Question 1

How does Password Protection of Content (FAQs or Workflows) work?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! let's you password protect individual items of content (e.g. a particular FAQ or Workflow) and/or your Hosted Hub.

The best option for you will depend on how exactly you use and implement Malcolm!

Password Protection on Hosted Hub

You can add a "start of session" password to your Hosted Hub via the Visibility tab in the Settings section in MyMalcolm.

In this area you can add one or more passwords. For example you could add one password that all your users share, or you could give each user an individual password. You can supply a label/description next to the password in MyMalcolm to remind yourself who that password was created for. From the same area you can suspend or delete previously created passwords, as well as see when passwords were last used.

When a user visits any page on your Hosted Hub they create a web session. The first time they do this they will be asked for their password.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/f2uGLquUY3/Screenshot%202019-04-23%2010.55.25.png (Screenshot 2019-04-23 10.55.25 (2).png)

Password Protection on Individual Content Items

You can also add configure password protection on individual items of content like an FAQ or a Workflow. You do this via the Visibility tab in the Configure section of the individual FAQ or Workflow (which you access via the library in the respective FAQ or Workflow section of MyMalcolm).

The default setting for items of content is that they inherit the settings from the Hub. So if no password is set at a Hub level no password is required to view the content. If a password is set at a Hub level then a password will be required at the start of the user session. If you want to ensure that a password is always required before a particular FAQ or Workflow is accessed you should set it at this content level. Bear in mind however that if you also have a Hub password set and a user starts their session with a direct link to individual content that is password protected they will need to enter two passwords: one to get them into the Hub session and a further password to view the content.

You can also set an individual item of content to never require a password, even if the Hub has a password set. This can be useful if, for example, you want to put all your content behind a Hub password but want to create a Workflow that lets people request access. In this scenario you would create a Workflow for the purpose of requesting access, set it to never require a password then link to it from the text you can configure on the Hub password request screen. When requests come in you can review them and if you approve you can manually set up the user's password.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/I3VJyQJ4IZ/Screenshot%202019-04-23%2010.57.05.png (Screenshot 2019-04-23 10.57.05.png)

Also worth noting

If a user makes three failed password attempts they will not be able to attempt a further password within that session for 30 minutes.

Auth0

We also support managing user passwords via Auth0- see more details here and via Memberstack - see more details here.

Question 2

Does the free trial have any restrictions?

Accepted Answer

The free trial follows the quotas for the Team plan, but with a lower limit for file uploads.

A trial therefore allows:

Up to 100 FAQs
Up to 10 Workflows
Up to 5 team members
Fle uploads to a total of 100MB.

If you sign up to a plan via the Billing section of MyMalcolm your restrictions will be lifted. If you have a particular requirement for higher FAQ, Workflow, team members or file upload limits during your trial please get in touch with us to discuss.

Question 3

How do I sign up?

Accepted Answer

You can sign up and create a Malcolm! user account by filling in the registration form here.

You will need to verify your account via clicking a link in an email we send to your email so please ensure you use a real email address!

It is free to sign up and have a Malcolm! user account - billing belongs to an Instance rather than a user. See here for more on instances.

Your user account can be attached to one or more instances of Malcolm! and you can easily switch between them. This can be great if your company or organisation are using Malcolm! for various different things or if you are a freelancer and work with Malcolm! across different clients or projects.

Question 4

What is Malcolm?

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! is a super flexible set of tools that quickly helps you with your user interactions.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/g951PpANTK/fb-no-text-01%402x.png (Welcome to Malcolm!)

Tell me more!

If you are a business that has customers or other stakeholders (eg suppliers) you will almost certainly have to support and service these people. This often involves answering their questions and/or taking them through routine tasks or procedures.

For example

Customers may have questions about a product or service you sell
To process an order/booking/request or set up/modify your customer records you might need to collect certain information from a customer.

You could deal with these customer interactions face to face, over the phone or by email.

But the more customers you have the more time that takes up - and it can be never ending as more and more questions keep coming in every day.

With Malcolm! you can quickly digitise your Frequently Asked Questions and turn repetitive tasks or procedures into Workflows. Then direct customers to your website 24/7/365 where they can self serve.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/AyHgeEg6cX/fb-no-text-05%402x.png (Change your business or organisation for the better with Malcolm!)

Neat right?

There are also lots of cool features like customers being able to give feedback on answers, analytics so you know the most popular questions your customers are asking plus integrations with other software like Dropbox or Mailchimp (and over 1,500 other apps via Zapier) so you can automatically send the information you collect via Malcolm! into other systems. And that is just for starters - there are lots and lots of further powerful features.

Did we mention you can also easily style and brand everything to match your business branding? And use your own domain name?

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/Ixsmp4XOhV/fb-no-text-04%402x.png (Malcolm! At your service)

Find out more

Explore this Support Section which is itself running on Malcolm! to find out all the things you can do and how to do them. Or browse our main website for an overview of all the features and pricing.

Sign up for your free trial here.

And if you’ve any questions which aren’t answered in our Support section reach out to us anytime and we will be glad to help!

