1. Read the latest stories about Tech on Fortune.
2. While its name might conjure thoughts of laziness, cloud-based team collaboration app Slack has taken root in the business world. From 2012 to Feb. 2017, the service.

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Slack Hacks to Help You Say Goodbye to Email. Download the App. You might think of Slack as a cloud- only service, accessed via the browser. And that's a more than viable way to handle it. However, Slack has the obligatory mobile versions for i. OS, Android, and even Windows Phone, plus a full set of desktop apps for Mac, Windows, and Linux (Ubuntu or Fedora). Do you need the separate install to use Slack on the desktop?

Absolutely not—it's essentially a browser pane anyway. But if you like to keep operations separate, so Slack won't crash if your browser does, this is a great option. No matter how you access Slack—mobile, desktop, browser—all the messages are always in sync. Naturally there are plenty of keyboard shortcuts to get the most out of your Slack- age. If you want quick access to the list, just hit Ctrl and the slash (Ctrl+/) on Windows, or Command+/ on Mac. It'll pop up instantly. You can also type /shortcuts or /keys in any channel.

Thus, Slack has a plethora of third- party apps that can work within its confines to make life easier. Almost any user in a Slack team can add apps with a click of the . Apps you have heard of that work with Slack: Dropbox, Asana, Box, Google Drive, Skype, Mail. Chimp, Twitter, Wunderlist, Lucid.

Chart, and Trellow. The apps directory is also the place to find extra .

What pops up is a full list of the commands at hand, everything from searching for apps to checking the weather. Many depend on app integration (see the previous slide), but there are several native Slack slashes you should know for everyday use. You should add a time description for the DND session to end. For example, add .

Or remind a whole channel using the hashtag (. Guests can't set reminders for others, just themselves. Recurring reminders are an option; Slack will recognize the syntax of you saying .

You get five options for reminder time frame: in 2. Tomorrow, or Next week. Want a list of all reminders? Make sure you don't forget.

It's easy to mark a message as unread in Slack. Click it while holding down the Alt key in Windows, or the Option key on the Mac. On mobile, do a long press—hold your finger on it—a menu pops up that includes the option to mark it as unread. Or click Ctrl+Shift+A to jump to it. Click it and you get one page full of all your unread messages, which you can peruse at your leisure.

The top will show the Highlights—the messages Slack believes you'll find most important. As you view All Unreads, you can use the right and left arrow keys to jump from channel to channel represented, or just hit the R key to mark everything in that highlighted channel read (or toggle it back to unread).

If you never want to see the All Unreads in the menu, go to Preferences > Advanced > Channel List > Turn on All Unreads and uncheck the box. But here it is: if you've got a lot of unread message and notifications you wish to ignore in Slack, on the desktop type Shift+Esc. You'll get a pop- up warning telling you quite simply you're about to mark everything as read. Check a box in the pop- up warning and you'll never see it again, putting Shift+Esc on the fast- track to keeping you at Slack- box Zero. If you want to see only what's pertinent to you, click the @ icon at the upper right of the desktop and a new pane opens called Activity. This is the spot to see all your most recent mentions, reactions, and key words. Click the @ again or the X at top of the pane to hide it.

Set an overall DND by clicking the bell icon at the top of the sidebar, and select an amount of time, from 2. Click the Do Not Disturb schedule to set not only the notification settings, but also a window of time—say midnight to 7am every day—when you'll never get Slack notifications. The company calls it . It's a scratchpad for mastering your Slack- ness—go ahead and try slash commands, shortcuts, etc. It pops up in other channels when needed for your interaction with Slack or third- party apps. Drag files to Slackbot for your own personal storage on the service—they're searchable, but only by you.

Type /remind me to . If you say random things to Slackbot, you'll get replies. Slackbot is your friend. Just go to slack. Slackbot response to the right). A good example is, if someone types .

This is also a perfect spot for office jokes. Our most- used Slackbot customization is a public . Replies can include images or animated GIFs or You. Tube videos; simply insert the URL in the reply field. Note, any team member can create, edit, or delete anyone else's Slackbot customization—but owners/admins can curtail use of Slackbot Responses entirely in the Team Settings. However, Slack can notify you specifically when pre- selected words or phrases are used. For example, if you're in charge of expenses, it alerts you when the terms .

Set this up in your Slack Preferences. Access Preferences on the desktop by clicking your name in the upper right, or on your avatar picture, or typing /prefs. In the Notifications tab, select Notification Settings. Scroll down to My keywords. In the box, enter a bunch of words or phrases separated by commas—any term you want to be on the lookout for, even if it's posted in a channel you're not subscribed to. Fine tune it if you get too many notifications.

Scroll up on that page to set Slack to notifications for . Instead use individual notification settings for each channel or group to which you subscribe. To adjust, you have a couple of methods on the desktop. Go into a channel/group, click the name at the top, and select . Scroll down to get channel specific settings for every channel in a handy grid.

Visit those same Notification Preferences to make batch changes—one change impacts all channels—or make changes individually for each channel by clicking the channel/group name. A batch muting means no sound or pop- up notifications on screen. But you can also change the sound alert alone. At the top of that Accounts page and the Notifications Tab, under Desktop Notifications and Mobile Push Notifications, keep the notifications but change the sound. That includes the option to choose . You should make sure your : thumbsup: or : middle.

You do that by hovering over a message, selecting the Emoji menu, then hovering again over the hand icon at the bottom of the menu. Pick the one that's right for you. Give it a try. Type a colon, a description term, and another colon (. They're great not only in a message, but also as the reaction to messages—click the Add Reaction button (a smiley with + sign) next to any message in Slack to use one. The current slate of emoji doesn't cover everything. Here at PCMag we have found a need for many more emoji, with names like : bb. Each of these had to be created by a member of the team, which anyone can do by visiting slack.

The user picks a name, uploads a square image smaller than 1. It even works with animated GIFs, as long as they're small enough (under 6. K in file size). You can find a wealth of emoji to try yourself at Slackmojis. Until it is, you can forward emails you receive directly to a Slack channel, all of which have their own email addresses. To create one, integrate the Email app for Slack.

Once it's integrated, scroll down and click . Give it a name that will come up in Slack, like . The pic can be an emoji, or an image you upload.

Next, go into your email program of choice, create a contact name with that email address, but give it an alias like . Jumping among them without using the mouse can speed things up. Push Ctrl+K on Windows, or Command+K (or Command+T) on the Mac desktop: the Quick Switcher comes up. Type in the name of the channel/group/individual desired and hit return to access it quick (thus the name). If you're on a mobile device, swipe right—there's Quick Switcher search box at the top.

When the team is tired of the good ol' . Insert them at slack. It's not anonymous; the text will be attributed to the team member who added it. Turn on two- factor authentication ASAP—it will require you to enter a code sent to your mobile phone to gain access on a new PC.

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