Style Guide for Coyote One Stop Articles

KCS (Knowledge-Centered Service) Style Guide is a set of standards that ensures knowledge base articles are consistent, searchable, reusable, and easy for users to follow. KCS emphasizes capturing knowledge in the customer's context and maintaining content quality over time.

Every article should follow the KCS Style Guide Commandments. They are as follows:

1. Thou shall maintain the context of the client
2. Thou shall remember the audience
3. Thou shall not create duplicates
4. Thou shall reference neither a client nor an incident
5. Instructions shall be numbered steps
6. Product names shall be proper
7. Graphics shall be used as a last resort
8. Attachments shall be visible
9. Thou shall refrain from abbreviations and acronyms
10. Thou shall use spell checker

Along with adhering to the commandments, every article should follow these style rules as set when you choose the knowledge article template in Team Dynamix. 

• Click Templates and choose between: 
  • Customer Facing Templates
    • Questions & Answer
    • FAQ
    • How to
    • Problem and Solution
    • Problem and Solution with Customer Information and link to internal article
  • Internal Knowledge Article Templates
    • Internal How to
    • Internal Problem and Solution
    • Internal Box template (in case you need to update a customer facing article that now needs to link to something internal
• Set all text as Helvetica.
• Accessibility
  • When creating articles, use heading levels consistently
  • This structure helps screen readers navigate content correctly
  • Article Title is automatically Heading 1
  • Every section header (new templates: Problem/Question/Description, FAQs, Solution/Answer, Products or Services) is Heading 2 (H2) format
  • Sub headers should be Heading 3 format
    Note: Service Desk heading should only be used when the Service Desk is needed to complete the steps, if the only step is assign to XXX team do not utilize Service Desk heading
  • Headers below the sub headers should be Heading 4 format
  • All text except headers is automatically set to 14 point font size
  • Be mindful of formatting choices
  • If using pictures, alternative text must be provided
• Error messages (under Problem/Issue/Question) need to be a 14 point font size, include a colon and be italicized like this example:
  • Error: Access Denied: Resource does not exist
• If emphasis other than bolding is needed, underline the word or phrase also
• Quotation marks should “not” be used in articles
• Any text that would have been between quotation marks should be bolded instead (Press enter)
• If you have additional information that would be important for the user to know before proceeding, use the tips section
• Remove all white space at the end of the body
  
   

Do's and Dont's

Adding a Note

If you have additional information that would be important for the user to know before proceeding

1. Press Shift + Enter to create a new blank line
2. Start the sentence with Note: 
3. Type the whole sentence
4. Highlight Note:
5.  Add bolding  Note: 
6. Change the color to Firebrick red  Note: 

Tags

Follow Tag Guidance

Use tags to improve search results and help users find the right content quickly by applying consistent, single-word keywords that reflect system names, user actions, and common search terms.

Quick Checklist (Before Publishing)

• ✅ No more than 9 tags
• ✅ Tags are single words
• ✅ Tags are lowercase unless the product/service is normally all caps
• ✅ Tags include system + action + user terms
• ✅ No duplicate, inconsistent, or unnecessary tags

Adding Internal Staff Information

Note: Use of the Insert Internal Box Template, adds a box to the article which can be seen by the customer

1. Click in the article where you would like to place the ITS internal box
2. Click Templates
3. Under Internal Templates, click Internal Box Template
4. An Internal Staff Only box is added to the article
5. Update to the appropriate staff, example: Internal ITS Staff Only
6. Content about assigning a ticket or task to another team should be moved to the Internal Staff Article and replaced with a link to the Internal Staff article
   Note: Information only internal Staff should see should not be in this box, add this content to the Internal article Example: ITS Network path, or steps a customer should not do 
7. Example:

   Internal Staff Only

   See article KCS Article Structure

8. Add the customer-facing article as a Related Article to the ITS internal article 

Adding Font Awesome

Note: Use of Font Awesome will add common icons to your article

1. Click Insert Font Awesome 
2. Browse through the icons available or search 
3. Click the icon you want to use
4. Click Okay

Linking to other Articles

Note: All Related Articles will appear in a section titled Related Articles along the right side of the article screen beneath the article's Details panel.

Note: Any articles linked in the body of another article should be added as a related article.

1. Open the article you'd like to link
2. Click Edit Article
3. Click Related Articles tab
4. Click Magnifying Glass 
5. Search and locate the related article
6. Check mark  the article you want to add
7. Click Insert Checked (on the top of the page)
8. Click Add 
   Note: Repeat steps 4-8 until you've associated all desired articles

If you need further assistance, please contact your KCS Coach.