Slack is an incredible communication tool for teams of all shapes and sizes. In order to provide a comprehensive chat and sharing solution, Slack has tons of capabilities beyond just the basic chat functionality. And much of these capabilities can be implemented with easy keyboard shortcuts. Here are some of the best Slack keyboard shortcuts you should absolutely know about.
Up – Edit that last message
Did you just send a message to the channel with an obvious error, like the wrong copy-paste content? Instead of grabbing your mouse, clicking the options on the message, and clicking the edit option, you can instead just hit the “Up” arrow on your keyboard. From your message-entry box, hitting Up will immediately take you to edit the message you just sent.
Ctrl+B and Ctrl+I – Emphasizing your messages
Slack supports all kinds of markdown to format your messages, but the familiar shortcuts for bold and italicized characters are as valuable here as they are in Word.
Shift+Enter – A whole new line
You’re likely sending messages by hitting Enter, but did you know that you can add line breaks to your messages with Shift+Enter?
V and M – Toggling the call functions
Manage your Video and Mute toggles in a call by just hitting the V and M keys respectively.
Ctrl+F and Ctrl+G – Searching here and there
One of Slack’s most helpful features is the ability to search for and find messages in any channel you have access to. Ctrl+F will begin a search within the Slack channel you’re currently in, while Ctrl+G will open up a general search without the channel filter.
Ctrl+U – Upload a file
A colleague just messaged you, “Hey, do you have a copy of the style guide?” You definitely do, so you want to send them the guide’s PDF. A quick Ctrl+U will open up the file explorer to find the file you’re looking to upload and share.
Ctrl+N – Start a new message
You just met a new addition to your team, and you’d like to introduce them to someone else in the organization, so you can just hit Ctrl+N to start a new Slack message, include them both, and kick off that introduction.
Ctrl+Shift+Y – What’s your status?
Alright, it’s time to join that client call, so hit Ctrl+Shift+Y to set your status to let the rest of your team know that you’re not immediately available.
Ctrl+Shift+A – Check all unread messages
It looks like a couple of channels really popped off while you were away. Get yourself caught up in Slack’s unread messages view by hitting Ctrl+Shift+A.
Shift+Escape – Just clear those notifications
It looks like a couple of channels really popped off while you were away, and if anything is important for you specifically, someone will remind you. You can just mark all messages as read by hitting Shift+Escape to clear those pesky notifications.