Announcing composer enhancements

Announced on	Rollout starts	Rollout ends
March 21, 2022	March 21, 2022	April 18, 2022

We are pleased to announce a series of enhancements to the Zendesk composer that we introduced over the last few weeks. Some of these changes will impact agents and other changes will impact admins. See below for details. 

This article includes the following sections:

• What’s changing for agents?
• What's changing for admins?
• Why is Zendesk making these changes? 
• What do I need to do?

What’s changing for agents?

Changes for agents include: 

• Macro insertion
• Simplified hyperlinks
• Email truncation alert

Macro insertion

For macros that include updated to ticket comments, you can insert macros exactly where your text cursor is positioned in a ticket comment. This change enables you to decide where the macro should be inserted. Simply place your cursor where you want and apply your desired macro. See Applying macros to tickets. 

The previous behavior would apply the macro at the bottom of already existing content in the composer. This new behavior lets you control where the applied macro should be populated in the composer. This change applies to the Zendesk Agent Workspace.

Simplified hyperlinks

We introduced an easier way to create hyperlinks in the Zendesk Agent Workspace. Pasting a url on highlighted text will automatically convert the highlighted text into a hyperlink. See the gif below for details. This change enables you to quickly create hyperlinks and makes your composing experience better. See Using formatting options and controls. 

Email truncation alert

You will receive a warning message if you are composing a very large email reply that is too long and exceeds the allowed size limit (64KB). This enables you to shorten the email reply before sending. Previously, email replies that exceeded the limit were truncated without warning.  This change applies to the Zendesk Agent Workspace. 

What's changing for admins?

Changes for admins include:

• Removed outdated formatting options
• Color text on or off
• Label updates for Public by default settings

Removed outdated formatting options

The Ticket settings page in Admin Center included a choice between Markdown and Rich content for agent formatting options. But, these settings no longer apply. Both markdown and rich content are supported within the same editor. We have removed these options from the settings page. See Formatting options for agents. 

This change applies to the Zendesk Agent Workspace. 

Color text on or off

Admins can now turn color text on or off in the Zendesk Agent Workspace. This account-wide setting enables admins to control whether agents can add color text to ticket comments or not. See Changing text color and Formatting options for agents. This change applies to the Zendesk Agent Workspace.

Color text is on by default in the Zendesk Agent Workspace. When color text is turned off, agents will not see a color picker in the text toolbar.

Label updates for Public by default settings

The Agent Workspace interface has been updated to help clarify Public by default settings. This is a label change only.  The settings work as before. See Changing the default privacy of ticket comments. This change applies to the Zendesk Agent Workspace. 

Why is Zendesk making these changes? 

We made these changes for several reasons:

• The macro insertion, hyperlink pasting, and email truncation alert features were added to Improve agent efficiency and reduce the steps agents needed to complete a task. 
• The settings page changes will make the interface easier for admins to understand, configure, and customize.

What do I need to do?

If you have the Zendesk Agent Workspace enabled on your account, you don’t need to do anything else. Your account is updated automatically to include these changes.