Duplicating Articles

From the Articles page you can use the Duplicate function to create copies of articles, categories, sections, or to copy an entire Zendesk Help Center. This creates a complete copy of each article, including all translations, attachments, and images. 

Duplicate can also be used as a way to copy, or import, articles to another Help Center when you want to transfer articles from one brand to another.

In this Article
Duplicating Articles that Contain Links
Using Duplicate
Duplicating an Entire Zendesk Help Center
Duplicating other than the Entire Help Center
Duplicating Articles between Help Centers with Different Languages
Duplicating Articles between Help Centers that Belong to Different Zendesk Accounts
Adding a Help Center Within the Same Account

Duplicating Articles that Contain Links

If only certain articles are being duplicated (not the entire Help Center) and you are duplicating articles that contain links to other articles within the Help Center, the app checks every link in the duplicate to see if it is pointing to another article from the source help center.

• If the article in the link is also duplicated in the same task, the app updates the link to point to the copy, not to the original.
• If the article in the link is not duplicated in the same task, the link in the copy remains as pointing to the original Help Center.

After duplicating any articles, you can check if any links are pointing to the original Help Center by searching for that subdomain in the Links page. You can then duplicate or add the relevant articles as needed.

After including the linked article to the destination Help Center, you need to update any links to it. You cannot just update the subdomain in the HTML of the link as the article ID is different between two different Help Centers and this would result in a broken link.

Using Duplicate

1. To duplicate the entire Zendesk Help Center, there is no need to select all or specific articles as you can select "Entire Help Center" in the Duplicate pop-up.
   
   If you are duplicating one or more specific Categories or Sections, there is no need to select specific articles as you can select the Categories or Sections in the Duplicate pop-up.
   
   If you are duplicating specific articles, select the individual articles you want to Duplicate. You can filter or search for the articles, and/or select the articles you want to Duplicate.
   
   Refer to Using the Filters in Articles, Links and Media, Searching for Articles, Links, Media and Dynamic Content and Selecting Articles, Links, Media or Dynamic Content.
    
2. Click Bulk Actions.
3. Select Duplicate from the Bulk Actions menu.
   
   The Duplicate articles, categories or sections pop-up displays. The following is an example where articles have been selected for the duplication.
   
   
    
4. Add your selections for Source and Destination.
   
   These selections are different when you are duplicating an "Entire Help Center" to when you are duplicating only certain articles. For details, refer below to Duplicating an Entire Zendesk Help Center and Duplicating other than the Entire Help Center.
    
5. Run Quick Sync on source before duplication is checkmarked by default. 
   When this option is selected, a Quick Sync will be executed on the source Help Center before the duplication process starts.
   Uncheck if you need to run multiple copies quickly and if you have synced your Help Center right before running the Duplicate.
    
6. Run Quick Sync on destination after duplication is checkmarked by default.
   When this option is selected, a quick sync will be executed on the destination Help Center after the duplication process is finished. Uncheck this if you need to run multiple copies quickly.
   If you uncheck this, remember to sync the articles in the destination Help Center in order to see the articles.
    
7. Click Duplicate.
   A message displays while the articles are being created.
   
   While the Duplicate is running you can click Cancel Task to cancel.
   
   
   
   When prompted to confirm, click OK to continue with the Cancel Task, or click Cancel to let the Duplicate continue.
   
   

Duplicating an Entire Zendesk Help Center

When duplicating an entire Zendesk Help Center, all the articles, categories and sections are copied. The Categories and Sections will be automatically generated.

1. In Source, ensure the name of Zendesk Help Center is the one you want to duplicate from. This always shows the Help Center you currently have open. To connect and open a different Zendesk Help Center refer to Connecting and Selecting Additional Help Centers. 
    
2. Select "Entire Help Center".
    
3. In Destination, you can only select a different Help Center. 
    
4. Checkmark if you want all the copied articles to be set as unpublished as draft articles. They will not be initially available to the end user and you will need to publish them separately in Zendesk.
   
   
    
5. Click Duplicate.
   A message displays while the articles are being created.
   If needed, while the Duplicate is running you can click Cancel Task to cancel the Duplicate as above.

Duplicating other than the Entire Help Center

When duplicating anything other than the entire Zendesk Help Center (for example, selected articles, one or more Categories or Sections) you can copy these to the same or to a different Help Center. 

