How to: Slack

Brief overview into how to best use Slack + some tips so it’s effective for you and your team.

Keywords

You can use some keywords in a slack message either to get people’s attention, point them to a specific channel.

@channel

Use this to notify everyone in the channel.

@here

Notify everyone who is currently online in this channel.

@everyone

Use in the #general channel to notify everyone in the workspace.

@<name>

Type a person’s name after the @ symbol to notify them.

#<channel>

You can link a channel in a message using the # symbol; useful if you want to point people to a specific channel.

Editing Messages

There are two ways of editing messages sent on slack.

Up-arrow

You can edit the last message sent in a chat by pressing the up-arrow.

Context Menu

You can use the context menu on the top right of the message to select the edit message button.

Channels

Open

Many of our channels on Slack are open because we want to promote open and transparent communication between all team members. All new channels should be open, unless sensitive information is shared in such channel.

Private

Private channels can only be created by team leaders and the co-leads. These should only be created in exceptional circumstances.

Formatting

You can format your messages in slack using certain characters, and create bullet point lists.

Bold

Use the * symbol before and after some text to bold it. i.e. *Bold\*

Italics

Use the _ symbol before and after some text to bold italicize it. i.e. \_Italics_

Strikethrough

Use the ~ symbol before and after some text to bold it. i.e. ~Strikethrough~

Lists

Use the - symbol followed by a space at the start of a like to create a list item; you can indent a list item by adding two spaces at the start of the line.

• This is a list item
  • This an indented list item

This is how you could create the above bullet points:

- This a list item
  - This is an indented list item

Calling

You can call individual team members on slack like FaceTime or Google Hangouts using the phone button on the left of the search bar when in your private chat with them.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Slack has a bunch of keyboard shortcuts but the most useful one is:

cmd + k / ctrl + k

Use this to navigate to a channel or DM or to use Slack’s very powerful search feature.

Linking Google Drive

You can link your own google account to the slack workspace in order to:

• Create / share files
• Get notifications about file updates

Using Doodle

You can use @dooblebot to create and share doodle polls in order to find time slots that work for most people.

Polls

You can create a poll for voting very easily. They're created with the /poll command.

/poll "The question?" "Answer 1" "Answer 2" "Answer 3".

Be sure to have all the double quotes ".

Themes

Slack lets you personalize the colours of the sidebar. To change your theme:

1. Press the workspace button in the top left corner and go to Preferences (or Press Cmd + ,/Ctrl + ,)

   

2. Press Sidebar

   

3. Scroll down to Custom Theme

   

4. Change your colours using the controls, or paste your own colours into the text box.

We've made some themes that match our colour schemes. Copy paste either of these into the text box to use them in Slack.

Light Theme #FAFAFA,#F3F3F3,#7C39BF,#FFFFFF,#D4B7F7,#564F4D,#7DB0E8,#DA0000

Dark Theme #0C0F0A,#31263E,#7C39BF,#FFFFFF,#31263E,#F1F9ED,#7DB0E8,#DA0000