Macros let you apply a pre-defined sequence of actions to a ticket quickly and easily.

If your workflow involves doing the same steps over and over again, setting up a macro can save you time.

For example, suppose your procedure when you find a complicated problem is:

• assign it to the 2nd level support team
• label it “complicated”
• add your manager as a follower

Here’s how you would set that up as a macro:

1. Open Agent Profile in the top right of the Agent Interface

2. Select the Preferences option and then select the Macros tab.

3. Click Create Macro.

4. The New Macro window opens.

   

5. Enter a name for the macro. If you want to created nested folders, enter a folder name followed by ->.

6. Under 'Who can use this Macro?', select whether the macro is available to just you, or to every agent.

7. Click Add Action, then select an action from the pull-down menu. In this example, first you need to Set Agent Team.

   

8. You then select which team to assign.

   

9. Now use Add Action again with Add Labels to have the macro label the ticket “complicated”, and use it a third time with Add agent followers to have it add your boss as a follower.

   

10. When the macro is complete, click Save.

When you apply that macro to a ticket, the three actions you’ve stored will be done (in order).

You can apply a macro from the content pane using the Macros button.

You will be asked to confirm the list of actions.

You can also choose to apply a macro when replying to a ticket, instead of setting a status.

Use the Reply as... pull-down and select the macro.

The actions the macro will apply are confirmed at the top of the reply box.

Of course, you can have the macro change the status for you if required.

You can also apply a macro to multiple tickets at the same time by selecting them from the list pane and using a Mass actions.

Macro actions

These are the actions you can add to a macro:

• Set agent
• Add agent followers
• CC users - add users who will be copied in on ticket emails
• Set agent team
• Set status
• Ticket pending status
• Delete ticket
• Set department
• Set language
• Set category
• Set product
• Set priority
• Set workflow
• Add labels
• Remove labels
• Add organization managers to ticket
• Set flag
• Increase/decrease urgency - add or subtract the defined amount from urgency score (can’t go below 1 or above 10)
• Set urgency - sets the urgency score to the value you enter; you can choose ‘Only set when urgency is lower’ (e.g. if the urgency is 8 and a ‘Set urgency to 7’ action runs, the urgency would remain 8) or ‘Always set this urgency’ (would set the urgency to 7 in that example)
• Set subject
• Add ticket reply - adds text to the ticket’s reply box. You can choose to ‘Append’ text (after anything you’re already entered), ‘Prepend’ text (before anything you’ve entered) or replace existing text.
• Add reply from snippet
• Set custom field (if your helpdesk has these)
• Set custom user field (if your helpdesk has these)
• Create a Task
• Close ticket tab
• Run another Macro

Filtering macros

You can filter the list of macros shown by typing into the Filter prompt at the top of either the Macros button or the expanded Reply button.

Type a few letters or a word to instantly display only macros with names that contain what you entered.

Macros and permissions

Different agent accounts have different permission levels which affect what they’re allowed to do with tickets.

If your account lacks the permissions to do any of the actions in a macro, the macro can’t run.

Adding text to a reply with a macro

You can use the Add Ticket Reply action to append or prepend text to the reply you are currently writing (i.e. add it either before or after any existing text).

However, for a macro that uses this action to work correctly, you must run it from the Send Reply control and not from the Macros button.

Running the macro from the Send Reply control performs actions in the context of your current reply, whereas running the macro from the Macros button (or as a mass action) runs the action in the context of the whole ticket, so the text will be sent as a new reply, not inserted into the reply box. If you use the Send Reply button, you can still edit the response before sending and if you have set up an agent signature, this will be included in your reply. If you send from the Macros button, you won't be able to customize the text and your agent signature won't automatically be added.