Question 5

Can I password protect my Hosted Hub?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can password protect your Hosted Hub. You can also password protect individual FAQ's or Workflows.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/KFFCF1u5Kx/password-fb%402x.png (Password protect your content on Malcolm!)

Read more about password protection of content on Malcolm! here.

Question 6

How do I create a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)?

Accepted Answer

Within MyMalcolm go the FAQ Section and click "Create a FAQ" towards to the top right of the screen.

This will bring up the "compose your question and answer" dialogue. Here you can input the question, an optional brief summary answer (used in search and browse results) and your full answer. For tips on how to write a good FAQ click here.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/FrnZFuskaf/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.07.29-21_44_58.png (Compose FAQ in MyMalcolm)

When composing your FAQ you can use the formating controls in the "full answer" box or directly enter Markdown. Markdown is a great way of quickly adding formatting to textual content. If you've not used it before it can take a minute or two to get used to it but it's very fast to work with once you have got the hang of it. You can click the "Need help with Markdown?" button bottom left anytime for a quick reference Markdown guide.

You can see what your FAQ will look like to your users by pressing the "Preview" button top right. When you have written your content press "Next: Configure" to move onto the configuration options for your FAQ.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/vDpsP666Gj/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.07.29-22_20_03.png (Configure FAQ in MyMalcolm)

In this area you can control various things about your FAQ such as whether an author is shown, what the URL is, your choice of tags, whether the feedback form is enabled and the category or categories the FAQ lives in. You also have various options around whether the FAQ can be seen by search engines, is password protected or not and can be found or not via the Malcolm! search/browse capability. You can even set the FAQ (or versions of it) to publish and un-publish automatically at certain dates and time in the future.

Watch a video guide to creating an FAQ below.

Question 7

Can I remove the Malcolm! branding?

Accepted Answer

It is quick and easy to remove the Malcolm! branding and - if you want - replace it with your own. Here is how:

Hosted Hub

By default your Hosted Hub is Malcolm! branded. To change that:

In MyMalcolm go to the Brand section.
Click "Themes" on the black sub navigation.
The default Malcolm! theme will be selected. Click the "duplicate" icon (two squares overlapping). This will create a copy of the default theme called "Default copy".
Select the Default copy theme by clicking on it. Then click the "edit" icon (a pencil).
This brings up the edit theme interface. There are a huge amount of things you can change here. Use the left hand vertical navigation to browse all the possibilities.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/6ACEG5RrGl/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2019.08.05-10_46_38.png (MyMalcolm Theme Editing Options)

Footer

Be default a "powered by Malcolm!" badge appears at the bottom of content. You can turn this off (and also add other footer content such as copyright notices etc) in the "Footer" section of the edit theme interface referenced above.

Embeds

You can turn off the "powered by Malcolm!" badge in your embeds by turning off the footer. You do this via the style section of your embed configuration.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/m6Pb8R7IbC/screenshot-my.malcolm.app-2020.05.26-11_42_48.png (Style controls in an Embed in MyMalcolm)

Emails

Malcolm! can send emails to your customers/users in the following situations:

Email this answer functionality on an FAQ
Sending the resume later Workflow link
Payment confirmation email

To change the branding of these emails see this article.

To change the sender name and email address see this article.

Domain

Finally don't forget you can easily configure Malcolm! to use your own domain or sub-domain. For further details see this article.

Question 8

What is an Instance?

Accepted Answer

An instance is a collection of related FAQ’s and/or Workflows that your users will see and interact with plus a set of management tools that you and other members of your staff or team will use.

Each instance also includes an optional hosted hub that you can customise and brand.

If you decide to use Malcolm! in two distinct areas of your business it can make sense to have two different instances. For example you could use one instance of Malcolm! to support customers of your product or service and another instance as an internal HR portal.

You can see some examples of how Malcolm! instances can be used here

Instance Billing

Our billing is based around instances. You can start an instance any time and enjoy a 14 day trial. This can be great for trying ideas out. If you want to keep using the instance beyond 14 days you'll need to choose a plan and give us your card details, or agree an enterprise plan with us.

Instance Owners

Each instance will have an owner. This is the master user who is ultimately responsible for the instance. If you are on a Team or Enterprise plan you can invite other users to the instance too. If you need to transfer ownership of the instance to another user (for instance if you are leaving a company or organisation) you can do that as long as the proposed new owner agrees.

Question 9

Understanding Malcolm! - some concepts and how to use the product

Accepted Answer

Malcolm! is a super powerful and flexible web based product but it might seem a bit confusing at first. Here is a quick primer on some core Malcolm! concepts and features which we hope will help you understand the product and use it in the way that makes sense to you and your business.

Core Components of Malcolm!

Malcolm! has two core content components: Malcolm! FAQ and Malcolm! Workflow.

Malcolm! FAQ is all about answering your user's questions and/or providing information (eg a how-to or a policy).

Before we created Malcolm! we spent a lot of time building online systems that helped companies digitise what they do.

We found that - in broad terms - this came down to designing and developing systems that:

answered questions and
took users through a process.

