What's new

Try Northline on your help center, buy a license and make it live.

Install Northline

The handful of settings that turn Northline into your help center.

Make it yours in 15 minutes

Every setting in Northline's Settings panel, its default and what it changes.

Settings reference

The hero, search, topics, status, videos and contact blocks, and the header and footer.

Home page and navigation

The included fonts, using your own font, and loading no external font.

Fonts

What readers get on every article, and the settings that control it.

Article pages

Steps, callouts, tabs, carousels, accordions, code and video, with HTML to paste into the editor.

Content blocks

Video tutorials on the home page and in a video library, from your own articles.

Videos

The request form, form cards, the request list and a single request.

Requests

Topics, posts, votes and official answers, styled as a forum.

Community

Translated interface text, right-to-left layouts and translating your settings.

Languages and right-to-left

Using Northline on more than one help center in the same Zendesk account.

Several brands

What Northline loads, what it never does, and where it has been tested.

Privacy, performance and browsers

What Northline gives Google and other search engines.

Search engines

How the theme is organized, what to edit, and how updates work once you change the code.

Developer license

Answers to the questions buyers ask most.

Questions and fixes

Get help

What readers get on every article, and the settings that control it. Every element below has a switch under Article page elements.

Topic navigation: a sidebar with every section and article of the current topic, the current article highlighted. On this page: the article's headings (h2 and h3), highlighted as the reader scrolls. Clicking a heading's link icon copies a link to it. Previous and next: the articles before and after this one in its sect

Reading time, Author and the last update date under the title. Copy buttons: a Copy page menu with Copy as Markdown (handy for pasting into an AI assistant) and Copy link. Print button adds a print layout that drops the navigation. Code copy button on every code block. Image zoom opens screenshots full screen when they

Long URLs, long product names, wide tables and long lines of code stay inside the page on every screen size: words break only when they must, tables and code scroll inside their frame. Text pasted from Word or Google Docs keeps its bold and colors but takes your theme's font. To format articles with steps, callouts, ta

First release. Every help center page, built on Zendesk's Templating API v4: home, topics, sections, articles, search with generative answers, request form, request list, requests, profiles, community, service catalog and approvals. Home page: hero with tint, image or video background, quick search, popular searches, l

Topics, posts, votes and official answers, styled as a forum. When your community is on, Northline shows it as a forum: Community home: every topic as a card with its posts and followers, plus recent discussions. Topic page: posts with their votes and replies, filters and sorting, pinned and featured posts first, and idea statuses (planned, completed, not planned, answered) as la

Steps, callouts, tabs, carousels, accordions, code and video, with HTML to paste into the editor. Copy-paste snippets for article authors. Open an article in the Zendesk editor, switch to the source code view (), and paste. Every block reads fine without JavaScript, and they all work in dark mode, on phones and in right-to-left languages.

A top-level numbered list is shown as steps. Nothing to add.

callout-tip (green), callout-note (brand color), callout-warning (amber), callout-danger (red).

A tabs box with one heading per tab. Everything up to the next heading goes into that tab. Tabs with the same name stay in sync across the page, and the reader's last choice is remembered (macOS stays macOS on every article).

A carousel box of images or figures. Readers swipe, use the arrows or the dots.

Code blocks get a Copy button. Inline code uses.

Plain tables. Wide tables scroll inside their frame on phones.

Embed a YouTube, Vimeo, Loom, Wistia or Screendesk video with the editor's video button. It is sized 16:9 automatically. To list a video in the video library and on the home page, add the label video to the article (the label name is a theme setting). See Videos. The library uses the first image in the article as the p

Images open full screen when clicked (Image zoom setting). Add alt text; it is used in the zoom view and by screen readers.

How the theme is organized, what to edit, and how updates work once you change the code. The developer license gives you Northline's source in Zendesk's code editor (Customize design → Northline → Edit code). Editing code needs Knowledge (Guide) Professional or higher. Before editing, copy the theme (theme menu → Copy) and edit the copy. Once a theme's code is edited, Zendesk can't update it automatically;

templates/.hbs One template per page type, in Zendesk's Curlybars language. document head.hbs, header.hbs and footer.hbs are on every page. templates/custom pages/videos.hbs The video library page. style.css All styles. Section 00 is the foundation from Zendesk's Copenhagen theme; Northline's own styles are sections 01

Every color, radius and font comes from CSS custom properties at the top of style.css (--nl-brand, --nl-ink, --nl-line, --nl-r, --nl-font-heading...). Dark mode redefines them under:root[data-nl-mode="dark"]. Change a token rather than individual rules and both modes stay consistent.

Northline's own interface words live in assets/northline.js, in one dictionary per language (the I18N object). Add a language by copying the English entry and translating it.

window.Northline exposes refreshFormPicker(), paintIcons(), initTabs() and initCarousels() if you add content after the page loads.

