Slack Tutorial for Admins
The first time I tried using Slack, it wasn’t as easy as it seems. Having questions around the difficulties and lack of simplicity I experienced, I went on to do some research to figure out why things were not as seamless as I expected.
What I found is that a lot of people happen to go through the same dilemma during their first experience with Slack. They think it is hard to use but it is never as hard as you think.
So, what exactly is Slack?
Slack is an online collaboration hub where you and your team can work together to get things done (it’s that simple).
The essence of this guide article is to show you how to use Slack, especially if you are a first time user.
As a first time user, you can either be the one creating a workspace for your team or you have been invited to collaborate on your team’s workspace.
The first part of this article focuses on the first-timer who is the one creating a workspace (more like an admin). The second part of this article will be focusing on the one who has been invited to collaborate on a workspace.
What is a Workspace?
The word, “workspace” has surfaced four times in the last two paragraphs and I’m sure you’re still wondering what it is.
Think about this as an apartment that has been rented on Slack with several rooms. The rooms are referred to as Channels. A Slack channel can either be private or public. Just like you can have rooms that are opened to everyone (public channel), some rooms can also be out of bounds to certain people (private channel).
Creating a Workspace
Follow these simple steps to create a Slack Workspace.
- Go to slack.com.
- Type in your email address in the space provided that says, “Your work email”. Click the purple button with the tag, “TRY FOR FREE”.
- The image below pops up. Select “Create a new workspace”. A 6-digit confirmation code will be sent to your email.
4. Type in the 6-digit code into the next page that pops up.
5. You will be requested to type in the name of your company or team as in the image below. Type it and click “Next”.
6. Next, you will see a similar page like the one above saying, “What’s a project your team is working on?”. Type it and click, “Next”.
7. You will then get a page that prompts you to invite other members of your team using their email. By using this option, your team will receive a mail saying you have invited them to collaborate on Slack.
You can also get an invite link on this page to share with team members. This option allows you to copy a shareable link. Invitation links are valid for 30 days. You can altogether skip the invitation process.
8. We are just one step away from creating our workspace. In this step, you are asked, “What kind of work do you do?”. You can ignore the question about tools and just click on “Continue”. Tada!
9. Click on “See Your Channel in Slack”. This will take you to your newly created workspace. You have just one more thing to do.
10. Finish Sign Up by setting your username and password. This will change the default username that was created using your email.
You have just created a workspace!
Creating a Channel
Remember that a channel is like a room in the bigger house or apartment (workspace in this case).
Now let’s see how to create a channel on Slack. This is pretty much simple.
By default, the general and random channels come automatically with any workspace created.
To create a workspace,
- Click on the plus beside ‘Channels’ in the sidebar (as in the above image).
2. The image above pops up. Fill in the fields in the provided spaces and Click “Create”.
Congratulations! You have just created a channel!
You can also add people to a created channel or workspace. You can click on “Invite people” on the sidebar to invite people to a channel.
By clicking on the down arrow beside the workspace name in the image above, you will find the settings that are related to a workspace. For example, by clicking on that arrow and selecting “Invite people”, you can invite people to the workspace with their email address.
Deleting a workspace
Follow these steps to delete a workspace:
- Clicking on the down arrow, select Administration > Workspace Settings
- On the Settings tab, scroll down to the final option that says, “Delete Workspace”.
- A page comes up for you to confirm the deletion. Select checkbox, type in the workspace password and click the button that says, “Yes, delete my workspace”.
- If you’re 100% sure you want to delete the workspace, click “OK”.
And this is the end of the first part of this Slack guide article. It touched on how to create a workspace, a channel, how to delete a workspace, inviting people to a workspace and the basic things you need to know about Slack, especially if you are going to be a Slack admin.
In the second part, I will be focusing on how those that have been invited to a workspace can collaborate there.
I’m sure you’re looking forward to it.
