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
- Creating personal macros for tickets (agents)
- Creating personal or shared macros for tickets (administrators)
- Adding formatting and inline images to macro comments
- Adding attachments to macro comments
- Adding an alternate plain text version of a rich content macro comment
- Using placeholders in macros
Related articles:
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, macros only contain 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 personal macros for their own use. A personal macro can only be used by the creator but is visible to admins in Admin Center.
You can create macros from scratch, as described here, or you can create macros based 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
- In Admin Center, click
Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Macros.
- Click Create macro.
- Enter the macro name, and add actions for your macro as described in Building macro action statements.
- Click Create.
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 create shared macros 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 create personal macros for their own use.
A personal macro can only be used or modified by the creator but is visible to and can be cloned by admins. For example, if an agent creates a personal macro that could be useful to other team members, then an admin may want to clone it and recreate it as a shared macro.
Admins 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 macros based on existing tickets.
To create a personal or shared macro for tickets
- In Admin Center, click
Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Macros.
- Click Create macro.
- Enter a Macro name.
- (Optional) Enter a macro Description.
- Select who can use the macro from Available 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
- Click Add action, then select an action and complete the additional field. See
Building macro action statements.
For the Comment/description macro action, you can add formatting, images, and attachments.
- Click Add action again to add another action.
- Click Create.
The macro is created.
Adding formatting and inline images to macro comments
You can add styling, formatting, and inline images to the Comment/description macro action.
To add formatting to your comment
- In the text field, enter the content you want to appear in the macro.
- Use the formatting options in the toolbar to format your content.
Toolbar button Formatting Heading Bold Italics Underline Text color Background color Bulleted list Numbered list Decrease indent Increase indent Link Block quote Code Code block Horizontal line
![](https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/support_macros_text_editor_options.png)
Now you can add 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 selecting Paste or by pressing Ctrl or ⌘ + 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, see Attachment size limitations.
To attach one or more files to a comment
- Under the text field, click Attach files.
- Browse to the file you want to attach.
- Select the file, and click Open.
The file is added to the ticket.
Adding an alternate plain text version of a rich content macro comment
If you added styling, formatting, or inline images to the Comment/description macro 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.
- In the macro, under the rich content version of the comment, select Include 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 include placeholders to help personalize your ticket responses.
Be aware of the following when applying macros with placeholders:
- When you apply a macro with placeholders to a Problem ticket, the placeholder is rendered when the macro is applied, not when the ticket is submitted. This can produce unexpected results. For example, if you send an email response to a Problem ticket using a macro that contains the {{ticket.requester.name}} placeholder, the ticket requester's 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.
- When you apply a macro that has a placeholder with multi-line content, the line breaks are removed in the comment. This is visible in the composer before the comment is submitted.
69 comments
Tony Williamson
As an Admin, how can I see my individual agents' personal macros and vet them? I have found how t disable personal macros going forward but need to remove/corral existing macros before the policy change...
1
Catherine Michalak
Hi there,
Just want to clarify that reference to being able to add CC's in macros is actually referring to what is now known as Followers correct?
We do have a few cases where we'd like to use macros to add actual CC's (non agents) and that doesn't seem possible although mentioned in this article under:
Macros can perform tasks:
4
Dana B
Hi
Text formatting is missing for the Message box - the icon as well as you cannot use Ctrl B, etc.
Thanks!
0
Beau P.
Hello Dana,
The text formatting options described in this article will not appear in a macro's comment field unless you've enabled rich content as described here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203661586-Enabling-Markdown
Once you've verified that this is turned on, refresh your session and you should see the Text icon and a rich content composer appear within a macro's configuration page.
Beau | Customer Advocate | support@zendesk.com
Ask our Zendesk Community
0
Wismann, Leigha
How do I link a tag to a Macro if the Marco was created first instead of the Ticket Category?
0
Dave Dyson
Hi Leigha -
If I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like you want a macro to set the value of a custom drop-down field? If so, the drop-down field should appear as an option in the Actions menu when you edit the Macro. If you've just changed the values in the drop-down field, it's possible you may need to refresh Zendesk by reloading the browser page that Zendesk is in (or just closing that browser page, opening a new one, and returning to Zendesk that way) so that the Actions menu has the up-to-date custom field values.
If that's not the problem you're facing, can you add some more specifics about what you're trying to do, and what you're seeing? Thanks!
0
Dana B
Hi
I am trying to create a macro with action "comment/description" then "side conversation" to sent to accounting to advise they can bill, then change the status to solved. When I run the macro, only the comment/description and changing the status to solved are performed. Is there a limitation to the macros?
Please advise.
Thanks,
Dana
0
Nicole Saunders
Hi Dana,
Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to do, you should be able to use a macro to start a side conversation, per the instructions here: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001917147-Using-macros-to-start-side-conversations
Check that out and let us know if that solves the issue, or if you need more assistance.