The handful of settings that turn Northline into your help center. Open Knowledge admin → Customize design → Northline → Customize. Every change previews on the right before you publish it.

Brand → Logo: your logo, ideally an SVG or a PNG about 64px tall. Add Logo for dark mode if your logo is dark. Colors → Brand color: your main color. Buttons, links, highlights and the home page tint follow it, and Northline keeps text readable on it in light and dark mode. Fonts: pick a heading and a text font, System

Home page → Headline and Subtitle. Home page → Popular searches: three or four things people look for, comma-separated. Home page → Topics layout: topics with their sections (good up to about 12 topics), topic cards, or a compact list for large help centers. Header → Status page: your Atlassian Statuspage address shows

Header → Header link 1/2: for example Changelog and Back to the app. Header → Announcement bar: a one-line message visitors can close. Footer → Column 1–3: links as Label URL pairs separated by commas, plus your social links.

Home page → Contact block: request, chat (opens your Zendesk messaging) and community options. Request page → Request types as cards: if you have several ticket forms, visitors pick one from cards instead of a dropdown. Add a line under each with Request type descriptions. Request page → Screen recording link: a Screen

Tip Every change previews on the right before you publish, and nothing reaches visitors until you click Publish. Click Publish. If Northline isn't live yet, set it as the live theme from the theme library. The settings reference lists everything else.

The included fonts, using your own font, and loading no external font. Choose a Heading Font and a Text Font under Fonts. They can differ.

Instrument Sans (default), Inter, Geist, Manrope, DM Sans, Figtree, Plus Jakarta Sans and IBM Plex Sans, two serifs (Source Serif 4 and Fraunces), and two stacks that load nothing: System (the visitor's interface font) and Georgia. Included fonts load from Google Fonts, only the ones you pick.

Get the stylesheet link for your font. On Google Fonts, select the font and its weights (400, 600 and 700 are enough) and copy the address in the it gives you. Adobe Fonts gives you a link to a web project. A font on your own site needs a CSS file with its @font-face rules. Paste the link in Fonts → Custom font stylesh

For a help center that loads nothing from third parties, set both fonts to System or Georgia and leave the custom font empty. Code blocks always use the visitor's own monospace font.

Try Northline on your help center, buy a license and make it live. Northline is a help center theme for Zendesk built for software companies. It works on every help center page Zendesk has, including the request form, request list, community, service catalog and approvals.

A Zendesk account with a help center. You need to be a Zendesk admin. Any plan that lets you change your help center theme. Editing the theme's code needs a developer license and Knowledge (Guide) Professional or higher. Plan The video library page (/hc/ /p/videos) is a Zendesk custom page, which Zendesk only serves on

Open Northline on the Zendesk Marketplace and start the free trial. Choose the help center (brand) to install it on. In Knowledge admin → Customize design, Northline appears in your theme library. Click Customize to preview it with your own content and change its settings. The trial lasts 14 days. During the trial you 

On the Marketplace listing, buy the standard license or the developer license (includes the source code). Both are one-time purchases. In Knowledge admin → Customize design, open the menu on the Northline card and click Set as live theme. A license covers every help center in your Zendesk account. On each other brand, 

Every Northline feature and setting Yes Yes Free updates Yes Yes, applied by hand once you edit the code Edit templates, CSS and JavaScript No Yes (Knowledge Professional or higher) Price One time, see the Marketplace listing One time, see the Marketplace listing Tip Most teams only need the standard license: colors, f

Make it yours in 15 minutes Settings reference

The hero, search, topics, status, videos and contact blocks, and the header and footer. 

The hero holds your Headline, Subtitle and the search field. Hero background can be a soft tint of your brand color, plain, solid brand color, an image (Images → Home hero image) or a muted background video (Background video, an MP4 link). The video stays still for visitors who ask their device to reduce motion. Popula

On every page, visitors press Ctrl K (⌘ K on a Mac) or / to open a search box with instant results they can move through with the arrow keys. Turn it off with Search settings → Quick search. On the home page, the shortcut focuses the big search instead.

Zendesk categories are called topics on the page. Topics with their sections: a card per topic listing its first sections (Sections per topic, 0–8). Topic cards: one card per topic. Compact list: names only, for help centers with many topics. Each topic gets an icon picked from its name (Billing gets a card, Security a

Cards right under the search for the pages people need most: the app download, your API reference, billing. Set them in Home page blocks → Quick links, one card per entry, entries separated by semicolons, each written Title Text Link icon: The text and the icon are optional; without an icon, Northline picks one from th

A call to action above the contact block, for a webinar, a launch or a survey: Home page blocks → Banner, with a title, a line of text, a button label and a link. Banner style is a soft tint of your brand color, the solid brand color, or dark. Without a link the banner stays hidden.

