Managing personal snippets

Whether you are working with Tickets or the Knowledge Base, you may need certain short fragments of text again and again. Snippets are blocks of re-usable text, which allow you to avoid repetitive typing the same content. For example, you can create snippets for your signatures, standard replies and troubleshooting recipes, most frequent activities and descriptions.

NOTE: In addition to personal snippets, you may use shared snippets. Shared snippets are created by the Alloy Navigator Express administrator in the Settings App. For more information, see Managing shared snippets.

Creating personal snippets

You can create your personal snippets in the Desktop App or in the Web App. Your personal snippets are available only for you. Snippets can contain placeholders for dynamic text that are replaced with actual values at run time, such as the current date and time. You can categorize personal snippets to make them easier to find.

IMPORTANT: To be able to manage (create, modify, and delete) personal snippets, you must have the corresponding security permission, which is granted by the Alloy Navigator Express administrator.

To create a personal snippet:

1. Select Insert > Snippets from the Module menu (alternatively, press F4). The Snippets dialog box opens.

   TIP: If you are creating snippets within action forms (for details, see Action Bar), you can use the button.

2. Click New above the workspace pane.

TIP: By default, all snippets are created in the category "All." If you have other categories, you can first select a category for your snippet in the Snippet Categories pane, and then click New. The snippet will be created in that category. For details, see Managing personal snippet categories.

3. In the Text field, type the snippet text.
   
   To insert a placeholder for dynamic content in your snippet text, click the location where you want to insert it, click Insert Placeholder, and choose the placeholder in the Select Placeholder window.

   You can use these placeholders in snippet text:

   Item	Inserted dynamic value	Placeholder
   Current User	The Full Name of the current person who inserts the snippet.	%[SYS Current User]%
   Current User ->[Field]	The specified field from the current user’s Person record.	%[SYS Current User.Field]% For example: %[SYS Current User.Full_Name]%
   Now	The current date and time (the timestamp) on the computer where the snippet is inserted (i.e. the computer running the Desktop App or the Web App).	%[SYS Now]%
   Today	The current date on the computer where the snippet is inserted (i.e. the computer running the Desktop App or the Web App).	%[SYS Today]%

4. In the Name field, view the snippet name. By default, it is the snippet text. If the default name is too long, you may want to shorten it.

5. Optional: Choose a category from the Category list. Categorizing makes the snippet easier to find. You can create a new category, if needed, and then modify the snippet properties to add it the that newly-created category.

TIP: Whether you choose a category for the snippet or not, it can be always found it the "All" category.

6. Click OK.

To modify a personal snippet:

1. Select Insert > Snippets from the Module menu (alternatively, press F4). The Snippets dialog box opens.

2. In the Snippet Categories pane, select the category that contain your snippet. You can find all snippets in the "All" system category.

3. In the workspace pane, select the snippet and click Modify.

4. Modify the snippet as needed.

5. Click OK.

TIP: If your configuration contains many snippets, you can use a standard filter box to navigate directly to the snippet you need. Type in your text in the filter box that appears above the grid of snippets. As you type, the grid will show only those snippets that contain the entered text.

To delete a personal snippet:

1. Select Insert > Snippets from the Module menu (alternatively, press F4). The Snippets dialog box opens.

2. In the Snippet Categories pane, select the category that contain your snippet. You can find all snippets in the "All" system category.

3. In the workspace pane, select the snippet and click Delete.

Related Information:

Inserting snippets

Inserting date, time, and name

Managing personal snippet categories

Alloy Navigator Express displays shared snippets under the "Personal" category, in order to distinguish them from shared snippets (which appear in the "Shared" category). To make personal snippets easier to find, you can break them down even further into categories (such as "Personal > Signatures," or "Personal > Descriptions"). The categories tree always has the category "All," which includes all existing snippets, and "Recent," which includes your recently inserted snippets. These system categories cannot be changed in any way.

To create a personal snippet category:

1. Select Insert > Snippets from the Module menu. The Snippets dialog box opens.

2. Click New menu above the Snippet Categories pane. The New Personal Category window opens.

3. Type the category name and click OK. The newly-created category appears in the Snippet Categories pane.

To rename a personal snippet category:

1. Select Insert > Snippets from the Module menu. The Snippets dialog box opens.

2. In the Snippet Categories pane, select the category you want to rename and click More... > Edit on the Module menu. The Edit window opens.

3. Change the category name and click OK.

NOTE: You cannot rename categories for shared snippets.

To delete a personal snippet category:

1. Select Insert > Snippets from the Module menu (alternatively, press F4). The Snippets dialog box opens.

2. In the Snippet Categories pane, select the category you want to delete.

3. Click More > Delete above the Snippet Categories pane.

NOTE: When deleting a category, you just remove this classification, but not snippets that the category included. All snippets are always available in the "All" category.

NOTE: You cannot delete categories for shared snippets.

Related Information:

Inserting snippets

Inserting date, time, and name