Did you know that not only can you customize your SharePoint 2013 site theme but you can also customize your site collection’s help content?  With the custom Site Collection Help feature, you can create a new system Help Library that can be used to store custom help for a particular site collection.  The Site Collection Help Library can quickly and easily be created by the Site collection administrator, who likewise has control over the content that is added and displayed in the help section.

Now that you have created your Site Collection Help Library in part one of our three-part series, here in part two, we’ll introduce you to how to create help collection items, help media file items, and more.

Create Help Collection items:

Help Collection content items function like a folder – each Help Collection content item will contain a pre-determined collection of resources.  As a result, each collection ONLY contains a top-level system library; it does not utilize multi-level organization, nor can you create a sub-Help Collection item in a Help Collection Item.

• To create a new Help Collection content item, click New Document under the Files tab on the Ribbon. Select Help Collection item:

• Input the applicable information for your Help Collection, including its name and title:

• A new Help Collection will now be created:

• As mentioned above, Help Collections do not have sublevel folders. If you attempt to create a sub-Help Collection item in a Help Collection, you’ll receive an error message:

Create Help Category items:

A Help Category is very similar to a Help Collection.  The main difference is that unlike the Help Collection, a Help Category allows you to use multi-level organization so that you can put several different folders and various content all under one heading.

• To create a new Help Category, click New Document under the Files tab on the Ribbon. Select Help Category item:

• Input the applicable information for your Help Category, including its name and title:

• A new Help Category will now be created:

Create Help topic items:

A Help topic functions as a file content type and can be uploaded to either a Help Collection or a Help Category.

• To create a new Help Topic, click New Document under the Files tab on the Ribbon. Select Help Topic:

• Select the file which you would like to upload, and input the applicable information for your Help Topic:

• A new Help Topic will now be created and available for reference:

Create Help Media File Item:

A Help Media file Item is an audio or video content type and can be uploaded to either a Help Collection or a Help Category.

• To create a new Help Media File, click New Document under the Files tab on the Ribbon. Select Help Media File:

• Select the file which you would like to upload, and input the applicable information for your Help Media File:

• A new Help Media File will now be created and available for reference:

Check out the rest of the series:

• How to Use the Custom Site Collection Help Feature in SharePoint 2013: Part 1 of 3
• How to Use the Custom Site Collection Help Feature in SharePoint 2013: Part 3 of 3