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#  Tip of the Week: Keyboard Shortcuts for Slack

  [Datalyst Blog](https://www.datalyst.net/blog/categories/blog)   [How To](https://www.datalyst.net/blog/categories/how-to)

  [Daniel Mathieu](https://www.datalyst.net/blog/blogger/daniel-mathieu)

  Wednesday, 19 June 2019

   [ 0 Comments ](https://www.datalyst.net/blog/tip-of-the-week-keyboard-shortcuts-for-slack#comments)

 [ ![Tip of the Week: Keyboard Shortcuts for Slack](//www.datalyst.net/images/easyblog_shared/June_2019/6-19-19/b2ap3_large_272069858_keyboard_400.jpg) ](//www.datalyst.net/images/easyblog_shared/June_2019/6-19-19/272069858_keyboard_400.jpg "Tip of the Week: Keyboard Shortcuts for Slack")

Collaboration is crucial in today’s work environment, which is one reason that solutions like Slack are so popular among businesses. Another reason that Slack is a popular option is how user-friendly it is - especially with the many shortcuts that are built in. We’ll go over a few of these shortcuts.

## Navigating Slack

Open direct messages menu - **Ctrl +Shift + K**
 Browse all channels - **Ctrl + Shift + L**
Previous (unread) channel or direct message - **Alt (+ Shift) + Up Arrow**
 Next (unread) channel or direct message - **Alt (+ Shift) + Down Arrow**
 Access the Quick Switcher - **Ctrl + K**
 Switch to previous workspace -  **Ctrl + Shift + Tab**
 Switch to the next workspace - **Ctrl + Tab**
 Return to the previous channel - **Alt + Left Arrow**

## Marking Up Your Messages

Mark all messages in current channel or direct message as read - **Esc**
 Mark all messages as read - **Shift + Esc**
 Mark a message as unread - **Alt + Click**

## Creating Messages

Edit your last message - **Up Arrow in empty message field** (this shortcut changes to **Ctrl + Up Arrow** if **Use up and down arrows to cycle through your typed history** is enabled)
 Bold selected text - **Ctrl + B**
 Italicize selected text - **Ctrl + I**
 Strikethrough selected text - **Ctrl + Shift + X**
 Quote selected text - **Ctrl + Shift + >**
 Convert selected text into a numbered list - **Ctrl + Shift + 7**
 Convert selected text into a bulleted list - **Ctrl + Shift + 8**

## Viewing All Keyboard Shortcuts in Slack

For a complete list of shortcuts in Slack, press **Ctrl + /**.

What other programs would you like to see shortcuts for? Let us know in the comments, and make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss them!

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Tags:

  [Software](https://www.datalyst.net/blog/tags/software)   [Collaboration](https://www.datalyst.net/blog/tags/collaboration)   [Tip of the Week](https://www.datalyst.net/blog/tags/tip-of-the-week)

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 About the author

 [ ![Daniel Mathieu](https://www.datalyst.net/images/easyblog_avatar/808_808_blogauthor.png) ](https://www.datalyst.net/blog/blogger/daniel-mathieu)

 [Daniel Mathieu](https://www.datalyst.net/blog/blogger/daniel-mathieu)

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Dan is a trusted IT advisor with a background of over 25 years in IT and continuously works on the challenges of putting the right people in place to drive business growth and customer satisfaction.

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