Help Topics

Help Topics are content units designed to deliver embedded, context-aware support directly within Salesforce.

How it works

Help Topics are created by Help Authors in the Help Portal, linked to specific Salesforce objects (e.g., fields, buttons), and displayed to users in different ways:

Via QAM: Help Topics appear as in-page callouts (with green question marks) when users interact with linked fields/buttons. The QAM also provides access to the Help Portal, where users can browse all topics.

Via Help Portal: Users access the full content of Help Topics in the Help Portal.

Via Lightning Utility Bar: To configure this feature, see Lightning Utility Bar.

Help topics support multiple formats and options:

Add rich media (images, videos).

Link to other topics or external resources.

Organize content into trees or reading lists.

Use Tags for categorization.

Add keywords for automatic cross-linking.

Embed topics at the field level with the Autoform component.

Gather user feedback via comments and votes.

Help Topics are stored as native Salesforce records that can be manipulated like any other.

Once you create a Help Topic, users can find it using Salesforce search. Clicking on a search result takes the user to the Improved Help Portal - a default viewer for the Topic and any related items. More often, Help Authors, in partnership with System Administrators, will decide to add Help components to key areas of Salesforce page layouts, so Topics are displayed right where users need them. A number of components are available. The most important of these is the Help Topic Viewer.

Keywords

The Text tab of the Help Topic editor panel includes a Keywords field. Enter a word or short phrase into this box to turn the Topic being edited into the 'destination' to which any other Topic referencing the Keyword will be automatically linked.

Links appear in the main, rich text body of Help Topics (i.e., it is the text in their Description fields into which links are inserted).

As of the current release, linking is on the basis of text containing the exact word or phrase entered as the keyword with a space at either side of it.

Create Help Topics

Focus on one task per Topic (e.g., "Adding a Contact" vs. "Mastering Contacts").

1. Creation & content definition

Open the Help Portal, which is accessible via:

QAM:

Open the QAM on any Lightning page it has been added to.

Click the Tools button and select Help Home to open the Help Portal.

Unaric Guide Application:

Navigate to the Salesforce App Launcher.

Select the Improved Help app.

Click the Help Topics tab.

Once in the Help Portal, click the Tools menu ( icon) and select New Help Topic to open the creation interface.

The creation interface includes several tabs for configuring the topic’s content and settings. You need to save changes in each tab to finalize the topic:

Visible

General

Status

Text

Guides

Defines the topic’s title and brief description for display.

Name: The Name or Title of the Help Topic as it appears in the Help Portal’s Help Topic panel. The name does not need to be unique (there is an underlying Salesforce record ID for data management purposes) but a unique Name makes life easier for all Users when Searching for Help.

Summary: A mandatory brief Summary of the Help Topic – a required (non-unique) field that appears under the Help Topic Name in the Help Portal and is used in all Callout Templates.

Image Properties: This gives you the ability to embed images within the help you have added around your org. The images are referenced to externally help files, which helps to reduce Salesforce data usage.

Image URL: The web address of the image, which should use the https protocol to prevent browsers throwing security alerts.

Image Title: Short title text that appears above the image in the Help Portal.

Image Caption: Short caption text that appears under the image in the Help Portal and Callout Templates that include images.

Image ALT Text: Alternative text to support accessibility.

Image Width & Height: Set the Image’s size in the Help Portal (use just one dimension to scale proportionally without losing the original image’s aspect ratio).

Reset Image button: Clears all image settings and empties the image placeholder in Full & Callout Templates to prevent unexpected layout issues.

Video settings: You can embed useful videos which end users will find useful. Read more here.

Video URL: The web address of the video, which should use the https protocol to prevent browsers throwing security alerts.

Video Title: Short title text that appears above the video player in the Help Portal.

Video Caption: Short caption text that appears under the video player in the Help Portal and Callout Templates that include videos.

Video Width & Height: Sets video player size in the Help Portal (use just one dimension to scale proportionally without losing the original image’s aspect ratio).

Reset Video button: Clears all video settings and empties the video placeholder in Full & Callout Templates to prevent unexpected layout issues.

After finishing editing the Help Topic, copy the ID at the bottom and click Save ( icon).

Provides the ability to create custom styles, add sentiments and make the help topic active and inactive.

Active?: Sets whether the Help Topic is visible to Helped Users: Help Authors and Administrators can see Topics regardless of this setting.

Show Read More link?: Sets whether the Help Topic, when displayed in its Callout, has a link to read all topic details in the Help Portal.

Show Referring Topics: Controls visibility of Topics that reference this one in the Related Help Topics listing. Help Topics always include links to related help where Authors have chosen to define these relationships. Global Settings can be used to control whether or not to include Related Help listings for Topics from which the current Topic is referenced. This check box can be used to override Global Settings, ensuring that any referring Topics are always shown for the current Topic.

Help Topic Status: Where required, the Help Topic Status field provides a default set of milestones to manage Help Topic’s life-cycle. This is useful for organisations seeking to formalise authoring processes with Salesforce Workflows and/or Approvals. The default picklist values may be overridden at System Administrator level.

Visibility: Tag that can be used with data sharing rules (see Help Domains) to control Topic availability. The Visibility field is not used by Improved Help itself, but Organisations can choose to create data sharing rules based on the setting of the Visibility field to filter the records seen by different groups of Users.

Custom Style: Where defined in Global Settings, some examples are packaged, also allows a custom style to be applied to a Help Topic. The Custom Style field can be used to finesse the appearance of individual Help Topics. To extend these options:

Help Administrators must define custom styles in the Customer CSS file.

Help Administrators then reference these styles on the Branding tab of the Global Settings page.

Authors are then able to select from the list of custom styles for their Topics.

Vote Set: Allow you to capture users sentiment as they engage with your content. See the below section (Adding Feedback and Sentiment) for more information.

2. Link Help Topics to fields and buttons

A System Administrator must first add the Autoform Lightning component to the page layout where you want to add embedded help. The Autoform is a replacement for the standard record detail view that enables field-level help. To learn how to add this component, see Embedded Help Setup.

Copy the Salesforce ID of the help topic and navigate to the page of the target object.

Click the Tools menu button and select Help Enable. The page will switch to Help Enable mode.

In Help Enable mode, any field that can be help-enabled will be highlighted in yellow. Click on any highlighted field label or button to mark it for help enablement.

‘Help-Enable Mode’ page example.

When finished, use the Quick Access Menu to return to View Mode.

You’ll be prompted to:

Review your selections.

De-select any mistakenly chosen fields or buttons.

Link help topics to the newly selected elements.

Use the Salesforce ID of the help topic (in case you didn't copy it, it is found in the URL of the topic’s page) and paste it into the Help Topic ID field for the selected element.

Green question mark icons next to field labels, which indicates recent help enablement.

Hyperlinks displaying Newly added help topic -- details pending, which you can use to add content.

After completing the configuration, your help-enabled elements will display:

Select fields in a logical order that matches your users' workflow.

Lifecycle

Help Topics follow a lifecycle status to track their progress. This is especially useful for organizations that employ formal Salesforce Workflows or Approvals in their authoring processes. Track content from draft to archival using status fields:

Draft: Initial creation or editing phase.

In Review: Awaiting validation from designated approvers.

Published: Visible to end users.

Archived: Retired but preserved for reference.

Set up lifecycle status

You can configure custom status values in Global Settings to match your workflow.

Navigate to Improved Help Settings > Global Settings.

Under "Help Topic Status", add/edit picklist values (e.g., "Pending Legal Review").

Make a topic active

To make a Help Topic visible to users:

Go to the Status tab of the Help Topic.

Set Active? to checked.

Save the record.

You can also use the Show Read More link? Setting to control whether users can view the full Help Topic in the Help Portal.