Migrating layouts is mostly mechanical work plus a careful manual audit for validation rules and dependent picklists.
- Inventory current Article Type Layouts
Document each Article Type, its layouts, and the profiles assigned. The inventory becomes the mapping target during migration.
- Run the Lightning Knowledge migration in a sandbox
Salesforce's migration tool maps each Article Type to a Record Type and each layout to a per-Record-Type page layout on the unified Knowledge object.
- Audit each migrated layout
Walk every layout post-migration. Confirm field positions, sections, and required-field markers. Fix anything the tool could not translate cleanly.
- Migrate validation rules and dependent picklists
Recreate or consolidate validation rules and dependent picklists on the new Knowledge object. Field name changes often require manual rule updates.
- Switch to permission-set-based assignment
Use the migration as an opportunity to move layout assignment from profile to Permission Set Layouts. The assignment model scales much better at large org sizes.
- Validation rules and dependent picklists often need manual fixing post-migration. Field names change and references break.
- Profile-based assignment carries over by default. Use the migration as a chance to move to permission-set-based assignment.
- Article Type Layout references in pre-2020 documentation almost always translate to Record Type layouts in Lightning Knowledge.
- Custom Apex that references layout-specific behaviour may need updates if the layout naming convention changes.