, the final link will be generated in the 'Discussion' tab under the 'Alternative Website URL' field. It is important to take into consideration that any changes made to the 'Route Token' field will make the old link inaccessible, and the new value will be applied in the 'Alternative Website URL' field.

4. The time of publishing and last revision 

5. Article's statistics, such as views and the number of times the article was referred to in emails and was viewed by each person 

6. Documentation sections (​), where the article is used 

7. People who liked, disliked, or added the article to their favorites.

The access to the 'Info' tab is restricted to users with the role of KnowSystem: Editor or higher.

If you already have articles in some KMS systems you can add them to KnowSystem. Use the 'Import' tool above the articles view to import an electronic table with such articles. Take into account that the body of an article should be pure HTML.

To import your articles to KnowSystem:

1. Click on the gear icon in the top left corner of the page, the above articles list

2. Choose 'Import records'

3. Click 'Upload file' and choose a file with articles

4. Choose the columns for import 

5. Click 'Import'

6. Upon finishing you will see a message stating that a certain number of records is imported.

If you create articles in KnowSystem and want to move to some other app or just to have an extra file with articles for extra security, use the mass actions button 'Export'. It would generate a table that might be also used for import. You can choose various fields for export, and save files in .xlsx or .csv format.

To export articles:

1. Make sure that the mass action 'Export' is turned on in the configurations of the module

2. Choose the articles for export, by ticking the box in the article's right top corner or clicking 'Select all found'

3. Click 'Export' in the right navigation panel mass actions

4. Choose the article's fields for export (by default there are: article title, article, preview summary, section, and tags)

5. Tick the box 'I want to update data' if you want the file to be import-compatible.

The history of article revisions is kept in Odoo similarly as it's done in Wikipedia. If one of the users breaks something, it takes 2 clicks to recover a proper knowledge version. A revision is created when an article or an important detail (title, content, preview, section, tags, attachments) is changed. No significant modifications do not lead to creating a new revision. Revisions help to restore only important details.

As you open the Revisions tab, you see all the revisions of the article. You can find out who and when changed something in an article. There are 5 columns, where changes are stated - in contents, you see how many signs were added if they are green or deleted if they are red, and with a minus; the other columns show the previous state, for example, the previous title, or a deleted tag.

To restore a revision of an article:

1. Open an article

2. Open the tab 'Revisions'

3. You see all the revisions of this article

4. Click on the revision that should be restored

5. Click 'Restore this revision'.

After restoring, you can always return to the previous variant of an article, as a new revision is created.

Only KnowSystem Admin can restore and delete revisions.

You can translate your articles into various languages(). Then you will see the sign of the language, for example, 'EN', in the title and preview text of an article while editing. Click on the icon to manually translate it. Odoo users, who have a different platform language will see the manual translation of the title and the preview text. You can edit the article in your default language and the changes will be applied only to the article in this language. The same article in other languages will remain the same. Revisions of the same article in different languages are kept in one list, but it is impossible to restore an article to one of the versions of the article in another language.

There is a separate menu, where you can see and manage all revisions. For that, go to Configuration > Revisions. There you can see the list of revisions, group them (for example by an article), search, restore a revision, and delete the ones you don't need.

To restore a revision, just open it, click the button 'Restore the revision', and confirm your decision.

To delete one or several revisions, you need to select them by ticking the box on the left side, then click on the gear icon 'Action' and choose the option 'Delete'. After that, the deleted revisions will be deleted permanently.

For security purposes, to access the menu 'Revisions', a user should be a 'KnowSystem Administrator'.

Observe article content right from any Odoo object: there is no need to always switch to the KnowSystem advanced interface. All articles are available in a pop-up window with convenient navigation. Click on the KnowSystem icon above a document form or in the systray to access the articles. Send KnowSystem articles in messages by updating a message body or attaching a PDF file. Print all articles in a tag or section.

Set tags for the KnowSystem quick access. You can choose 'Apply to all documents' in the tag's settings if you want to be able to reach articles with this tag throughout the KnowSystem icon in the forms of other documents from anywhere in the Odoo. Or you can add filters to tags, to find suitable articles very fast. The articles will be accessible only if the document matches any of the set to the tag filters. Add filters to tags, to show particular articles only when they match ALL or ANY of them. 

Get redirected to start creating an article right from the systray or articles by documents wizards, or from activities.

