18 Knowledge Base Article Templates by Category

How-to articles should get the reader to the outcome with the minimum reading, which means the steps come early.

1. The standard how-to

Title as the task in customer words · one-line statement of what this achieves · prerequisites · numbered steps · what success looks like · what to do if it fails.

The failure check at the end is what prevents the follow-up contact from someone whose steps did not work.

2. The branching how-to

Where the steps differ by platform, plan or version, branch early with a clear selector rather than interleaving all variants.

Mixed instructions are the most common cause of a correct article producing an incorrect outcome.

3. The quick task

For two or three step tasks, a single short article with the steps and nothing else outperforms a fuller treatment.

Adding context to a trivial task makes it harder to complete rather than easier.

The prerequisite article

Where a task requires setup first, that setup deserves its own article linked from the top rather than being embedded in the steps.

Readers who have already done it can skip, and those who have not do not derail partway through.