Within Zoho Learn’s Knowledge Base, a manual is created as a named container that holds a collection of articles. Articles inside a manual can be organised into sections and sub-sections, and the manual displays a navigable table of contents so readers can jump to specific topics. Editors with appropriate permissions can create, edit, and publish articles within a manual. The manual can be made accessible to all team members, specific groups, or kept in draft while being written.
Create a manual for content that employees need to look up repeatedly rather than learn once: HR policies, standard operating procedures, product specifications, IT troubleshooting guides, or vendor contact directories. Use a course for content where the sequence and assessment of understanding matters. Avoid duplicating content across both a manual and a course; decide which format fits the use case and maintain a single source of truth. Manuals work best for stable reference content that updates incrementally.
Article ownership and update cadence are critical governance questions. Manuals that are not assigned to a responsible editor tend to become outdated quickly. Zoho Learn tracks the last modified date on articles, which helps readers judge content freshness, but does not enforce review cycles automatically. Search within the Knowledge Base queries across all manuals, so naming conventions and consistent terminology across articles are important for finding the right content. Access permissions on a manual are set at the manual level, not the individual article level.
Zoho Learn’s Knowledge Base is primarily designed for internal team use. Public access settings depend on your Zoho Learn plan and portal configuration. Some plans support sharing specific manuals or articles with external users via a link, while others restrict Knowledge Base access to authenticated Zoho Learn members. Check your plan’s documentation to confirm external sharing capability before designing a public-facing knowledge base on this platform.
A course is a structured learning path with lessons, quizzes, assessments, and completion tracking; learners enrol and progress through it in sequence. A manual is a reference document collection that employees search and read on demand without enrolment or completion tracking. Use courses to teach and assess; use manuals to document and inform.
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