---
schema_version: "1"
id: 7291559764873a053d55aa3763c06d987ce7b7a1b5795aa184a717414d6429bf
title: Get Started with Categories
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/service/264-0-0/getting_started_with_categories.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.getting_started_with_categories.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 0c5f275132ba0b8dac61ae93c25b10afad7cc2c6e87d71508b304f9dfb76c72b
description: Plan, define, and categorize your solutions.
products:
  - Service Cloud
release: "264"
---
# Get Started with Categories

Plan, define, and categorize your solutions.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;"><a href="https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.legacy_editions.htm&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank">View supported editions</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small permission">
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            <th scope="colgroup" class="slds-cell-wrap" colspan="2" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d36981e55">User Permissions Needed</th>
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            <td data-label="User Permissions Needed" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d36981e55 ">To create or change solution categories:</td>

            <td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d36981e55 ">Manage Categories</td>

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![Note](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-service-support_legacy-264-0-0-production-enus/081af4ec-6c06-4d4b-9443-cb3516bbc46d/images/icon_note.png)

Note Starting with Spring ’12, the Self-Service portal isn’t available for new Salesforce orgs. Existing orgs continue to have access to the Self-Service portal.

1. Plan which categories your support team needs. Keep in mind that you can also allow customers to find solutions by category in public solutions and your Self-Service portal. You can specify that customers can view only solutions in a particular category and all of its subcategories.
2. Define your categories. See [Defining Solution Categories](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.defining_solution_categories.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Begin by creating your solution categories. The All Solutions category is automatically created for you as the top of your solution hierarchy.").
3. Categorize your solutions; see [Categorizing Solutions](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.sol_category.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Use solution categories to group similar solutions together. Each solution can belong to more than one category."). Administrators, and users with the “Manage Categories” permission, can categorize solutions prior to enabling solution categories for the entire organization.
4. Create a custom report of type Solution Categories to verify that all solutions are categorized appropriately. To find any uncategorized solutions, use the advanced report filters; choose the Category Name field and the “equals” operator, and leave the third field blank. Administrators, and users with the “Manage Categories” permission, can create solution category reports prior to enabling solution categories for the entire organization.
5. Enable solution category browsing for the Solutions tab; see [Customizing Solution Settings](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.customize_solsettings.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "You can customize Solution settings like Solution browsing and enable translation into multiple languages.").
6. Enable solution category browsing for customers using public solutions and your Self-Service portal. See [Enabling Public Solutions](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.customize_publicsolutions.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Using the Solutions tab, your customer support team can create solutions that people outside of your organization may find helpful. Using HTML code supplied by Salesforce, and with the help of your website administrator, you can add a search box and button to your website that allows your customers to search for solutions. This functionality is known as Public Solutions.") and [Enable Self-Service Features and Settings](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.customize_selfserviceenable.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Customize Self-Service by enabling features and settings.").
7. Specify the top-level category accessible by customers using public solutions and your Self-Service portal. This is useful if you want to have certain categories available only to internal staff. Leave this blank if you want customers to view all categories and all solutions that are visible in Self-Service portal or visible in public solutions.

#### See Also

- [Solution Categories](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.customize_category.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "Create solution categories so that users can group similar solutions together. Once your solutions are categorized, users can browse for and find solutions by category from the Solutions tab or when solving a case.")