Add Quick Messages (Canned Responses) to Additional Comments

[Charlie Ward]

I am looking to add quick messages or "Message Snippets" to the Additional Comments field. I have more use cases than I prefer where I can not utilize the OOB Email Quick Messages or Automated Email Templates.

I am looking to have the functionality for quick messages to just show up as a dropdown box like it does in the Email Action Client Button or if you start typing, pre-populated responses will show up for you to choose one. I know this was possible in a previous version of ServiceNow because we did this at my old job where we used ServiceNow.

Please see the examples below.

OPTION 1 - Quick Messages Box built into Additional Comments and Work Notes

OPTION 2 - Predictive Text - Looks up pre-populated text according to the characters you've already typed and you choose the canned response that best suites your needs.

[justinrgaudet]

We've implemented something similar to Option 2 for our Short Description field using Suggestion Fields. However, we do not use it for the journal fields (comments/work_notes), but it looks like it is possible. This should also add the suggestion 'light bulb' icon next to the field which will open a pop-up list of the possible options, similar to what you are trying to achieve in Option 1. Information can be found here: Add a suggestion field.

[Charlie Ward]

Thanks for the input and direction Justin. I followed your link to add a suggestion field however there are no ServiceNow options when I right-click on the additional comments field label. I did find the comments dictionary entry on the task field and changed the Choice to Suggestion but I don't see the "light bulb" icon for suggestions.

[justinrgaudet · Accepted solution]

Yeah, this is a weird bug with Journal fields. It is described in this problem ticket: ServiceNow KB: PRB656770: Field-level right-click context menu is not available on Additional Commen...

In our instance, we were able to get around it by adding the Additional comments field again in the Incident section. This field briefly shows during load, but then hides soon after so only the one in Notes shows. Some other people have reported reordering the fields in the Notes section also worked as a workaround. Either way, the Suggestion changes you implemented should show up, and you should be able to use the field right click context menu on the field too.

Open any Incident > Right click top bar > Configure > Form Layout

I hope that helps!

[Charlie Ward]

Thanks for the guidance Justin. The Suggestion Field looks to be what I need, however, with the bug, it's not working properly. I'll wait to see what SN does with the Suggestion Field on Journal Fields bug.