# Customize category and article lists

_Category: Design and templates_

Decide how visitors browse your content: the grid of categories on your home page, lists of recent or hand-picked articles, your FAQs, and the list of articles on every category page.

**Who can do this:** Owners and Admins (Editors through **Customize** on your help center) · **Plans:** All plans

## Order the articles on category pages

1. In the template editor, open **Pages** and pick the **Category** page.
2. Find **Category articles** (marked **Built in**).
3. Under **Order articles by**, pick **Last updated**, **Create date**, **Alphabetically** or **Custom (drag to reorder)**.
4. Set the **Direction**: **Newest first** or **Oldest first**, or for Alphabetically, **A → Z** or **Z → A**. Alphabetically starts on Z → A, so switch it to A → Z if you want A first.
5. Click **Publish**.

![Screen recording. Open the Category page and find Category articles. Pick Alphabetically, or Custom to follow your own order. Set the Direction to A → Z.](https://helpcenter-io.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/self/EjWdIQEJDH0ACKocTi8MjasQZPloCwBB0PpO9ZEa.gif)
Sort alphabetically, or follow your own order with Custom.

With **Custom (drag to reorder)**, the page follows the order you set by dragging articles on your Articles dashboard. See [Change the order of articles and categories](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/reorder-articles-and-categories).

## The rest of the category page

Every category page lists its own articles automatically. The **Category articles** settings style that list; it isn't a component, so you can't remove or move it.

- **Category image** (under **Category header**) shows the category's image or icon in front of its name.
- **List style**: **List** or **Block** cards, with **Columns** for Block.
- **What each item shows**: **Excerpt**, **Author**, **Last updated**, **Reading time** and **Leading icon**.
- **Card background** wraps the list in a card.
- **Separate FAQs** lifts FAQ-type articles into an accordion at the top of the page. With it off, **Expand FAQs** shows their answers right under their titles.
- **Show subcategories** lists each subcategory with its articles below the category's own. Set their **Layout** (**Stacked** or **Grid**), how many articles to **Show first** (3, 5, 8 or 10), whether "Show all" opens them in place (**Expand inline**), and whether to **Hide empty subcategories**. **Subcategory-only cards** decides how a subcategory that only holds other subcategories is shown: **Title only**, **Rows**, **Chips** or **Tree**.

## Category grid

The grid of categories you usually see on the home page. Add it to the Main or Sidebar region of the Home, Category, Search or Not found page.

- **Variant**: **Vertical cards**, **Horizontal (image beside text)**, **List**, **Minimal**, **Cards + top articles** or **Sections (grouped by parent)**.
- **Limit**: **All**, **3**, **6**, **9** or **Custom**.
- **Hide empty categories** leaves out categories with no published articles anywhere inside them.
- **What each item shows**: **Article count**, **Subcategories count**, **Description**, **Authors**, **Author avatars**, **Last updated** and **Browse link**.
- Depending on the variant: **Columns**, **Show image**, **Image size**, **Spacing**, **Full-width image**, **Centered**, **Articles per category** (Cards + top articles) and the section options (Sections).

Categories appear in the order of your category tree. Icons, images and descriptions come from each category's settings. See [Add a category icon, image and description](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/category-icons-and-images).

## The page with all your categories

Give readers one place to browse every topic: your help center has a page at `/categories` (for example, `yourname.helpcenter.io/categories`) that lists all your top-level categories. Link to it from your header, footer or a button.

- It shows a **Categories** heading, then a card for each top-level category with its image and description, in the order of your category tree.
- It uses the header, sidebar and footer of your **Category** page, so change those on the Category page. The cards themselves have no settings.
- Private categories show only to readers who have access to them.

## Article list

A list of articles across categories, such as "Recent articles" or "Recently updated". Available on the Home, Category, Search and Not found pages.

- **Variant**: **List** or **Block** (cards, with 1 to 3 **Columns**).
- **Sort by**: **Most recently updated**, **Most recently added**, **Manual order (position)**, **Alphabetical (A → Z)** or **Reverse alphabetical (Z → A)**.
- **Limit**, **Heading**, **Heading icon** and **What each item shows**.
- For the List variant: **Show background**, and an option to show FAQ answers right under their titles.

## Featured articles

A short, hand-picked set of important articles. Available on the Home, Category and Search pages.

- Under **Featured articles**, search for articles and add them in the order you want. Leave it empty to show your most-viewed articles instead.
- **Variant**: **Cards grid** or **List**. Also **Heading**, **Heading icon** and **Limit**.

## FAQs

A list of questions and answers. Available on the Home, Category, Search and Not found pages.

- **FAQ section**: keep **Every FAQ article** to list all your published FAQ articles, or pick one of your FAQ sections. Owners and Admins can create one here with **New FAQ section**, then add questions by searching for articles. The component shows the questions in your help center's style: a section's own design applies only where you embed it on your website and on its share page.
- **Heading**, **Intro**, **Heading icon**, **Limit**, **Show background** and a leading icon for each question.

Adding or removing questions in an FAQ section takes effect right away, everywhere that section is used, without **Publish**.

To write FAQ articles, see [Write FAQs and add them to articles](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/write-faqs).

## Content tree

Your categories and articles as a tree readers can open and close, often placed in a sidebar. Available on every page except Contact.

- **Variant**: **Plain list**, **Icon tiles** or **Docs groups**. Docs groups shows each top-level category as an open section with an accent heading and a separator, its articles and subcategories nested below, and a marker on the page being read. **Container**: **Card** or **Minimal**. **Density**: **Comfortable** or **Compact**.
- **What each item shows**: **Articles**, **Article count**, **Category icons** and **Highlight current**.
- **Max depth**, **Collapsible** and **Sticky** (keeps it in view as readers scroll).

## Search results

The Search page lists results by relevance. Its **Search results** settings (marked **Built in**) set their look:

- **Result style**: **List** or **Block** cards, with 1 to 3 **Columns** for Block.
- **What each result shows**: **Excerpt**, **Author**, **Last updated**, **Reading time** and **Leading icon**. With **Leading icon** on, pick the **Result icon** shown before each title.
- When you show the excerpt, **Excerpt text** picks either the **Matching text**, with up to 3 **Passages** per result, or the **Article opening**.
- **Card background** (List style only) wraps the results in a card.

## Troubleshooting

**My custom article order doesn't show.** Set **Order articles by** to **Custom (drag to reorder)** and publish. The order itself comes from your Articles dashboard.

**A category is missing from the grid.** Check the **Limit**, and whether **Hide empty categories** is on. Private categories show only to readers who have access to them.

**My changes don't show on my help center.** Click **Publish**. Your design changes stay in the draft until you do.

## Related articles

- [Change the order of articles and categories](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/reorder-articles-and-categories)
- [Add a category icon, image and description](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/category-icons-and-images)
- [Write FAQs and add them to articles](https://self.helpcenter.io/content/write-faqs)