To copy to a different Zendesk Help Center, this must have been connected to Help Center Manager. To connect a Help Center, refer to Connecting and Selecting Additional Help Centers.

1. For the Source, ensure the name of Zendesk Help Center is the one you want to duplicate from and check what you are copying. You can change the selection at this point, for example, to change from "Selected Articles" to select one or more Categories and/or Sections.
    
2. You can choose which translations to duplicate.
   Copy all translations from this articles
   or
   Copy only the selected translations By default, this is set to Copy all translations from the relevant articles and all their translations (in all languages in which they are available).
   You can change this to Copy only the selected translations which copies only the translations that have been specifically selected, or included in the selected Categories or Sections.
    
3. For the Destination you can select the same or a different Help Center. 
    
4. When duplicating selected articles, select the Category and Section to add the copied articles to.
   
   
   You can also select one or more Category or one or more Section to duplicate from the source Help Center.
   
   When duplicating Categories or Sections, if they do not already exist in the destination, the categories and sections are also copied.
   
   
    
5. Checkmark if you want all the copied article to be set as unpublished as draft articles. They will not be initially available to the end user and you will need to publish them separately in Zendesk.
    
6. Click Duplicate.
   A message displays while the articles are being created.
   If needed, while the Duplicate is running you can click Cancel Task to cancel the Duplicate as above.

Duplicating Articles between Help Centers with Different Languages

The Duplicate function always copies articles to the destination Help Center in the same language as the source articles.

If you want to copy articles between Help Centers with different languages, you can Duplicate the articles to the destination Help Center, and then use the Translate function in the destination Help Center to add the articles to the Help Center with the different language (refer to Using Translate). In the Translate, you can also keep the same language as the source by setting the option Keep source language.

The following is an example of when you would use this method.

• The source Help Center is English UK (en-gb)
• The destination Help Center is English Ireland (en-150).
• For this example, when you run the Translate, you would enable the setting Keep source language to run the "translation" with the same language.

The following are the steps.

1. In the destination Help Center, temporarily add the language for the articles that will be duplicated. This is added as the same as the source language. In the example, temporarily add the language English UK (en-gb) to the destination Help Center.
2. Copy the Categories and Sections to this language in the destination Help Center and, if needed, make any changes to the translations for these.
3. From the source Help Center language, Duplicate the articles to the destination Help Center. This automatically copies the articles in the same language as the source articles, which is the temporary language that was added (in this example, English UK).
4. In the destination Help Center, run Translate on the articles that have been Duplicated.
   The translation is from the language that was added temporarily to the required language of the destination Help Center.
   In this example, the Translate is from English UK to English Ireland.
   If required, as in this example, you can enable the setting Keep source language which runs the "translation" with the same language.
5. In the destination Help Center, delete the articles added for the temporary language. You can do this via Zendesk.
6. Remember to run the Quick Sync in the destination Help Center.

Duplicating Articles between Help Centers that Belong to Different Zendesk Accounts

You can duplicate articles between Help Centers that belong to different Zendesk accounts (for example, from a production account to a separate sandbox account).

In order to do this:

1. Reauthorize Help Center Manager so it can access the destination Zendesk account. Refer to Reauthorizing Help Center Manager in Connecting to your Zendesk Help Center and Authorizing.
2. Connect the destination Help Center using Add Help Center. Refer to Connecting and Selecting Additional Help Centers. 

When duplicating articles between Help Centers that belong to different Zendesk accounts there are the following limitations:

• The source Help Center needs to be publicly accessible from the Internet so that Help Center Manager has access to it when it is authorized with the destination Zendesk account (different than the source account).
• Help Center Manager can only access and duplicate articles that are publicly available.
• Article attributes that are account specific (such as user permissions or labels) are not copied over in the duplicated article(s).

Adding a Help Center Within the Same Account

If you want to add a Help Center within the same account, there is no need to duplicate (for example, to include your articles from one test account to a second test account).

1. Go, for example, to the second test account.
2. From Help Center in the left-hand menu, display Help Centers.
3. Click Add Help Center.
   
   
4. When prompted, select the relevant Help Center. Refer also to Connecting and Selecting Additional Help Centers.