Slack Practical Guide to Improving Team Communication and Collaboration Efficiency

Slack has become the official communication platform for large enterprises such as Airbnb, EA and Target, and your company may have joined. Slack is compatible with desktop and mobile devices, and this article will show you how to use Slack more efficiently, from adding GIFs to quickly accessing files to help you get more productive.

Avoid notification overload

Slack is a lot of news? After registering, first set the time of not disturbance. On the web page, click the workspace name in the upper left corner, and then select Preferences and Notifications. Here you can customize how Slack reminds you of direct messages and @ mentions.

You can set the Do not disturb mode time period, during which Slack will not send you any notifications on any device. This is very useful when you need to focus on your personal time. But don't worry about missing out on an emergency, colleagues can override this setting in case of emergency.

If you have Slack installed on your phone, below the Preferences page, you can set reminders to your mobile device when any desktop version is inactive. You can also choose to receive email reminders every hour or every 15 minutes, which may be less distracting than mobile notifications.

In addition, click on the gear icon at the top of any Slack channel and select Notification Preferences , and you can set options that apply only to that particular channel. You can mute the entire channel, or ignore notifications from the @channel or @here commands.

Quick search for Slack content

The search box for the desktop version of Slack is located at the top, and the mobile version can be found by simply clicking on the magnifying glass at the top. Just enter keywords to search, and advanced search features are also available.

Use "in:" followed by a channel name or user name (no spaces) to limit the search range to a specific channel or user. You can also use "from:" followed by a username to search for all messages for a specific user, or use "to:" to view all messages sent directly to you (including threads and private conversations). In all these examples, if you don't provide a search term, everything is displayed in reverse order in time.

Search by date is very useful. Try using "before:" or "after:" followed by a date, date, or month (or both). The "on:" operator followed by a date returns the result of a specific date. You can also use "in:" followed by a month or year to limit the results. Similarly, you can add search terms to these operators, or have Slack display everything.

Use "has:star" to find a starred match, or use "has:reaction" to find a match with an emoji reaction. When you start using these search filters, you will see search suggestions below, and there will also be a sidebar on the desktop version that you can click to limit searches to specific people, channels, or dates .

Create a to-do list

Slack is not just a tool for chatting with colleagues, it also offers simple to-do list features. The most basic method is to star the project, press and hold a message on a mobile device, or click the star button next to it on the desktop. Starred items will be displayed when you click the star icon in the upper right corner of your computer or select starred items from the menu (three dots in the upper right corner) on your mobile device.

One way is to create a separate #to-do channel in your Slack workspace and post the to-do as a message – remember that you can assign it to everyone by using the “@” symbol Tasks and can be used to mark items as completed or in progress. To create a numbered list in a message, press Shift Enter after each line, and then use Ctrl Shift 7 (on Windows) or Cmd Shift 7 ( on Mac). For bullets instead of numbers, use Ctrl Shift 8 (on Windows) or Cmd Shift 8 (on Mac).

If this doesn't work, send yourself a direct message: Create a direct message as usual, but choose yourself as the recipient. Likewise, you can star the message and create a numbered and bulleted list. You can also create posts with actual checkboxes: Click the paperclip icon in the new message box at the bottom of the desktop interface and select Create new and Post. When you select a text line, a checkbox option appears. Posts can be viewed on mobile devices, but must be created on desktop.

For a more comprehensive to-do list solution that provides features such as deadlines, priorities, and assign tasks to different people, connect a third-party application to Slack. Applications like Todoist, Today List, Wunderlist, Asana, Andy.do, and Trello can be integrated directly into Slack to help you manage your to-do list.

Set Slack Reminder

Slack There are many internal and external affairs, and it is difficult to cover everything? Slack has built-in reminder function. On the desktop version, click on the three dots on the side of any message or post, and select Remind me and select a time period.

The same function is also available on mobile devices—just long press and press any message and select from the pop-up menu. When the time comes, you will receive a private message sent by Slackbot. Don't worry, others won't be able to see the reminders you set for yourself.

To view the reminder for the current activity, enter "/remind list" in the message box in Slack. You will see links to all the posts you will receive reminders, the channel or conversation they are on, and how long is left before the reminder starts. You can delete or complete tasks from the same list - doing so will keep them in your list, but you won't receive an actual reminder.

You can also create free-form reminders from the message box using the "/remind[who][what]][when]" format (you can also leave reminders for others). So "/remind me "buy milk" every Friday" works, and "/remind @bill "buy milk" at 4pm" works. For a complete description of supported syntax, see Slack's Help Guide.

View the event

As the number of channels and private conversations you participate in increases, you may miss some important information, which is where the activity panel works. Click the @ symbol in the upper right corner of the desktop version screen and you will see all your recent mentions, reactions, and messages.

If the panel is too busy or not busy enough, you can choose what to display here. Click the View Options button at the top (it looks like a series of sliders) and you can choose whether the result contains @channel mentions, reactions to your posts, and your group conversations.

If you click the menu button (three dots in the upper right corner) and select

Activity, you can also view the same list of activities on your mobile device. On mobile devices, you cannot adjust the active view based on channel mentions—the same settings you configure on your desktop will be retained.

Apart from ensuring you don't miss any important information, the activity view also helps you return to content you've seen but can't find now. Click

to view the message (on the desktop) or simply click on the entry in the list (on the mobile device) to jump to the original post in Slack.

Understand the keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are one of the best and easiest efficiency improvement tips – no matter what platform and application you use, understanding the right keyboard shortcuts can save you a lot of time to scroll and click every day.

Slack is no exception. Slack has a full and official list, but some of our favorite shortcuts include Ctrl Shift T (or Cmd Shift T on your Mac) for direct jump to your participation List of threads, Shift Esc is used to mark everything on Slack as read (it is useful when you return after a week of vacation), and Shift K (or on Mac Cmd K) is used to run the search (and view unread threads below).

Remember that you can also use the slash ("/") key to trigger various actions and events in Slack. Simply click the slash key in the message box for the desktop or mobile Slack and you will see a list of available commands: "/away" is used to mark yourself as leave, "/mute" is used to mute a specific channel, "/shrug" is used to post shrugs to the current channel or message thread, and many more commands.

The person who manages your Slack workspace may have added various extensions and plugins to Slack, which are often also accessible via the slash command – you should see in the list immediately after clicking the slash button to all available extensions and plugins. They cover everything from Slack voting to cloud storage integration.

Add GIF in Slack conversation

When it comes to third-party add-ons, they can also enable GIFs in Slack. Check out the Slack app directory and search for "GIF" to see all the different options. Your Slack Workspace Administrator will be able to add these integrations, and you may also be able to add them, depending on the permissions granted to you by the owner.

One of the most popular GIF plugins is Giphy. Once it is installed in your Slack workspace, you can type "/giphy" into any channel or conversation and then add a word or phrase after it. Once you click Enter, you will see a GIF that matches your search pop-up.

Another GIF releases Slack integration from Gfycat. It works very similarly: simply type "/gfycat" in Slack and then type a word or phrase, and the add-on will find a matching GIF from its database. If you are not satisfied with the first choice, click to display another until you find the GIF you like.

You can also use the old method to load your own GIF from your device without the help of any third-party apps. Click the paperclip icon next to the message box for the Slack application on your desktop version, or click the paperclip icon below the message box on your mobile device, and you can select a GIF (or any other file) from your computer or mobile device.

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