Understanding the SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base Admin Menu

Once SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base is installed and activated, a new Knowledge Base section will appear in the left-hand WordPress dashboard menu.

This is where you create articles, organise categories, change the design, view analytics and manage your licence.

Opening the Knowledge Base menu

Sign in to your WordPress dashboard and find Knowledge Base in the main menu.

Selecting Knowledge Base opens the list of articles you have created.

The available menu options are:

• All Articles
• Add Article
• Categories
• Analytics
• Settings
• Licence

The wording shown for the licence option may change to Activate Licence when the plugin has not yet been activated.

All Articles

The All Articles screen shows every knowledge base article on your website.

From here, you can:

• Edit an existing article
• View a published article
• Search for an article
• Filter articles by category
• Check the publication status
• Move an article to the Trash
• Restore an article
• Make bulk changes

Knowledge base articles are kept separate from normal WordPress posts, so your documentation does not become mixed with your blog or news content.

Selecting an article title opens the WordPress editor, where you can change its content, category, excerpt, featured image and other article options.

Add Article

Select Add Article when you want to create a new knowledge base guide.

The article editor works in a similar way to the normal WordPress page and post editor.

You can add:

• An article title
• Written instructions
• Headings
• Images
• Videos
• Lists
• Links
• An excerpt
• A featured image
• An article icon
• A knowledge base category

You can also decide whether the article should be listed normally or kept unlisted.

When the article is ready, select Publish to make it available in your knowledge base.

Categories

The Categories screen is used to organise your articles.

For example, you could create categories such as:

• Getting Started
• Installation
• Licence and Subscription
• Using the Plugin
• Customisation
• Troubleshooting

Each category can have:

• A name
• A URL slug
• A parent category
• A description
• A Bootstrap icon
• A custom uploaded image

Parent and child categories can be used when you need a more detailed structure.

For example, you could create Getting Started as the parent category and place Installation and Activation underneath it.

Categories created by SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base are separate from your normal WordPress blog categories.

Analytics

The Analytics screen helps you understand how visitors are using your knowledge base.

It is split into three sections:

• Article Feedback
• Search Analytics
• Article Views

Article Feedback

Article Feedback shows the results from the helpful voting section displayed on your articles.

You can see:

• Total responses
• Helpful votes
• Not helpful votes
• Helpful percentage
• Results for individual articles

This makes it easier to spot articles that may need clearer instructions or more detail.

Search Analytics

Search Analytics shows what visitors have entered into the knowledge base search box.

You can use it to find:

• Popular search terms
• Searches that returned no results
• Topics visitors are looking for
• Articles that may be missing
• Wording customers use when searching

For example, if several visitors search for “change category icon” and there is no matching guide, you may decide to create one.

Article Views

Article Views shows which published guides receive the most visits.

You can see:

• Total article views
• Number of articles viewed
• Number of published articles
• Average views
• Views for individual articles

These totals are also used when the Popular Articles section is enabled.

Settings

The Settings screen is where you control how your knowledge base looks and works.

At the top of the page, you will see two buttons:

• Preview Knowledge Base
• Save Changes

Preview Knowledge Base opens your main knowledge base page in a new browser tab.

Save Changes saves any settings you have edited. Remember to select this button before leaving the page.

The settings are separated into seven tabs.

General

The General tab contains the main information used throughout your knowledge base.

This includes:

• Knowledge base title
• Tagline
• Knowledge base logo
• Main knowledge base page
• Sidebar title
• Sidebar subtitle
• Help box content
• Contact button wording
• Contact button URL

This is normally the first tab to complete when setting up the plugin.

Make sure the correct WordPress page is selected as your main knowledge base page. The plugin uses this page for breadcrumbs and back links.

Homepage

The Homepage tab controls what visitors see on the main knowledge base page.

Options include:

• Main search box
• Search placeholder
• Popular search links
• Category cards
• Recently updated articles
• Homepage highlights
• Popular Articles
• Related Articles
• Article count wording

You can turn individual sections on or off depending on the type of knowledge base you are building.

A new knowledge base usually works best with search, categories and recently updated articles enabled. Other sections can be added as you publish more content.

