--- title: "How to Import Word Documents into a ServiceNow Knowledge Base" description: "Step-by-step instructions for ServiceNow's Import Articles feature, what it does with headings, images, tables, and links, the settings that decide the article's starting state, and when a spreadsheet or API import is the better choice." canonical: https://ocho.bot/blog/import-word-documents-into-servicenow-knowledge-base last_updated: 2026-09-12 --- # How to Import Word Documents into a ServiceNow Knowledge Base > Step-by-step instructions for ServiceNow's Import Articles feature, what it does with headings, images, tables, and links, the settings that decide the article's starting state, and when a spreadsheet or API import is the better choice. Published: 2026-09-12 ServiceNow can import Microsoft Word files (.doc and .docx) directly as knowledge articles. It is the only native file import that Knowledge Management offers, and it works well for a handful of clean documents. This guide gives the exact steps, explains what the importer keeps and drops, and tells you when to stop using it and switch to a bulk method. ## Before you import: prepare the document The importer converts Word formatting to HTML that the article editor (TinyMCE) supports. What the editor cannot represent, the importer discards. Ten minutes of preparation saves an hour of cleanup afterward. - **Use default heading styles.** Apply Word's built-in Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on. The documentation states that only default heading settings are supported and that custom heading styles are imported using the default settings. - **Remove heading numbers.** Numbered headings lose their numbers on import. If the numbers matter, type them into the heading text. - **Simplify tables.** Table content is preserved. Table styling and borders are not. Merged cells and nested tables are worth flattening first. - **Delete headers, footers, and page numbers.** They are not part of the body in Word, but the conversion can carry them into the article text. - **Save as .docx with a lowercase extension.** The documentation requires the file extension to be lowercase, and links are preserved for .docx only, not .doc. - **Keep images reasonable.** Each image becomes an attachment on the article and is embedded in the body. The documentation warns that alignment may differ from the original. - **One document, one article.** The importer creates exactly one article per file. A 60-page manual becomes a 60-page article. Split the file first if the help desk needs separate articles. ## Step by step: Import Articles 1. Open All, Knowledge Articles, Import Articles. On older releases the path is All, Knowledge, Import Articles. You need the `knowledge` role for this module. 2. Choose the knowledge base. The list shows only knowledge bases you can contribute to. 3. Optionally choose a category. You can also assign one after import. 4. Decide on the Publish checkbox. Unchecked, each article is created in Draft. Checked, each article enters Review or Published, depending on the workflow assigned to that knowledge base. 5. Select one or more Word files and click Import. One article is created per file. 6. Open each new article. Check headings, tables, and images. Set the valid-to date, the ownership group if your instance uses them, and any fields the template requires. 7. Move the article through the knowledge base's workflow. With the default Instant Publish workflow, publishing is immediate. With Approval Publish, a knowledge manager or ownership group member approves it first. A second entry point exists on the Knowledge homepage (All, Self-Service, Knowledge): drag one or more files onto the page and the same options appear. This one requires no special role, only contribute rights to the knowledge base. ## What the import cannot do - It does not import from a mobile device. - It does not accept PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML, or Markdown. For PDFs, see [How to convert PDFs into ServiceNow knowledge articles](/blog/convert-pdfs-to-servicenow-knowledge-articles). - It uses the standard article template only. Custom templates need a different route. - It cannot map metadata. Every article from a batch gets the same knowledge base and category, and you set author, validity, ownership group, and tags afterward. - It does not deduplicate. Import the same file twice and you get two articles. - Closing the browser cancels uploads still in progress. Articles already created are kept. There is no documented file size or file count limit. ServiceNow's community guidance is to import in small batches, and a batch of a few dozen files is a reasonable ceiling before the cleanup work outgrows the time saved. ## When to switch to a bulk method The Word importer is the right tool when the documents are few, well formatted, and each should become one article. It becomes the wrong tool at three signals: - **You are importing more than a few dozen files.** Post-import cleanup is per article, and it does not scale. - **You need metadata per article.** Categories, authors, validity dates, and tags per document mean a spreadsheet import or the Table API, where each row carries its own fields. See [How to bulk import knowledge articles into ServiceNow](/blog/bulk-import-knowledge-articles-into-servicenow). - **The documents overlap.** When several files describe the same procedure, a one-file-one-article importer reproduces the duplication inside ServiceNow. That is the case for a migration that reads the whole set first, which is what Ocho does: it maps the collection, marks duplicates and stale versions with a logged reason, drafts one cited article per topic, and publishes only what your experts approve. The [SharePoint to ServiceNow migration page](/leave-sharepoint) describes the engagement. ## Questions ### Does the import create the article in Draft or Published? Draft, unless you check Publish. With Publish checked the article follows the knowledge base's workflow, so it may go to Review rather than straight to Published. ### Where do the images go? They are stored as attachments on the article and embedded in the body. They count against instance storage. ### Can I import into a Knowledge v2 knowledge base? Yes, but articles in Knowledge v2 knowledge bases always go to Draft regardless of the Publish checkbox. ### Is there an API equivalent? Not for Word conversion. The Table API creates articles from HTML you supply, and the Attachment API adds files to them. ## Sources and how we checked Checked on 2026-09-12 against the ServiceNow Zurich documentation. - [Import a document as a knowledge article](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/zurich-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/task/t_ImportADocument.html) - [Import Word documents](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/zurich-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/task/import-word-platform.html) - [Knowledge workflows](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/washingtondc-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/reference/r_KnowledgeWorkflows.html) - [Knowledge article states](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/bundle/xanadu-servicenow-platform/page/product/knowledge-management/concept/knowledge-article-states.html) - ServiceNow community: [Options for importing external articles into ServiceNow](https://www.servicenow.com/community/knowledge-management-articles/options-for-importing-external-articles-into-servicenow/ta-p/2673388) --- Ocho — AI knowledge orchestration · [Home](https://ocho.bot/) · [Docs](https://ocho.bot/docs) · [Blog](https://ocho.bot/blog) · [About](https://ocho.bot/about) · [Developers](https://ocho.bot/developers) · [Contact](https://ocho.bot/contact) · [llms.txt](https://ocho.bot/llms.txt)