If you have the add-on KnowSystem: Multi Languages and the option 'Multilingual Search' is turned on, then the search for the articles is done in all installed languages. Otherwise, the search is done in the current user language (see KnowSystem: Multi Languages).

Link knowledge tags to Odoo document types to simplify the search of articles. You can either choose to apply a tag to all available documents or choose a particular model and add filters.

As you apply a tag to all documents, the tag will be added by default to all quick search forms regardless of the interface and document type the user is working with. To apply a tag to all documents:

1. Start editing or creating a tag

2. Find the tab 'Applied to' and tick the box 'Apply to all documents'

3. Click 'Save&Close'.

As you apply a tag to one or several documents' modules, the tag will be added by default to the quick search forms according to the document type the user is working with. To apply a tag only to a particular document's models:

1. Start editing or creating a tag

2. Find the tab 'Applied to' and click 'Add a line'

3. In the pop-up window choose a model and click 'Save&New' to add one more, otherwise 'Save&Close'

4. Click 'Save&Close'.

You can also add filters to each chosen model. So, the order of the articles with this tag will also depend on particular documents' objects. For example, assign helpdesk tickets to the tag 'odoo/helpdesk': the latter would be entered by default for support request objects.   

How to add some filters to a document's model:

1. Start creating or editing a tag

2. Find the tab 'Applied to'

3. Click 'Add a line' 

4. Choose a model 

5. Click 'New Rule'

6. Choose filter options, by scrolling or typing the beginning in the search field and choose the filter options

7. Click on '+' on the right side of the rule you wrote to add one more filter, otherwise click 'Save&Close'

8. If you have more than one rule you can choose ANY or ALL button above, so only documents that match ANY of the rules or ALL rules will be shown

10. Click on the '...' button, on the right side near '+' to add an even more complex rule

11. Here you can also choose to filter documents that match ALL or ANY rules

12. If you choose ALL or ANY both times, your rules will stand in one line and only one button will remain

 Push the button 'Records' to see Odoo documents that match the rule terms.

You can easily access KnowSystem from anywhere in Odoo. Quickly observe articles related to a current document discussion. Instantly reference one or a few. To add the quick entry for the Knowledge base from any Odoo form view, go to Configuration > Configuration, find KnowSystem options, put a tick in the box 'Articles by Documents', and click 'Save'.

To see the KnowSystem icon () in the Odoo systray near activities and messages, go to Configuration > Configuration, find KnowSystem options, and put a tick in the box 'KnowSystem in systray' and click 'Save'.

As you click on the KnowSystem icon in the systray or above the document form you see a pop-up window with articles. Search articles by tags, sections, or content in a few clicks for a quick overview. Click on an article to read it. Click on the button 'Open article in new tab' and the full backend interface of the article will be opened in a new tab.

If you have the add-on KnowSystem: Multi Languages and the option 'Multilingual Search' is turned on, then the search for the articles is done in all installed languages. Otherwise, the search is done in the current user language (see KnowSystem: Multi Languages).

As you see your documents in the tree view and want to open quick access to KnowSystem, which will show you only filtered to chosen objects articles, click on the KnowSystem article icon that is located above the view. If you click on the systray KnowSystem icon, the app will show all tags that are applied to the particular model regardless of the chosen records. 

To let users reference/cite Knowledge records in Odoo messages, go to configurations, and turn on the option 'Articles in Email Composers'. Click 'Send message' and open the full composer. Use the command '/' to call the additional instruments panel and scroll down to find the button 'KNOWSYSTEM'.

In the pop-up window, you can search articles by tags, sections, and contents. Here tags are always applied to the particular object, from which you compose a message.

If you have the add-on KnowSystem: Multi Languages and the option 'Multilingual Search' is turned on, then the search for the articles is done in all installed languages. Otherwise, the search is done in the current user language (see KnowSystem: Multi Languages).

Click on an article to read it, click on the button 'Open article in new tab', and the full backend interface of the article will be opened in a new tab, click 'Close' to return to the message composer. Click '+' at the right top corner of an article to choose an article. Open the tab 'Chosen articles' to remove some articles or to read them. There are three types of citing an article. You can:

1. Update the message body with knowledge content (it is added to the end of a current message)

2. Attach a PDF version of the referenced article

3. Share a public knowledge link with your colleagues or partners (the link is added as a clickable title of an article). 