0
Dana B
Thank you, Nicole. I reviewed the article however, I do not see what I am looking for. Basically, I am looking for a macro that would engage our accounting department via a side conversation as well as respond to the client via a comment sent to them. I have tried this macro, however, it does not create the side conversation to accounting. Please advise if I can create a side conversation as well as a comment to the requestor. Thanks!
0
Ahn Letran
Hey, Dana!
Thanks for checking out what Nicole had advised. I've found out that you can indeed create a macro to include a comment/description to send out to your customers, and open a Side Conversation depending on which channel you choose. However, this only applied towards existing, open tickets. You may have been trying to apply your created macro on a new ticket (which I am creating on my end). You can test this out and let us know if you need further help.
Cheers!
Ahn L. | Customer Advocacy Specialist
0
Ian Marston
How do i use explore MI reporting to show me which macros have been used by which tickets, doesnt seem an obvious way to pull macro usage in the first place to even consider drilling in.
I appreciate you can get a total usage number from below, but what i want to do is have the number of times a macro has been used, and by which tickets
I did consider adding in tags to each macro, but with so many already existing macros, that would be laborious.
Thanks
0
Yash Churihar
Hello there is no macro option under Agent tool when logging in workspace.
What to do now
0
Danny Walsh
Every time I try to update or create a new macro doesn't allow me to do it.
When I click on save I get this message 'Macro could not be updated:"
But it doesn't tell me why it couldn't be updated.
Can anyone help me with this, please?
0
William Ko
I am trying to update a marco and I found some of the fields which is a multi-line field that I cannot set the details in macro in order to close the ticket with the field updated in 1 go...
Is multi-line field supported in macro?
1
Gabriel
I hope all is well! In the macros's action, you can use custom fields that set tags: drop-down list, multi-select, and checkbox). You can select the drop-down list values, multi-select options, and Yes or No for checkboxes.
I case your field is supported, and this is still not displaying for you, please kindly reach out to our Support via these instructions so they can further look this for you!
I hope this helps!
0
Casey Keefe
Hey Zendesk! Any way to view which Agent/Admin created a specific macro? Perhaps through Explore?
Thanks!
0
Dave Dyson
On Enterprise plans, this can be seen in the audit log: Viewing the audit log for changes
0
Casey Keefe
Thank you @... !
0
Dave Dyson
0
Amanda Wolf
@... Is there a way to create a default macro? On my form I have a description section that is blank. I am looking to customize the questions that are shown in the description box so that I can drive my users to provide more specific information. I think that the way to do this is to provide a default macro, but I do not know if this is possible and there might be another way to do this.
0
Dave Dyson
While there's not a way to apply a macro to a ticket form field, you can pre-fill form fields using the method described here: Creating pre-filled ticket forms
0
Amanda Wolf
@... Two questions on this:
1. Does this article cover how you would configure this on a Contact Us form?![](/hc/user_images/xq7fI39My0zPfVK8pvI_Xg.png)
2. What about users who go directly to the dashboard in Zendesk?
0
Caitlin Whitney
Hello,
Is there any way for admin to view agents' personal macros? We suspect some of our agents may have included the action "set tags" in their personal macros, which could remove important workflow tags needed for our triggers and automations. We'd like to be able to disable their personal macros if this is the case.
Thank you
0
Dave Dyson
There's not currently a way for admins to see users' personal macros within the product. Can you go upvote and add your use case to this product feedback thread? Allow admins to view agent macros and views
0
Nurfazreen
Hello,
Does anyone know why I can't view the personal macro that I created before? It's not visible. From what I know, an agent profile should be able at least create a personal macro. Even one of my colleagues with "Admin" profile also couldn't view this.
0
Christine
Do you know if the Macro was shared to All Agents, Agents in group, or Me only? First, you can check the filter and look for the macro there. Then check both Active and Inactive tab.
Please note that Personal macros (Me only) are not visible to any Admin on your account.
After checking the suggestions above and you still can't find the macro, kindly raise a ticket with us directly and we'll be glad to look into it.
0
Kate Horner
Can you add color font and Underlining to Macros, please? It would be so helpful to emphasize certain portions for our end user and direct our agent's attention to certain parts.
For example, we reply with macros for the same issue regularly, but sometimes we have to add a date specific to that end user.
- The macro will currently show XX/XX/XXXX, and we hope the agent remembers to fill it in, but if we could underline and change the color, it would draw their attention to it more.
2
Dana B
Added to that.... Once the information is entered, the format would default to the format in the rest of the document is.
0
Nicole Saunders
Hi Kate Horner and Dana,
To share feedback on the product or request a feature or functionality, you'll want to post in the Product Feedback forums in the Community. Product Managers do not follow the comments on articles and feedback shared in article comments will not be seen by them.
Here's more information on how to write an effective feedback post.
1
Riah Lao
When you apply a macro that is set to Private then update content from that then change to Public reply, it deletes the entire content. Is that expected behavior now? We want to provide templates for some scenarios for agents to populate but will use that to send as public reply..
0