Creating Your First Support Portal

By the end of this guide, you'll have a fully functional support portal live on your WordPress site. Your visitors will be able to browse help topics, search your knowledge base, view their conversations, and submit new support requests -- all from a single page.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure:

• DeskPress is installed and activated. See Installing DeskPress if you haven't done this yet.
• Your Help Scout account is connected. See Connecting Your Help Scout Account for instructions.

Step 1: Create the Portal Page

1. In your WordPress admin, go to Pages > Add New.
2. Give your page a title. Something clear and simple works best, like:

• "Support"
• "Help Center"
• "Customer Support"

1. You don't need to add any content to the page body -- DeskPress handles the layout automatically.

Step 2: Assign the Portal Template

1. In the Block Editor (Gutenberg), open the page settings in the right sidebar.
2. Look for the Template option under the page settings panel.
3. Select DeskPress - Portal from the template dropdown.
4. If you're using the Classic Editor, look for the Page Attributes box on the right side and select the template from the Template dropdown there.

Step 3: Publish the Page

1. Click Publish (or Update if the page already exists).
2. Click the View Page link to see your portal in action.

You should see a fully styled support portal that includes:

• A hero section with a search bar at the top
• Topic cards linking to your Help Scout Docs collections
• A conversation list where logged-in users can view their support tickets

Step 4: Add the Portal to Your Navigation (Optional)

To make it easy for visitors to find your portal:

1. Go to Appearance > Menus in your WordPress admin.
2. In the Pages panel on the left, find your new portal page and check the box next to it.
3. Click Add to Menu.
4. Drag the menu item to your preferred position.
5. Click Save Menu.

If your theme uses the block-based navigation (Full Site Editing), you can add the page link directly through the Site Editor under Appearance > Editor > Navigation.

Choosing a Portal Template

DeskPress comes with several page templates to suit different needs:

To switch templates at any time, edit your portal page and change the template in the page settings.