The type of link that is added to the message can be chosen in the KnowSystem Configurations, in the field 'Share URL type'. It is possible to share an internal link (the link to the article in the backend, accessible only for the internal users), website link (the link to the article in the frontend (portal), available only for the users with the related access rights), and link with a token (the link to the KnowSystem frontend (portal) without security checks).

In KnowSystem you can print one article or several articles at once. To print a single article just open an article and click 'Save as PDF'.

To print articles from the single view interface:

1. Choose one or several articles by putting a tick in the box in the top right corner of an article

2. In the right navigation panel, mass actions choose 'Save as PDF', and the downloading will start automatically

3. You can also 'Select all found' articles and print them all at once in the same way.

It is also possible to print all articles of a specific tag, section, or type (). To print all articles in a tag, section, or type (​) click on it with the right side of the mouse and choose 'Print'. If a tag, a section, or a type has subtags, subsections, or subtypes, the articles from there will also be printed.

Attach your articles to emails and messages as pdf, so the recipient will be able to print them.

You can allow portal and public users to print published articles (). For that go to Configuration > Configuration, find the section 'Portal and Website Views', and tick 'Print in Portal' (). After that, as a user opens an article there will be the printer icon near the article's title, that will redirect straight to the printing wizard.

The styles for printing by default are applied from settings as for other Odoo printings. But, you can turn on the custom article's printing layout instead. For that, go to KnowSystem Configurations and tick the option 'KnowSystem Printing Layout'. 

As you enable the option, below, you will be able to choose the printing layout or create your own layout. By default, the special KnowSystem layout is applied.

Below the field with the printing layout, you will find three buttons, to edit the report itself, the report's layout, and the paper format. This way, the module provides a set of features to flexibly adjust and personalize the report's view according to the company's needs.

The button 'Edit report' opens a form, where you can inherit the printing form itself and apply the changes. For example, stylize the title or add a static part that will be located after the title.

The button 'Edit Layout' opens a form, where you can change the view name, view type, visibility, and architecture of the layout.

The button 'Edit Paper Format' opens a form, where you can change the page size (A4 > A3), and page orientation (landscape/portrait, margins, and so on).

Even if the custom article's printing layout is disabled, you will see the buttons to edit the report itself and the report's paper format.

Optionally, you can turn on the option to print articles without titles for the best printing layout. For example, it is useful, to avoid situations, when the article's title is printed on one page and the body of the article on the other one. For that go to Configuration > Configuration, find the section 'KnowSystem Options', and tick 'Print without titles'. After that only articles' content will be printed.

Access to articles is managed differently for different types of users. There are 3 types of users:

1. Odoo user or internal user

2. Portal user or registered user ()

3. Public user ()

By default, all articles are available to any internal user, if you don't restrict access only to particular user groups. You can restrict access either to particular sections, including subsections, or to particular articles.

There are two types of access rights: read rights and update rights. Read rights are set in the field 'Read access groups'. Update rights are set in the field 'Update access groups'.

Specify user groups in the field 'Read access groups' to close sections or specific articles for certain user groups. Users outside these groups will not see the articles. An exception is the users within the group KnowSystem Admin and the users, who are specified in the second field 'Update Access Group'. In the second case, the user will have the right to read articles /sections, even if its group is not explicitly specified in the 'Read access groups' field of those articles/sections. This applies to both ordinary users (although they still will not be able to edit articles) and KnowSystem: Editor.

The field 'Update access groups' affects the rights to edit and delete sections/articles, as well as create articles inside sections. In particular, it:

1. Prohibits editing and deleting sections in which the user is not specified in Update Access Groups

2. Prohibits editing and deleting articles in which the user is not listed in "Update Access Groups", as well as the one that does not have the right to edit sections

3. Prohibits the creation of articles inside sections for which the user does not have the right to edit.

On the website (), public users see only published articles. Portal users can also see the articles they have access to. To give access to a particular user add this user or several users to the field 'Allowed partners' as you edit a tag and add this tag to articles that you want to allow the user to see.

Rights to administrate the Odoo knowledge management system belong to 2 user roles: KnowSystem Editor and KnowSystem Administrator. If you want a user to be able to create articles, he or she should belong to one of those groups.

In KnowSystem articles' access for internal users is defined on 2 levels: per section and article. To be able to read an article, a user should have both: access to an article and its' section.

To manage user groups for an article:

1. Open an article and go to the 'Access Rights' tab

2. Specify the user groups that should be able to read the article in the field 'Read access group'

3. Specify the user groups that should be able to manage the article in the field 'Update access group'

If the user groups are not defined, an article is considered 'global' and each internal user may read it (if he/she has access to its section).

