Welcome to Slack

Slack 101 – What is Slack?

Slack is a collaboration hub that can replace email to help you
and your team work together seamlessly. It’s designed to support
the way people naturally work together, so you can collaborate
with people online as efficiently as you do face-to-face.
Contents
• Getting Set Up
• The Slack Interface
• Setting Your Status and Completing Your
Profile
• Setting Your Preferences
• Customizing Notifications
• Using Workspaces and Channels
• Using Threads within Channels
• Where to Find More Information on Slack

2
Getting Set Up
Installing Desktop and Mobile Apps and Signing In

• Desktop • Signing In
• Download the desktop app for Mac or Windows. (If you • You’ll log in to Slack using your Duo credentials like
are using a computer less than 10 years old, your chip you do for other Dartmouth technology platforms.
is almost guaranteed to be 64-bit.)
• Once you join Dartmouth Slack, you will also be a
• Mobile member of your first workspace, the campus-wide
workspace called “Dartmouth College Community”
• If you use your phone or tablet for most of your work,
download the mobile app for iOS or Android.

• Web Browser

• You can also reach your Slack workspaces through a

browser by visiting dartmouth.enterprise.slack.com.

3
The Slack Interface
In the example departmental workspace to the right:

• The user is a member of two workspaces, Dartmouth

College Community, and, Sample Department
Workspace.

• There is an icon for both workspaces in the left pane.

• The user is working in the Sample Department

Workspace.

• The search bar is at the top.

• Public channels in the Sample Department Workspace

include announcements, and, general.

• Project1_team is a private channel in the workspace.

• With direct messages (DM) the user can have a

private conversation with a person or a group of
people.

• Once you are in a channel or DM, you can use the

chat box at the bottom to send messages and
attachments, in this example the user is looking at the
chat history for the general channel.
4
Setting Your Status and Completing Your
Profile
Click on your name at the top left and then choose
Set a status or View profile from the submenu.
• Set status
• Update your status to let other Slack users
know if you are in the office or on vacation
• You can also set the duration of your
status
• View Profile
• Add details to your Slack profile such as:
• Your full name
• Your display name (how others will
@mention you in channels)
• A profile picture
• What you do at Dartmouth

5
Setting Your Preferences
Click on your name at the top left and then
choose Preferences from the submenu.

• Preferences

• Make Slack work just for you by setting

preferences such as:

• Notifications

• Themes

• Language & region

• Accessibility

• Advanced Preferences – Other options

• Check the box next to Launch app on login

to launch Slack when you turn on your
computer

• Then check the box next to Hide window

when launched on login if you want to
minimize Slack in your notification area.
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Customizing Notifications

Click on your name at the top left, choose Preferences then

Notifications from the submenus.
• You can customize the settings such as when you receive
notifications and how the notifications look, sound, and behave.
• By default, Slack will notify you when you receive a direct
message, @mention, or someone replies to a thread you’re
following.
• Options for receiving notifications include:
• All new messages – you will be notified of every new
message
• Direct messages, mentions & keywords – you will be
notified when a teammate mentions you, sends you a
direct message, or uses one of your keywords
• Nothing – you will not receive notifications from Slack

• You can even set channel specific notifications

• Open the channel, click Details in the top right, click More
then Notifications
7
Using Workspaces and Channels

Dartmouth College has an enterprise-wide Slack grid. Our Slack grid is Workspaces: Dartmouth College
like an umbrella under which multiple Dartmouth workspaces exist. separate Slack Community
There is one campus-wide workspace called “Dartmouth College instances that
Community” and all Dartmouth Slack users will be a member of this you can switch
workspace. between in Departmental
your web
Our grid also includes discrete workspaces for specific courses, labs,
and departments.
browser or the
Slack desktop Course/Lab
Within a Slack workspace there can be: client
• Organized conversations - A Slack workspace is made up of
channels, where team members can communicate and work
together. Team members send messages and share files in
Channels: # Public Channels
channels. Create channels for topics, teams, projects, or anything
that is relevant to your area.
communicatio for everybody
n types within
• Searchable history - You can search your team's conversation history Slack, you can
in Slack to find relevant messages, files, channels, and people. join an existing Private Channels
• Connected apps - Add apps like Outlook Calendar to your channel or for groups and
workspace to connect services or tools you're already using to Slack. create a new projects
channel and
• Slack Calls - You can start a voice or video call with any other invite others to Direct Messages
members of your workspace right from Slack. Share your screen— join
you can even draw on your screen while you’re screen sharing.
for private chat
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Using Threads within Channels

Channels bring order and searchability to your

workspace conversations.

Threads keep discussions within a Slack channel

organized. Threads are a great way to add
context or give feedback on a specific message,
without disrupting the flow of a conversation.

• To start a thread, hover over the post and

click the Start a thread icon. The Thread
pane will open, and you can reply in the chat
box.

• To reply to a thread, hover over the post and

click the Reply to thread icon. The threaded
messages will be displayed in the Thread
pane and you can reply in the chat box.

• Once a thread begins, the number of replies

is displayed in the original post.