Macros

Macros are shortcuts that are assigned to an article. Macros allow authors to single-source frequently used content by inserting an article macro within another article, which allows agents to add articles to their responses quickly. Using macros is an efficient way for agents to add articles to responses — rather than navigating the Knowledge Console, finding the article, and then dragging and dropping the article into the reply (or using the Add to reply button); agents can just type the macro in their reply. It is useful to create macros for the top 25% of the most commonly used articles. Use macros to substitute lengthy or dynamic content with short values. These values, when used, are expanded into complete articles.

For example, a lengthy article explaining career opportunities can have a macro, vacancies. Suppose a response is being prepared to explain the vacancies. Instead of typing out the whole list, you can type, vacancies. Macros expand when the response is sent out. You can also choose to expand the macros after inserting them.

To create macros in the Knowledge Console, you can create an article and assign it a macro name for it to be used as a macro. While creating macros, it is very important to consider how you name the macros. Some important things to note are:

The name of the macro should represent what the article is about.
Have all the macros of the same length and all in the same case. This makes it easy for the agents to remember the macro names.

Creating Macros

To create an article macro:

In the Navigation menu, browse to Authoring > Articles.
From the Folders List, select a folder.
From the Articles List, select the article to which you want to add macros.
Click the Edit button to checkout the article.
In the Properties pane, click the Settings button.
From the dropdown list, click the Toggle button next to Macro to enable it.
The Macro section is now visible in the Properties pane. Click the Edit button.
In the Macro window, provide the following details:
- Macro Name: Type the macro name. The remaining fields are enabled only after you provide a macro name.
  
  Macro name cannot contain spaces, or any of the following characters: < ` , . ? : ; & " ' !
- Macro Default Value: Type the default value of the macro. When an article macro is expanded and the article does not have any content, the default value of the macro is used. The default content should be adequate to represent the original content.
- Macro Description: Type a brief description.
- Exception Article: Using exception articles ensures that the customer is shown alternate text instead of an error message in case the macro does not expand. Click the Add button. In the Select Article window that appears, select the exception article and click the OK button.
  
  You can only use published articles as exception articles.
Click the Done button.
Click the Publish button. You can only use this article as a macro once it has been published.

Using Macros

To add macros in an article:

In the Navigation menu, browse to Authoring > Articles.
From the Folders List, select a folder.
From the Articles List, select an article.
From the text editor toolbar, click the Add Macro button. The Select Macro window appears.
From the window, select the macro that you want to use in the article.
If you select an article as a macro, a preview of the selected macro is displayed in the Preview pane. To disable the preview, click the Toggle button next to Show Preview. You can also preview article macros added to an article by right-clicking on the macro and selecting Preview Macro from the menu.

You can only preview one macro article at a time. If multiple articles are selected no preview is displayed.
Click Done.
Alternatively, if you know the macro's name, type it in the text area preceded by two single reversed prime characters (‘).

To expand macros in an article: