A macro is a prepared response or action that an agent can manually apply when they are creating or updating tickets (see About macros). If you created macros for support requests that can be answered with a single, standard response or action, agents can evaluate tickets and apply macros manually as needed.
This article contains the following sections:
Related articles:
Macros to get you started
There are a number of macros you can use to get started, including:
-
Close and redirect to topics
This sets the ticket status to Closed. If it is an incident of a known problem, the requester will be informed via a comment that the ticket has been closed and recommended that they visit the forums for more information about the incident.
-
Customer not responding
This is a reminder that can be sent to the requester if they have not responded to a request for more information on a pending ticket.
-
Downgrade and inform
This tells the requester that the priority of their request has been downgraded to low and that there may be some delay in resolving their request.
-
Take it!
This macro is a shortcut for agents to assign a new request to themselves.
Applying macros from the menu
You can manually apply one or more macros to a ticket at the same time. Keep in mind that what one macro does can easily be undone by another macro.
Just as you can make bulk updates to many tickets at once, you can also apply a macro to more than one ticket using your views. See Managing tickets in bulk.
So why would you apply more than one macro? A typical use case is a ticket that contains more than one question or issue—let's say two in this example. You might have set up two macros that both insert a comment into a ticket to answer each issue separately. By applying each macro to the ticket, you add two comments and address both issues in a single response.
You can view which macros were applied in the ticket's events log.
To apply a macro from the menu
- In a ticket, click Apply macro in the bottom toolbar.
- Select a macro from the list. You can filter the list by typing the beginning of a
macro's name.
Typically, your five most commonly used macros from the past week appear at the top of the macros list. The most-used macros display can be disabled, in which case, you'll only see the all macros list. See Disabling the most-used macros option.
If your macros are categorized, you can click through the levels of categorization to apply a macro.
Note: Macros cannot be set up for specific channels.The actions defined in the macro are applied. If the macro updated the ticket comment, you can edit the text before submitting the ticket.
In the Zendesk Agent Workspace, if you have a macro that inserts text into a ticket comment, you can set an insertion point in the ticket comment first, before you apply a macro. This enables you to control exactly where the macro text appears.
Note: If the macro updates the ticket comment but the tab the ticket is open in is closed before the ticket is submitted, the text of the macro will still appear in the composer when you return to the ticket. However, after submitting the ticket, only the comment is updated and the macro isn't shown in the events log for the ticket. - To apply another macro, click Apply macro again and select another macro.Tip: Check out how we use macros to manage tickets with Brett Bowser's Improve escalation workflows using macros.
- Submit the ticket.
Applying macros with a keyboard shortcut
If you have Agent Workspace activated, you can apply macros using a keyboard shortcut in a ticket comment. Using a macro keyboard shortcut can save you typing time by applying a macro to a ticket with just a few keys.
Macro keyboard shortcuts are activated by default. To deactivate macro keyboard shortcuts, see Activating and deactivating macros keyboard shortcuts.
For more information about other keyboard shortcuts, see Viewing and deactivating keyboard shortcuts.
To apply a macro with a keyboard shortcut
- In a ticket, type a slash (/) in the ticket’s comment.Note: If you want to exit the Macros menu after typing a slash (/), press the space bar.
Typically, your seven most used macros from the past week appear at the top of the macros list, including both shared macros and any personal macros you may use.
Note: If your account has Chat or Messaging activated, the list displays both macros and shortcuts. See Using shortcuts in Chat. - Select one of these or begin typing a macro name to filter the list.
- Click the macro name to apply it to the ticket.
The actions defined in the macro are applied. If the macro updated the ticket comment, you can edit the text before submitting the ticket.
- To apply another macro, type a slash (/) in the ticket comment.
Previewing macros
You can preview a macro from the Apply macro menu before applying it to a ticket.
To preview and apply a macro from the menu
- In a ticket, click Apply macro in the bottom toolbar.
- Find the macro you want to use in the list.
- Click the Open preview icon (
).
Alternatively, hover your cursor over the macro to display its description tooltip. From the tooltip, you can view the macro's description (if one exists) and access its preview by pressing Shift + Enter.
