
Most support teams create and use lots of macros. As your list of macros grows, you may find it difficult to quickly locate macros when you’re trying to apply one to a ticket. You can remedy this by organizing and sorting your macros using a number of different techniques.
This article discusses the following topics related to organizing and managing macros:
Related articles:
The Macros page
All of your available macros can be managed through the Macros page.
To access the Macros page
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Manage > Macros.The Macros page opens:
From here, you can browse, categorize, sort, reorder, and filter your macros.
Browsing the macros list
Macros are divided by activation status. The default view on the Macros page is the list of Active macros. You can view macros that have been deactivated by clicking the Inactive tab. For more information on activation status, see Editing, cloning, deactivating, and deleting macros.
By default, macros are listed in alphabetical order. If you have a large number of macros, the list will be paginated. You can scroll through the pages using the controls at the bottom of the page:
Searching the macros list
If you know the name, or partial name, of the macro you want to view, you can enter it into the search box at the top of the page:
All macros containing the search term appear in the list. The search term is highlighted in macros not using placeholders for the search term.
Editing, cloning, deactivating, and deleting macros
You can edit, clone, deactivate, or delete a macro using the macro's options menu ().
These options are also available on each macro’s edit page, by clicking the actions menu icon ().
- Edit allows you to modify the title, actions, and permissions used.
- Clone creates a copy that you can modify and repurpose.
- Deactivate removes the macro from the Active macros list, and moves it onto the Inactive macros list, making it unavailable to Agents. Deactivated macros can be activated if needed.
- Delete permanently removes the macro. Only deactivated macros can be deleted. Deleted macros cannot be recovered.
- On the Macros page, locate the macro you want to edit.
- Hover your mouse over the macro to display the options menu icon (
).
- Click the options menu icon and select Edit.
- Modify the title and actions as needed.
- Click Save.
- On the Macros page, locate the macro you want to clone.
- Hover your mouse over the macro to display the options menu icon (
).
- Click the options menu icon and select Clone.
- Enter a new title for your macro and modify the actions as needed.
- Click Create.
To deactivate a macro
- On the Macros page, locate the macro you want to deactivate.
- Hover your mouse over the macro to display the options menu icon (
).
- Click the options menu icon and select Deactivate.
The macro is moved to the Inactive macros list.
Note: You cannot deactivate macros that include unavailable values in the action statements. Attempting to deactivate the macro will fail, and the macro will remain in the Active macros list, marked with a red exclamation point.
To activate a deactivated macro
- On the Macros page, click the Inactive tab to display all inactive macros.
- Hover your mouse over the macro you want to activate to display the options menu icon (
) and select Activate.
The macro is moved back to the Active macros list.
To delete a macro
- On the Macros page, click the Inactive tab to display all inactive macros. If the macro is currently active, use the instructions above to deactivate it.
- Hover your mouse over the macro you want to delete to display the options menu icon (
).
- Click the options menu icon and select Delete.
The macro is permanently deleted.
Categorizing macros
Sorting your macros into categories can make locating a specific macro, or type of macro, much simpler. Categorizing allows agents to quickly apply macros when working with a ticket, and gives you an option for filtering macros on the Macros management page.
You categorize macros by including the categories in your macro titles and separating them with two colons (::), as in this example:
The macro title example above indicates that you’re assigning the ticket to yourself and setting the Type property to Question.
Using categories to apply macros to tickets
After you've categorized your macros, you can click through the levels of categorization using the Apply macro menu when creating or updating a ticket.
Using categories to filter macros
At the top of the macros table, drop-down menus allow you to filter the displayed macros based on categories you've created, as well as the macro type.
To filter macros by category
- Click the All categories drop-down menu. Any category you've created (as described above) is included as a menu option.
- Select the category you want to display.
The filter is applied to both the Active and Inactive macros lists.
You can revert to the unfiltered macros list by clicking the drop-down menu and selecting All categories.
To filter macros by type
- Click the All shared macros drop-down menu.
- Select the type of macro you want to display:
- All agents, macros available to all agents.
- Agents in group, macros available only to agents in the group specified. A drop-down menu to choose the group appears when you select this option.
-
Me only, macros available only to you.
Return to the unfiltered list by clicking the drop-down menu and selecting All shared macros.
Sorting the list of macros
You sort your list of macros on a number of properties, including:
- Relevance (default)
- Position
- Name
- Date created
- Date updated
- On the Macros page, click the Sort by icon
to open the menu.
- Select the property you want to use.
The macros are reorganized based on that property.
Reordering macros manually
You can reorder your macros manually in a number of ways:
- Using drag-and drop to move them around the list.
- Assigning them the first, last, or another specific position.