Rights to administrate the Odoo knowledge management system belong to 2 user roles: KnowSystem Editor and KnowSystem Administrator. If you want a user to be able to create articles, he or she should belong to one of those groups. If an internal user has access to see an article and belongs to one of the stated groups, then he can also edit it.

To assign one of these groups to an internal user:

1. Go to General Settings

2. Click 'Manage users' and choose a user

3. Scroll down to the section productivity

4. In the field 'KnowSystem' choose one of the groups.

All article versions are stored in revision, so there is always a way to return to one of the previous ones. Only KnowSystem Admin can restore and delete revisions (see. Article revision and history of changes). Thus, it helps to make the editing process more secure.

Public users () - website visitors - may access KMS interfaces only if you explicitly allow that. Thus, you can switch off the option 'Public KnowSystem' () to fully disable the knowledge base for such users.

Public users () would see only those KMS objects, which are published and available for a website they are visiting.

An article would be available for a public user if its section and itself were published.

To publish () an article:

1. Chose one or several articles and choose 'Publish' in mass actions in the right navigation panel of the interface

2. Click on the 'Earth' icon on the articles' card in the single-view interface

3. Open an article, go to the tab 'Website', and tick the option 'Visible on current website'.

You can share the link to an article with any user neglecting the access rights (). For that, go to the 'Discussion' tab and click the button 'Share with Token'. The link with a special token will be generated. Copy the link and send it to a user. Anyone with the link will be able to see the article even if it is not published.

To make a section visible on a website ():

1. Start creating or editing a section

2. Go to the tab 'Website and Portal' and tick the box 'Show on Website'

3. If you leave the field 'Website' empty, then the section will be seen on all available websites.

To make a tag visible on a website ():

1. Start creating or editing a tag

2. Go to the tab 'Website and Portal' and tick the box 'Show on Website'

3. If you leave the field 'Website' empty, then the tag will be seen on all available websites.

To make a type () visible on a website ():

1. Start creating or editing article type

2. Go to the tab 'Website and Portal' and tick the box 'Show on Website'

3. If you leave the field 'Website' empty, then this type would be seen on all available websites.

Portal users () have the same access rights as public users (), but you can also grant extra rights to particular partners. To that goal, knowledge tags are used. You can assign those tags in two ways:

1. Start creating or editing a tag, choose particular contacts in the field 'Allowed partners' in the tab 'Website and Portal'

2. Open contacts, find a particular user, and start editing the profile card, in the field 'KnowSystem' tags choose the tag.

Thus, a portal user would have access to all published articles (see above) and all articles that have partner-related tags.

For example, create tags 'premium', 'standard', and 'free' to manage knowledge base tariffs and assign the tags to corresponding articles. Or create a tag with a country to assign it to all articles available to the partners from it.

KnowSystem has a configuration page, where you can turn on and off some add-ons' features and make necessary changes to make your work convenient.

Default Editor Type: allows choosing the editor, that will be applied by default to all newly created articles. Still, you will be able to switch to another editor for certain articles (see How to create an article).

Learning Tours: it allows you to organize learning tours, combining the articles of your choice. You can easily set the order of articles by drag and drop. Write notes to learners, that they will see on the first page of the tour. Track learners' progress (see. Managing learning tours).

Articles in Email Composers: it adds a KnowSystem icon in the email composers, so you can choose articles to add to emails. You can either update the email body or attach an article as a PDF (see. Quick Access to KnowSystem).

Articles by Documents: it adds a KnowSystem icon above all documents' forms, so you can read an article without opening the KnowSystem app. You can also set different filters to documents' tags to see them in the first place when you access the KnowSystem from the matching documents (see. Quick access to KnowSystem).

Articles in Activities: it adds a KnowSystem icon to the activities composers, so you can choose articles to add to the body of the activity. You can either update the activity body with an article or share a link to the article (see. Knowledge in activities).

Create from activities: adds a button to the activities' top entry, that allows quickly get redirected to the article creation wizard (see. Knowledge in activities). 

Share URL type: allows choosing the type of generated link. Can be either 'Internal URL' (link to the article in the backend available only for internal users), 'Website URL' (link to the article in the portal available for internal and portal users), or 'Shared with token' (a link to the article in portal available for anyone) (see Knowledge for messaging, Knowledge in activities).

