Slack supports markdown-style formatting in the message box, and learning a handful of symbols makes your messages far clearer — especially longer updates, instructions and anything involving code.
Slack's formatting is close to standard markdown, with a couple of Slack-specific differences. Here are the essentials power users reach for every day:
A long unformatted message is hard to scan. A few markdown touches — a bold heading line, a short bulleted list, a code block for any commands — turn a wall of text into something a teammate can read in seconds. For recurring updates like standups or release notes, agreeing on a simple format keeps every post consistent and skimmable. Code blocks are especially valuable: they preserve spacing and stop Slack from auto-formatting things like asterisks inside a snippet, which makes them the right choice for sharing commands, configuration or error output.
Use bold sparingly so it still stands out; reserve it for the one thing you want noticed. Put long code or logs in a code block rather than inline so the channel stays readable. And when you paste a link, let Slack unfurl it rather than dumping a raw URL into a sentence. None of this is complicated — it is just a handful of symbols that, used consistently, make your team's conversations noticeably easier to follow.
Yes. Slack supports markdown-style formatting in messages, including bold, italics, strikethrough, block quotes, bulleted and numbered lists, inline code and multi-line code blocks. The syntax is close to standard markdown with a few Slack-specific touches.
Wrap the text in single asterisks, like *bold*. For italics use underscores, like _italic_, and for strikethrough use tildes. You can also use the formatting toolbar in the message box if you prefer not to type the syntax.
For inline code, wrap text in single backticks. For a multi-line code block, wrap the whole snippet in triple backticks. Code blocks keep formatting intact, which is ideal for sharing commands or configuration.
Download Slack and put these markdown tips to work in your next message.