How to create and organise channels

Channels and folders in What is chat? are both made from the Create button beside the Chat heading, at the top of the chat list. Folders group channels in the list; they change nothing about who can read what.

Who can create channels?

Creating channels and folders needs Create channels, which admins have by default. An admin can give it to leads or members in How to set who can do what.

The same permission shows the Create button, the Add Channel row under Channels and the ⋯ on each folder. If you see none of them, ask an admin.

How do you create a channel?

1. Go to Chat › Create › Add channel, or press Add Channel under Channels.
2. In New channel, type the Channel name, up to 80 characters.
3. Turn on Private channel if only admins should see it.
4. Pick a Folder, or leave it on No folder.
5. Press Create channel.

To create a channel straight inside a folder, hover the folder's name and use its own ⋯ › Add channel. The folder is then already picked.

Decide the name and the Private channel switch before you press Create channel, because both are fixed afterwards. We recommend naming channels the way your team talks: a channel nobody can guess the name of is a channel nobody posts in.

What does Private channel mean?

Only admins can see a private channel. It stays out of everyone else's channel list, and a link to it opens a not-found page, so even its name stays hidden.

Use a private channel for admin conversation. For a conversation between two people, use a direct message, which both of them can see. See How to send a direct message.

How do you create a folder?

Go to Chat › Create › Add category, type the Category name (up to 80 characters) and press Create category. The menus call a folder a category; both words mean the same thing.

How do you rename a folder?

Hover the folder's name, open its ⋯ and choose Rename. Rename category opens with the name; change it and press Save.

How do you tidy the list?

Click a section's heading, such as a folder's name, to fold it shut, and click again to open it. Folding the folders you do not use every day is the quickest way to calm a busy list.

Tideswell remembers which sections you folded in that browser, so each browser you use keeps its own arrangement.

How do you delete a folder?

Open the folder's ⋯ and choose Delete category. The confirmation names the folder and says how many channels are in it.

The channels themselves stay. They move out of the folder to the top of the list.

Read that count before you agree, because the folder cannot be brought back. It tells you how much of your list is about to become ungrouped.

What should the folders be?

The way your team divides its work, which is often close to your departments.

Fairgreen Golf Co. groups its channels as Production, Marketing, Warehouse and Suppliers, in the order people reach for them.

We recommend a folder per team rather than a folder per project. Projects end, and a list of folders for finished projects is clutter.

Who gets notified in a new channel?

Everybody who can see it, at whatever level they have chosen. When you create a busy channel, point people at How to mute or follow a channel so they turn that channel down rather than turning chat off.