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Making a SharePoint Knowledge Base Part Two: Knowledge is Power... Automate

Happy snow day folks! Well, at least for me. We saw up to 40+ centimeters last night which gave me plenty of time today to sit down and write the second part of this series which is adding templates and automation with Power Automate (in between all the shoveling and snow clearing of course). So this is where we get into some of the cool stuff that our knowledge base can do, as well as touch on some key points that may inspire you to go beyond even the knowledge base. However, if you're looking to finish off your knowledge base, here's the part that is for you!

Templates

Let's start with templates, as this is likely the most user-dependent part of the whole post. Before continuing, it's important to note that each template may differ, and it's really up to you and the stakeholders in your team or organization to determine the content to include. For the sake of demonstration, I'll keep this very barebones and focus on how to add a template to your knowledge base.

So, what are templates exactly? It's quite simple. When you create a new file in any document library, whether it's your knowledge base or any document library in general, you're presented with several formats such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. But what people often overlook is that you can also create templates. A template is a file you add to your document library and use as a stencil for creating files of the same format. For example, let's say we want to create a template for our knowledge base. We can create a new template and add the parameters we want users to complete, and then they have a template they can complete without starting from scratch each time. This can be especially helpful if people are constantly adding content and you want to control the formatting of that information.

To do so, all we need to do is the following:

1. In our knowledge base, click on "New" and then click on "Add template" as shown below:


2. You will then be given the option to upload the template that you wish. Assuming you have the file already created, go ahead and upload it. When it is all said and done, you should be able to click "New" again and be met with your new template:


And there you have it! You can now use this template to create knowledge base articles based on the format you desire. But wait, there's more! What if you want to restrict what people can create? For instance, if you want to prevent users from creating new PowerPoint presentations in your knowledge base, that can be done too! Here's how:

1. Click on "New" once again and then press on "Edit New menu":


2. De-select the formats you wish to get rid of then press "Save":

Now, when you go back to add a new file, you should only see the template, which you can then fill out and complete for your knowledge base. This allows you to add specified content repeatedly without users or team members straying too far from the approved formatting. Templates can be especially useful in environments where documentation must look the same or there are strict templating requirements.

With that out of the way, onto automation!

Automation

This may be the easiest part of the process as we can create rules to handle notifications for us. When people hear automation, they typically run the other way, but in this case, I want to show you that it's really easy to get started.


To begin, click on the ellipses in the toolbar, then press "Automate," then "Rules," and finally "Create a rule":

From here, you can select a rule to add to your knowledge base. In this case, I want to know when a user adds a new file to our knowledge base so I can review it. To do so, I will click "A new file is added" and proceed from there:


Now, we can specify how often and who will receive the email. In this case, I want to know always and have it sent to me:
You can set this to whatever you desire and enter whoever you wish. Once done, hit "Create," and that should be it. When someone adds a new file to the document library, you (or the specified person) will be notified. This is possible thanks to Power Automate, which you can also use to integrate more sophisticated flows into your document libraries. We'll delve into more Power Automate and Power Platform features in later articles. Until then, this concludes our segment on knowledge bases. I hope you enjoyed the content and look forward to seeing you in the next article!
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