Ferndesk
Customization

How to customize your help center

Customize your help center's branding, navigation, and features from the customization interface. All changes preview in real-time before you save.

You'll need admin or owner access to customize your help center. Access it from Dashboard > Help Center > Customize.

Branding

Control your help center's visual identity:

  • Logo: Upload your company logo (recommended 512x512px)

  • Logo Text: Add text next to your logo

  • Favicon: Set the browser tab icon (16x16px)

  • Primary Color: Main color for links and buttons

  • Complementary Color: Secondary accent color

  • Color Scheme: Choose System (auto), Light, or Dark mode

  • Heading Font: Select from Google Fonts for headings

  • Body Font: Select from Google Fonts for body text

Learn how to use custom fonts

Configure the top section of your help center:

  • Header Title: Main text at the top of your help center

  • Header Subtitle: Supporting text below the title

  • Show Trending Articles: Display popular articles in the header

Add custom links to your help center. Each area supports up to 3 links:

  • Header Links: Navigation in the top bar

  • Footer Links: Navigation at the bottom

  • Sidebar Links: Custom links with icons in the sidebar

For each link, specify the label, URL, and optional icon. Drag to reorder.

Contact

Choose how users can reach your support team:

  • Email: Contact button opens user's email client with your support address

  • Link: Contact button directs to an external URL (like your contact page)

  • None: Hide the contact button entirely

Customize the button text (CTA) for email and link options.

AI Answers

Enable AI-powered assistance in your help center. When enabled, users can ask questions in natural language and get instant answers from your knowledge base with citations.

Requires at least one published article to function.

AI answers work independently from your widget AI settings. Configure each separately.

Language

Set the default language for UI elements, search prompts, and AI assistant greetings. Available options: English, French, Spanish, and German.

This affects the interface only, not article content. Articles display in the language they were written in.

SEO

Optimize your help center for search engines and social sharing:

  • Page Title: Browser tab and search result title (50-60 characters recommended)

  • Meta Description: Search result description (160 character limit shown)

  • SEO Image: Social sharing preview image (1200x630px recommended)

Custom Domain

Connect a subdomain (like help.yourcompany.com) to your help center. You'll configure a CNAME record pointing to cname.ferndesk.cloud. Status shows pending, active, or error states.

Only subdomains are supported. Apex domains (yourcompany.com) cannot be used. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate.

For detailed setup instructions, see Connect a custom domain.

Advanced Settings

Inject custom code into your help center:

  • Head Code: Add scripts, stylesheets, or meta tags to the <head> section

  • Body Code: Add scripts or HTML to the <body> section

Redirects

Create URL redirects to preserve links when restructuring content. Specify the old path (From) and new destination (To). Both paths must start with /.

Saving Changes

Click Save in the top-right corner to apply all changes immediately. You can return anytime to make adjustments.

Changes take effect immediately after saving. Visit your live help center to see how customizations appear to users.

Common Issues

Issue

Solution

Logo appears pixelated

Use higher resolution images (512x512px for logo, 16x16px for favicon)

Custom domain shows error

Verify CNAME record points to cname.ferndesk.cloud. Allow up to 48 hours for DNS propagation

AI assistant says "couldn't find information"

Publish at least one article. The AI needs published content to generate answers

Contact button validation error

Check email format or ensure URL includes https://

Can't add more navigation links

Each area (header/footer/sidebar) is limited to 3 links

What's Next

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