Find the Information You Need
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Search for information and people.
- Narrow, filter, and sort your search.
Find What You Need, When You Need It
Finding the right context and people are critical to success when working asynchronously. In Slack, you can quickly find the channels, messages, files, and people you need to move work forward without having to schedule meetings or waiting for teammates to respond to messages.
Search for Information and People
Say you’re building a relationship with a client and you need to gather context about them. Instead of setting up a meeting with teammates to learn about the client, try finding the information you need by searching in Slack. Just type the client’s name in the search bar to find related messages, files, and channels across your company.
Your search results can include a list of key contacts, a presentation template, or channels for previous work with the client.
Narrow, Filter, and Sort Your Search
If you don’t find what you’re looking for after an initial search, there are ways to narrow, filter, and sort your results. Narrow the scope of your search by adding modifiers to your search terms. For example, add quotation marks to search for a specific phrase.
Let’s say you know that your coworker has worked with your new client in the past. Before reaching out to your coworker, you can do some research about what they’ve shared in channels to avoid repeating conversations. Add from: in front of a display name to search for information shared by someone specific.
You can also combine multiple modifiers. Say you want to find what Zoe Maxwell said about an important meeting with Big Corp Inc back in January. You can enter Big Corp Inc from:@Zoe during:January.
Visit the Slack Help Center for a list of modifiers you can use to search in Slack.
You can also filter and sort your results to help find exactly what you need. For example, filter results by date range, and sort them from newest to oldest. You can even filter results to find conversations with a specific emoji reaction ✨!
In this module, you dove deeper into the features that enable asynchronous work in Slack, like sending updates via channels, how to update your status and manage your notifications, and how to use advanced search features. These tools can help you get your work done faster even when you’re collaborating with people who have different work hours.