Articles are meant to help users understand the system better by clearly walking them through how to accomplish tasks, while also answering questions they may have. When creating an article, it is important to follow the same guidelines to ensure the articles are consistent. Doing so will help maintain a predictable format, and in turn minimize user confusion.
Format Guidelines
- Font Family: Helvetica
- Font Size: 13
- Paragraph Format: Normal
- Do not indent the beginning of paragraphs.
- Headers should use the Heading 4 paragraph format so they can be used to create a Table of Contents. The font and font size for headers should remain the same, but should be bold.
- There should be two lines of blank space before a header, and one line of blank space after a header.
- References in instructions should be bold (i.e. click the save button).
- Numbering should be bold.
- When including numbers, they should be manually entered and should not have an indent before the number rather than using the ordered number list. This will help keep image formatting consistent while allowing you to continue your numbering past the image. Bulleted lists can still be used when needed.
- There should be one line of blank space before and after each image.
- There should be only one space between the punctuation of one sentence and the first word of the next.
- All notes, tips, and examples should be bold, while the content following should be regular text. They should also be on a separate line.
Example: While the word Example has been bolded, this section should contain regular text and should not be bold.
Image Guidelines
- All screenshots and image editing should be done through Snagit.
- To create a screenshot, open Snagit and select Capture. From there, you can drag your cursor to create a box surrounding the area you would like to screenshot. Once you have the screenshot, you can edit it using Snagit Editor.
- Do not use screenshots from customer systems or screenshots that include any customer information.
- Do not use screenshots that include URL's.
- Do not use screenshots that include test information such as Test Company 1, or Example Employee. They should also not include blank or partial information. All information in screenshots should be made to look authentic and professional, while not using any copyrighted information.
- Do not use screenshots that contain errors.
- Do not use screenshots that include CoreBridge employee information.
- Each image should have a solid black, 3 width border.
- All markup coloring should be Hex: #99CA3D.
- When marking up an image using the shapes provided by Snagit Editor, please adjust the tool properties to the following:
- Fill: empty
- Outline: Hex: #99CA3D
- Shape: rectangle
- Shadow: none (click on the selected squares to unselect it)
- Thickness: 3
- Opacity: 100
- Line Style: solid line
- To create a shape, select the correct properties and then drag your cursor over the section of the image you would like to mark up.
- When using the step feature provided by Snagit Editor, please adjust the tool properties to the following:
Note: There will be two instances in which steps will be used. Numbered steps should be used to visually show where each of the numbered steps will be accomplished in the system. Lettered steps should be lowercase and should visually show where information that has been outlined in the article will show in the system.- Fill: Hex: #99CA3D
- Text Color: Hex: #FFFFFF (White)
- Shape: circle
- Shadow: none (click on the selected squares to unselect it)
- Opacity: 100
- Type: 1... 2... 3... or a... b... c...
- To create a step, select the correct properties and then click where you would like the step to appear. Steps should be placed directly to the left or right of the information they are referencing in the image.
Note: If you would like to adjust the sizing of the steps, adjust the first step at the beginning. This will ensure the rest of the steps are the same size as the adjusted first step. To adjust the size, place and then select the step to edit. Then, while holding shift to lock the circular shape, drag from the corner to make the step larger or smaller.
- Each image should be centered in the article.
Creating the Article
Note: Before an article is created, ensure that you fully understand the information that you will be creating content on. Please use all available resources to thoroughly research the subject before writing such as: trainings, subject matter experts, and question channels.
The first steps of creating an article include selecting the category and folder it will be organized into. From there, the next step is to create a title. Please keep in mind the first thing a customer will see is the title of the article. The title should be clear and concise so the customer is easily able to identify what the article is about.
Before you begin writing the article, change the font family from Helvetica Neue to Helvetica, and ensure the font size is set to 13. All text should be written with the Normal paragraph format, aside from headers, which should be Header 4.
The body of each article should follow these three structural points:
- Begin with a brief overview that clearly outlines what the article will contain.
- Following the overview, a Table of Contents containing all headers should be created.
To create the Table of Contents, select the TOC button located on the right hand side of the toolbar. This will automatically generate a table of contents based on each header that has been set to the paragraph format of Header 4.
- Each section should include a Header that properly conveys what the section will be about, as well as steps on how to accomplish the task with images that outline them. The steps should be chronologically numbered based on the order they will need to be completed in. The sections should also be used to relay important information related to the task.
Note: The headers should be set to the paragraph format of Header 4. Each header should be the same font and size as the rest of the text, simply bold.
There will be articles needed that are simply informational, not task based. These articles should still include an overview, as well as different sections separated by headers if needs be. While step by step articles should mainly use numbering to outline the steps, strictly informational articles can use lettered steps to convey details.
Once an article is completed, be sure to preview it by selecting Preview Draft in the top right corner. This will show you how it will be seen by customers so you can make any last adjustments needed. After doing so, send it to the Head of Instructional Design for review.
It is highly recommended to review other articles before creating one of your own. This way, you can understand and portray similar styles and tones to ensure consistency.