How to Collaborate Using Slack

Slack is one of the best tools for collaborating. However, for it to become an extremely powerful force for your organization or team, you have to make the most of all it has to offer.

Joining or creating a Slack team

Getting on a team is the most important step when you want to collaborate with Slack. You can get on a team by either joining an existing team or creating a new one.

Creating a team

1. First, go to https://slack.com/get-started and click Create a new workspace.
2. Enter your email address.
3. Then, Slack will send you an email with a confirmation code. Look for the code and use it to confirm your account.
4. Finally, you’ll be directed to enter your display name, password, company name and name for your workspace. Click “create workspace” once you’ve finished

Visual, step-by-step guide:

To join an existing team through the workspace

If you’ve been invited to join an existing team you can either use your approved email address or email invitation to join the team.

1. To use your approved email address, go to https://slack.com/get-started and click on Find your workspace.
2. Next, enter your email address and click confirm. Then, go to your inbox to confirm your email address.
3. Once you’ve confirmed your email, choose a workspace. Then, click join workspace and finish creating your account.

Inviting people to your new team

1. Find your workspace on the left side
2. Click invite people
3. Enter the email addresses and names of the people you want to invite. Then, you can click add another or add many people at once.
4. Next, see Default Channels and click Edit/add. Choose the channels that the people you invite will join.
5. Finally, click Send Invitations.

Visual, step-by-step guide:

To join an existing team via invitation

1. Find your email invitation from Slack in your inbox and click join now.
2. Then, enter your name and your desired display name.
3. Finally, enter the password you want to use and click next.

Channels

To create new channels:

1. On the left side of the screen, click “+” next to Channels.
2. Choose a public or private setting using the toggle button.
3. Next, enter a name for your channel
4. Optional: add a description to your channel to tell people in your workspace what it’s about.
5. Then, enter the names or emails of people you want to invite.
6. Lastly, click Create Channel.

Group Chats/Direct messages

Want to talk to just a few people from your workspace or one team member? You can do this using the direct messaging function.

To use group chats and direct messages:

1. Click the “+” icon next to direct messages
2. Locate the member you want to chat with, or add multiple members for a group chat.
3. Finally, press enter or click Go to begin your new chat.

Integration with other apps

You can integrate popular apps like Evernote, Dropbox, Google Calendar and more to make collaboration even easier.

1. Navigate to (your workspace URL)/apps and locate the application you’d like to integrate.
2. Click on the app, and you’ll be brought to its individual page.
3. In this case, I’m using Google Calendar, so I’m going to click Connect a Calendar to Slack
4. Then, you will go through the process of authorizing Slack with that application.
5. Finally, choose your settings and click Save Integration

Now you have all the tools you need to collaborate with Slack. What type of project will you use Slack for?