Header → Status page: your Atlassian Statuspage address (for example https://status.example.com). The home page shows the live status and links to the page. What's new card: a title, a line and a link, for your latest release. Popular articles shows your promoted articles. Recent activity shows recently updated article

Videos on the home page: the first three videos from the video library. See Videos. Contact block: submit a request, chat (Chat option opens your Zendesk messaging or Web Widget), community and email (Support email).

Logo, the help center name (Show Help Center name), the Topics menu, two custom links (Header link 1/2), community, the light/dark switch, Submit a request and Sign in. Announcement bar: a message with an optional link. Visitors can close it; a new message shows again. On phones everything moves into a menu.

Three link columns (Column 1–3 title and links, written as Label URL pairs separated by commas), a short text, social links and the language picker.

Translated interface text, right-to-left layouts and translating your settings. 

Zendesk's own text (buttons, forms, the request list, community) comes in the 37 languages of Zendesk's standard theme. Northline's own text (the Topics menu, quick search, Copy page, video library, status card and so on) is translated into English, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, 

In Arabic and Hebrew the whole layout mirrors: navigation, menus, arrows, the article sidebar, carousels and the request form. Code blocks stay left-to-right. Each paragraph of an article, comment or post takes its direction from its own text, so an English paragraph in an Arabic article reads correctly, punctuation in

Northline shows whatever your help center has in the visitor's language. Topic icons follow each topic's name in its original language, so translated topics keep their icons. Videos and their library work per language.

Long lines without spaces wrap correctly in titles, menus and articles.

Using Northline on more than one help center in the same Zendesk account. Tip A Northline license covers every help center in your Zendesk account. In Knowledge admin, switch to the other brand with the brand menu at the top. In Customize design, add Northline from your theme library and set it live. Give each brand its own logo, colors, fonts and texts in its settings. What Northline does w

What Northline loads, what it never does, and where it has been tested. 

Northline has no tracking, analytics or cookies of its own. It stores two preferences in the visitor's browser: light or dark mode and the last tab chosen in tabbed articles. Fonts: web fonts load from Google Fonts. To load no external font, choose System or Georgia in Fonts. Status page: only when you set Status page,

Northline's script loads after the page and reads Zendesk's help center API only for what is on screen (the Topics menu, article navigation, videos). Answers are kept for the visit, so moving between pages doesn't ask again.

Tested in Chrome (and so other Chromium browsers such as Edge), Firefox and Safari, on desktop, tablet and phone sizes, in light and dark mode, in English, Arabic, Hebrew and Japanese, with help centers holding 30+ topics, 45-article sections, very long names, empty topics and every ticket field type. On a phone: home,

Keyboard navigation everywhere with visible focus, a skip link, menus that close with Escape and return focus, dialogs that keep focus inside, accessible names on icon buttons, text contrast that meets WCAG AA in both color modes for the default colors, and no motion for visitors who ask their device to reduce it.

The request form, form cards, the request list and a single request. Northline uses Zendesk's own request components, so every ticket field type, conditional field, attachment rule and CAPTCHA works as Zendesk intends. Northline styles them and adds a few things around them.

Request form intro: a short note above the form. Request types as cards: with more than one ticket form, visitors choose from cards ("What do you need help with?") instead of a dropdown. Request type descriptions adds a line under each, as Form name:description pairs separated by semicolons: Screen recording link: your

My requests shows Zendesk's tabs, search and a table with colored status pills. Custom ticket statuses get a color from their category. A single request shows the conversation with your team's replies marked, the reply box and a details card.

Profiles, contributions and followed content share the same header and tabs.

What Northline gives Google and other search engines. Clean structure: one h1 per page, headings in order, real links for every article, section and topic, and breadcrumbs on every page. Structured data: every article carries schema.org Article data (title, author, publication and update dates, your help center as publisher), and every page with breadcrumbs carries a Brea

Every setting in Northline's Settings panel, its default and what it changes. Open Knowledge admin → Customize design → Northline → Customize. Settings are grouped like this page. Text settings hold one text for every language; while a text still has Northline's default, visitors see it translated (see Languages).

Brand color Color 2F54EB Buttons, highlights, the active page in menus and the home page tint Brand text color Color FFFFFF Text on top of the brand color, such as button labels Text color Color 1A1D24 Text color for body and heading elements Link color Color 2747D6 Text color for link elements Hover link color Color 1

Heading Font Choice Instrument Sans Font for headings. Options: Instrument Sans, Inter, Geist, Manrope, DM Sans, Figtree, Plus Jakarta Sans, IBM Plex Sans, Source Serif 4, Fraunces, Custom font (set below), System (no web font), Georgia (no web font). Text Font Choice Instrument Sans Font for body text. Options: Instru

