Note: This book is no longer for sale. It has been replaced by Take Control of Slack, which covers similar territory but with a new, up-to-date approach.
The Slack group messaging system is hot stuff these days, whether you’re hoping to reduce email overload and encourage more productive communication in a Fortune 500 company, Internet-based small business, volunteer-run non-profit organization, academic workgroup, or high school robotics club. Over 60,000 teams (free and paid) and nearly 3 million people use Slack every day, and with help from Slack expert Glenn Fleishman, you can too.
Based on hundreds of person-hours of testing, this book is designed to help both the novice admin and any IT staff tasked with managing Slack. Those getting started will learn how to plan and create a new team, configuring channels and administrative settings to shape how the team works. You’ll also learn how integrations can radically extend Slack’s capabilities, helping to make Slack a control center rather than just another communications stream.
Perhaps most important for the highly technical admin, Glenn offers advice about the human side of the Slack equation, making suggestions for how you can deal with prickly team members, poor behavior, and even discussions that could violate employment policies.
Join us in SlackBITS! Dip your toes into Slack via our public Slack group, where everyone is invited to ask questions and share tips about Slack, plus chat about Apple-related topics.
Questions answered for you in this book include:
- Will Slack work for my organization? (Very likely, unless you need HIPAA compliance or are required to host all services internally.)
- Can I get away with using a free team instead of a paid team?
- How can I bring outside consultants and freelancers into my Slack team?
- What are good ways to keep my users from creating too many channels?
- Are there integrations I can use to centralize communications in Slack?
- What is Slack’s message retention policy, and can I override it?
- Is there any way to export all messages for compliance reasons?
- Can I have messages automatically deleted after a period of time?
- What techniques can I use to keep my users in line?
About Glenn Fleishman
Glenn Fleishman is a veteran technology writer who has contributed to dozens of publications across his career, including Macworld, Fast Company, and Increment. He has also written dozens of editions of books in the Take Control series. He spent 2019 and 2020 building 100 tiny type museums full of real printing artifacts. Glenn lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.
