Announcing SharePoint Knowledge Base 1.2 - Now with Stars and Clouds

I know, I know. It sounds more like an announcement for "lucky charms" cereal than for a SharePoint solution, but if you're searching for a stellar knowledge base for SharePoint, trust me, you just got lucky

Bamboo's newest version of the SharePoint Knowledge Base Solution Accelerator includes a customizable "tag cloud" interface that helps users find the content they need, as well as a new "star ratings" interface, to give users an easy way to provide feedback on the content they consume. 

The tag cloud lets admins define a list of keywords or "tags" to describe content. When an article is authored or edited, any or all of those tags can be assigned to the article. Then, when end users view the Tag Cloud Web Part, it will contain the top keywords based on usage (you define how many "top" equals), and display them in varying sizes based on their frequency of use. After a user clicks on a tag, a list of the matching articles will be displayed in a drop down section, just below the cloud. The tag cloud gives you one more way to get your users to the content they need, and it's a separate Web Part, so it can be used alongside all of the existing browse and search methods (tree view, search, "popular articles" view, "most recent" articles view, and "all articles" view), or on its own to drive traffic to your content. 


In addition to the Tag Cloud Web Part, a new star-based ratings option has been added in this release. Administrators can now enable user ratings in either a 5-star or numerical layout. Ratings can be a great source of feedback to help your content authors or organizers know what works, and what might need a little. Since star ratings interfaces are the norm these days on websites, why should yours be different? Giving your users a familiar UI for ratings ensures they find the articles they want, and you get the feedback you need. I believe the technical term for that combination is a "Win-Win".

User ratings/comments entry:

Ratings display:

To check out these new features, and all of the other functionality the SharePoint Knowledge Base Solution Accelerator offers, head over to the product page and download your free 15-day trial now.