1. Pendo Help Center
  2. Guides
  3. Get started with Guides

Guides Markdown

Last Updated:

Note: This feature is currently in closed beta.

Guides Markdown is a feature of Engage Guides that allows Pendo users, without code blocks, to implement advanced guide behaviors using basic markdown syntax. These behaviors include:

  • Skipping ineligible guide steps
  • Conditional guide branching
  • Marking question as required
  • Guide personalization, for example, metadata substitution

Skipping ineligible guide steps

Use this behavior in walkthrough guides to avoid steps that may fail to render within a larger guide flow. A common example of this would be a guide step that’s targeted to an element that may not always be present, for example, based on varying user roles or in-app configurations. Within any guide step, you can enter the following syntax within the aria-label input field within the Visual Designer:

Syntax Description
{skipStep: auto/}

If, via a next step or previous step action, the guide moves to a step that is ineligible, the guide instead progresses to the next or previous eligible step.

If there are no eligible steps in a particular direction when moving from the current step, the guide closes.
{skipStep: [number]/}

If, via a next step or previous step action, the guide moves to a step that is ineligible, the guide instead progresses to a particular defined step, as indicated by the step number.

So, the syntax {skipStep: 7/} would force the guide to move to step 7 if the guide encounters a failed step.

 

A successful configuration of this syntax within a guide’s aria label shows a designated icon in the bottom-right corner of the guide step. This icon disappears when the guide is previewed or live:

skipping_ineligible_guide_steps.png

Conditional guide branching

Use this behavior in walkthrough guides to branch from one guide step to another within the same guide, based on a user’s response to a multi-select poll in the Visual Design Studio.

There are two markdown tags required to enable conditional guide branching on a guide step:

Syntax Description
{branching/}

If, via a next step or previous step action, the guide moves to a step that is ineligible, the guide instead progresses to the next or previous eligible step.

If there are no eligible steps in a particular direction when moving from the current step, the guide closes.
{goto- [number]/}

If, via a next step or previous step action, the guide moves to a step that is ineligible, the guide instead progresses to a particular defined step, as indicated by the step number.

So, the syntax {skipStep: 7/} would force the guide to move to step 7 if the guide encounters a failed step.

 

edit_text_branching.png

edit_multiple_choice.png

Only one poll per guide step can house a conditional guide poll. If multiple polls are added with the {branching/} tag, the designer indicates that this is not supported:

edit_text_branching_error.png

Required questions

Use this behavior to mark any Open Text Poll, Multi Choice Poll, or Number Scale Poll as “required”, so a user must complete the specified questions before a Pendo Guide Poll can be submitted.

Syntax Description

{required/}

When added to an Open Text Poll, Multi Choice Poll, or Number Scale Poll within the Visual Design Studio, this disables any buttons that submit and advance the guide until the specified questions are completed.

 

 

When the appropriate syntax has been added, a small red asterisk appears next to the respective question in both the designer and when the guide is live. This indicates that the question has been marked as required:

edit_text_required.png

When the guide is rendered in preview or is live, any buttons that submit the guide poll are disabled until all indicated questions have been completed:

poll_disabled.png poll_enabled.png

 

Guide personalization

Use this behavior within any guide within the Visual Design Studio to dynamically insert Pendo agent metadata values into the text of a guide. This supports any metadata on the visitor or account object that is present to the user at the time of guide rendering:

Syntax Description

{[visitor/account].[fieldName]|[optionalFallback]/}

example:

{visitor.name|Gary/}

The guide personalization syntax accepts either the visitor or account object specification, followed by any field name present on that metadata object. For example, if the account metadata object has a field called country, you can specify {account.country/} to dynamically insert that value from metadata.

The syntax also accepts an optional fallback parameter. So, if the particular account viewing the guide in the example above does not have a country defined, you can enter {account.country|your country/} to render the words “your country” if the country metadata field for that account is blank.

 

Notably, this syntax is compatible with XLIFF files and localization in Pendo. So, you can specify the following in your XLIFF file:

  • en_us: Please tell us about your experience in {account.country|your country/}
  • es-419: Cuéntame sobre su experiencia en {account.country|su país/}

The Guide Personalization icon appears when personalization is active, as the personalization effect takes place in both the designer and when the guide is previewed or live:

guide_personalization.png

 

Related articles