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Chapter 5 of “Take Control of Slack Basics” Available

Last week we published Chapter 4, “Post Basic Messages,” in Glenn Fleishman’s serialized “Take Control of Slack Basics” book, but we weren’t kidding about how those messages were basic. This week, we’re going deeper with Chapter 5, “Go Beyond Basic Messages,” which explains how to do exactly what it says in four ways:

  • You can upload a file to any Slack channel or conversation, or link one in from a file-sharing service like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box.

  • For those times when you need to share a bit of code, or some quoted paragraphs from an email message, use a snippet. They’re a great way to compress a bunch of text into a small space in the message list and then let readers expand it.

  • If you want to collaborate with others on a chunk of text, use a post. Team members can comment on it, or, if you let them, take turns editing it.

  • When typing back and forth just isn’t enough, you can make voice calls from within Slack.

As always, if you want to try out attachments, snippets, posts, and calls (well, with people you already know in the team!), join our public SlackBITS group, which has nearly 150 members and so far has hosted discussions of Slack, the Mac, iOS, and Apple TV, along with a channel devoted to collecting links to fun April Fools jokes, including our piece “Apple Developing Fortieth Anniversary Mac” (1 April 2016). You’re welcome to ask anything you like in SlackBITS and we’ll do our best to answer! Instructions on how to join are in Chapter 1, “Introducing Slack.” Also available to everyone is Chapter 2, “Get Started with Slack.”

However, Chapter 3, “Master the Interface,” Chapter 4, “Post Basic Messages,” and this new Chapter 5 are accessible only by TidBITS members, so if you’re not currently one, we hope this is incentive to join! TidBITS members receive other benefits too, but what’s most important is that the TidBITS membership program has kept TidBITS afloat the last few years — your support is essential. If you’re already a TidBITS member, log in to the TidBITS site using the email address from which you joined to read and comment on these chapters.

The full ebook of “Take Control of Slack Basics” will be available for purchase by everyone in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket (Kindle) formats once it’s complete. We’re also pondering how to make the final book available as a discounted bulk buy for entire Slack teams, so if you’re interested in that, let us know.

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