Create and Manage Saved Replies for Fast Answers

A saved reply is a snippet of text that can be quickly added to the editor when replying to a customer. Using saved replies is a great way to tackle those issues that require a standard or simple response. This article will walk you through creating, using, and managing saved replies in Help Scout.

All users can add saved replies from the conversation editor. Help Scout Account Owners and Administrators have permission to edit and manage existing saved replies by default, and can grant that permission to Users. User Roles and Permissions has more information on permissions and how to change them.

Note that this guide is specifically for saved replies for use in email replies. Saved replies for chat are a little different. Check out Saved Replies for Chat for help with those.

Create Saved Replies

There are two ways to create a new saved reply.

From a Conversation

All users can create a saved reply from the conversation editor. Just type in the text that you want to save as a reply, bring up the shortcut menu by typing a slash (/), and navigate to Saved Reply > Save this reply. Give your saved reply a name, edit it if you wish to add or remove anything, and click Save Reply.

AI Assist is available to Plus and Pro plans to help with your saved replies saved from conversations. Use it to fix the spelling and grammar, change the tone or length, or even translate into other languages. More about this feature is here: Use AI Assist in Help Scout.

From Inbox Settings

Account Owners and Administrators, and Users with permissions to do so, can also create saved replies from the inbox settings.

1

Head over to Manage > Inbox(es), choose your inbox, then click Saved Replies from the left sidebar.

2

Click on New Saved Reply at the top of the page.

3

Give your new reply a name, then compose your response in the text editor. You can also create a chat version if chat is enabled on the inbox. Click Save Reply when you're happy with the saved reply.

You can copy the text into the Chat Content field when on this form if you want to use the same text for chat saved replies. Check out Saved Replies for Chat for more on how those work.

Style Saved Replies

There are a number of ways to format the text in your saved reply. These are the options that are found in the inbox settings available to Account Owners and Administrators, and Users with permissions to edit saved replies.

Markdown Options

Use supported Markdown to style as you type.

Formatting	Markdown
	Surround your text with double asterisks: your text
	Surround your text with single asterisks: your text
	Surround your text with tildes: ~your text~
	Surround your text with backticks: `your text`
	Type an angle bracket, then press `Space` before your text: > your blockquote
	Type 1 and a period, then press `Space` in front of your text: 1. your text To indent, press `Tab`
	Type dash or asterisk, then press `Space` in front of your text: - your text To indent, press `Tab`

No other Markdown is supported at this time.

Tooltip Menu

Highlight the text you want to style to see the tooltip menu.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Highlight the text you want to format and use the keyboard shortcuts to apply the style. Windows users, use Ctrl where you see Cmd in the list below.

Bold - Cmd + B
Italic - Cmd + I
Underline - Cmd + U
Bullet List - Cmd + Shift + 8
Numbered List - Cmd + Shift + 7
Link - Cmd + K

Advanced Formatting with the Command Menu

Type a slash (/) or click the plus sign (+) to bring up advanced formatting options. Here is where you find the options to insert an image and/or a table, or to use variables in your saved reply. (See Work With Variables for details on variable use.)

Note: You cannot attach files other than images to saved replies. You can add links to files hosted on a website or filesharing service, but keep in mind that will be the same link that goes out to everyone that gets that saved reply.

Use a Saved Reply in Email

Open the shortcut menu by typing a slash (/) or clicking the plus (+) in the bottom right corner and choose Saved Reply. Search or scroll through the list and select the saved reply you want to use.

To learn more about using saved replies with chat, see Saved Replies for Chat.

Manage and Organize Saved Replies

Edit Saved Replies

Head to Manage > Inbox(es), choose your Inbox, then click Saved Replies from the left navigation menu. Click on the saved reply you wish to edit, and make your changes. Click Save Reply when you're happy with it.

Delete Saved Replies

Head to Manage > Inbox(es), choose your inbox, then click Saved Replies from the left navigation menu. Click on the saved reply you wish to delete then click the trash can icon on the bottom right of the reply.

Copy Saved Replies to Another Inbox

Head to Manage > Inbox(es), choose your inbox, then click Saved Replies from the left navigation menu. Click the saved reply you want to copy, then look for the Copy button in the bottom right corner, and choose the inbox you want to copy to.

Organize Saved Replies

Saved replies are displayed in alphanumeric order, both in the saved reply menu in the conversation editor and the settings page. There’s no option to manually rearrange replies.

Use numbers in the names of your saved replies to control ordering of the list.

If you have groups of replies that are similar, you can easily bunch them together using a naming convention. Start typing the group name in the search box to return the replies in that group only.