The message box

Everything you say in a Channel starts in the message box at the bottom of the window. It is where you ask Rally for work, answer its questions and talk to the people in the room. It looks like an ordinary chat box, and it mostly behaves like one, with a few extras.

Writing and sending#

Open a Channel and click the box that says Message the channel…. Type your message and press Return to send it.

• Shift Return starts a new line without sending.
• The box starts one line tall and grows as you write. Past a certain height it stops growing and scrolls inside itself, so a long message never pushes the conversation off the screen.
• The send button is the up arrow on the right. It is always there, and it is greyed out when there is nothing to send, while a file is still uploading, or while the Channel is still connecting.

The wording in the box changes with the place you are in. A brand-new Breakout says What should this breakout work on? and a Sidekick's own conversation says Ask your Sidekick…. It is the same box underneath.

How long can a message be?#

Up to 100,000 characters, which is roughly a novella. If you paste in more, Rally refuses to send and shows This message is over 100,000 characters, please shorten it. under the box. Your text stays in the box, so you can trim it and try again, or attach the long material as a file instead (see Attaching files).

Your draft waits for you#

If you are halfway through a message and switch to another Channel, close the window or quit Rally, the draft is still there when you come back. That includes the text, the files you attached and the people you mentioned. Each Channel and each Breakout keeps its own draft.

Some things to know about drafts:

• They are kept on this computer only. A draft does not follow you to another Mac or to your phone.
• A draft is thrown away 12 hours after you last changed it.
• If your Mac is out of storage, Rally warns you: This device is out of room to hold attachments, so they will be lost if you quit before sending. Send the message, or free up some space, before you quit.
• If a message fails to send, it goes back into the box rather than vanishing.

Mentioning people and Rally#

Type @ at the start of a line or after a space, and a list pops up. Rally sits at the top, marked Bot. Below it are the active members of your Organization, each marked Person, with their email address.

1. Keep typing to narrow the list by name or email. It shows up to eight matches at a time.
2. Use the arrow keys to move through it (it wraps round from the bottom to the top) and press Return, or click a name.
3. The name goes into your message as a highlighted @Name.

Press Esc to close the list without picking anyone.

Mention a teammate when you want them to notice a message. Mention @Rally when you want to be sure Rally answers. In a busy Channel, Rally decides for itself which messages are meant for it, and People in the room explains how.

Things that catch people out:

• Someone in the list marked not participating is in your Organization but not in this Channel yet. If you mention them in a private Channel, Rally asks whether to add them first. People in the room has the details.
• Only people and Rally can be mentioned here. Your connected tools and your Sidekicks are not in the list. Sidekicks join a Channel another way, covered in Sidekicks in a Channel.
• If you edit the middle of an @Name after picking it, it turns back into plain text and no longer points at that person. Delete it and mention them again.

Slash commands#

The message box has four small commands. Type / into an empty box and a Commands menu appears:

Keep typing to narrow the menu, then press Return or Tab to run the first match, or click one. Esc closes the menu.

These only work when the whole draft is a slash followed by a word. A slash in the middle of a sentence stays a slash, so "and/or" is safe.

Lists while you type#

When you are writing a set of steps or requirements, the box helps you keep the list tidy.

• Press ⌘ Shift 8 to turn the current line, or the lines you have selected, into a bulleted list.
• Press ⌘ Shift 7 for a numbered list.
• On a list line, Shift Return starts the next item, so you never type a dash or a number by hand. (Plain Return still sends.)
• Tab indents an item and Shift Tab moves it back out. Lists go up to five levels deep, which is about four more than most meetings need.
• ⌘ Z undoes only the last list change.

Tab indents only when the cursor is in a list. Anywhere else it moves to the next control, as usual.

Talking instead of typing#

The microphone button sits to the left of the send arrow (its label is Start voice input). Rally writes down what you say as you say it, and the words appear in the box.

There are two ways to use it:

• Tap: click the microphone once to start, speak, and click it again to stop.
• Hold: press and hold the microphone, speak, and let go when you are done, like a walkie-talkie. Rally treats a press of about a third of a second or longer as a hold.

If you press the send arrow while you are still talking, Rally stops listening, finishes writing out the last few words, and then sends. While it is finishing, the button reads Finalizing dictation. If you change your mind, click the button while it says Cancel sending: your words stay in the box but are not sent.

Things to know about dictation:

• Your spoken words are added after anything you had already typed.
• You cannot type in the box while you are dictating.
• The first time, your Mac asks for permission to use the microphone. If you said no, Rally shows Microphone access is blocked. Allow it in System Settings and try again. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone and turn Rally on.
• If Rally heard nothing, it says so and sends nothing.
• In a Channel there is no microphone picker. Rally uses the microphone you chose last, or your Mac's default. If that one has been unplugged, you see The selected microphone is unavailable.
• The microphone is available only once Rally is signed in and connected.
• If a lot of people are dictating at once you may see Too many dictation sessions are already active. Wait a moment and try again.
• Rally does not save your recording. Only the words end up in the message.

On iPhone, dictation works a little differently. See Rally on your iPhone.

More keys#

This page covers the keys you use in the message box. Every other shortcut is listed in Keyboard shortcuts.

Next, you will give Rally something to read: Attaching files.