If the order of your macros isn't essential to your workflow, however, we recommend disabling manual order mode, so all newly-created macros will snap into place without manual intervention.
To reorder macros using drag-and-drop
- On the Macros page, click the Settings icon (
) to open the menu:
- Select Reorder page.
If the Reorder page option is disabled (grayed out), select Settings, then toggle on Manual ordering and click Save:
- Click and hold the drag-and-drop handle for the macro you want to move:
- Drag the macro into position and release the handle. Repeat as needed to reorder your macros list.
- Click Save.
To assign a position in the list to a macro
- Hover your mouse over the macro you want to move to display the options menu icon (
).
- Click the options menu icon and select a new position for the macro:
- Move to first position places the macro at the top of the macros list.
- Move to last position places the macro at the bottom of the macros list.
-
Select position opens a window allowing you to select a position for the macro:
- Scroll through (or search) the list of macros.
- Select one to place the moving macro above.
- Click Move.
- The macro is moved into its new position in the list.
Disabling the most-used macros option
By default, the five most-used macros from the past week are displayed at the top of the macros list. You can turn off this feature if it doesn't fit into your workflow.
To disable the most-used macros option
- On the Macros page, click the Settings icon (
) to open the menu:
- Select Settings.
- In Macros settings, toggle off Display agents' most-used macros.
- Click Save.
41 Comments
Are the Active Macro is downloadable then extracted to excel or csv format?
Thanks for the enlighten..
Hi Andy!
There's no in-product feature that will allow this, but you can export the information using the API. You can find more information about that here: https://developer.zendesk.com/
Hope that helps!
Hello,
I think ot woould be great if you could assign more than 1 agent group to a Macro. This would minimize the amount of Macros which would make it easier also to maintain all Macros.
Thanks!
Good news @Emelie -- we're planning to roll that out next week. Here's the announcement!
HI Zendesk Product team!
I would like to request the feature enhancement of Agents who's role permits them to created/edit group macros be extended the permission to reorder their groups' macros as well.
Right now we have groups that regularly revamp their macros, and using best practices, retire the old version and create a net-new macro putting this macro 'at the bottom" and I have the large and tedious job, as the one admin, of reordering these manually (very time consuming and annoying when you have many macros due to the pagination) when it would be simple for these group managers to incrementally keep things in the proper order if only they had access to do so.
Thank you for the consideration.
Over time, as macros are added you can start to get a bloated list of automated responses. The ability to see how frequently the macros were used in the last 7 days is great but what about in the last month? Six months? What about being able to deactivate any macros that weren't used in a particular period?
I would love to see the ability to pull reports on which mactos are used most frequently within a time as a way of sreamlining support and working away from bloated helpdesks. Thanks!
Amanda & Siobhan - Thanks for the feedback! The best place for this sort of input is in the Product Feedback forum, as the Product Managers check there regularly. That being said, I see Kristen has weighed in on this thread, so hopefully she'll see this as well.
Have a great day!
Hello,
I am writing to ask if it is possible to pull up a list of every macro we have that has a specific Tag in it. I am not interested in a report showing all the tickets a tag is in but the macro that applies it. Please let me know if you need any other info. Thank you.
Hey Tom!
If you're on the Enterprise plan you'll have access to our Business Rules Analysis feature. Otherwise, you should be able to pull that info out of your Zendesk using the API.
There is no way Administrators can view agent macros. As a result agents can create their own verbiage for responses which I see as problematic as some agents may not convey the same information. It would be great to either allow Admin to review macros or limit whether an agent has the ability to create a macro. As admin I have to read each ticket to ensure the macros represent the information the company wants disseminated.
Just a thought.....
Hi wood3man!
This is an interesting suggestion! We do have a thread about this in our Product Feedback forum, so if you're interested it would be really helpful if you hopped over there to share your use case. This kind of information is really helpful to our Product Managers (although they're not always able to respond).
Hi Jessie Schutz - I went to the thread link you gave us, but it starts with a statement from a Community saying the thread ought to be merged with other ones. I left my use case there anyways.
As an admin, why can't I see all the macros created and used throughout ZD. It would be great to be able to grab a macro created by a TM and clone it, modify it and then share it with a group so messaging can be the same across the board.
Hi Kathryn!
I'm not sure why it works this way, but I'll see if I can get some insight on it from our Product Team. I'll let you know if I find out anything of interest!
@Kathryn, Yes, this is a long-time request (including from me!) Now that Jessie and Nicole are ship-shaping the organization of this Community, it's useful when such requests are made in the Product Feedback sections.
