A Simple Guide For New Users On Slack

As a new user on Slack, you can either be an admin or a member of a workspace. The first part of this tutorial was for prospective Slack admins and in it, I explained what a workspace is. For this second tutorial, I will be guiding members who are new users on how to use Slack.

As a member, you must have been invited by an admin to collaborate on Slack either through an email message or through a workspace URL. A workspace URL looks like this: nameoforganization.slack.com

If you have received an email, just click on the link in the email and follow the resulting steps to create an account. Likewise, you can go to the workspace URL and create an account on the workspace.

What a typical workspace looks like on Desktop and Mobile

You can collaborate on as many workspaces as possible. As long as you have received an email from the admin or know what the URL for the workspace is, you can collaborate on it.

For the sake of this tutorial, we will limit the Slack experience to just the desktop version. Slack can also be downloaded and used on smartphones (Android or iOS).

Tutorial Content

• Edit your profile
• Messaging
• Direct/Group Conversations
• The Slash (/) Magic
• Deactivate your account

Edit your profile

Now that you have created an account, edit your profile.

There are two ways you can do this.

First way:

1. Click the workspace name at the top left corner of the workspace (as in the picture below).

2. Select Profile & Account. A Workspace Directory comes up.

3. Click on Edit Profile. You will see the image below.

4. Fill out the fields, then click on the Save Changes button and that’s it. Profile edited!

Second way:

1. Click on the three dots at the top right corner of the workspace.
2. Select Workspace Directory.
3. A search comes up. Search for yourself using your profile name. Click on your name.
4. You can see the Work Directory again. Click on Edit Profile.
5. Edit your profile by filling the form fields and click on Save Changes.

Messaging

My intention in this section is to show you how to do the following:

• Text editing
• Editing, Replying and deleting messages
• Writing Code Snippets & File Sharing
• Direct & Group Messaging

Text editing

Typing a message is pretty simple as you can see a message field at the bottom of the workspace.

The new message field on Slack.

The message box looks like the image above.

You can add emojis to your text by clicking the emoji symbol, or use the ‘@’ sign to call the attention of another member to your text. You can expand the message field with the “Aa” sign and the clip symbol is for adding attachments. The thunderbolt sign on the left is for shortcuts (a new feature on Slack). You can check it out and see all it has in store for you.

To type on a new line, press Shift + Enter on your keyboard. That gives you a new line to type on.

By typing @channel, you can notify everyone on the channel about your message. Type @here to notify only those who are currently online.

You can also enrich your text in the following ways:

• bold from *bold* [You can also get this by selecting words to be bold and hitting Ctrl+B]
• italics from _italics_ [Also using Ctrl+I]
• strike from ~strike~ [that’s the tilde character to the left of the 1 key on your keyboard]
• > indent one line
• >>> indent all following lines [like a block quote)]
• `code blocks` [use the “backtick” character on the same key as the tilde (~)]
• ```code blocks for all following lines.

Editing, Replying and Deleting messages

By pressing the Up arrow key, you can edit your messages and click on Save Changes.

You can also edit a message this way:

1. Hover on the message, select the three horizontal dots that says, “More actions”.
2. Click on Edit message.
3. Edit your message and click on Save Changes.

To delete a message:

1. Hover on the message, select the three horizontal dots that says, “More actions”.
2. Click on Delete message. It is coloured dark pink.

To reply to a message:

1. Hover on the message, select the chat icon that says, “Start a thread”.
2. Type your message and click Send or press the Enter key to send.

Replying a message always starts a thread that you can track as conversations continue in the thread.

Writing Code Snippets & Sharing Files

To share a file,

1. Click the paper clip button on the left side of the messaging box or field.
2. Add a file from Google Drive or Your Computer and share.

To create code snippets,

1. Click the paper clip button on the left side of the messaging box or field.
2. Hover on Create New… (This has now been moved to shortcuts, the thunderbolt symbol on the left of the message field).
3. Select Create a code or text snippet.
4. Type your codes in the pop-up and click on Create Snippet.

Direct/Group Conversations

To send a direct message to one person,

1. Click the plus icon next to Direct Messages in the left sidebar.
2. Search for the person you’d like to message.
3. Click Go to start your new DM conversation.

To send a group message.

1. Click the plus icon next to Direct Messages in the left sidebar.
2. Search and select other members to add them to the conversation.
3. Click Go to finish.

The Forward Slash (/) Magic

Type / in the message box to see the list of amazing things you can do with Slack.

One of such things is the poll. You can use Slack to take a poll and other members can vote. It’s easy. Try it by typing /poll and press the Enter key. Follow the instruction given by the Slackbot to create your own poll.

Deactivate your account

If you ever decide to deactivate your account on a workspace, you can achieve that with the following steps:

1. Click the workspace name at the top left corner of the workspace.

2. Select Profile & Account. The Workspace Directory comes up.

3. Click on the button that has the three vertical dots and select Account Settings.

4. Scroll to the deactivate account section at the bottom of the page, then click Deactivate your account.

5. Enter your password and select Confirm Password.

6. Click Yes, deactivate my account.

Thank you for staying through with me till the end of the Slack tutorial series. If you missed the first part, you can find it here. Have any questions? Ask me in the comment section.