Question

Snippets allow me to specify frequently used pieces of text for quick inclusion in email responses. How do I get the most out of them?

Answer 1

To get the most of the Snippets feature you should know:

• they currently only work in email bodies and case edits
• you can change the Snippet Activation Key by going to My Settings -> Options (I use the default `)
• you can get a list of available Snippets by typing the Snippet Activation Key twice
• you can embed special key-word replacement strings like {sender}, {case}, {ticketurl} that will be automatically replaced when the Snippet is activated
• you can embed your own special field, [[your words]], that will be automatically selected when the Snippet is activated so that you can immediately type your own values (for example: This will be fixed in Version [[ver]].)
• if the last word of you Snippet content is the name of another Snippet you can concatenate them when you activate the first one by just typing the Snippet Activation Key again

After you know all that, then anytime you envision having to type a certain phase more than just a couple of times, you can go to My Settings -> Snippets to save that text. Then it can be easily retrieved by typing the Snippet name you gave it, followed by the Snippet Activation Key. (if the above Snippet were named fv, while editing a Case you could type fv`5.4 to get This will be fixed in Version 5.4. inserted.

The other answers in this question have many suggestions as to where you could use snippets. I'll add - URLs, Case closing comments.

Answer 2

I use them regularly when I have common details I want to type in. Naturally it saves a lot on typing.

For instance, our company name is "White Light Computing, Inc." and all I have to type out is wlc~ and I get the long company name.

I use it for our different product names too. Typing three letters is easier than the long product names. I have set up a personal one for my initials that expands out into my full name too.

We use the typical ty for Thank You and dup for the duplicate bug report closing. Makes the message to the users universally consistent, while it saves us time.

Answer 3

The way I use snippets is pretty straight forward:

Once I have had too many deja-vue's on an answer to a customer, I add it to my snippet library using the shortest possible name for the snippet.

I have snippets for

• greeting a customer - with fill-inn slots for the customer's name.
• answers to the most common questions in support.
• solutions / workarounds for major bugs that will not be released in the near future. (if we have a fix and it will be shipped soon, I tag the submissions and do a bulk reply using the XML API when the fix has been shipped).
• pleading customers, that are notorious 'void'-submitters, for either submitting reports with explanations about their bug/error or simply stop submitting. The reason for this snippet is that I never let my temper and annoyance ruin a diplomatic answer to the customer.
• sending customers along to our community and seek help there (we have a very mature community with several channels including an "answers-site" like this one, a feedback forum that lets customers submit and vote for feature requests, an old-school discussion forum, an IRC channel, and several 3rd party community sites).
• requesting more info on an issue.
• requesting example files for issues.
• requesting a repro descriptions.
• bidding a pleasant farewell with a good signature.

Most of these of course have the relevant fill inn slots and snippet placeholders to make everything go more smoothly.

In my most common snippets I have embedded my 'bye' snippet, so I can simply hit my snippet activation key twice to have a full reply to the customer. This is very nice as I only have to maintain one signature for.