Shared content

Shared content is text you write once and use in many articles. Typical examples are a warning about backups, a list of prerequisites, a legal notice, or a standard set of steps for signing in.

Where it lives

Shared content belongs to a space. Every knowledge base in that space can use it, and knowledge bases in other spaces cannot.

Each piece is called a block. A block has:

Part	What it is
Name	What you call it. Up to 120 characters.
Description	A short explanation of what it is for, from 15 to 75 characters. It helps people choose the right block.
Content	The text itself, written like any article. It can include formatting and images, up to 100,000 characters.
Version	A number that goes up each time the block is saved.
Status	Active blocks can be used. Retired blocks cannot.

How a block gets into an article

When you insert a block, its content is added to the article at the cursor, and from then on it is part of that article’s text. You can edit it there like any other text.

Because of this, changing a block later does not change articles you have already inserted it into. If a block’s wording needs to change everywhere, update the block, then update the articles that use it.

Retiring a block

Retiring a block removes it from the list of blocks available to insert. Articles that already contain its text are not changed, and sites that are already published stay as they are.

When to use it

Use a block when the same wording must stay the same wherever it appears, or when several authors need to use identical text. For text that appears in only one article, just write it in the article.

Related

• Create shared content
• Insert shared content into an article
• Edit or retire shared content