Snippets are pre-written responses which can be quickly inserted into the reply box. They are a way to avoid typing the same standardized responses over and over again.

You can use a snippet to automatically insert a piece of rich text, including images, attachments and links.

Snippets can be used in tickets or chat. There are separate libraries for ticket snippets and chat snippets. If you create a ticket snippet, it’s not available in a chat.

Viewing and Searching Snippets

Click the Snippets button above the reply box in a ticket or a chat to open the snippets library, or use the keyboard shortcut Alt & S.

Here you can see and manage any snippets that already exist and are visible to you (there may not be any yet), and create new snippets.

You can search the snippets in the list by entering keywords in the search box at the top of the snippets window. Note that by default, any snippets set as a draft will not be returned in search results.

By default, this will search 'All Snippets', but you can also choose any of the other filters such as 'My Snippets' or 'My Teams Snippets' to narrow your search.

You can also click on any labels that are listed on the left hand-side to view snippets that have been grouped together.

If you have saved snippets in multiple languages, you can use the 'Languages' drop-down to choose which languages you want to search with.

Creating or Editing Snippets

To create a new snippet, click + Snippet at the top right of the snippets window.

To edit an existing snippet, hover over the snippet in the list and click on the pencil icon appears on the right.

Snippet Properties

Below is an example snippet being created. Each of the snippet properties are described below.

• Title - Enter a title for the snippet. This is to describe what the snippet is about and will not affect the inserted text.

• Labels - Add labels to help categorize the snippet appropriately. Labels act like categories and help group snippets together, making them easier to find in the snippets list. Each snippet can have multiple labels associated with it. Existing labels appear on the left-hand side of the snippets list window.

• Shortcut Code - Add an easy shortcut code which can be used to quickly insert a particular snippet directly from the reply box. For example, type %inforec% instead of having to open up the snippet library and find the snippet. Shortcut codes always begin and end with %

• Reply - In the reply box, write the response that will be used for this snippet. You can format the text, add tables, images and attachments etc.

• Ownership - Choose whether the snippet is accessible to everyone, only you or specific teams.

• Visibility - Select which Departments are able to view this snippet (this is also dependant on the ownership settings, which can override visiblity).

• Type - Choose whether this snippet is allowed to be used in snippets, chats, or both. If only the tickets type is ticked, it won't appear in the snippets list when you are in a chat (and vice versa).

• Split Snippet - You can use the split snippet function to create slightly different versions of the same snippet, writing one version for use in tickets and another for use in chats. The title, shortcut and other details of the snippet would be the same, but the actual response which is inserted would be different depending on where you insert it.

• Draft - If you are working on a snippet but it is not yet ready to be used, check the 'This is a draft' check box. Marking snippets as draft is useful if you want them to be reviewed by other agents before you start using them regularly, or if you want to hide snippets that are only useful at certain times of the year. By default, draft snippets aren't visible in the snippets list or in results when using the search box to search for existing snippets. If you want to view draft snippets, select the 'My Drafts' or 'All Drafts' options. Note that if you display draft snippets in the list, you can still insert them as usual.

Inserting a Snippet

There are two ways you can insert a snippet:

• Open the Snippets window and click on a snippet to insert it into the current reply or chat.

• In the reply box of a ticket or chat enter the shortcut code beginning and ending with &, (e.g. %hello%).

Inserting a snippet doesn’t immediately send the reply/chat to the user; you can edit the inserted content before you send it. Sometimes a snippet needs to be edited slightly to fit the user’s situation.

Snippet Variables

You can automatically insert information into your ticket or chat snippets using variables.

For example, to make a snippet which addresses the user by their full name, you can add the following to the snippet content:

Hello {{ ticket.person.display_name }}
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When you paste the snippet into a message, the variable is replaced by the user’s actual name.

You can see the list of available variables by clicking on the drop-down menu to the right of the language selector.

The variables available include contact information for both users and agents, as well as other ticket properties and fields. You can find out the IDs to use for custom fields by using the insert variable function, or asking your admins to provide the ID's.

Languages & Snippets

If you support customers around the globe, you can easily save translated versions of your snippets for any languages that have been installed in your helpdesk by an Admin. To add translations, click on the language drop-down menu and select a language. You will then be able to insert a translated version of the snippet in the reply box.

Once saved, you are able to click on the flag, and immediately insert the snippet with the associated language.

If you do not click on a specific flag, the system will automatically detect the language preference if it is set for the user in their user profile, and send them the matched snippet. This is not an auto-translation system, but a way of storing and sorting pre-translated snippets, and delivering them to your clients.

Snippet Mass Actions

If you want to make a change to multiple snippets, you can do this at once using Mass Actions.

Click on the Mass Actions drop-down to choose the change you want to apply to multiple snippets. Once you have chosen an attribute to change, checkboxes will appear on the left-hand side of each snippet in the list, allowing you to select which snippets to apply the change to. Click 'Save Changes' to commit the change.