---
title: Defining manual choice steps in automation processes
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/managing-the-flow-of-contacts-in-automation-processes.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/configuring-step-security-for-automation-processes.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/defining-automatic-decisions-in-processes.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/configuring-and-customizing-your-on-line-marketing-features/on-line-marketing-macros.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

> **Info:** **Enterprise license required**
>
> Features described on this page require the **Kentico Xperience Enterprise** license.

You can add steps to [automation processes](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation.md) that allow human users to decide how individual contacts go through the process. Designated users (such as members of the marketing staff) can [manage](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/managing-the-flow-of-contacts-in-automation-processes.md) individual instances of automation processes for specific contacts.

## Adding approve progress steps

To add an approval step to your automation processes:

1. [Place](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/managing-automation-process-steps.md) the **Approve progress** step onto the grid from the designer toolbar.
2. Integrate the approve progress step into the flow of the process by [connecting](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/connecting-automation-process-steps.md) a preceding step.
3. Connect the step's source point to the next step in the process.
4. (Optional) Edit the step by clicking it in the designer grid.

   1. Open the **Security** tab and [configure](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/configuring-step-security-for-automation-processes.md) which users or roles are allowed to approve the step.
   2. On the **Advanced** tab, fill in the **User action text** and **User action tooltip** for the approve progress step. See: [Setting the user action text for steps](#setting-the-user-action-text-for-steps)
   3. Add an additional [Condition](https://docs.kentico.com/13/macro-expressions/writing-macro-conditions/building-conditions-using-macro-rules.md) – the process allows users to approve the step only if the condition is fulfilled.
   4. Click **Apply**.

When a contact reaches the step, the process waits for [approval](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/managing-the-flow-of-contacts-in-automation-processes.md) from a designated user before continuing to the next step.

## Branching processes based on user decisions

The _Manual choice_ step splits the process into any number of branches. Designated users need to [manually choose](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/managing-the-flow-of-contacts-in-automation-processes.md) the next step for each contact in the process.

1. [Place](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/managing-automation-process-steps.md) the **Manual choice** step onto the grid from the designer toolbar.
2. Integrate the step into the flow of the process by [connecting](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/connecting-automation-process-steps.md) a preceding step.
3. Click **Add new choice** (plus sign next to the step title) to create the required number of choices.
4. (Optional) Edit individual choices in the step by clicking their pencil icon:

   1. Fill in the **User action text** and **User action tooltip** for the choice. See: [Setting the user action text for steps](#setting-the-user-action-text-for-steps)
   2. Add an additional [Condition](https://docs.kentico.com/13/macro-expressions/writing-macro-conditions/building-conditions-using-macro-rules.md) – the process allows users to select the choice only if the condition is fulfilled.
   3. Click **Save**.
   4. Open the **Security** tab and [configure](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/working-with-the-automation-process-designer/configuring-step-security-for-automation-processes.md) which users or roles are allowed to select the choice.
5. Connect the source points of all choices to other steps in the process.

![Manual choice step](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/13/defining-manual-choice-steps-in-automation-processes/Manual_choice_step.png "Manual choice step")

## Setting the user action text for steps

When users [manage](https://docs.kentico.com/13/on-line-marketing-features/managing-your-on-line-marketing-features/marketing-automation/managing-the-flow-of-contacts-in-automation-processes.md) automation processes for specific contacts, they can move the contact between steps via action buttons. You can edit the text captions of the buttons for individual steps in your processes.

> **Tip:** **Tip**
>
> In addition to the _Approve progress_ and _Manual choice_ steps, you can also set user action texts for other types of steps. Users can see the text values if they need to manually override the default flow of the process.

To edit the action button text of a step:

1. Select the step by clicking it in the designer grid.

   - The designer opens a panel showing the details of the given step's configuration.
2. Select the **Advanced** tab.
3. Fill in the following fields:

   - **User action text** – the caption of the action button.
   - **User action tooltip** – text displayed when a user hovers over the action button.
4. Click **Apply**.

If the step contains multiple cases (choices):

1. In the step configuration panel, switch to the **Cases** tab.
2. **Edit** each of the cases.
3. Fill in the user action fields.
4. Click **Save**.