It’s Monday morning, and someone emails you saying they can’t get into the HR system, and they need access now. Instead of sending an email to helpdesk and waiting for a response, you open company’s SharePoint knowledge base, type “password reset,” and instantly find a step-by-step instruction on what to do.
Problem solved in minutes — no back-and-forth emails and no waiting.
This is what a SharePoint knowledge base can do.
SharePoint Knowledge Base is a self-help portal that gives employees quick answers to common questions, SOPs, and step-by-step guides. Whether it’s IT troubleshooting, HR policies, or product documentation, everything you need is right at your fingertips!
SharePoint tracks version history so employees always see the latest, most accurate information. By keeping your knowledge base in SharePoint, users get seamless experience on PC or mobile without having to keep separate accounts and passwords.
This is an example of a Knowledge Base in SharePoint with a collapsible sidebar navigation and a prominent search bar
Best Practices for a SharePoint Knowledge Base
Create a new SharePoint site
To build a robust one-stop-shop knowledgebase with articles from all departments all centrally managed, we recommend creating a separate site for your knowledgebase. Here are the benefits of this setup:.
One place, zero confusion – No more guessing which site to go to. Every KB article is in one spot tagged by a topic.
Simplified permissions – Only KB authors will have access to create and edit articles, while everyone else has a “read” access. The version history will help see who made changes and when.
Better search experience – When employees search KB, they only see results from KB pages and no other content accidentally matching the keyword, making it easier to find answers.
Consistent templates – You can easily copy an existing KB page and start from that template to create a new article, no more starting from scratch. This also helps keep consistent page layout for your KB pages.
To create a SharePoint site:
Log in to your SharePoint account.
In the left-hand navigation, click the house icon to open the SharePoint start page.
Click +Create to set up a new site.
Choose the right SharePoint site template
Should we use a Team Site or a Communication Site when creating a new site?
Team Sites are best for active collaboration, where every member can add and edit pages. That works best for projects and small team spaces, but for a knowledge base? Not so much, because less experienced users might inadvertently break something on the page or create a duplicate.
For knowledge base, we recommend a small group of authors be responsible for creating and maintaining the knowledge base, while everyone else would be reading the information. And that’s why we recommend a Communication Site template.
Next, let’s design our knowledge base pages.
Create Knowledge base Articles in Sharepoint
Help articles is what we all come to knowledge base for. These pages contain detailed explanations, steps and sequences, screenshots, resources and documents related to the issue at hand.
Examples of Knowledge Articles:
“How Do I...” Pages
These pages provide clear, step-by-step instructions to get something done. Example: “How do I submit an expense report?”
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Official guidelines that employees must follow for company-wide policies or processes. Example: “Work-From-Home Guidelines,” or “How do conduct a performance review”
Employee Training / Manuals
Articles that help employees understand product functionality or troubleshooting. Example: “Descaling M600 coffee machine?” or “Replacing CO2 cylinder in A600 water carbonator?”
Example of a SharePoint Knowledge Base Article
What goes on the Knowledge article page?
Companies typically use multiple types of knowledge pages, but "How do I.." articles are among the most used. Here is what “How do I” articles include.
Title – The title should be in a question format, for example “How do I reset SAP password?”. This helps employees find solution to a problem they’re looking to solve.
Overview – A short paragraph explaining details about the problem, unless it’s obvious.
Picture or a video – Sometimes visuals are the best when describing a solution. For example mechanical or technical tasks are understood easier when someone shows them to you in a video. You can add short videos, GIFs and annotated screenshots.
Step-by-step instructions – Steps visual is best when something needs to be done in sequence. You can link each step into a deeper page if necessary.
Common questions – Sometimes, even after following all the steps, things don’t go as expected. People get errors. This section can explain how to deal with exceptions.
Key Contacts – For cases where employees still need assistance, this section lists experts to reach out to.
Related pages – Similar issues sometimes occur together, so it’s helpful to see articles that are frequently viewed together. For example, while trying to figure out office printing error, you might learn you need to re-order printer toner. If most people viewed these two posts together, they would show up as recommended.
Create a Knowledge Base Homepage
Think of the homepage as the front door to your SharePoint knowledge base. It’s the first page employees see when they’re searching for answers, so it should be clean and easy to navigate.
Example of a SharePoint Knowledge Base Homepage
What goes on the SharePoint Knowledge base homepage?
Search bar – This is the #1 tool employees use to search and view the entire collection of knowledge base articles.
