Restricting documents

By default, every document in your knowledge base is open to everyone in your workspace. Restricting a document limits it to the teams, and optionally the roles, that should see it. People outside those teams are not shown it, and an expert will not use it when answering them.

Open it from Knowledge Base under YOUR EXPERT, then choose Restrict documents.

What your plan allows

Changing who can read a document is a Professional feature. On Business, Restrict documents is dimmed in the sidebar with a Professional tag, and its tooltip explains why. The page still opens if you go to it directly. It shows an amber notice, Your existing rules are still enforced, and the buttons that change anything are disabled.

Rules you set while on Professional keep working if you later move to Business. Downgrading never opens a locked document up. What you lose is the ability to change the rules.

Before you start

A rule names teams, so you need at least one team first. If you have none, the page says There are no teams yet and offers a Teams & Roles button. Creating teams and roles is covered in Teams and roles. You also need the Manage teams & roles permission, set on the account type (see Account types).

Restrict a set of documents

1. On the left, under Documents, find the files. Narrow the list with the folder drop down (All folders, Unfiled or a folder), the Restricted button, which shows only files that already have a rule, or the search box. Click a file to move it across, or click Add all to move everything shown.
2. The files you pick collect under Chosen on the right. Click one there to take it back out, or click Clear to empty the list.
3. Click Choose who can read. It appears once you have picked something.
4. In the Who can read them? window, tick the teams that should have access. Ticking a team on its own admits everyone in it. To narrow it, tick roles under that team. Then only people holding one of those roles, and anyone whose role covers them, can read the files.
5. Click Save.

If you tick no team and click Save, you are asked to confirm, because that removes every rule from the chosen files.

The window tells you what the chosen files have now. If they all share one rule it is ticked for you. If their rules differ, nothing is ticked and a warning says saving will give all of them whatever you choose. A save replaces the old rule, it does not add to it, so keep the existing teams ticked if you only mean to add one.

Remove a rule

If every chosen file already has a rule, a Remove restrictions button appears beside Choose who can read. The same button is in the window when at least one chosen file has a rule. You are asked to confirm.

A file with no rule of its own goes back to following its folder. If the folder is restricted, the file is still restricted. To open one file inside a restricted folder, move it out of the folder on the Documents page.

Folders and single documents

You can restrict at two levels.

• A folder. On the Documents page, click the three dots beside the folder and choose Restrict to team. The rule covers everything in the folder, including files added later. A lock appears beside the folder.
• A document. A document's own rule replaces its folder's rule. It does not combine with it. Use this for the exception, such as one contract in an otherwise open folder. A document's own rule stays as you set it, even if the folder's rule changes later.

In the Documents table, a lock label in the file's row lists the teams allowed to read it. A solid label means the rule is on the document itself. A dashed one means it comes from the folder. You can start from the Documents page too: tick files in edit mode and click Restrict selected, or use Restrict… on a single row.

Who is affected

• Owners and admins can always read everything. A rule never hides your own library from you.
• Until a workspace has at least one team, nothing is restricted for anyone.
• Documents with no rule stay open to everyone in the workspace. If you would rather they were hidden until someone tags them, use the tick box under the folder list on the Documents page. Its label says it hides untagged documents from everyone except admins, and a line under it shows how many documents are untagged, for example 3 untagged. Ticking it asks you to confirm, because it hides all of those documents from non admins straight away. It only appears once you have at least one team. Like the other rules, it can only be changed on Professional. On Business the tick box is greyed out and the line under it ends with Professional. The Restrict buttons are greyed out too.
• The rules are checked when an expert answers someone, so a restricted document is not quoted to a person who cannot read it. Admins testing an expert will not see the difference, because admins can read everything.