Articles in systray: adds a KnowSystem icon in the backend header, so you will be able to see it from any place and easily access articles (see. Quick access to KnowSystem).

KnowSystem Printing Layout: turns on the custom layout for article printing. Otherwise, the standard company layout is used. As you enable the option, the "Edit layout" button becomes visible (see Knowledge for printing).

Print without titles: allows printing only content of the articles, without titles, for a better printing layout (see Knowledge for printing).

Custom and Default Sorting: allows you to add custom sorting criteria for the backend KnowSystem. You can add sorting criteria based on a particular field, name them, and set either ascending or descending order. 

Default Sorting/Custom Default Sorting: allows choosing a particular sorting option either default or a custom one that will be applied as a user opens the KnowSystem page in the backend.

Sorting Option/Custom Sorting Option: allows applying one of the sorting options by default as a user opens the KnowSystem page in the backend. 

Multilingual Search (): allows searching for the articles by matches in all database languages simultaneously. If turned off, the search is done only in the language of the current user. The multilingual option significantly impacts the performance of various articles' searches including loading of views and pages.

In the Extra features section, you can see all the available add-ons and their pages. From here you can turn them on and off.

In the Mass actions section, it is possible to add/remove the mass action 'Export'. Just tick the option 'Export articles'.

Also, in this section, you can manage other mass actions. To add mass actions, click 'Add a line' and choose the action. To delete an action click on the cross by the mass action (see Mass actions on selected articles).

The add-on Portal and Website Views () has its' own configuration section. The extension supports multi-websites, and it is required to apply them for each of your sites separately. To switch between sites' settings, select the website to configure in 'You are configuring KnowSystem for the website'.

Portal KnowSystem (): allows you to show the articles to portal users. You can give access to some articles, by assigning tags and stating the 'Allowed partners', or adding KnowSystem tags to partners on the contact card (see. Managing tags).

Public KnowSystem (): allows you to publish your articles for all website visitors to see (see. Access Rights).

Custom Portal Filters (): allows you to set options to filter articles on the portal. You can add portal filters to various models, set actions, and choose a person for which the filter will be available. You can also add automatic rules to filter objects.

Custom Portal Search (): allows you to set search options to find articles on the portal. You can add a field and name it, so it will be possible to search for the keywords in it on the portal.

Custom Portal Sorting (): allows you to add custom sorting criteria for the portal/website KnowSystem. You can add sorting criteria based on a particular field, name them, and set either ascending or descending order.

Turn on default sorting (): allows applying one of the sorting options by default as a user opens the KnowSystem page on the website.

Default Sorting/Custom Default Sorting (): allows choosing a particular sorting option either default or a custom one that will be applied as a user opens the KnowSystem page on the website.

Print in Portal (): adds a possibility for portal and public users with access to the article to print it.

Portal Likes (): allows portal users to like and dislike articles.

Social Sharing (): adds a social share bar, for quick sharing through various social media.

Sections and Tags Tooltips (): shows sections and tags descriptions on the website as a user hovers over any of those.

Articles Per Page (): choose the number of articles that are shown per page.

The add-on KnowSystem: eCommerce () has its' own configuration section. The extension supports multi-websites, and it is required to apply them for each of your sites separately. To switch between sites' settings, select the website to configure in 'You are configuring eCommerce FAQ for the website'. 

FAQ view (): choose the way the FAQ will be shown: as a popup with all found articles, as a link to the full-featured portal navigation, or do not show it at all (see eCommerce Product FAQ).

FAQ button text (): write your own text, which will be used as the button's text. By default, the button's name is 'Frequently asked questions'. You can use simple HTML (see eCommerce Product FAQ).

Global FAQ(): select criteria to find articles that would be used as FAQ for all products of this website (see eCommerce Product FAQ).

KnowSystem sections (): choose the sections, to add all the related articles to the global FAQ. The articles from the sub-sections will be also shown in the FAQ.

KnowSystem tags (): choose the tags, to add all the related articles to the global FAQ. The articles from the sub-tags will be also shown in the FAQ.

KnowSystem articles (): choose the articles for the global FAQ.

Turn on default eCommerce Accordion sorting (): allows applying one of the sorting options by default as a user opens the FAQ accordion on a product's page.

Default eCommerce Accordion Sorting/Custom Default eCommerce Accordion Sorting (): allows choosing a particular sorting option that will be applied as a user opens the FAQ accordion on a product's page.