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Create dynamic content with language variants to support multiple languages. Use placeholders in automations, macros, triggers, and messages to automatically insert the correct language version based on user preferences. Manage translations by editing directly or exporting for translation. Track usage in business rules, ensuring consistent communication across languages without manually updating each instance.

Location: Admin Center > Workspaces > Agent tools > Dynamic content

If you support multiple languages, you can create dynamic content with language variants that can be referenced by a placeholder in automations, macros, triggers, custom fields, custom agent statuses, and many of the system-generated messages. When the dynamic content is referenced, the appropriate language variant text is inserted based on the user's language.

This article covers the following topics:
  • About using dynamic content to support multiple languages
  • Creating dynamic content and variants
  • Using your dynamic content
Related article:
  • Accessing and viewing your dynamic content list

About using dynamic content to support multiple languages

To provide multiple language support, you can create dynamic content that can then be referenced by a placeholder in automations, macros, triggers, custom fields, custom agent statuses, and by many of the system generated messages such as those sent in email notifications when a user creates an account.

For example, the text of a message that you currently add to a macro can be replaced by a dynamic content placeholder.

This text: 

If you forget your password, just click the "Help! I don't know what to enter here!" link on the login page. 

Thanks and have a great day!

The MondoCam Support Team

Is replaced with the placeholder referencing your dynamic content.

{{dc.password_help}}

In the macro:

When the macro is applied to the ticket, the appropriate language variant text is inserted into the comment based on the user's language. If the end user's language is not one of your supported languages, the default variant is used.

If you're already using Zendesk placeholders, you're already familiar with how this works. The primary difference between the Zendesk placeholders and dynamic content is that you define the content that is dynamically inserted into your business rules and communications with your customers.

Dynamic content is a combination of a default version of the text (typically in the same language as your default language) and variants for every other language that you support. Dynamic content provides you with a way to streamline support for multiple languages. You reference one placeholder and the appropriate language is displayed based on the end user's language preference. How an end user's language is detected is described in Setting and detecting a user's language.

Of course when you support multiple languages, you must translate your content into the languages you support in your Zendesk. There are a number of ways to manage the translation of your default content. You can create and edit all your language variants directly in Zendesk or you can export all your dynamic content and send it off to a translation agency. You then import the dynamic content back into your Zendesk and all language variants are added.

If you later update the default content, the variants are flagged as being potentially out of date with the default content. Meaning that if you update the default content you probably need to also update the translations in the variants. You can also manually set variants to be inactive so that they are not used. You might do this if your variant isn't ready to be made public (for example, if the translation is incomplete or incorrect).

Finally, how you use dynamic content in automations, macros, and triggers is tracked in the dynamic content itself so that you have an easy way to monitor use.

Creating dynamic content and variants

When you create a dynamic content item, you select the default language and enter the text of the dynamic content. You then create variants for each of your supported languages.

You can manage the translation of your dynamic content in the following ways:

  • Add translated content when you create the variants. You can then manage updates to the translated content by editing the variants.
  • Create all the default language versions of the dynamic content, then export the dynamic content as CSV (comma separated values) files and send them out for translation. When the translations are complete, import the CSV files and all the language variants are added.
  • Use a combination of both these approaches; translating and editing some variants in-house and using the export/import process to create and update the language variants using a third-party translation agency.

After you create dynamic content and its variants, you can use the dynamic content in automations, macros, triggers, and system messages.

Creating dynamic content

You can create dynamic content to provide support in multiple languages.

To create a dynamic content item
  1. In Admin Center, click Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Dynamic content.
  2. Click Add item.
  3. Enter a title for the dynamic content.
  4. Select the default language.

    Note: The list of languages you can choose from is based on your default language and the additional languages you support. You can add language variants for all of the languages that Zendesk supports.
  5. Enter the text of the dynamic content.

    You can use Zendesk placeholders, such as ticket and user properties, in your dynamic content. You can also add other dynamic content placeholders. For HTML formatting to render correctly, you must add Liquid markup to your dynamic content.

    Placeholders of all types that are used in dynamic content are limited to a maximum of five levels of recursion.

  6. Click Create.

After you create dynamic content, you need to add variants for each of your supported languages. To do so now, click Add variant in your newly created dynamic content.

Depending on how you're managing the translations, you can instead first create all your dynamic content in your default language, then export the dynamic content to send out for translation. When ready, import the files back into Zendesk and all of the language variants are added to the dynamic content.

Creating variants

Variants are different language versions of the default variant for your dynamic content.

To create a variant
  1. In Admin Center, click Workspaces in the sidebar, then select Agent tools > Dynamic content.
  2. Click the title of the dynamic content where you'd like to add a variant.
  3. Click Add variant.
  4. Select the variant language.

    The list of languages you can choose from is based on the languages you support.

  5. Set the variant to Active or Inactive.
    • Active means that the variant is used as the text for all users of that language.
    • Inactive means that you're disabling its use, and users of the inactive language will see the default content variant. So, if the default content is in English and you make the German variant inactive, German users see English content. Typically, you set a variant to inactive if the variant's content is not ready.
  6. You can also optionally set the variant to be the default variant, which overrides the current default variant.

    Setting a language variant as the default is useful when you want to create dynamic content specifically for a group that supports a language other than your default language. For example, a Japanese language support group can set default variants as Japanese. When you change the default from one variant to another, the status of the other variants changes to out of date.

  7. Enter the text of the variant language.
  8. Click Create.

Variants are listed in the dynamic content item.

Using your dynamic content

The dynamic part of dynamic content is that the correct version of the content is automatically shown to the end user based on their language. The content is also shown to agents in the same language as the end user. As with Zendesk placeholders, to use your dynamic content you simply reference the placeholder.

Every dynamic content item has a corresponding placeholder, located below the title of your dynamic content. You can use the placeholder to refer to this dynamic content in business rules, for example. Changing the title after you've created the dynamic content does not change the placeholder name. It remains the same regardless of any changes you make to the title.

Once you use the placeholder, you can see where it's used in the References section. References are tracked for automations, macros, and triggers in the dynamic content. If you use a dynamic content placeholder elsewhere, you'll need to track its use manually.

You can use dynamic content placeholders in the following:

  • Ticket field names, both system and custom (see Using dynamic content to translate your ticket fields)
  • Custom drop-down labels
  • Custom ticket statuses
  • Ticket form names
  • Agent signature (see Adding an agent signature to ticket email notifications)
  • Help center (see Adding translated text)
  • Sign-up messages for end users (visible only when help center is active), including:
    • User registration message
    • User welcome email
    • Email verification email
  • Custom unified agent statuses
  • Other dynamic content
  • Macros
  • Triggers and automations
    Note:
    • Dynamic content in the body of a Notify URL target action always uses the default variant.
    • Dynamic content in the body of an Autoreply action must formatted as HTML to appear properly.

How an end user's language is set and detected and then used when displaying dynamic content is explained in Setting and detecting a user's language. You can also find several examples of how to build a workflow based on language in Using a requester's language in your business rules.

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