Is there any way to have personal macros higher in the list than shared macros? Even when I select "Move to first position" on a Personal Macro, it is still only first for the Personal Macros and after the last Shared Macro.
Hey Kathryn! Checking back in with you.
I spoke with a couple of our Product Managers about this, and it looks like the reasoning behind the original decision is lost to history. If I were to make an educated guess, though, I'd surmise that it's related to the fact that Admins can't assume into Agent profiles in Zendesk. Giving Admins the ability to view agent personal Views and Macros would require a certain amount of assume capability which isn't available right now.
All of that said, our PMs are totally open to re-evaluating that functionality and are interested in hearing why it's important to your work in Zendesk.
I checked in our Product Feedback topic and I don't see any active threads about this at the moment. I'd strongly encourage your to head over there and start a new thread with your detailed use case there so our PMs can understand the problem this would solve for you!
We've even put together a post with some pro tips for writing a great Feedback post that includes some specific questions you can answer to give the PMs the most useful information possible. You can find that post here.
@kathryn and all. Definitely would be great to be able to access all macros. Better macro control has been a long time request. It's fairly obvious why... as an admin in want to be able to see what agents are doing and elevate good ideas. The original assume function did not allow us to make an agent macro public either. This request goes back to pre-lotus days :)
Here's one topic https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000761827-Admin-users-viewing-personal-macros-of-other-users
Hi Pat!
I'm afraid it's not possible to change the order in which the macros appear in the list. However, your agents can start typing the name of the macro they want in the macro bar and Support will dynamically display the ones that match. It makes finding what you need a lot faster; I use it all the time.
Also, the top five macros that an agent uses in the course of a week will automatically show at the top of the list, provided the feature hasn't been disabled. Personal macros are included in this list. So if it's something your agents use frequently they'll see it right at the top.
Hope that helps!
We have 4 pages of macros, as we use Zendesk to log the phone calls we recieve. During the year we will expand, and the list of macros will be very, very long.
It's a pain to sort all these macros, as I only can sort the macros on the page I'm on. I'm seemingly not able to move macros between these pages. Any help? Drag and drop is not very functional when the list is long, and when I can't drag macros over to another page it gets kinda hopeless.
It's not an option for us to sort the macros alphabetically, nor to have the top used list enabled, we need a fixed order.
Hi Hege!
There is a way to reorganize your macros without using drag and drop!
The first thing you'll want to do is go to your Macros page and click the 3-dot icon in the upper right of the screen, and click Settings. From there, you'll want to make sure that Manual ordering is selected (it probably is, since you've been dragging and dropping already).
Once that's done, click the 3-dot icon that corresponds to that macro you want to move. You'll see a dropdown list with several options, including Move to first position, Move to last position, and Select position.
The first two are self-explanatory. If you click Select position, a box will pop up with a list off all your macros. Select the one you want the macro you're position to appear above, and click Move. The macro will appear in the position you've chosen!
I hope that helps!
Hello Team,
can i remove access from agent that makes him create his personal macros ?
*i have created macros already and i need all agents to use it and stop create personal macros , is there is any way to remove this access from them ?
Is there any functionality to have alternate keywords associated with a macro for easier search? we have some macro title changes as we make process changes and know that our agents are used to old macro titles/codes. While we want to eventually force adoption of the new titles, we're looking for ways to allow for search of old titles to show the new content.
Hey Schuyler!
There aren't any search tags or anything for macros...you just search by title.
My recommendation would be add the main words/codes from the previous titles in parenthesis at the end of the new title so they'll still show up when those words/codes are searched.
Another option would be to just change the titles and distribute a cheat sheet to your agents with a list of the old titles and which new title corresponds to that macro. Then they can use that for reference as needed and hopefully assimilate the new naming scheme more quickly.
Hope that helps!
Excuse my tl;dr here; I'm afraid that I don't quite have the time to read the entire comments thread.
Here is my question:
Is there a method to view Macros by category while working a ticket within a specific category?
As the Lead, I have access and have generated ALL of the Macros, so filtering it to "agents in group" doesn't apply to me. It makes my list very, very long.
If this doesn't exist, please consider this for a feature request.
Macros can be categorised easily enough using Category::Subcategory::Macro - it will go quite a few layers deep.
Search in Macros (the only sensible way to use them) is very effective. I just make sure that my naming convention makes macros easy for find.
Can you give a little more info about your situation?
Very nice! Thanks
I know this isn't a related thread, but is there a shortcode similar to this that will do the same thing for Views?! THAT WOULD BE SUPER SCHWEET!
Views does exactly the same - though it's not quite so useful.
The View management page does not really use this - though of course it orders them correctly.
The best use of this is in the Quickie App
Please sign in to leave a comment.