Quick links to page categories/topics (IT, HR, Product, etc.) – not sure what to search for? You can browse by topic. More on the topic page design coming next.
Popular articles– Same questions from multiple people come up all the time. Here “Popular Articles” section automatically lists frequently viewed pages for quicker access.
Feedback box – The knowledge base is only as good as the content inside it. Feedback box gives employees a way to suggest new topics or flag outdated pages.
add Topic Pages
Topic Pages group related articles by topic, for example: IT, HR, Finance, or Product documentation. Each page can be further broken into sub-topics, helping employees find what they need without having to scroll.
Example of the Topic Page on a SharePoint Knowledge Base
What goes on the Topic page?
Search bar – This search bar shows articles and documents only within a selected topic. If your articles are in Word or PDF format, you can add them to the search results too.
FAQs for quick answers– Not every question needs a long explanation or a step-by-step guide. That’s where the FAQ comes in handy! You can even search by keyword instead of having to expand each answer.
Popular articles by sub-topic – This section shows the most viewed articles grouped by sub-topic. Instead of scrolling through a long list, you can jump straight to, for example, “Login & Access” and see the most popular articles for this topic.
Key contacts – You don’t want your knowledgebase to become a wall where you can’t even get a human help if you’re stuck. That’s not productive at all. So, here we have a list of support contacts who specialize in the topic.
Community support – This is a place for a moderated discussion where employees can ask questions, share insights, and help each other. Topic experts and power users can provide expert answers, fostering a collaborative learning environment. Employees feel engaged when they can showcase their expertise and help their peers while keeping knowledge fresh and relevant.
SharePoint Wiki Navigation Sidebar
Once all the pages are set up, the next step is to tie them together with a single sidebar navigation. A well-organized navigation sidebar makes it easy for employees to find the information they need quickly and switch between different sections of the wiki without hassle.
For our knowledge base, we used an Origami sidebar navigation. The sidebar appears consistently on every page of the Knowledge Base site, providing a reliable way to browse and discover content without needing to backtrack or manually search.
Example of the knowledge base wiki sidebar navigation in SharePoint
What goes into the SharePoint Wiki Navigation Sidebar?
Search Bar – Allows users to search article titles directly from the sidebar for quick access.
Expandable Menus – Keeps the sidebar tidy with collapsible sections, making it easy to navigate detailed sub-sections.
Active Article Highlighting– Visually marks the current article to help users understand their position within the wiki.
Hide Sidebar Option – Allows users to collapse the sidebar into a floating button for a cleaner view.
Designing your knowledge base for different types of users
Through our experience, we’ve identified that people interact with a knowledge base in different ways. Employees don’t all learn the same way, so a one-size-fits-all approach wouldn’t work.
We found that most users fall into one of these four groups:
Users who prefer to search
Users who prefer to watch a video
Users who like step-by-step guidance
Users who like to ask a question in a forum-like style
The SharePoint knowledge base above caters to all four types of users:
For search-first users: we have a prominent search bar on the homepage, so they can quickly “Google” information and find relevant answers.
For video learners: We embedded video tutorials and annotated screenshots within knowledge pages.
For step-by-step learners: We structured our How-to guides with a timeline and collapsible instructions, so they can follow along easily without getting overwhelmed.
For forum crawlers: We added a community support feature, allowing employees to ask questions and get an answer from knowledge base experts and peers.
By combining these elements, we’ve got a design that’s intuitive and easy to use for everyone.
Done right, SharePoint knowledge base is a win for everyone — employees can find what they need fast, and departments like IT and HR spend less time answering the same questions repeatedly.
Final Thoughts on Using SharePoint as a Knowledge Base
SharePoint has some pretty solid features for building a knowledge base — like version tracking, permissions management, and easy page creation with meta-tagging. But it’s not perfect. The lack of wiki-style navigation makes it harder for users to find related content smoothly. The search function can be hit or miss too, sometimes showing irrelevant results or missing key info altogether. Plus, the limited customization options can make the whole experience feel a bit clunky. That’s where Origami comes in — it boosts search, comes with wiki style page navigation, and gives you way more flexibility to create a clean, user-friendly design.
Sabina Saetgareeva is a Digital Marketing Specialist at ORIGAMI. She helps infuse ORIGAMI brand with what customers need and seek. Sabina is an avid reader of the future of work, digital transformation, and trends in Digital Employee Experience.