Support Knowledge Base

This article is a simple entry point for things-to-know about KPBSD's online knowledge base (aka knowledgebase or just KB), the one you're in now, with a bookmarkable home page at https://go.kpbsd.org/support. In the fall of 2020, we started publishing content both for ourselves, internally, and also for use by staff, students, and families, and it continues to grow to this day, as we discover topics and how-tos that can be served by a simple web document. We find that increasingly we use the content ourselves, and share it as a matter of helping our users with everyday issues.

A Supplement, Not a Replacement

It is not our intention to have the knowledge base somehow replace the functions of the Helpdesk, not at all. We see it as a supplement to the Helpdesk, and a way of making sure we get consistent and up to date information into your hands. For one thing, having a topic written up beforehand allows us to focus more of our energies on solving new problems, rather than re-documenting existing ones. As well, if we send you a link to an article on a procedure today, and that procedure changes in two months, the link we sent you will point to the updated procedure if you refer back to it six months down the line, without anyone having to do anything about it. Additionally, the KB is available even when we are not, and you may well be able to find out what you need without waiting for regular office hours.

Logging in

The KB is available without logging in with a District staff or student account, and there is much there for the public, but by logging in you will see more articles and features based on your being an employee, or a student, etc. On the KB's home page, there is a Login link at upper right, along with the Helpdesk phone number; click that link and then provide your District credentials (student or e-number and password). Once successfully logged in, the Login link will be replaced with a user account icon, which has a few features when clicked.

Searching

The full-text search feature is always available, either front-and-center on the home page, or on the screen's top bar in every article. As you begin typing in the search bar, results should start to build immediately:

The search engine will return not only knowledgebase articles, but also any matching service requests or tickets to which you (as the current logged-in user) have access. Results may be weighted with keywords that we can save with the article. (If you notice that something does not come up as prominently as you'd expect, please let us know and we may be able to increase the weighting.)

Please remember this, when searching: if you do not immediately find something you'd expect to find, check to see if you are logged in or not! It may be that if you log in and execute the same search, what you're looking for may pop up.

Browsing

You can also browse KB articles if you wish. From the home page, there is a Browse help articles link, or you can use the top-left menu and click Solutions:

Clicking through on that brings you to the Solutions browser, with categories on the left and links to articles and folders on the right. Note the (default) Popular Articles category, which lists its articles individually, and the Public category, which groups individual articles by title into folders, with a clickable folder link to display the folder's entire contents. Logged-in staff will also see an Employees category, which is organized just like Public but which contains articles of interest to staff.

Note that some folders may not display their results in simple alpha order. We can curate a folder's order and often try to do so, both to group related articles next to each other and to bring the most useful and commonly-needed ones up to the top of the list. If something looks noticeably off-base to you, don't hesitate to let us know about it!

Article features

KB articles originate from a variety of authors, and while we all try to adhere to some common layout standards (such as section headings, bold for user actions, etc.), you will almost certainly see a few different styles along the way. We try to keep article content as clear as possible, but simple and "future proof" as well (since we know that systems and software get updated and change, over time), with a blend of text description and images that supports different ways of absorbing information.

Each article has a few structural features you should know about.

Top-level navigation bar with search bar and user account icon
Breadcrumb path displaying the article's containing folder
Copy Article Link immediately to the right of the article's title
Related Articles panel displaying links of interest that may not be covered explicitly in the current article's text
Feedback and Print widgets below the article's text

NOTE: the Copy Article Link icon will copy a URL slightly different than the one you will see displaying the article itself, but it works even better than that. The Copy Article Link URL is more compact, and it will tolerate being sent to other users more elegantly if the article itself requires a KB login. Whenever possible, use Copy Article Link when sharing!

Create a Helpdesk Ticket

To create a Helpdesk ticket, use the Report an issue link on the Support Portal's home page.

Service Catalog

Logged-in users will also see a link to the service catalog, which we will be growing into over the next few years. Note the Request a service link on the home page, or the Service Catalog option under the top-bar switcher, or the New button that appears next to the search bar:

Published services are organized into categories like KB articles; click through on the request you're looking for to initiate the request.

Feedback always welcome!

A knowledge base is always growing and always improving, and large-scale success requires good feedback. Whether or not you find specific tools in the articles to provide ways to let us know how we're doing, you can always contact the Helpdesk with constructive feedback at any time. We appreciate thoughtful input, both positive and critical, about all kinds of things, including but by no means limited to:

Is an article confusing?
Is content incorrect or out of date?
Are there new topics that need to be covered?
Are links dead or changed?

We do our best to anticipate and draw on our existing experiences, but if we can help make this a more useful environment for you by improving things, by all means let us know what improvements you want to see!