For example

Lets say you sell and service industrial heating systems. A potential customer might want to know if you service a particular type of boiler that they have in their office.

You can let that potential customer find the answer to that question themselves via Malcolm!. You'd create a question along the lines of "Which types of boiler do you service?" and in your answer you'd include all the makes and models that you work with.

Your potential customer would come to your website, and be able to find the answer themselves using Malcolm!

Next, having learnt you do indeed service the boiler they have in their office they might want to book a service appointment.

To do this you are likely to need to know a few details - for example their name, their company name, where their office is and perhaps a few other details like their phone number and email, when they are available for a service visit, any issues they are having with the boiler and when it was last serviced.

You can create a form that asks all those questions in Malcolm! and add that form as a "Book a service" link onto your website. When a customer fills that form in Malcolm! can email you all the details. Malcolm! can also do lots of other clever things like pass that request into other systems that you might use.

Why would I want to do this?

Customers like it - nowadays more and more people prefer to do things online
You look professional and slick - Malcolm! can integrate with your existing website and you can style all the screens to match your brand
It's available 24/7/365 - customers can find what they need at a time that suits them
Save time - stop burning time answering the same questions or doing the same process again and again
Consistency- receive complete information from your customers in the format you need it
Efficiency - pass customer information collected via Malcolm! into your other systems automatically
Get feedback - Malcolm! let's your customers feedback to you whether the information they found was helpful or areas for improvement
Analytics- get statistics on what customers are searching for, what they are reading and the most popular times for certain types of requests
Great management tools - You and your internal team / staff can see everything at a glance via MyMalcolm - the comprehensive control panel area of Malcolm!

You can see some examples of possible uses of Malcolm! here

Use Malcolm! FAQs and Workflows together or separately

One of the things to bear in mind is that you can use the FAQ and Workflows parts of Malcolm! together or individually. It may be that you want to build a customer knowledge base using Malcolm! FAQ but you have no need for Workflows at the moment. That is no problem! Similarly you might want to create a series of web forms for various user servicing tasks using Malcolm! Workflow but don't need to answer questions with FAQs. Again this is no issue. You simply use the parts of Malcolm! that make sense to you and your business.

How does Malcolm! work with my current website?

At the heart of Malcolm! is flexibility. We want to make it as easy as possible to work with our system. We also want to offer options for a wide user base - from a one man band with no or limited web development knowledge through to big companies who may have large in house technical teams.

At one of the end of the scale is our Hosted Hub. Every instance of Malcolm! comes with a hosted Hub. This is a website that we host for you. You can customise it entirely to your requirements. You can change the branding, the colours, the fonts, the layout, the copy, the icons etc etc. You can even configure it to work on one of your own domains or sub domains.

If you don't have a current website your Hosted Hub could be your main website. If you already have your main website at www.domain.com you could set up your fully branded Malcolm! Hosted Hub at a sub domain like support.domain.com or help.domain.com or customers.domain.com

Some customers may not wish to do this and instead may wish to integrate Malcolm! into their current website. No problem! We have a whole section in the MyMalcolm Control Panel dedicated to this and there a variety of ways you can bring content and functionality from Malcolm! into your own website. We've also got a plugin for Wordpress and a variety of widgets and further integration options. Want a floating widget? No problem. Want a button which opens a modal/overlay? No problem. Customers on our Enterprise plans can have full programmatic access to Malcolm! content and functionality via our comprehensive API.

Don't forget your Internal Customers!

Remember that your business or organisation may have more than one type of "customer!". As well as using Malcolm! with members of the general public you can also use it internally to help a particular business function or department.

For example:

In our example of being an industrial heating sales & service company above you could use an instance of Malcolm! for your service engineers. Various knowledge about things you service could be stored in Malcolm FAQ! and you could build digital versions of processes or business procedure in Malcolm! Workflow - for example job sheets or part order forms.
You could use Malcolm! as an online presence for your Human Resources or Finance department
You could use Malcolm! as a way of communicating information about your premises or facilities
You could use Malcolm! as a home for an internal project or initiative

Question 10

What is my Hosted Hub?

Accepted Answer

Every instance of Malcolm! comes with a Hosted Hub. This is a website that we host for you. You can customise it entirely to your requirements. You can change the branding, the colours, the fonts, the layout, the copy, the icons etc etc. You can even configure it to work on one of your own domains or sub domains.

https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/HwJyEPPI3q/resources/V93ed8Zu51/brand-facebook%402x.png (Hosted Hub on Malcolm!)

If you don't have a current website your Hosted Hub could be your main website. If you already have your main website at www.domain.com you could set up your fully branded Malcolm! Hosted Hub at a sub domain like support.domain.com or help.domain.com or customers.domain.com

Some customers may not wish to do this and instead may wish to integrate Malcolm! into their current website. No problem! We have a whole section in the MyMalcolm Control Panel dedicated to this and there a variety of ways you can bring content and functionality from Malcolm! into your own website. We've also got a plugin for Wordpress and a variety of widgets and further integration options coming soon. Customers on our Enterprise plans can have full progamatic access to Malcolm! content and functionality via our comprehensive API.