How to update your help articles after every product release

Keeping your help documentation up-to-date with product changes is essential for providing accurate support to your users. This guide will show you how to use the Handoff feature to identify and update help articles after your development team releases new features or updates.

Getting Started

1. Navigate to the Handoff section
   Click on "Handoff" in the left navigation sidebar under the Maintain section. This will open the Handoff page where you can see all incoming changes from your development team.

2. Select your Help Center
   Click on the Help Center badge (like "HappySupport") in the handoff flow at the top of the page. Each Help Center can be connected to one GitHub repository or branch. You can select all Help Centers or specific ones to see their incoming changes.

Analyzing Changes

3. Review incoming commits
   Click "Refresh" to see the latest commits from your development team. The commits are organized by date, showing you all recent changes that might affect your documentation.

4. Analyze relevant commits
   Click the "Analyze" button next to a commit group (like "Yesterday - 9 commits"). The system will check if these changes are documentation-worthy and summarize what changed in each commit, making it easy to understand even if you're not a developer.

5. Dismiss irrelevant changes
   Some commits won't affect your documentation, such as CSS color changes. Click "Dismiss" on these items to remove them from your queue.

Processing Documentation Updates

6. Handoff relevant changes
   For commits that affect your documentation, click the "Handoff" button. This opens a modal where you can add additional context or instructions for the documentation update if needed.

6. Confirm the handoff
   Click the "Handoff" button in the modal to confirm. The system will analyze your existing documentation, searching for every article that mentions the changed feature.

7. Review proposed updates
   The system identifies whether you need to update existing articles, create new ones, or delete outdated support articles. Each item is tagged as PATCH (update), CREATE (new), or DELETE based on the required action.

6. Generate content suggestions
   Click "Generate" next to any item (1 item = article task) to see proposed changes. The system will suggest specific edits to your articles based on the product changes.

6. Review and accept changes
   Click "Review" to see the suggested edits in detail. The system shows removed text in strikethrough and new additions in green highlighting. For example, it might add a new paragraph about uploading a favicon with supported image formats.

6. Apply the suggestions
   Click "Accept Suggestion" to apply the changes to your help article. The system will update your documentation with the new information.

6. Complete additional updates
   Continue accepting suggestions for the affected article to ensure your entire Help Center reflects the latest product changes.

After completing these steps, your help documentation will be updated to match the latest product release, ensuring your users always have accurate and current information.