Teams across the globe use Slack to streamline communication, collaboration and build on their productivity. But sometimes, sending plain text messages is not the answer. You need to emphasize certain words or phrases, make a list, or add some flair to your messages when you are contributing to conversations. That's when message formatting becomes a need.
You can format Slack messages through several means, including the built-in formatting toolbar, Slack markdown, or through automation tools (such as Zapier).
This guide has been designed to walk you through different efficient formatting techniques within Slack.
Slack's message composer has a formatting toolbar that lets you format your message's text. It appears when you click on the ''Aa'' option. You'll be able to format using the following methods:
You can create both ordered and unordered lists in the Slack composer. There's also an option for blockquotes.
As evident, it's quite a simple process to format text using the toolbar. However, there are a few limitations; for instance, you cannot change the font or font size.
If you need more message field formatting options, you can use Slack markdown.
Markdown is a lightweight markup language that helps format text in various applications. Slack supports a subset of Markdown, which means it won't work with all syntaxes. But that's alright since you don't need all of them anyway.
Markdown is a popular formatting language for text-based documents and messages.
If you prefer markdown over the default toolbar, you can remove the latter altogether. To do that:
There you have it; the formatting toolbar will now be hidden when you're composing a message. Now you can just use Markdown to format your message.
However, when you select ''format messages with markup,'' the text you write in the text box will not immediately appear as formatted text.
We'll explain this with an example. Suppose you want to bold a certain word. You'll write it like *word* in the text box. But you'll still see *word* instead of word. Turning on the "format messages with markup" option will only make the formatting active when you hit enter or send. That means no real-time conversion.
If you want real-time markdown conversion, don't turn on the "format messages with markup" option. Just type in your formatting syntax and see the real-time conversion.
Remember how we mentioned that not all formatting syntaxes work in Slack? Here's a list of the ones that do. However, these options are only available when you have enabled the formatting toolbar.
You have two options when it comes to creating lists: use numbers or bullets. It works just like MS Word or Google Docs.
For example, if you want to create a numbered list, write ''1'' at the beginning of your sentence, add a period, and press space. A numbered list will start. When you press Enter to go to the next line, ''2'' and a period will get added automatically, and so on.
For a bulleted list, add an asterisk behind the text where you want the list to start. When you press space, a bullet will appear automatically. For example, if you want to list fruits, you'll write *apple and press space. As you go to the next line, the bullet will appear with pear, banana, etc.
You might want to strike through a word or phrase for emphasis. You can do that by adding two tildes (~) at the beginning and end of your text, like ~this~. A strikethrough is also useful if you want to show changes or corrections in a document.
You can add emphasis to your text by bolding and italicizing it. Just add two asterisks (*) or underscores (_) in front of and behind the text you want to highlight.
For example, if you want to make a word bold, write *bold*, and it will appear bold. If you want to italicize a word, write _italic_, and it will be italic.
A code block means displaying a code or programming language in your document without it being interpreted. You can do that by using three backticks (```) in front of the code.
Here's an example:
A block quote is used when you want to include text from another source, like an article or interview. This is important when you have to create an extensive statement or question, because such a statement or question shows research effort. To create a block quote, add a greater than sign (>) at the beginning of each line you want to include.
For instance, if you want to add a quote from a recent webinar, you would add > at the beginning of the text, like > Our company has seen a 20% increase in sales this quarter.
If you have formatting preferences enabled in Slack, you won't see the text formatting toolbar anymore. The following additional markdown syntaxes are supported in Slack with formatting preferences on.
You can also add links to your content now. This makes your message or answer more authentic. You can simply type in the message or answer, copy link of your URL and hyperlink it. Here's how to add a hyperlink:
Put brackets around the linked text and follow it immediately with parentheses containing your link. Let's say you want to add a link to the word ''customer support software.'' It will look like this:
[customer support software](https://www.justreply.ai/)
Besides formatting, you can add emojis to your messages. Slack has a collection of emojis that you can add by typing a colon (:), followed by the emoji's name.
Examples:
Additionally, Slack supports custom emojis that you can create for your team.
Although there's no support for the table markdown in Slack, you can create a table-like structure with a code block.
For example, if you have a table, you can add three backticks (`) above and below your table's content. It will turn into a code block. While that's not a proper table, it creates spacing so your content will look like a table on Slack.
If you've already made a table elsewhere, you can take a screenshot of it and add it as an attachment or image as part of your message.
Here's a quick cheat sheet of all the Markdown formatting you can use in Slack.
Zapier formatting works just as we've explained above. When you use Zapier, you'll notice that the tool's editor does not have any formatting tools. But that's nothing to worry about.
You can use markdown syntaxes to format your text and make it more readable.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when formatting messages on Zapier:
Sometimes, a plain-text message doesn't get your point across effectively. In such cases, efficient formatting can make a huge difference, especially when communicating with customers. Having drafted a message properly contributes to achieving a streamlined process for everyday activities.
A customer support tool like JustReply that lets you manage your customer support through Slack is exactly what you need to leverage Slack's formatting options to give a ''human'' touch to your messages.
You can format your support messages on Slack using the same markdown syntaxes we've discussed above while using JustReply's text editor and simplified inbox to manage all your customer service communications in one place. Check out JustReply in action.
There is a lot that formatted messages have to offer. You can easily draft creative messages using different artificial intelligence tools at your disposal, but formatting them adds value to this creativity.
It makes you feel confident improving your personal experience in any workspace, improves project coordination and communication, and boosts productivity with clarity. They help in accelerating tasks by making it easy to browse through relevant details.
Make sure you are meaningfully contributing to all the discussions around you in the best way possible!
