How to Use Slack
What is Slack?
Slack is a proprietary business communication platform or software developed by Slack Technologies.
Tips for Decluttering Slack
Whether you’re new to Slack or have been using it for years, there are some useful settings and tools that are worth using for customization and decluttering to ensure you get the most out of the communication platform.
Keeping up with a busy Slack group can get pretty overwhelming pretty quickly. There are a few simple settings you can change to declutter Slack and make it more manageable, let's take a look at them below:
Removing Link Previews in Slack
There are four main ways you can remove link previews in Slack:
- The easiest way is to manually remove them after the fact by simply hovering over the preview and clicking the grey X that appears.
- You can choose to disable preview links across the board for yourself by going to Preferences > Messages & Media > Inline Media & Links. Turn off Show images and files from linked websites and Show text previews of linked websites. This will affect only your personal Slack experience.
- You can use some fancy text formatting so that when you paste in the link, the preview won’t be created. Do this by adding a single arrow bracket (>) directly before the link.
- Administrators can disable link previews for specific domains by clicking the grey X in the link preview and disabling future attachments from the website.
Unfortunately, Slack doesn’t let you hyperlink words, which would be a great way to keep the look of your messages a little less cluttered.
Keep Unread Messages in One Place
It can become overwhelming to try to keep up with multiple channels, particularly if you’re part of a large Slack group. If you want a more decluttered view of your messages, you can quickly scan all unread messages in one place.
If the feature isn’t already enabled, go to Preferences > Sidebar > Show All Unread.
This will place a handy link to all Unread messages in all Slack channels in the sidebar directly beneath your name.
When you enable this, you’ll also get “Highlights“ what Slack thinks are the most important messages posted since you were last online.
Slack makes its selection of highlights based on your interactions with people, channels, files, and apps. Highlights can be viewed within their respective channels, while up to ten highlighted messages linked at the top of the Unread's tab.
Cleaning Up the Slack Sidebar
Slack’s sidebar, is key to easily navigate the platform. You can clean up and organize your sidebar, making it less messy and placing things that matter most to you within easy reach.
Go to Preferences > Sidebar to make your selections for what is displayed and in what order
If you find that the noisier channels are a distraction, you can mute them by opening the channel, clicking the Settings > Mute [channel name].
Pin or Star Important Information
If there’s any important information shared on Slack, finding it days, let alone months, after it’s been shared can be a real challenge. To keep track of important messages in Slack, you can either pin or star them.
To keep track of important messages just for yourself, star them by clicking the star in the menu that appears when you hover over the message.
To view starred messages, click the star in the menu in the top right corner from any channel or message.
If you want others to also be able to easily find the message, pin it by clicking More Actions > Pin to [Channel Name] or Pin to this conversation.
Note: Pinned items can be accessed by clicking the pin icon at the top of the screen.
Advanced Text Formatting
You can create a formatted Post by clicking the + button to the left of the text bar and selecting Post.
This will open up a new window with more advanced formatting options.
You get basic formattings like bold, italic, strikethrough, and bullet or numbered lists, but you can also hyperlink text unlike with basic formatting, and have three preformatted headers to choose from.
Once you’ve completed the post, click the Share button and you can then share it to a channel or in a direct message. You can also choose whether others can edit the post.
Using Emojis in Slack
If you want to get even more creative with your formatting, why not incorporate emojis into your text?
You can use emojis to bring attention to important information or announcements, to create a numbered list, to signify priority, or just to add some levity to your Slack interactions.
There’s no limit to how creative you can get with your use of emojis, and as you’ll see in the next item on this list, you can upload your own emojis.
