# Write your first article

> Write, preview and publish a help article.

Help articles give customers an answer before they write to you. They appear in the widget's Help tab, where customers can search them.

## Create an article

1. Open **Help center**.
2. Select **New article**.
3. Enter a title in **Article title**.
4. Write the text under **Body in Markdown**. The formatting bar adds headings, bold, lists and links for you.
5. Pick a collection under **Article settings**, or leave it as **No collection**.
6. Check the **Preview** tab to see how it will look.

## Publish

New articles start as drafts, which only your team can see. Select **Publish** when it is ready. Publishing needs a title and some text. Later you can switch an article back to draft to take it off the widget, and publish it again when it is fixed.

Once published, the editor shows **Found helpful** and **Rated helpful** figures. See [article ratings](https://tirver.com/help/article-ratings.md).

## Edit and delete

Select an article in the list to edit it. Changes to a published article go live when you select **Update published article**. Use **Delete article** to remove it for good.

## View as Markdown

**View as Markdown** shows the article's Markdown, which is handy for pasting into other tools.

## Who can write

Owners and admins can write and publish. Agents can write drafts for an admin to publish. See [team roles](https://tirver.com/help/team-roles.md).

## Writing tips

- Start with the customer's question, in their words, as the title.
- Give the answer in the first sentence or two, then the steps.
- Use short numbered steps for tasks.
- Link to related articles.

Source: https://tirver.com/help/write-your-first-article