The preview shows the macro's title and description (if one exists), as well as the fields and elements the macro will change, add, or remove, including:
- Ticket fields
- Comments, replies, or notes (including placeholders and dynamic content)
- Attachments
- If the macro looks correct, click Apply Macro.
You can also click Cancel to return to the ticket screen, or click Open in Settings to view the macro's settings in Admin Center.
Using macros to update problem and incident tickets
Use caution when applying macros with placeholders to problem and incident tickets. It's easy to accidentally populate the wrong values in ticket comments when using macros with placeholders in this scenario. To avoid this, you often need use a backward slash (\) to escape the placeholder so that it populates the appropriate value within the related incident tickets.
For example: Hello
\{{ticket.requester.first_name}}
42 comments
Jonathan Sullivan
Newer Zen Desk Implementation. We are noticing the "Take it" macro or another macro we created that is identical plus adding test to the comment works in the web browser but does not in the IOS (ipad) app. All other macros seem to work accept assigning the current user. Any suggestions for troubleshooting?
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Paolo
What I can suggest is to try disabling the "Try our new agent experience" first, see if the Macro will work while this is disabled, and re-enable it again. If it does not work, try reinstalling the app.
If the issue still persists after that, I'd recommend reaching out to our Support Team via the Widget here in the Help Center. More information here
Best,
Paolo | Technical Support Engineer | Zendesk
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Jessica Schnaiter
We have plain text fall backs for most of our macros for SMS/Social media tickets. Now that those exist, the preview shows the plain text version even when agents are in an email. Is there a way to make the preview the rich content?
1
Dane
It's currently the expected behavior if you have plain text fallback.
Would you mind posting your use case to our Feedback on Support topic? We have a template you can copy and use in your post. This is to help get more visibility and votes on the idea. Then, others can share their use cases to further drive demand for that feature. Thanks!
-1
Jeff Mckenzie
Can you perform a bulk update with a macro to many tickets at once? I know that you can edit many tickets at the same time, but I don't see the option to apply the macro to many tickets at once.
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Dane
You need to go to your views and select the tickets you want to update, click edit and apply the macro.
Please refer to Bulk Updating tickets.
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Nate Perdomo
Was there an update over the weekend that unintentionally affected macro support in Firefox? Selecting a macro from the "Apply macro" list at the bottom of the ticket page now works about 5% of the time (or less). I've restarted my browser, closed all other programs, restarted my computer, disabled all browser extensions, and tested in a private Firefox browser window, but they no longer reliably work.
Switching to Chrome saw the issue resolved immediately. The last Firefox update I installed was on January 11, and I made extensive use of Zendesk macros on both 1/11 and 1/12 with no issues, so I don't believe a Firefox change is responsible.
Curious if this is a known issue and if your team is working on a resolution. If you can think of any troubleshooting steps that I may have missed above, I'm happy to try them out. Using Chrome/Chromium isn't a viable long-term solution for me, so any info you have is much appreciated.
Thanks for your help!
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Dane
0
Nicole van den Biggelaar
Hello there, is it possible to create an Excel document where all the macro's are in?
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Nicole van den Biggelaar
Hello there, is it possible to create an Excel document where all the macro's are in?
0
Ivan Miquiabas
Thanks for reaching out!
While there is not a native export of Macros available, there is a process you can take using the API to do so. Essentially, the process involves:
XYZ.zendesk.com/api/v2/macros.json?per_page=99
page=
parameter, as the endpoint can only return a max of 100 Macros per request.https://XYZ.zendesk.com/api/v2/macros.json?per_page=99&page=2
The steps above can also be found and referenced in this Post in the Zendesk Community.
Hope that helps!
0
James Peterson - Eastern Logic
Hi Thomas Vogler and Jonathan March ,
We have recently updated our Extended Macros app in the Zendesk marketplace to include additional actions not currently available in the default Zendesk macros. As you’ve found out, Zendesk macros are unable to set numeric fields, so we’ve updated our macros app to do just that. The app is free to use, so go ahead and visit the app page here to download it and get started. For more help, you can read the app set up guide here. Feedback is welcome!
Cheers ~~
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