Logo Image Northline image Company logo Logo for dark mode Image Northline image Used in dark mode. Leave empty to reuse the main logo Show Help Center name Switch On Display the Help Center name next to the logo Favicon Image Northline image Icon displayed in the address bar of your browser

Announcement bar Switch Off A thin bar above the header for news, incidents or holiday hours. Visitors can close it Announcement text Text We just shipped a new dashboard editor. One short sentence Announcement link label Text See what's new Leave empty for no link Announcement link Text Empty Full URL, starting with h

Headline Text How can we help? The large title above the search Subtitle Text Search the guides, or browse by topic below. One line under the headline. Leave empty to hide Hero background Choice Soft brand tint Background behind the headline and search. Background image uses Home hero image under Images. Options: Soft 

Quick links title Text Empty Heading above the quick links. Leave empty for none Quick links Text Empty Cards under the search, for the pages people need most. One card per entry, entries separated by semicolons, each written Title Text Link icon (text and icon are optional). For example: Download the app iOS, Android 

Video label Text video Articles with this label and a video in them appear on the home page and in the video library (yourhelpcenter/hc/p/videos, a custom page that Zendesk serves on Enterprise plans) Video library title Text Video tutorials Title of the video library page and of the home page block Video library intro

Home hero image Image Northline image Hero image on the home page Community hero image Image Northline image Hero image on the community topics page Community banner Image Northline image Image for the community section on the home page Service catalog hero image Image Northline image Hero image on the service catalog 

Instant search Switch On Show suggested articles on search Scoped search in help center Switch On Search results are confined to the category the user is in Scoped search in Community Switch On Search results are confined to the topic the user is in Quick search Switch On Press Ctrl K or / on any page to search article

Topic navigation Switch On A left menu with every section and article of the current topic Articles in section Switch On Show sidebar of articles in section On this page Switch On A table of contents built from the article's headings, highlighting where the reader is Reading time Switch On Shows an estimated reading ti

Follow Switch On Users can follow a specific section

Follow Switch On Users can follow a specific post Social sharing Switch On Show social media sharing on post

Follow Switch On Users can follow a specific topic

Show suggested articles Switch On Show suggested articles on new request form Filter ticket fields by brand Switch On Only show ticket fields associated with the current brand's active forms on the requests page Request form intro Text Empty A short note above the request form. Leave empty to hide Request types as card

Footer text Text Empty A short line under your logo. Leave empty to hide Column 1 title Text Product Column 1 title Column 1 links Text Empty Label URL pairs separated by commas. For example: Pricing https://example.com/pricing, Changelog https://example.com/changelog Column 2 title Text Company Column 2 title Column 2

How to reach the team behind Northline. Email support@screendesk.io with your help center address and what you see. A screenshot or a short screen recording helps; you can record one at screendesk.io. Support covers installing Northline, its settings and features, and bugs. Changes to the code under a developer license are yours to make, but we're happy to p

Answers to the questions buyers ask most. 

Click Publish in the Settings panel. Then reload your help center; Zendesk caches pages for visitors for a few minutes.

Zendesk serves custom pages only on Enterprise plans. Your videos still appear on the home page and in their articles, and All videos opens their section. See Videos.

Zendesk hides it from agents and admins in preview. Preview as an anonymous visitor (Preview → Role → Anonymous), or sign out.

Set it in Home page → Topic icons, by topic name or id. See Home page.

Check that Custom font name matches the family name exactly (letters and spaces, no quotes), that Custom font stylesheet is the stylesheet address (it usually contains css), and that Heading Font or Text Font is set to Custom font (set below).

Status page must be the address of an Atlassian Statuspage (Northline reads its public /api/v2/status.json). Other status tools aren't supported; use a header link to them instead.

The chat option opens Zendesk messaging or the Web Widget. Add your messaging widget to the help center in Admin Center → Channels → Messaging.

Yes, one license covers every help center in the account. See Several brands.

No. Updates keep your settings. Code you edited under a developer license is not updated automatically.

Video tutorials on the home page and in a video library, from your own articles. Northline builds its video tutorials from articles. Any article with the label video (the label is the Videos → Video label setting) that contains a video embed counts as a video.

Write an article that explains one thing, with the video at the top. Embed it with the editor's video button: YouTube, Vimeo, Loom, Wistia and Screendesk all work. Add the label video to the article. Optional: put an image in the article to use as the poster. Without one, Northline uses the YouTube thumbnail or draws a

Home page: with Videos on the home page on, the first three videos appear under the topics. They play in place. Video library: /hc/ /p/videos lists every video, with filters by section. Its title and intro are the Video library title and Video library intro settings. In the article, sized 16:9 on every screen.

Plan The video library is a Zendesk custom page, and Zendesk serves custom pages only on Enterprise plans (Suite Enterprise and Enterprise Plus, or Support with Knowledge Enterprise). On other plans the library address shows a not-found page, so Northline points the home page's All videos link to the section that holds