Articles

The Articles tab controls the layout and information displayed on individual articles.

Depending on the current plugin version, the available settings may include:

• Article title
• Last updated date
• Reading time
• Featured image
• Article icon
• Table of contents
• Social sharing buttons
• Helpful voting
• Recommended Articles
• Article sidebar
• Category information

You can use these settings to keep articles simple or add extra navigation to longer guides.

Design

The Design tab contains the main styling controls.

You can change items such as:

• Primary colour
• Heading colours
• Link colours
• Help box colours
• Sidebar colours
• Reading progress colour
• Category icon size
• Article icon size
• Heading sizes
• Article link sizes
• Homepage background image

These options allow the knowledge base to better match the rest of your WordPress website without editing the plugin files.

After making design changes, use Preview Knowledge Base to check the homepage, an article and a category page.

It is also worth checking the layout on a mobile phone.

Features

The Features tab is used to enable or disable optional parts of the knowledge base.

These can include:

• Breadcrumbs
• Back links
• Recently updated articles
• Popular Articles
• Related Articles
• Helpful voting
• Reading progress
• Social sharing
• Recommended Articles
• Automatic article links
• Compact search boxes
• Sidebar sections

You do not need to enable every option.

Choose the features that help visitors find information without making the page feel crowded.

Privacy & SEO

The Privacy & SEO tab contains settings related to search engines, visitor privacy and anonymous totals.

You can manage:

• Built-in SEO features
• Article metadata
• Category metadata
• Structured data
• Privacy policy access gate
• Anonymous search totals
• Helpful voting totals
• Article view tracking

If you enable the privacy policy gate, make sure you have entered a working privacy policy URL.

You should also make sure your website privacy policy explains any analytics or visitor information you choose to collect.

Advanced

The Advanced tab contains settings that are less likely to need regular changes.

These can include:

• Article URL base
• Category URL base
• Removing the category URL base
• Automatic article link rules
• Other advanced content settings

Take care when changing URL settings on an established knowledge base.

Changing an article or category URL can cause existing links to stop working unless redirects are added.

After changing URL settings, open Settings > Permalinks in WordPress and select Save Changes to refresh the website’s permalink rules.

Licence

The Licence screen shows the current SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base licence status.

When the licence is active, you can see:

• Licence status
• Licensed email address
• Masked product key
• Subscription plan
• Option to remove the licence from the website

The complete product key is hidden for security.

If the plugin has not been activated, this menu option appears as Activate Licence and allows you to enter your purchase email and product key.

SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base requires an active Monthly or Yearly subscription.

Keeping your subscription active ensures that the public knowledge base, management screens, search, analytics and other protected features remain available. It also provides continued access to plugin updates, compatibility improvements and SoftwareRoad support.

Why are some menu options unavailable?

If your licence is missing or inactive, selecting protected Knowledge Base screens may take you to the licence activation page.

Check the following:

1. Open Knowledge Base > Licence.
2. Confirm that the licence is active.
3. Check that the correct purchase email is shown.
4. Confirm that your Monthly or Yearly subscription is still active.
5. Reactivate the licence if required.

Your articles, categories and settings are not normally deleted when a licence becomes inactive, but protected areas may remain unavailable until the licence is activated again.

Who can access the Knowledge Base settings?

The main settings, analytics and licence screens require WordPress administrator permissions.

This prevents users without the correct access from changing important settings or viewing licence details.

Other WordPress users may be able to create or edit articles if their account role has permission to manage the knowledge base article type.

The exact access available will depend on the WordPress roles and permissions configured on your website.

A simple way to work with the menu

For a new knowledge base, the easiest order is:

1. Open Licence and activate the plugin.
2. Open Settings and select your main knowledge base page.
3. Open Categories and create your first category.
4. Open Add Article and publish your first guide.
5. Return to Settings to customise the homepage and design.
6. Use Analytics once visitors begin using the knowledge base.

You will spend most of your time in All Articles, Add Article, Categories and Settings.

The Analytics area becomes more useful as your knowledge base receives searches, article views and visitor feedback.