Slack Basics

Welcome to Slack!

Getting around

There are two main parts to Slack: Channels and Direct Messages.

Channels

You can think of channels as group conversations. Anyone can set up a channel. Channels can be public or private. Public channels will be available for any of the Region 13 Slack members to browse and join if they are interested. Private channels are invite only, and will not be visible in the available channels to join. Channels may be set up around a specific topic, an event, team communication,

Direct Messages (DM)

You can think of Direct Messaging like texting. Direct messages are private and will only be visible to the individuals included. You can DM with one or several people.

Why to Slack

You can easily communicate within and across teams:

With everyone in Slack, we can quickly connect in real time. Slack channels make it easy to organize conversations around topics, teams, and projects.

You can stay in the know:

Slack is great for asynchronous communication. Scan the day's conversations in the channels you care about the most to stay on top of what's happening.

You can easily find conversations and documents:

Slack has amazing search capabilities, letting you do deep contextual searching of conversations and documents. Slack integrates with Google Docs and Dropbox, and will even search inside linked docs.

Slack can drastically reduce the number of internal emails.

It's fun!

Where to Slack

You can use Slack on mobile devices, in a web-browser, or in a desktop application. All of your information will sync between platforms. You will need to initially sign into the Slack team in each place you'd like to access Slack.

When to Slack

Slack is best for quick, informal communication. Never assume someone has read one of your Slack messages unless you hear back from them. If your message is long format, or critical, email may be best. Each team or work group will naturally find the lines for what communication belongs in what format.

Be sure to adjust your Do Not Disturb settings if you do not want to be bothered by notifications outside of work hours.