Creating macros for tickets – Blink Digital

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Quick Look: Admin Center > Workspaces > Agent tools > Macros

You can simply and effectively streamline your workflow by creating macros for support requests that can be solved with a single, standard response or action. This saves agents the time and effort of manually responding to multiple customers with the same issue.

This article contains the following topics:

About macros

A macro is a prepared response or action that an agent can manually apply when they are creating or updating tickets. Macros contain actions that can update ticket properties.

Unlike triggers and automations, macrosonlycontain actions, not conditions. Conditions aren't used because nothing is automatically evaluating tickets to determine if a macro should be applied. Agents evaluate tickets and apply macros manually as needed.

Macros can perform tasks. For example

Add comment text
Update ticket fields
Add or remove ticket tags
Add followers
Change the assignee
Set the ticket subject
Add attachments to ticket comments
Start side conversations

There are two types of macros: personal macros (created by an agent or administrator for their own use) and shared macros (created by an administrator for multiple users).

Creating personal macros for tickets (agents)

Although only administrators can create the macros that are shared by all Zendesk Support agents, agents can create macros for their own use. A personal macro is only visible to and can only be used or modified by the creator.

You can create macros from scratch, as described here, or you can create macrosbased on existing tickets.

The following video gives you an overview of how to use macros to respond to tickets faster:

Use quick responses with macros [1:40]

To create a personal macro for tickets

InAdmin Center, clickWorkspacesin the sidebar, then selectAgent tools > Macros.
Click theAll shared macrosdrop-down menu and selectPersonal macros.
Click theAdd macrobutton.
Enter the macro name, and add actions for your macro as described inBuilding macro action statements.
ClickCreate.

Your personal macros are added to the list of available macros.

Creating personal or shared macros (admins)

A macro is a prepared response or action that an agent can apply to a ticket. Macros contain actions that can update ticket properties.

Admins, and agents in custom roles with permission, can createsharedmacros to be used by all agents or groups of agents. The maximum number of shared macros per account is 5,000. Admins and all agents can createpersonalmacros for their own use.

A personal macro is only visible to and can only be used or modified by the creator. Administrators can create shared macros, and can modify all shared macros, regardless of who created them.

You can create macros from scratch, as described here, or you can create macrosbased on existing tickets.

Tip:Fine Tuning:Learn how to improve your agents' productivity in Sylviana Ho'sFine Tuning: Agent Productivity.

To create a personal or shared macro for tickets

InAdmin Center, clickWorkspacesin the sidebar, then selectAgent tools > Macros.
ClickAdd macro.
Enter aMacro name.
(Optional) Enter a macroDescription.
Select who can use the macro fromAvailable for:
- All agents, all agents
- Agents in group, specified groups
  (Suite Growth and up or Support Professional and up only)
- Me only, the macro creator
ClickAdd action, then select an action and complete the additional field.
SeeBuilding macro action statements.

If you choose theComment/descriptionmacro action, and you have rich text formatting enabled, you canadd formatting and inline imagesand you canadd attachmentsto your macro comments. For the Comment/description macro action, you canadd formatting, images, andattachments.
ClickAdd actionagain to add another action.
ClickCreate.
The macro is created.

Adding formatting and inline images to macro comments

You can add styling, formatting, and inline images to theComment/descriptionmacro action.

To add formatting to your comment

In the macro, under the comment box, click theTat the bottom of the field.

This opens the rich text editor interface.

Select the formatting you want to apply to the text.

Toolbar button	Formatting	Keyboard shortcuts
	Increase/decrease heading style	Increase:Ctrl++ ⌘++(Mac) Decrease:Ctrl+- ⌘+-(Mac)
	Bold	Ctrl+B ⌘+B(Mac)
	Italicize	Ctrl+I ⌘+I(Mac)
	Change the text color. Currently, not available in the Macros editor.	Agent Workspaceonly.
	Bulleted list	CtrlShift+8 ⌘+Shift+8(Mac)
	Numbered list	Ctrl+Shift+7 ⌘+Shift+7(Mac)
	Decrease paragraph indentation	Ctrl+[ ⌘+[(Mac)
	Increase paragraph indentation	Ctrl+] ⌘+](Mac)
	Block quote	Ctrl+Shift+9 ⌘+Shift+9(Mac)
	Code block	Ctrl+Shift+6 ⌘+Shift+6(Mac)
	Code span	Ctrl+Shift+5 ⌘+Shift+5(Mac)
	Hyperlink	Ctrl+K ⌘+K(Mac)
	Horizontal line	Ctrl+Shift+L ⌘+Shift+L(Mac)

If you created a macro with the Comment/description action before the addition of rich text formatting, you can update your macro by clicking theUse rich contentlink. This copies your existing comment action, loads in the rich content editor, and places your comment back into the editor. You can then apply formatting and images or attachments as needed.

Now you canadd a plain text version of your rich content macro comment, if you want. The plain text version will be intelligently applied in channels that don't support rich text formatting.

To add inline images to your comment

Drag and drop an image from your computer into the comment window, or paste a copied image into the window by right-clicking and selectingPasteor by pressingCtrlor⌘ + V.

Adding attachments to macro comments

Comments in your macros can also contain up to five file attachments.

The maximum file size for a single linked attachment is 50 MB. For more information, seeAttachment size limitations.

To attach one or more files to a comment

Click the paperclip icon in the at the bottom of the field.
Browse to the file you want to attach.
Select the file, and clickChoose.
The file is added to the ticket.

Note:If you use macros tobulk update tickets, attachments will not be included in the comments.

Adding an alternate plain text version of a rich content macro comment

If you added styling, formatting, or inline images to theComment/descriptionmacro action, you can add an alternate plain text version, if you want.

The plain text version will be intelligently applied in channels that don't support rich text formatting. These include the Zendesk mobile app, Zendesk SMS, messaging channels in the Zendesk Agent Workspace and in the standard agent interface, and any app installed from the Zendesk Marketplace.

To add a plain text version of your rich content macro comment

In the macro, under the rich content version of the comment, selectInclude plain text fallback.
In the pre-populated version that appears, make any modifications needed to create the plain text version of the macro comment.

Using placeholders in macros

The macros you create for tickets can includeplaceholdersto help personalize your ticket responses. When you use placeholders for Problem tickets, be aware of the following:

When you apply a macro with placeholders to a Problem ticket, the placeholder is rendered when the macro isapplied, not when the ticket issubmitted. This can produce some unexpected results. For example, if you send an email response to Problem ticket using a macro that contains the{{ticket.requester.name}}placeholder, the ticket’s requester name is sent to all linked tickets, not just the ticket associated with the requester.
To prevent this from happening, add an escape character (\) in front of the placeholder. For example,\ {{ticket.requester.name}}. In this case, the placeholder is not rendered until the ticket is submitted, which will show the correct name to each user who submitted a ticket linked to the problem.