Printing Slack Threads

Slack thread print.md

Printing Slack Threads

Slack doesn't provide a way to export or even print important threads that one may want to keep. Here's what I do save threads to PDF.

TL;DR

Open the thread in a web browser and print to PDF.

Step by step

1. In Slack, find the message that's the parent of the thread. In its menu ("⋮", vertical ellipsis), click the "Copy link" item to copy the URL for that message.
2. In a web browser, paste the URL copied in the previous step. Authenticate if prompted to do so.
3. The browser will try to open the message in the Slack application, if available.
   1. If prompted to open the the page in Slack (i.e., "Slack.app" on macOS), click "cancel", "disallow", or something similar.
   2. If the browser opens Slack without prompting, go back to the browser page with the Slack logo and the message, "We’ve redirected you to the desktop app."
4. In the browser, click the link for "open this link in your browser". The channel containing the message will be shown in your browser, with the message briefly highlighted.
5. If the thread contents isn't shown, click on the "reply in thread" button.
6. Select or highlight the entire thread to be saved.
   1. Double-click to the left and above the user image of the first message.
   2. Go down to the last message of the thread to be saved and shift-click to the right and below it. The thread to be saved should be highlighted.
7. Use the browser or OS command for printing.
   1. Use the "print selection" option to print just the part of the page that was selected and highlighted in the previous steps.
   2. Print to a PDF file. If using Google Chrome, it is very convenient to use the "Save to Google Drive" destination.

Feedback and questions are welcomed!